H/L/M; top sets <5 reps?

[cgeorg]

Yeah, pretty much. There are lots of writeups, here's a nice one by Jordan that includes a helpful chart General Strength Training Template for the Intermediate/Advanced | Barbell Medicine

[DannyP]

Thanks!

[Murelli]

In that case, I'll just sort of go by feel. Right now, my M/back off sets are about 8% below my H sets, and my L sets are about 16% below my H sets, so there's a little room to go either way. However that metric you cited makes sense. I'm a little less familiar with the terminology, though, so want to make sure I'm understanding it properly: Are those numbers a subjective judgement of difficulty and ability to do additional reps in the same set, with 10 being "absolute maximal effort, no more after that no matter what"?

Those numbers are the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). It's a way to gauge and manage intraset fatigue. There's a table relating it to how many reps you believe you could have done, as in "left in the tank". So yes, unless you use a Tendo unit, it's feelzZz.

I'd keep the back offs/M and L at a fixed percentage (90% and 80%) when performing the same lift (squats). Don't make changes to a winning team, however. You already know you'll have to take some weight off if medium and light are no longer medium and light.

Read the TM and HLM parts of PPST again Danny, apart from RPE, it's all written there. You are basically using TM's phases with an HLM volume/intensity spread (for squats). You can take it all the way into Dynamic Effort and Max Effort, probably.

[DannyP]

Yea, keeping at 90%/80% respectively can be a little hard without micro plates since the minimum amount I can add is 5. So that tends to mean that the % will fluctuate a bit week to week, but I do generally try and keep it in that area.

And it sounds like I need to get a second book; I only had the "original" BBT3, not any of the PP books.

[Satch12879]

As I mentioned above, Andy Baker has done a lot of HLM articles at his website.

Also, you don't have to go crazy on readjusting as you progress to keep M at 90% and L at 80% every week. Set your starting weights and increase all of them by the same amount every week. Then, when you get done with a 8-12 week training cycle, take a light week, reset, and start again.

[Murelli]

little hard without micro plates

not any of the PP books.

Get em and get em. How the hell did you LP your press with only 5lb increments? Are you 16? Are you on gear, juice, stack?

[DannyP]

How the hell did you LP your press with only 5lb increments?

Neither particularly well, nor particularly far...

[DannyP]

Would three doubles or five singles be better than doing my heavies at 3-2-1? Today, the first triple was fine, the second set was only good for two reps (cut it off, didn't fail) and then finally did one single to round it out. So, now the question is whether to even try any triples next session, knowing it may be a triple, a double and a single, or go right to doubles or singles?

[DannyP]

So, keeping in mind the fact that keeping my bodyweight constant makes my progress on the slow side, I wanted to provide an update to this thread...

I started doing triples, doubles and then a mix of singles and doubles for my heaviest lifts on "H" day shortly after starting this thread. I also reduced number of exercises performed each session. So, how did that combination impact my squats? Well, when I posted this initially, I was unable to complete a top set of 5@315. Today, I did 3x5 @ 315 for "M" day. So yea, this shit works .

[Praetorian]

Thanks for the update! I am going to try Cody's HLM/TM hybrid for squats starting next week.