4 Day Split Questions

[Justin Smale]

I'm moving from a 3 day a week program (advanced novice for the most part) to a 4 day split routine, mainly due to time constraints. I'm still grinding out LP gains in squats and am going to try for some more on deadlifts after a small reset (suffered a couple injury setbacks in the past 6 months of my last attempt at LP, I know I have more linear gains on these). I train in my basement most times and ceiling height doesn't allow me to overhead press, and I'm gearing my training more toward powerlifting as I'm participating in a couple meets coming up. I'm looking for some general thoughts on this schedule:

Day 1
Volume Bench 5x5
Seated Press 3x5 (or 3x8)
Chins 3 sets

Day 2
Squats 3x5
Deadlifts 1x5

Day 3
Intensity Bench 1x5
Close Grip Bench 3x5 (or 3x8)
Chins 3 sets

Day 4
Squats 3x5
Deadlift Volume 2x5 at ~80% of Day 2

Due to kids sports and other activities for myself, I need to be pretty efficient time-wise with these workouts and am looking to keep them under an hour. I want to keep some variation of the press in my workout though I know seated is less optimal than the standard overhead press.

Main questions are as follows:

1) Any suggestions on the rep ranges I should use for my "accessory" lifts on Days 1 & 3 (5s vs 8).
2) Any advice on the deadlift volume day - mainly at this point do I NEED more volume, and if so, is this an appropriate scheme to get it.

Male, 3, 186 lbs (up 10 from January and looking to get at least close to 200 lbs though hoping to stay in the 90kg weight class in July if possible).

Many thanks.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

In general your split looks perfectly fine. You might decide to start your OHP and CGB around 8 reps and then bring the reps down over time as the weight goes up over the next several months as you get closer to your meet. But yeah, staying int he 5-8 range is good here as long as there is progression. Seated Presses are actually fine as an accessory that is strictly there to aid in performance of the bench press. Some of it depends on the seat. I'd avoid apparatus with high seat backs that keep you too vertical. This forces you to loop the bar out and around your face and this is no bueno. Or you have to slide your ass way out and turn the thing into a half ass incline press. A low back seat is good as you can lean back over the top of it or just have no seat back and press while sitting on a bench. It's quite difficult to do it this way.

The way you have your DL programming set up is probably fine. One top heavy end set one day and 2-3 lighter sets another day is perfectly reasonable.

For the Intensity Bench I don't like the 1x5 done every week. I like 5s across on the volume day and on the Intensity Day I like sets of 2-3 x 2-3 reps rotated out with about 5-6 singles across every 2-3 weeks. Outlined in PPST3. Especially as you get closer to the meet, the heavier work will help.

[Justin Smale]

Awesome! Thanks for the advice Andy!