Please help me with my Press programming

Hey guys, I've had a good few months bringing my press up and it's been going well, until the last couple of weeks at least. I was wondering if you could suggest what I can do to now.

I started off doing 5x5, going up 2.5kg/5.5lbs per week. I made all of the reps until I got to 210lbs and missed a couple of reps in the set due to it being so hard. I've gotten to this point many times in my training in the past, It has always seemed to be the limit that the TM 5x5 setup seems to take me.

After I failed on 210, I followed the advice in PP to switch to eight sets of three reps. I was going up happily doing that for another couple of months, only 1kg/2.2lbs per week, but it was going nicely until I got to 228lbs. The weeks have gone really well and it's only the last couple of weeks that I missed any reps at all, but last weeks workout (228 for eight sets of three) went terribly and I only got about half the reps I needed.

I am just wondering where I go from here? I am not sure whether to go back to trying for 5x5 or back off a little and try eight sets of three again seeing if I can squeeze out some more from that?

any help is appreciated and I'm sorry It's long winded what I've written! I will just add that on intensity day I have been doing dynamic effort presses, not a heavy triple. It seems to work much better for me.

Thanks!
_

Hi Aslin,

2.5 kg / 5.5 lbs is a significant jump for the press. Access to smaller plates would allow you to microload the lift and should help you get unstuck for a while.

What does your intensity day programming look like? Are you doing a traditional 3 day TM with alternating press/bench press focus, or something else like a 4 day split? Resetting your volume day loads isn't a problem, and in fact may be necessary, as long as you're still progressing on intensity day.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Matt James

What does your intensity day programming look like? Are you doing a traditional 3 day TM with alternating press/bench press focus, or something else like a 4 day split? Resetting your volume day loads isn't a problem, and in fact may be necessary, as long as you're still progressing on intensity day.

---

Thanks. For intensity day I've been doing dynamic effort. That is supposed to be fairly static as long as volume day keeps going up which it has until recently

I am focusing pretty solely on the press at the moment. I bench once a week but I'm not training it to progress like I am with the press. I workout six days a week due to time constraints but the programming is good. Everything is flowing nicely.

I have access to microloading plates and have been going up 2.2lbs per week for the past couple of months. I can actually microload smaller than that and only go up by 1lb per week if I wanted to. I might reset 5lbs and then try doing that.

Thanks for the replies.

Have you ever trained reps lower than 5?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Robert Santana

Have you ever trained reps lower than 5?

---

Hey Robert, yeah I have been doing that for the past few weeks.

I started off doing 5x5, then switched to eight sets of three reps. I was going up happily doing that going up 1kg/2.2lbs per week until I failed last week.

My current press routine is eight sets of three on a Tuesday, followed by dynamic effort on a Saturday. I don't do any other assistance exercises other than chinups really.

I'm not offering advice, I'm just adding another question on the question pile:

Would there be any benefit to rotating the rep ranges every other week to keep the stimulus fresh, and restarting progress that way?

It's kind of similar to the cycling intensity days on the Texas Method to keep it fresh, but I was wondering if this would apply to something like this where progressing the weight on volume day was the goal.

Example

Week 1: 200*5*5
Week 2: 210*3*8
Week 3: 202*5*5
Week 4: 212*3*8

Have considered adding a 3rd pressing day? I believe that Rip has said to press more you have to press more...

And this Press and Bench Press Programming - Getting and Staying Unstuck | Nick Delgadillo

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bjvinson

And this Press and Bench Press Programming - Getting and Staying Unstuck | Nick Delgadillo

---

thanks for this. I'll give it a look.