Two per Week

[David Sanders]

Andy, in your opinion, with presses liking volume, should press programming for NLP pook different? Just curious.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

3 x 5 is fine, until it's not. If you are adding sufficient body weight by eating in a caloric surplus and you are microloading then 3 x 5 is fine. If you are keeping body weight at maintenance then the press (and probably the bench pretty soon after) will be the first lift to stall. And so then we move onto intermediate programming which will generally mean an increase in volume.

[David Sanders]

Got it. Thank you.

[bobman]

I'm almost 67 and fighting the come back trail after a long layoff (18 years) and doing work sets across was really beating me up. I just cant seem to recover and was feeling crippled all the time

after reading the recent article Rip posted that Andy wrote some time ago I decided to try his ascending sets recommendation and it seems its working for me

I've modified it a little

Monday
squats - 6 sets of 5 go up from bar to 315 waiting about 4 minutes between sets until I get to the top set I rest 8 minutes
deads- I'm warmed up from the squats so I do two sets of 5 across with top weight
bench- 6 sets of 5 ascending just like the squats
landmine rows are super setted with my benches for sets of 6

Thursday

squats- same as Monday. I don't think I need the light day and after my last set I do a triple with the weight I plan as my top set next week.
deads- same as Monday
incline bench- same as Monday
lat machine supersets


this seems to be working nicely and I'm not walking around feeling crippled I add 5 lbs a week to squats and deads on each monday and 2.5 lbs to the benches on Mondays

I'm also doing Hiit two or three times a week on my airdyne

Andy is a sharp and practical person I find his stuff to be very valuable especially for we older folks with limitations

I wish the internet and mark and Andy were available in the 60s when I started after reading his books I realize how much better I could of been

thank you both

[pd_oldguy]

I've had some success with the following with some of my older clients who only train twice a week (and therefore only press and bench once each per week):

Week 1 Day 1: Press Vol 4x5
Week 1 Day 2: Bench Vol 4x5
Week 2 Day 1: Press Int 2x3 + backoff 3x5
Week 2 Day 2: Bench Int 2x3 + backoff 3x5

The Volume day sets are a few lbs lighter than the Intensity triples, and the backoff sets on Intensity day are generally 1 or 2 lbs below the weight on Volume day. Everything goes up 1 lb each cycle.

For example, for a female client in her mid-60's (I don't have her training log in front of me, so I'm going off memory here):

Week 1 Day 1: Press Vol 41x5x4
Week 1 Day 2: Bench Vol 58x5x4

Week 2 Day 1: Press Int 45x3x2 + 40x5x3
Week 2 Day 2: Bench Int 62x3x2 + 57x5x3

Week 3 Day 1: Press Vol 42x5x4
Week 3 Day 2: Bench Vol 59x5x4

Week 4 Day 1: Press Int 46x3x2 + 41x5x3
Week 4 Day 2: Bench Int 63x3x2 + 58x5x3

Hi Andy,
Do you recommend using the Press/Bench program Mia recommended above for Press/Bench with the 2 day/week Kingwood Texas Method detailed in Barbell Prescription?

If yes, my Bench intensity day is at 195lbs and my Press intensity day is at 120lbs, what % of intensity day do you recommend for Volume day, and what % do you recommend for intensity day back off sets?

Thank you very much for your input and all the valuable info you share on these forums, additional details are below as per the programming sticky.
- 57 year old male
- 6 ft tall, 210 lbs
- following 2 day/week Kingwood Texas Method from Barbell Prescription – Primary pressing exercise = Bench Press, sets/reps exactly as presented in book
- following program for 7-8 months
- Current Intensity day singles:
o Squat: 225 lbs
o Deadlift: 370 lbs
o Bench Press: 195
o Press – 115 for 5X5
o Using 1 lb Jumps for Bench/Press
o Using 3 lb jumps for Squat/DL

Was able to add weight to all lifts every 2 weeks until recently, Bench and Press have stalled. Thinking of changing to Mia’s 2 day/week Bench/Press recommendation to get upper body lifts unstuck.