142 reviews for Matt Vena Intermediate Powerlifting Program
Version 3.0 of program
From champion powerlifter and coach Matt Vena, this program is a generalized powerlifting routine for intermediate lifters, focusing on squats, bench presses, and deadlifts with specific variations and accessory work. Here's a concise breakdown:
Squats:
Day 1: Regular squats and tempo squats (4-second descent, 0.5-second pause).
Day 3: Paused squats (1-second pause at the bottom).
Bench Press:
Day 1: Larsen press and dumbbell incline bench for hypertrophy.
Day 2: Tempo bench single (4-count descent) and back-off sets.
Day 3: Primary bench day with long pause bench (2-second pause).
Day 4: Regular bench press and close grip bench press (2-3 finger widths narrower).
Deadlifts:
Day 2: Romanian deadlifts for hinge work and posterior chain hypertrophy.
Day 4: Paused deadlifts (1 inch off the floor, 1-second pause).
Accessory Work:
Triceps: Included on three bench days.
Back and Biceps: Back work on day 2, biceps on day 1. First set to failure, remaining sets to RPE8.
Progression Scheme:
Microcycles: 3-week cycles, adding a rep each week, then resetting reps and adding 3% weight.
Singles: Cycle through RPE 6-7-8 over the microcycles.
Taper Week: One moderate day, one light day, then max out with RPE6-8-10 jumps.
Focus on consistent form, controlled tempos, and autoregulating based on daily performance. Adjust weight and reps as needed to avoid overshooting and ensure steady progress.
Read the full guide on the website for full program details:
Gigga_G
Man, 2312 weeks complete
7 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
Great program! I’m an experienced lifter and added 21.5lbs to my bench, and 30.4lbs to both my squat and deadlift! As an advanced lifter with all three lifts feeling pretty stalled, this is huge!! (Oh, I swapped out the seated cable rows for chest supported rows just bc the erectors are getting lit up anyway in this program). Thank you Matt for the banger program and I love your YT vids. Matt da 🐐 no 🧢
Anonymous
Woman3 weeks complete
5 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
More than expected muscle gains
Powerlifting it amazing
Samuel M.
Man, 315 weeks complete
1 year of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
More than expected muscle gains
Gas im huge now
Man, 32
3 weeks complete
5 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
Love the program, gained a lot of strength in a surprisingly little time.
Spencer Z
Man, 1712 weeks complete
2 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
This program is 100% worth it. I’m gonna be running it again but having more bodybuilding accessories this program put 100 pounds to my total. Squat 240 -> 275 bench 170 -> 190 deadlift 315 -> 360. My arms grew a crap ton too. I’m totally expecting a 315 squat after my second full 12 weeks.
Squatpluguser11
Man, 193 weeks complete
3 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
Make sure to use xl squat plug for max gains
Elias R.
Man, 229 weeks complete
5 years of prior experience
As expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
I liked this overall. Not done yet and haven’t tested out new PBs but il see the full results in 2 weeks. I feel stronger and healthier. The only modifications I made was adding some shoulders exercises and switching up the tricep exercises a bit cause it was so boring doing the same thing 3 times a week. Cheers
Gabriel R.
Man, 437 weeks complete
8 years of prior experience
As expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
I’m on my 40s. My total in powerlifting is 615Kg. Chose to use this program during off season to my next comp. First time doing 4x per week bench press, great to do the Larsen press and work on the balance of my upper body. I would recommend doing the program during your off season and if you have 2h per workout.
RawSaurus
Man, 2412 weeks complete
2 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
I ran the program as is with no modification. This is how my numbers went up: Squat 120kg-140(without squat plug), BP 90-100, Deadlift 160-180. Overall I really liked the program. Lot of opportunities to drill your technique on main lifts and work out your weaknesses with variations. One thing that was too much for me was triceps volume and by week 10 I had to spot doing triceps, because I felt lot of pain in them and elbows.
Justine
Man, 2312 weeks complete
3 years of prior experience
More than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
This is a great program for intermediate lifters who are getting into powerlifting and want to specialize/improve their SBD 1RMs. Before the program my maxes were S-335lbs B-185lbs D-425lbs. After 12 weeks training consistently my new maxes are S-365lbs B-210lbs D-465lbs. My total increased by nearly 100lbs (finally in the 1000lbs club thanks to this program) I enjoyed the powerlifting training but I modified it by adding in 2-4 bodybuilding accessories at the end of each session, 1-2 sets each close to failure. I reduced the volume from weeks 6-12 since I was starting to not recover well, (possibly because of me modifying non-SBD accessories and training them close to failure). I had to prolong the taper week by 3 days instead of 2, I was very fatigued in and out of the gym. However, I got stronger and gained noticeable amounts of muscle which I do attribute to adding more bodybuilding exercises. One great feature of the program is high frequency, high volume, low intensity benching, which helped immensely with developing my technique and pressing strength. It feels second nature to bench press now. It is my weakest lift by far but it has gotten way better thanks to this program. Weekly heavy SBD singles helped with practicing for 1RMs. Lift specific variation exercises like long pauses or tempo made my technique very consistent. By week 6-8, the program became very grueling as the weights on the bar were surpassing my old PRs. If you encounter this, reduce the volume or intensity according to your needs and change the sequencing of exercises if need be. For example, my weekly chest volume was around 15-20ish sets and I reduced it to 10-14 by week 10. Another example is doing tricep extensions before deadlifts, it did not work well for me. I wanted to be as fresh as possible for heavy deadlifting since I push my triceps very hard. This is probably one of the best free powerlifting programs out there, but only if you know how to autoregulate your training. Besides that, you will get veryyyy good at SBD after finishing a cycle of this. Overall an 8/10 program.