Disclaimer: Please consult a doctor before starting any training program. Or in this case, you may need a doctor AFTER starting it. Either way, a doctor will be involved at some point I’m pretty sure.
The basic outline of the Pull-Press-Squat or PPS method came from the early stages my strongman training. My training partners and I knew that all strongman contest events involved some kind of pressing, some kind of pulling, and lots of leg strength. We also liked to train at a higher volume and wanted to squat, pull, and press more than just once a week. So we started doing workouts that involved some form of a press, pull, and squat in EACH training session three times a week. The other days would usually be filled in with either event training, plyo, or skill work. We are not just talking about bench presses, deadlifts, and back squats exclusively, but many various exercises cycled in and out as you will see. Again, it’s never the science behind a training method, it always comes down to the effort that YOU put into it.
Exercise selection
Press:
Flat bench press
Standing military press
Incline press
Push-press
Jerk
Press behind neck
Jerk behind neck
Log press
Dumbbell press
Dumbbell bench press
Dumbbell incline
Axle press
Floor press
Swiss bar bench press
Pull:
Deadlift
Romanian deadlift
Bent over row
Clean/Power-clean
Hang clean
Snatch/Power snatch
High pull (clean grip and snatch grip)
Power shrug
Kroc rows
SP combos
Farmer handle deads
Stone loading
Squat:
Low bar/ wide stance squat
High bar olympic squat
Front squat
Low box squat
High box squat
WOB good mornings
Safety bar squats
Overhead squats
Zercher squat
The list above is not the absolute final word on exercise selection. If you have other movements that you like that fall into these categories, then by all means add them to your list. There are also many variations of each of these exercises you can customize by utilizing band resistance, band assistance, chains, deficit training, and other variations. These variations will increase your pool of exercises.
Steve at age 17. Beard, USA shirt, and a 585 pull. No joke.Weekly/Monthly sample routine: This example training table below would be a one month mini cycle. The exercise selection would be up to you each month. You would use the same three exercises for your PPS throughout the four week cycle. After the fourth week you would plug new exercises into this same template. This way your training is fresh, you always train with an effective amount of volume and your workload stays high. At Iron Sport our strongmen train in this fashion all year long with a heavy load of strongman events done on Saturdays. We will sometimes put in a week of deload but only if we feel it is necessary. That will totally be up to the individual athlete.
You will first need to plug in your one rep max (1RM) for the exercises that you choose from your list of pushes, pulls, or squats. Then use the percentages below to calculate your working sets. In the table below when you see 5×1 that will mean that after your warm-up sets you will perform 5 sets of 1 as your work sets with the same weight for all 5 sets. Now keep in mind this method is for general strength training so don’t get so hung up on the actual percentage and what your 1RM is going in. Unless you need to lift a specific amount of weight on a specific date (as if you were going to lift in a meet), all that matters is that you are progressing and getting stronger.
Your test week is just that, a test of your 1RM. We like to really go hard for some heavy singles on that day. Although some of the exercises like bent over rows and dumbbell presses might lend itself to testing a triple rather than a single.
How we work the program: One each training day during the week you will pick a different version of a press, a pull, and a squat. Tere are some example percentages in the table below. The fourth week will be test week, this is where you will hopefully go for a personal best or at least try for a max single in each.
Sample Month:
| Week 1
Monday 90% – 5×1, safety bar squat 80% – 5×2, push press 70% – 5×3, hang snatch |
Week 1
Wednesday 90% – 5×1, barbell incline 80% – 5×2, high pull 70% – 5×3, front squat |
Week 1
Friday 90% – 5×1, bent row 80% – 5×2, low box squat 70% – 5×3 behind neck jerk |
| Week 2
Monday 70% – 5×3, safety bar squat 90 – 5×1, push-press 80 – 5×2, hang snatch |
Week 2
Wednesday 80% – 5×2, barbell incline 70% – 5×3, high pull 90% – 5×1, front squat |
Week 2
Friday 90% – 5×1, bent row 80% – 5×2, low box squat 70% – 5×3 behind neck jerk |
| Week 3
Monday 80% – 5×2, safety bar squat 70% – 5×3, push-press 90% – 5×1, hang snatch |
Week 3
Wednesday 90% – 5×1, barbell incline 80% – 5×2, high pull 70% – 5×3, front squat |
Week 3
Friday 70% – 5×3, bent row 90% – 5×1, low box squat 80% – 5×2 behind neck jerk |
| Week 4
Monday Test: safety bar squat Pull accessory Press accessory |
Week 4
Wednesday Test: barbell incline Pull accessory Squat accessory |
Week 4
Friday Test: bent row Press accessory Squat accessory |
After the PPS exercises are completed in each workout you also have the option to hit up a couple assistance exercises. I always like to throw in one or two things at the end of each day. I would use 4 sets of anywhere from 6-12 reps, I like to mix up my rep ranges on the assistance work.
There are a lot of variations to this method as well, for an ‘in-season’ athlete you could do PPS two days a week and it will leave more days for your other training. You could do a two day training template and put your strongman event, conditioning, skill, or plyo work in on the in-between days. That table would look like this:
| Week 1
Monday 90% - 5×1, squat 90% – 5×2, press 70% – 5×3, pull |
Week 1
Thursday 90% – 5×1, pull 75% – 5×2, squat 80% – 5×3 press |
Always remember this . . . There is only ONE recipe for strength. A secret recipe that was handed down from Sandow to John Grimek to Paul Anderson to Vasily Alexeev to Bill Kazmaier to me. Now I’m giving YOU that magical recipe…
Hard work + proper nutrition + TIME = STRONG
Ok, so it wasn’t really a secret, but it seems to be a lost formula. The one ingredient of the recipe that most people miss out on there is TIME, strength is built over a long period of time. If you are like me you will enjoy the journey immensely. Like the Japanese sword makers of old, layering steel and hammering it over and over produces the indestructible blade of the Katana that lasts a thousand years. You need to layer hard training with good nutrition and hammer away in the weightroom for years.
