Hybrid LP and volume/intensity split?

[Tim W]

42 yr old 225# guy here. I am recovering from a C6/7 disc replacement. Had a bad radiculopathy with notable tricep weakness in addition to pain from shoulder to hand. The pain is 100% gone but the Tricep weakness persists and surgeon said it may take several months to come back fully.

I resumed training about a month ago after a three month layoff. Had been running a 4 day upper/lower split. My squat (300x5x3) and deadlift (335x5) are now getting close to where I left off, and on this new run at LP I may even exceed prior loads in a few weeks.

Pressing is another story. Tricep weakness is profound and i can barely do doubles at half the weight i was doing for fives previously. On the wise advice of Will Morris I have been doing multiple sets of doubles or triples as heavy as possible, but the gains have been very slow. OP at 105x3x5/BP at 115x3x5. Rest and calories are on point; the muscle just doesn’t want to contract.

Finally my question: I am probably going to need to move back to an intermediate program for lower body pretty soon (bar speed slowing down, almost missing reps, and already taking a midweek light squat session) but I am likely to be a “situational novice” on the upper lifts for quite some time, due to denervation of the motor units.

Rather than the typical upper/lower split, was thinking about blending upper body LP with lower body Vol/intensity split. Like this:

Mon: Squat 5RM (I); Press 3x5 (LP)
Tues: DL 2-3x5 (V); BP 3x5 (LP)
Thurs: Squat 5x5 (V); Press 3x5 (LP)
Fri: DL 5RM (I); BP 3x5 (LP)

My rationale is to progress the presses linearly while I still can, without training both on same day. My concern is this means doing lower body lifts on consecutive days.

Does anyone see any glitch in my thinking, or have other ideas about how to train around this situation?

[Michael Wolf]

That's a tough situation but sounds like you're handling it well, mentally. Interesting that bench is barely above press, too; I'd have guessed the ratio wouldn't be that far off normal, even though the absolute weight would obviously be less. Anyway.

People have done this before, but I actually think the same day is better. I find intra-workout fatigue to be less of an issue than inter-workout fatigue when dealing with similar/overlapping muscle groups. I'd do upper body on Mon/Thurs, linearly progressing both lifts as long as possible, and alternating which goes first (i.e. Monday you bench and then press, Thurs you press and then bench), and then do your intermediate programming for SQ and DL on Tues/Fri.

That said, I don't think there's a theoretical "right" answer here to know for sure without trying, as some people do respond differently; especially in a situation where the limiting factor is tricep innervation recovery, which I don't think I've personally coached before at such an acute stage, I don't know for sure. But if you were my client, I'd first try what I suggested and adjust or change if it's not working.

[Tim W]

Thanks Wolf! I’ll proceed as advised.