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Thread: next workout for Press - how much weight for 5x5 volume day?

  1. #1
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    Default next workout for Press - how much weight for 5x5 volume day?

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    Hello,

    yesterday I think I hit the point with my Press in NLP where I will need to alter my program, at least for the press.

    After my last successful 3x5 at 60 kg a couple weeks ago, I have continued to add between 1-1,5 kg weight to the bar each Press workout and yesterday I used 67.5 kg (150 lbs).
    I somehow barely managed to hit all of my 15 reps, but it looked like this:

    • 2 reps 1st set
    • followed by 13 hard singles



    Since this obviously took quite a lot of time, I am going to start next Monday with the compressed Texas method as suggested by Nick and shoot for weekly slight weight increases as opposed to each workout.
    I am aware that with the Press, stress is what needs to be hiked up to continue driving adaptation.
    My plan is to do volume Press 5x5 each Monday and then 5-8 intensity singles on Friday.

    Questions about the math:
    how grueling should the 5x5 be? should it be an all-out effort where not one more additional rep would be possible?
    how much weight for the 5x5 would be a good starting point for me, based on my max ability to do 15 singles at 67.5 lg.
    Was it 90%? I am somehow not confident I can hit 5x5 @ 61 kg and I don't want to start the 5x5 by missing any reps.

    I am still on Chapter 1 of Practical Programming so please forgive me if the answer is already in there.

    Thanks.

  2. #2
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    Age, height, bodyweight?

  3. #3
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    As I recall from Nick's article, the 90% is a starting place based on your last completed sets of 5. In practice, your 5x5 will probably need to be in the neighborhood of 80-85% of your heavy singles. There is a thread in the General Q&A forum discussing the article where Nick answers a lot of questions too.

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by francesco.decaro View Post
    Age, height, bodyweight?
    What this guy said! Have you answered the first 3 questions?

  5. #5
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    Thanks Matt and all for your responses!
    Matt has hit the nail on the head!!! 80-85% seems doable tbh!

    Will read through that other thread as well for more info, as well.

    Quote Originally Posted by alexmunropga@gmail.com View Post
    What this guy said! Have you answered the first 3 questions?
    Not sure if it changes anything in this case, but just to be thorough:

    My stats current:
    Squat: 122.5 kg x 5 x 3
    Bench: 97.5 kg x 5 x 3 (max set of 3 @ 107,5 kg)
    Press: 67.5 kg x 1 x15 (3 sets of 5 stopped working after 60 kg so I kept going for 15 reps since then and adding fractional weight)
    Deadlift: 150 kg x 5 x 1

    Age 48, Male
    Height 5'10"
    Weight 220 lbs

    Rest between sets: usually around 5-7 minutes for heavy sets. 3-4 minutes between heavy singles on the press.
    I am definitely eating enough calories and protein.
    Sleep is another thing altogether: As most 48 y.o.'s I suppose, I unfortunately wake up a few times a night to urinate or drop the occasional deuce. But the good news is that at least I wake up first. .

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matt James View Post
    As I recall from Nick's article, the 90% is a starting place based on your last completed sets of 5. In practice, your 5x5 will probably need to be in the neighborhood of 80-85% of your heavy singles. There is a thread in the General Q&A forum discussing the article where Nick answers a lot of questions too.
    I'm a 43 year old male and have had good results with the Compressed Texas Method for the press and bench, mixed in with a 3 day full body program. I've found that 90% is way too high, probably because there is no light day, yet two volume days and intensity on both lifts per week. Maybe for females 90% would be okay, but for males it seems to high on this program. After playing around with it the first cycle through I've settled on 80% for both the bench and press to give me the longest run driving up the weight on both. The volume days aren't all that difficult at 80% and 4 to 5 minutes rest between sets was fine for me. When fatigue starts to set in and linear progression is coming to an end I usually feel it first in the volume day for that particular lift, where it starts feeling like a lot more work than the week prior. At that point I've been able to drag out the progress by holding the volume weight the same or letting it drop slightly over the period of a few weeks coming down to about 75% at the end to eek out a little bit more progress on the intensity day. When progress on the intensity day stalls out, then it is time for a slight deload.

