A 4-day full-body program with the volume and frequency biased toward shoulders and traps. Week A and Week B alternate to drive variety, regional hypertrophy, and continued progression on small muscle groups. Twelve weeks minimum.
Programmed by Andy Baker. Co-author, Practical Programming for Strength Training and The Barbell Prescription.
Twelve weeks of programming you can pin to the rack. Here is what is in the PDF, in the order you will read it.
Power-building means the main lifts go up while the assistance work fills the shirt. Three things make that possible.
Monday is the dedicated Shoulder and Trap session, hit fresh after two days off. Tuesday is legs (no deadlifts or heavy hinges, the lower back stays fresh for Friday's rack pulls). Wednesday is off. Thursday and Friday hit chest, back, and arms with secondary delt and trap work folded in. Saturday and Sunday off.
Two alternating training weeks rotate exercises, rep ranges, and exercise order. Side delt raises trained first one week, second the next. Upright rows and shrugs swap between barbell and dumbbell. The result is regional hypertrophy across the delt heads and continued strength progression on small muscle groups that are otherwise hard to progress.
Straight sets (3×5, 3×8) progress by adding load when all reps are made. Rep-range work (3×8–12) progresses by adding reps inside the range, then load when the top of the range is hit. Descending sets and reduced volume options included for lifters whose set-to-set drop-off is steep. The PDF spells out every rule.
The 8s week, taken straight from the program. Week two drops to 3×5 on the main lifts, week three to 3×2. Loads, rotation rules, and the full reset protocol live in the PDF.
Shoulders
Traps
Legs
Abs
Chest · Delts
Triceps
Back
Biceps
Verbatim from week 1 of the program · loads, rotation rules, and progression protocol in the PDF
Coach · 2005 — Now 
Twelve weeks of full-body training with the volume biased to biceps, triceps, and forearms.
Four-day upper/lower hypertrophy split (3-day option included), with low, medium, and high volume tiers to match your recovery.
Four-day power-building split built around the bench, squat, overhead press, and deadlift. Full assistance template included.
The Baker Barbell Club is the recurring side of the same coaching practice. New programming every week, written by Andy, delivered Sunday. 400+ members. $27 a month. Cancel any time.
You will get an email with a download link to the PDF after checkout. Save it to your phone, your laptop, or print it. There is no login, no app, and no expiring access.
You can run any program in a deficit, but you will not add significant size to your shoulders and traps while in a caloric deficit unless you are relatively untrained. Andy recommends maintenance at minimum, slight surplus preferred. The PDF says this in plain English on page one.
No. The program already has plenty of volume for 99% of lifters. Bigger muscles are not built by piling on more sets of moderate-effort, low-quality work. Improve the effort on the prescribed sets instead. That is what specialization actually means.
Mostly yes, with substitutions. Dumbbells handle most of the side delt, rear delt, and shoulder press work. Machines (cables, pec deck, leg curl, chest press) are preferred for some slots but dumbbell or barbell alternates are written in. Rack, barbell, bench, and a quality dumbbell set will get you most of the way there.
Twelve weeks minimum. That gives you six exposures to each training week, which is the floor for meaningful progression. After 12 weeks: continue, deload and restart, or rotate to a different program. Deload protocol is in the PDF.
No. It is written for intermediate-to-advanced lifters with a base of barbell training already in place. Beginners should run a linear progression first.
This is a self-contained specialization block that you own. The Baker Barbell Club is ongoing programming, written fresh every week, delivered Sunday, with 400+ members. Many lifters run a specialization PDF while subscribed and use the Club for what to do next.