My question is pretty simple, I’m looking for some kind of progression that allows me to get stronger without having to know a specific % of my 1RM to use on each set.
There was one article I can’t find at the moment that talked about a “blind” volume system, where everyday you go in the gym you feel out the weights and how strong you’re feeling and judge what to use accordingly. I didn’t quite understand their method so I’m looking to the forums now haha. Does anyone know a preferred method like this? Or one of their own?
The simplest way would be to use a double progression method, link here that explains it better than I can. Simply add more reps each week over a training block and then reset add weight and drop the reps back and do it all again.
I’ve used double progression in the past and it works well, I’ll have to give the west side method a try. Any other I guess “undulated” set/rep methods for strength?
If you figure out what your 1 rep max, 5rm, 10rm and 3 x 5 max, 3 x 10 max is etc you never really need to break out the calculator/spreadsheet to work what your hypoethetical maxes are and you can rotate, fairly intuitively between shooting for either a new rep max or 3 x x rep max etc…I just find this approach is a lot easier if you have a really good memory for your best lefts or if you consultant a logbook/notebook//whiteboard before you train.
Undulating is just adding a Light day and a Medium day to your plan.
You work up to a heavy sets of 3-5 or whatever on your heavy day so you know how strong you are. Then you do your two other workouts before you get back to Heavy day again.
Everyone’s had good suggestions thus far. I’ve used this method. It works.
By the way, I said this in another thread, but the cons of the age of information are becoming increasingly apparent to me, because there seem to be throngs of people now who don’t know that progression outside of percentage-based training exists. The vast majority of lifters - past and present - have never used any type of percentage-based progression. Being in the gym 5 days a week for years on end gives you a pretty good idea of exactly what you can lift, depending on how you feel that day.
Paul was definitely referring to low volume here. I did 2 sets - if I reached 12 on the first set, I would keep the weight the same for the second set, and just up the weight the next week. Occasionally I would reach a super grindy 12 and would go for it again until I got a solid 12. It’s up to you, though - maybe you only progress once you can get 2x12. Maybe you do warm-ups and only do that one top set, and that’s it. All sorts of options here.
For various reasons I don’t have a very regular split frequency, so some times I’ll go more than a week without hitting a lift and other times I’ll hit it twice in the same week, so working of a percentage based program doesn’t always work out as well as it could
@flappinit
that’s very true, usually I’m doing either a double progression or working just intuitively, ramping up to a heavy set and then backing off with higher volume. I was just wondering if there was any specific methods people used or liked
The way you’re intuitively working is not only the way that most people work, but the way that most people have used to get big and strong for many, many years. There’s a lot of good info in here! I can 100% stand behind the 8-12-8 method. Easy to gauge, simple to set up, and lots of options with how you want to program for yourself. He gives a great list of exercises to go for the progression with:
Overhead Press (Dumbbell and Barbell)
And I would do no more than 2 exercises in a session going for that rep PR - and one was sufficient - and spend the rest doing “accessory work”, i.e. 3-4 sets of 8-15 reps of various different exercises.
Work up to whatever reps for the day (say 8, should have a few reps in the tank), take off 10%-15% and do back off 2-5 sets (this works about right for reps between 5 and 10)
Or a single (again, leave reps in the tank, more than for higher rep stuff), take off 10-15% and do 3x3 or 15-20% and do 5x5, 20-25% and do a bunch of 8-10 rep sets.
It sounds pretty similar to the “total reps” approach Chad Waterbury was advocating over a decade ago, where you hit failure in the first set and plug away getting “whatever” reps in later sets until you hit a target volume of the exercise: The 25 Method
Like Flap and others have said, a big part of it is basically “autoregulating” (another fairly recent buzzword to describe what guys did 50+ years ago), going by feel based on how progressively heavier warm-up sets are feeling and how well you know your body.
The newer you are to training, the less likely you know how to call an effective audible, so you need a more structured plan to follow.
The flip side of this is that for experienced lifters who plan numbers out in advance it is often really, really hard to call an audible and reduce the weight. The audible going the other way is an easy one.
The oldest I can remember seeing with percentages is DeLorme and Watkins’ stuff written in Progressive Resistance Exercise in the 1940s. It called for 3x10 using specifically “50% 10RM on the first set, 75% 10RM in the second set, 10RM in the third set.”
This is where we trace back the now-stereotypical “3x10”, though it’s often overlooked that it was a physical therapy situation and DeLorme was working with injured people, not healthy people training for recreation.
After that, I’m sure there was European/Russian strength-sport training in the '70s and '80s based on percentages. Dr. Fred Hatfield was also using them in the late-80s/early-90s for powerlifting.
3 sets, building to a tough one, You can’t beat the classics!
I wonder if Delorme’s recommendations “too easy” for modern lifters because he was working with injured guys (WW 2 vets)? Or are they “too hard” for the gym rats of today because he was working with de-trained people?