Strength is NOT something that just comes to you, a person can’t concoct it through a mathematical equation. You can’t trick your body into becoming strong. Strength is something you need to constantly ATTACK and go after, its takes a tremendous amount of aggression. You need to keep thinking, keep pushing, and stay focused.
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Steve Pulcinella has been passionately strength training since he was 13 and competing in strength athletics ever since the age of 14. Fueled by his early influences of Strength and Health Magazine and the Wide World of Sports airing the Worlds Strongest Man, he strived to build the biggest and strongest body that he possibly could. He started out as a powerlifter and progressed into doing strongman. His biggest pro strongman title was the 1993 North American Champion and he was selected as a competitor in the 1994 Worlds Strongest Man Contest. He has also been a Highland Games Professional since 1994 and still competes as a top ranked master competitor. He also started Iron Sport Gym in 1995. It is a commercial gym in Philadelpia specializing in strength training, powerlifting, olympic lifting and strongman. www.ironsport.com
View Steve’s Training Log 
At 39 years of age, I hope to one day approach the sheer awesome of a bearded 17-year-old Steve Pulcinella pulling 585.
The article is cool also. Thanks Steve.
Ron
Steve –
Thanks for the insight into getting strong using the Pull/Push/Squat system.
Much like individual (i..e. Ron Dykstra) who submitted the previous post, I am an older male who has just recently begun strength training. Over the past two months I have changed my body pretty dramatically using a similar system as yours – put on 30 pounds – and am wondering what the future holds.
Before I started strength training, my body resembled that of a soccer player (e.g. lean and toned) but now my back and legs are much thicker. I humbly submit my current data for information purposes only. My stats were 5’10″ at 145 pounds through high school and college and I did little heavy squats and deads. My current weight is 220 pounds with the following: Bench 300, Squat 415, Deadlift 450. I don’t have any illusions of becoming a world record holder but am wondering where my “genetic potential” resides.
At what point does a persons genetic infrastructure begin to limit gains? Will my body continue to grow to accomodate the new stress levels?
Any ideas?
Thanks
Joe: Seems like a weird thing to ask someone who isn’t you. Just keep going and find out for yourself.
Steve, I like your style, I like it a lot…I’m having trouble with that “time” part though…
I love the idea of this program. I think anyone trying to find out their 1RM from time to time would benefit from this. Definitely not for the faint of heart. I wouldn’t have the time to put in this workout (looks like a lot of gym time) but would use it to test my 1RM or the weeks leading up to a meet. Nice article!
I like the plan, looks like low enough volume to allow for decent work on the off days and still recover. Just out of interest did you stick to %ages for intensity pretty strictly off your 1RM or was it more like work up to a few heavy sets/one heavy set for the prescribed reps for that day?
Mike, what I wanted to write was “a long period of time” But I changed it, real strength cant be rushed.
O snap. No way Steve was 17 there
That last paragraph is an amazing piece of writing…
Hi Steve,
This is definitly something I’d like to try out when my gains start to slow down. I wanted to know whether you increased the scale you use for your 1RM in each lift every 4 weeks (akin to 5/3/1) or whenever the hell you feel like you can handle it.
Steve,
wondering why with some lifts you go 90,80,70% during the 3 weeks wave (Mon) while with others you go just 90/80 or 80/70% ? Can I do 90/80/70% wave for all lifts?
Also – you max only on 1 of the 3 chosen lifts? Doesn’t matter which one I pick?
Thanks…
Steve–Thanks for the clear cut training schedule and percentages you use. Right now I do something similar… always a PPS in every work out 3x a week. I focus on one (go heavy) and usually do a secondary exerise for it and then the other 2 of the PPS at lighter weights. I’m really excited to see what sort of strength gains I can make with your program.
Steve-is there a typo on day one of the two day template? 5×2 at 90%? Is that not a little…impossible?
Great article, Steve.
Provides a concise template, with a wide range of exercise alternatives, for building strength that has been proven to be effective over the long haul by you and your gym members.
I read something similar a long time ago written by Bill Starr. Thanks Steve for pushing something that works and reminding me how I gained 100 lbs when I first started training. These days we all try to find a new improved hook to train with when we should just use the simple and effective methods.
I hate to come off like a n00b but WTF is a WOB GM?
Mosley, its an exercise I use to build a big pull on the Weight for Height event in Highland Games. It’s kind of like an explosive jumping good morning with a lot of hip drive. See video
http://www.youtube.com/user/SPulcinella#p/a/u/2/UhQaHTKVbFg
Very cool training template. I’ve wondered about something like this myself, but I wasn’t really able to work out the sets/reps/volume in relation to intensity that would allow me to do all three exercise types two-three times a week. Anyway, Steve, thanks much. Looking forward to implementing this schedule (along with a serious bulking phase) when I get back to the States in October.
Thanks,
Nick
PS- Hope the leg is healing.
Jesus christ that’s a big 17 year old