Poliquin's 1-6 Method

[Notorious]

Recently, I hit a pretty big wall with the Press (could not get 3 sets of 125, with ~10 minute rests). I realized that my grip was slightly too wide and tried narrowing it, but this only made me weaker, at least for the first time I tried it. Me being the stubborn individual I am, and not wanting to decrease the weight, I decided to switch the rep scheme to singles for a while, keeping the narrower grip. I pressed, 130, 135, and 140 for 5 singles the next 3 days I pressed. The 140's were VERY hard and slow. Next workout I pressed 142.5 for one single and it was even more difficult. I didn't think I could do another, and I remembered reading something about heavy singles actually increasing the amount of reps you could do at a lower weight (the 1-6 method), so I threw on 127.5. I did 2 relatively hard sets of 5.

After that I decided to do a little more research and found this http://www.steroidology.com/forum/tr...-6-method.html.
The basic idea, taken from the link is "if you do a 6RM (the maximum load you can lift for 6 reps) load within 3-10 minutes of doing a max single, you can use a greater weight that you could have if you hadn't done the 1RM set.... In fact, many trainees who use this method find that their single poundages improve each wave."

Today I did a pretty easy single of 140, got 130 for 5 reps, got another pretty easy single at 145, and then 5 reps of 132.5. That's a 5 pound increase when I have been getting less than 2.5lbs per workout for a while.

Obviously, fuck the workout in the link, but is the general idea solid? Are the gains sustainable if I alternate Pressing/Benching every workout and might it be a good idea to try on other lifts, if they stall?

Thanks!

[Mark Rippetoe]

If it worked, and if it continues to work, it's a solid idea. I have used a similar thing for several exercises for years, working up to a heavy non-1RM single and backing off for 5s. Lots of things work.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

All of my repetition PR's from 5 to 15's have come after doing heavy singles. I definately believe in this method. The only problem is that most people can't work up to max effort singles on the same exercises every single workout without burning out.