    The best way to get results with the Compressed Texas program is to stagger the bench and the press, because there will be interference with whichever lift goes second on intensity day. If you are focusing on the press for a cycle, then do that first on intensity day, but try to keep the bench quite a bit lighter than it would be otherwise, trying to set it up so that when the press stalls out, you can switch where the bench is first on intensity day and the press is second, when the weight on the bench starts to get quite hard. Maybe this is less of an issue if the Compressed Texas Method is used in a 4 day split, but it is definitely an issue in the 3 day full body implementation.

    I think that in Practical Programming why you see volume as 90% of the intensity day to start with and for quite a while on the bench and press is because you have a light day and you alternate between bench volume and intensity one week and then press volume and intensity the next week. You get more rest in the week and are only doing each one every other week, giving you even more rest. I'm thinking of switching over to this method as written in the book to see if I can get my progress going again because I think I've squeezed out as much easy gains on the Compressed Texas method as I can get after several cycles and resets. Before then I might do Andy Baker's 6 week press program to see if it will push me over the top to getting a 200 pound press, as I am really close right now.

  7. #7
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    Start with 125-130 lbs for 5x5 if your singles are at 150. You can always bump up the weight if needed later. As nick said, if your press is getting to the end of the beginner programming, it's not inadequate recovery causing the problem. Not from a 150 lb press. It's inadequate stress. You probably don't need much of a deload at all before just adding an extra press workout.

  8. #8
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    Hi, just to report back how things went:

    Flawless transition from what I can tell, thanks again for everyone's input.

    Until it stops working, I will be sticking to 5x5 on (my) 'Wednesdays' and 5-6 heavy single 1RM on 'Friday'.

    so basically this was for me:

    Wed: 5x5 @ 55 kg
    Fri: 6x singles @ 68.5 kg
    Wed: 5x5 @ 57.5 kg
    Fri (yesterday for me): 5x singles @ 70 kg (155 lbs)

    Wearing belt for all of the above.

    My first observation is that it is quite a struggle just to get a 5 pound increase on the press, and it will probably be a month or two before the next 5 pounds can be added. No surprise there, I think you all know this feeling!
    Anyway all is moving as it should I suppose.

    Yesterday on my 5th and last single at 70 kg (155 pounds) during the lockout my eyes started to go black and it felt as if I was going to pass out. Luckily I got the bar back down on the pins before taking a knee, just for safety.
    Not sure what causes that but it seems to happen to me the heavier the weight gets and (so far) only on the press. I thought I was breathing correctly but I will need to focus on it some more I guess. It was a little scary tbh and so next time I will be setting the safety pins much higher!

    Anyway it didn't seem to affect me physically at least because right after that I was able to knock out a max set of 5x bench press followed by 2 sets at 90%.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by gv3055 View Post
    Hi, just to report back how things went:

    Flawless transition from what I can tell, thanks again for everyone's input.

    Until it stops working, I will be sticking to 5x5 on (my) 'Wednesdays' and 5-6 heavy single 1RM on 'Friday'.

    so basically this was for me:

    Wed: 5x5 @ 55 kg
    Fri: 6x singles @ 68.5 kg
    Wed: 5x5 @ 57.5 kg
    Fri (yesterday for me): 5x singles @ 70 kg (155 lbs)

    Wearing belt for all of the above.

    My first observation is that it is quite a struggle just to get a 5 pound increase on the press, and it will probably be a month or two before the next 5 pounds can be added. No surprise there, I think you all know this feeling!
    Anyway all is moving as it should I suppose.

    Yesterday on my 5th and last single at 70 kg (155 pounds) during the lockout my eyes started to go black and it felt as if I was going to pass out. Luckily I got the bar back down on the pins before taking a knee, just for safety.
    Not sure what causes that but it seems to happen to me the heavier the weight gets and (so far) only on the press. I thought I was breathing correctly but I will need to focus on it some more I guess. It was a little scary tbh and so next time I will be setting the safety pins much higher!

    Anyway it didn't seem to affect me physically at least because right after that I was able to knock out a max set of 5x bench press followed by 2 sets at 90%.
    I don't think it's wise to take 2.5kg jumps on your 5x5 and 1.5kg jumps on your 1RM. The opposite is probably better. Remember, 2.5kg is 5,5lbs not 5, that adds up pretty fast

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    Take 2 pound jumps on the presses.

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