Upper Body Progression Question

[SwoleyGuacamole]

Hello fellow stronk monke,

I had a programming question about my upper body lifts that may need some attention.

Demographics:
5'9 253lbs TRT for 6 months
Caloric intake is around 3250-3500 a day
SQUAT 455
DL 475
BENCH 305
PRESS 205
PC <200, working on form

I run an HLM program with 72 hour split. I work every three days, so I am not on a standard weekly schedule. My heavy days consist of 3x3 lifts while the L and M are 5x3. I was suggested that I start doing my upper body lifts two times a week. I had done done that and have made good progress doing so. I do them both on heavy days and alternate lifts between L and M. I increase weight every two weeks using at most two 1 lbs bat weights.

I was listening to the podcast some time ago where Nick referenced that, naturally, bench and press will only get to about the amount I'm currently at. Ive noticed while I am only going up very small amount every two weeks, it's getting more difficult each time to do so. I was hoping to seek some knowledge on how to progress my lifts from this point forward. I don't intend to immediately implement change until I've completely stopped progressing, however I don't feel as it's that far away before I get to that point. While today was the first day I've had to do so, I was able to do my first set of 3 just fine. Noticed on second set however that I was able to get one more before I failed both the lifts. Tried a few more time with no avail before backing down some to finish my sets.

At this point in my upper lifts, is there a more optimal way of training than what I am currently doing? Is there a way I should be programming my upper lifts at this point that will allow me to get every single poundage I can out of what I am naturally able to do?

[Maybach]

Your deadlift is very low. Getting that up will help your upper body lifts.

Heavy-light-medium refers to workload, not (necessarily) weight. A low volume heavy weight day makes this closer to a volume-intensity split. Effectively your "heavy" day is closer to a "medium." It's not the worst thing it's just important when assessing your programming

Finally, slogging all the way through a weekly cycle with 72 hours breaks is probably not necessary. Your light day is probably unnecessary: it's there to bridge the gap between Monday and Friday in weekly splits, but if you're just not training on that day...you should be ready to do some real work at the end of 72 hours.

In general you gotta be looking for ways to lift more and heavier. Doing like, 5x5 on heavy days and 3x5 on mediums is where I would start. Alternatively, you could go more fully volume-intensity and do 5x5 at an offset on "heavy" day and do TM style intensity work on "medium" day: a heavy five, pair of triples, of five singles. But you could go either way. Point is, you want to alternate two workouts, one "heavy" and one "medium." The heavy day is a 5x5, and the medium is either a conservative offset in volume and intensity (say, 90% 3-4x5) or an aggressive volume offset at a higher intensity (say, 110% of the 5x5 for five total reps).

Depending on how you partition your bench/press volume, you could also just like, do 5x5 and alternate bench and press. If you wanted to keep intensity work in there, you could swap the two each workout: top set of bench and 5x5 press, alternating top set of press and 5x5 bench.