A marathon swimmer lifts so he can swim long

[Bill Anders]

Thanks Mike. I missed that one.

re: deadlifts - that's the beauty of the heavy pull, being able to have a longer break between sessions and still progress. I'm now on a 14-day rotation for my heavy pull and it continues to go up. If I drop it to a 7-day break, it beats me up too much. But you aren't there yet to make that a standard interval for your pull, although it may work for you once it gets above 315 or so and you're focused on your swimming.

Keep at it!

[IronMike]

Good stuff today, mostly.

SQ: 4x4 @220#. Success! Wasn't pretty though.
OHP: 4x5 @102.5# Almost successful. 5, 5, 5, 4. Just couldn't get the last one up. Next Monday will be 4x4 @105#
Row: 3x5 @155#

Best song while lifting: "Aqualung," by Jethro Tull. (Totally forgot to listen to Run DMC today.)
Book read between sets: The Woman in the Dunes, by Kobo Abe.
Film watched while writing: Guardians of the Galaxy, in prep for watching Vol 3 with a couple of my kids.

[Bill Anders]

OHP: 4x5 @102.5# Almost successful. 5, 5, 5, 4. Just couldn't get the last one up. Next Monday will be 4x4 @105#

Nope. The presses do not respond to running them out like a squat would. You might progress for a session or two, but then you'll regress pretty rapidly. The quick and dirty is that you'll need to do your presses more frequently. For next Monday, load 105 then get to 20 reps however you can. Then for the next session, load 107.5 and do the same. Keep doing that until the majority of your sets become singles.

The words: Intermediate Programming for the Upper Body Lifts | Nick Delgadillo

The video (well worth the watch, as it expands on the article): Press and Bench Press Programming - Getting and Staying Unstuck | Nick Delgadillo

As you'll see, the press is the first lift that starts to fail everyone, so it's the quickest to move to intermediate programming.

[IronMike]

The quick and dirty is that you'll need to do your presses more frequently. For next Monday, load 105 then get to 20 reps however you can. Then for the next session, load 107.5 and do the same. Keep doing that until the majority of your sets become singles.

Thanks Bill. I read, quickly, the words, but I'll read more in-depth tomorrow and watch the video.

But if I understand you correctly: On Monday, I do however many sets as needed to get to 20 full reps of 105. Then, repeat at 107.5. But do 107.5 on "light" day (Wed) or do that on Friday? You say "presses more often." Does that mean progress by 2.5# every workout (Mon/Wed/Fri)? Basically heavy day every day? "Keep doing that until...sets become singles." Meaning: keep doing this progression until I'm doing 20 x 1?

Seriously, really appreciate the help Bill. My goal is still at least 1 rep of 135# OHP before the year is out!

[Bill Anders]

Glad to help, Mike.

First off, doing 20 might be what's doing you in right now (volume is not our friend, for those of us in our sixth decade [yes, I just said that]). You could keep pressing upwards and onward with a standard 3x5; at this stage of your training, with your swimming, etc., you don't need volume, but you need to keep pushing up the intensity. You did 102.5x5x3+4 this last session, you could go for 105x5x3 the next time. You'll probably get a few more sessions in of complete 3x5's adding 2.5lbs at a time. The reason I say that is typically, for someone your age/height/weight, the stall usually comes about 135lb+, but they also aren't doing the swimming/extracurriculars. So we need to balance it out.

Keep your normal press programming of every other session. I'm going to use 3x5's (15 reps) for your examples (hint). So next Monday would be 105x5x3, then Friday would be 107.5x5x3, then the following Wednesday 110x5x3, getting to 15 reps with the sets being whatever you can do, with at least a minute rest between sets. Bench on the alternate sessions. So it's a heavy day every day that you press, not every session that you workout. Basically, standard NLP programming. Just get to that 15 reps. You'll be able to run this for quite awhile, probably up to and past your goal of 135lbs. At no point will you take weight off the bar!!! No light days, either.

