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Thread: Back off set % Different

  1. #1
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    Default Back off set % Different

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    I知 almost 60 and I致e noticed something about myself in regards to what I suspect is recovery related. I'm out of the linear progression and I知 doing a program of one work set and two back off sets. For my OHP and BP my two back off sets are at 95%. This is working well and I知 very slowly still getting stronger.

    I have noticed however that with the squat my back offs are at 90% and if I try 95% my gains actually slow down. Is this a recovery related thing? Thoughts?

  2. #2
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    Squats and deadlifts are more difficult to recover from than upper body lifts. Doing a workset and two back-offs at 95% is really not much different in terms of systemic stress than 3 worksets across.

    If you have already tried both and gains are better with the larger, 10% offset, stick with that. I think you'll eventually discover that an even larger offset might be necessary for set 3.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Hanson View Post
    Squats and deadlifts are more difficult to recover from than upper body lifts. Doing a workset and two back-offs at 95% is really not much different in terms of systemic stress than 3 worksets across.

    If you have already tried both and gains are better with the larger, 10% offset, stick with that. I think you'll eventually discover that an even larger offset might be necessary for set 3.
    That's helpful for the future as at some point I'm sure I'll stall again and have to change up my programing. Thanks!

  4. #4
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    How many reps you can and should do at different percentages varies not only based on individuals, sex, age, but also on lifts. A commonality though is that the larger the loads are, the lower the percentages ought to be for volume/backoff work (and by percentages, I mean percentages of 1RM, meaning larger percent back-offs for bigger lifts). A part of perfecting programming is getting those percentages more fine-grained for you at your current level than 5% increments which suit population recommendations more, meaning you may discover you can handle ~91% for squats, ~89% for deadlifts and ~96% for bench press for instance. Experiment away.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by perman View Post
    How many reps you can and should do at different percentages varies not only based on individuals, sex, age, but also on lifts. A commonality though is that the larger the loads are, the lower the percentages ought to be for volume/backoff work (and by percentages, I mean percentages of 1RM, meaning larger percent back-offs for bigger lifts). A part of perfecting programming is getting those percentages more fine-grained for you at your current level than 5% increments which suit population recommendations more, meaning you may discover you can handle ~91% for squats, ~89% for deadlifts and ~96% for bench press for instance. Experiment away.
    Interesting you say that on the experimenting as I was thinking of doing just that but I hadn't pulled the trigger on it yet. Now I will.

  6. #6
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Hanson View Post
    Squats and deadlifts are more difficult to recover from than upper body lifts. Doing a workset and two back-offs at 95% is really not much different in terms of systemic stress than 3 worksets across.

    If you have already tried both and gains are better with the larger, 10% offset, stick with that. I think you'll eventually discover that an even larger offset might be necessary for set 3.
    You're a genius. My overhead press back off was 95% but my work set weight has now gotten to a point I have had to drop the back offs to 92.5% and I was able to raise my squat to 91% and still get in 5 reps on the back offs. I can now see as the work set increases at some point I'll have to work on the back off % over time. Thanks for your comment as this has really helped me to maintain progress rather than stall out. I left the novice progression later than I should have so it's nice to be able to change things quickly as needed.

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