Intermediate Programming for the Upper Body Lifts | Nick Delgadillo

[Davide Salomoni]

Thanks for the great article Coach! As an amateur competitive cyclist after my NLP started to plateau I felt Texas Method would be too stressful for me and I moved to a HLM template. Specifically I do (L)Press 3x5, (M)Pin Press 5x4, (H)Bench 5x4 followed by 2 Strict Press AMRAP sets. Was considering adding 2 light AMRAP sets of bench after the Pin Press. After reading your article, I am wondering whether your approach would work better, or whether it would be too stressful in addition to my cycling? (I am assuming it wouldn't be a problem per se to program the lower body lifts on a HLM model but go with your more TM like template for Press and Bench)

[Nick Delgadillo]

Thanks for the great article Coach! As an amateur competitive cyclist after my NLP started to plateau I felt Texas Method would be too stressful for me and I moved to a HLM template. Specifically I do (L)Press 3x5, (M)Pin Press 5x4, (H)Bench 5x4 followed by 2 Strict Press AMRAP sets. Was considering adding 2 light AMRAP sets of bench after the Pin Press. After reading your article, I am wondering whether your approach would work better, or whether it would be too stressful in addition to my cycling? (I am assuming it wouldn't be a problem per se to program the lower body lifts on a HLM model but go with your more TM like template for Press and Bench)

That's exactly what most of my clients' programs look like at the end of LP and start of intermediate programming. The squat and deadlift is on an HLM setup and the upper body is on my compressed Texas Method. I think you'd be fine to try this. Eventually, you may alternate pin press and press singles on intensity day.

[Erik Y]

For my garbage press, I wound up doing a bunch of heavy singles for my last intensity day session because my press is garbage. So the timing of this article was interesting. But I’m curious about what progression looks like on this system and also about how much rest is reasonable to take between singles on the press - if you wind up doing seven with long rest periods, the session could wind up running a while, but usually I find I don’t need to rest as much between triples or singles as I do for fives (except for unplanned triples or singles). It would be really interesting to see a training log example of this style of programming in action.

Another great article. Everything you’ve been writing for the site recently has been solid gold. Thanks for putting all this info out there for us.

[Davide Salomoni]

That's exactly what most of my clients' programs look like at the end of LP and start of intermediate programming. The squat and deadlift is on an HLM setup and the upper body is on my compressed Texas Method. I think you'd be fine to try this. Eventually, you may alternate pin press and press singles on intensity day.

Thanks again for the insight! I'll try it and see what happens...

[Nick Delgadillo]

For my garbage press, I wound up doing a bunch of heavy singles for my last intensity day session because my press is garbage. So the timing of this article was interesting. But I’m curious about what progression looks like on this system and also about how much rest is reasonable to take between singles on the press - if you wind up doing seven with long rest periods, the session could wind up running a while, but usually I find I don’t need to rest as much between triples or singles as I do for fives (except for unplanned triples or singles). It would be really interesting to see a training log example of this style of programming in action.

Another great article. Everything you’ve been writing for the site recently has been solid gold. Thanks for putting all this info out there for us.

Thanks, Erik. I appreciate it. You shouldn't need much rest between the singles as you've observed. Maybe 3 minutes or so tops. As your press gets stronger, you'll need more rest but by that point you should really consider moving to a 4 day program. Once you're on a 4 day, the time constraint goes away and you can add in things like pin presses.

[Wyatt12]

Are the Friday press singles to be understood as "Press 2.0", i.e. with the use of hips and moderate layback as outlined for LP? Or strict presses as for Wednesday?

Thanks for sharing this. Both of my presses stall repeatedly during LP. I'll try switching to this to see if I can get unstuck.

[Jack Morrison]

Is there any detriment to doing 2 triples for bench and a 3x5 for close grips on intensity day on this variation on TM?

[Nick Delgadillo]

Are the Friday press singles to be understood as "Press 2.0", i.e. with the use of hips and moderate layback as outlined for LP? Or strict presses as for Wednesday?

Thanks for sharing this. Both of my presses stall repeatedly during LP. I'll try switching to this to see if I can get unstuck.

Yeah. Use your hips to make the bar bounce when you do the press. Don't use them when you do the strict press. Let us know how it goes.

[Nick Delgadillo]

Is there any detriment to doing 2 triples for bench and a 3x5 for close grips on intensity day on this variation on TM?

If that's what keeps your bench going up, not at all.

[twigs]

Advanced intermediate here. My upper body lifts have stalled doing each lift once a week, 4 days a week, rotating rep ranges through 8-5-2 (specifically 8x3, 5x4, 2x5 over three weeks). The training variable I want to manipulate is volume. My idea is to add volume by moving to pressing and benching twice a week. Could I copy the split template in the article by continuing the 8-5-2 rotation while adding press singles to bench day and a bench set of five to press day? Or is there more to think about? Appreciate any response. Male, 260lbs, 6'1". Best press workout is 175 for five doubles.