Programming for older folks

[jlwilson]

I'm not old, but I was curious about a program written in PPST3. In the book, a program for the older folks has the trainee squat ascending for 5x5 for day A, and a light squat ascending 4x5. I'm interested personally because I only squat once a week, and would like to ease into squatting twice a week (I only train twice a week). Could the trainee do descending sets of 5x5 and 4x5? Should the light squat day be around 75-80% of the heavy day?

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Yeah, Descending sets would be fine too. I just use ascending sets for older folks because they need a longer more thorough warm up / work up to their max weights each day. And its a good dose of volume without killing them.

75-80% as a light day is good for the young and strong. Older folks are usually 90% on light day, even if we drop the reps a bit. So light day might be 90% of heavy days but for 2x3 instead of a top set of 5. If we need it.