As you'll see in the video, Nick recommends running these out until you're doing mostly singles or the workouts get too long. Then you'll switch to a modified Texas Method program for the presses (bench will come later). That's when you'll increase your frequency, going from three pressing sessions every two weeks to two pressing sessions every week. You'll run a 5x5 "Volume Day" at 90% on Monday then 1x5-7 on Friday. By this point, you'll be doing this for both Press and Bench. There's a lot more to the video. I highly recommend taking notes. I took a full page of single-spaced notes, which I've referred to for this comment.

Looking back at those notes, it was 2 years ago that I was going through it myself. Since then, it has been 2x/week Presses/Bench and they keep going up. Yours will too.

You just need to be judicious with volume and know that both the Press and Bench respond most favorably to frequency.

Keep at it!

[IronMike]

Thanks so much Bill. About to go down to the garage but checked your post first. I'll try bench today. Haven't done bench in years as at around 170# my right front deltoid screams. So I've only done OHP since then. But I'm going to put some weight on the bar and try bench today. I'll let you know how it goes.

And after, I'll watch the video you posted for me. Thanks again!

[IronMike]

Re-reading BBP to make sure I know what I'm doing. Thanks Bill!

Today, in the morning, I swam on base. Outdoor pools are the best, especially when you swim early enough to see the sun rise. The pool is oddly shaped; 33.3 yards per length. Did 2000 yards this morning in 40 minutes. Had to get to work.

Then after work did this:

SQ: 2x5 @175#
Bench press (BP): 5x55#, 5x75#, 5x95#.
DL: 1x5 @260#

As I told Bill, I haven't done BP since, maybe 2018? Yep, just checked StrengthLevel, and in May 2018, I did one rep of 172.5#. My left (not right, as originally stated) front deltoid screams at me. Also, my right forearm, right where my f-ed up elbow connects, also screams at me. (Have I already posted pictures of my f-ed up elbow?) But still, I'll keep working the BP on Wednesday (L day).

And then on Friday for OHP I'll do 105# for 3x5. (Thanks Bill.)

Can't swim tomorrow due to work (but maybe after work?). Then Friday I'll lift again. w00t!

Music listened to while lifting: Run DMC's first album (thanks Bill!)
Book read while lifting: The Woman in the Dunes, by Kobo Abe
Show watched while writing: Chopped (military chefs vs. Amanda Freitag)

[Bill Anders]

Excellent!

Nice way to ease into the BPs. Given your history with them and your right elbow, no need to rush them. Hopefully you'll have a different experience this time.

Totally agree on those outdoor pool sessions, especially if you can get lucky enough to be near an Olympic sized one (not as much turning).

Lastly, that is a great album, isn't it? Heck, for me, their first four albums were solid listens all the way through. After that, they dropped off for me, but that's also probably a bit of a stage-of-life thing. I'll have to give them another try.

Keep at it!

[IronMike]

Swam on Friday. Arrived earlier than Wednesday so I could swim for a bit more; 45 min and 2400 yards.

Was way too tired Friday so put off lifting till today.

SQ: 3x5 @200#
OHP: 3x5 @105#
Row: 3x5 @160#

Hit everything! The 105s were hard, but I'll keep going. 107.5# next on Monday.

Best song while lifting: "Gimme Shelter," by Tears for Fears.
Book read, and finished, thank God, while lifting: The Woman in the Dunes, by Kobo Abe.
Show watched while writing this: Election, based on the book by Tom Perrotta.

[Bill Anders]

Hit everything! The 105s were hard, but I'll keep going. 107.5# next on Monday.

Consider Bench on Monday. There's a reason that the NLP alternates the presses on heavy days (e.g., M-F-W-M-F-W for your heavy Press days). The small muscles that the Press focuses on typically won't recover that quickly between progressing sessions, even if it's "only 2.5lbs". The only time that you'd Press on consecutive sessions would be a light session after a heavy Bench (that will happen once you need more frequency, like Nick described in his video).

Best song while lifting: "Gimme Shelter," by Tears for Fears.

You had me on a wild goose chase with this one. I had not run across TFF covering Gimme Shelter, so I had to give it a listen. I do love a good cover, and I know that TFF can do that. Does this cover even exist? Or was it Pale Shelter (still a damn fine song)?