I am going to go against the grain and say the press is no different than any other lift, and people get in their own heads about it and MAKE it awful.
The issue is that the press WEIGHT tends to be lighter than other lifts, so progress on it APPEARS slower because we’re too stupid to appreciate that.
If you are pressing 100lbs and you want to add 5lbs to your press, that’s adding 5% to your lift. For perspective, if you deadlifted 500lbs, that’s adding 25lbs to your lift. You’re not adding 25lbs to a deadlift session per session, much like you’re not adding 5lbs to press session per session.
Some people seek to solve that by microloading, but that’s just dumb. Instead, you have to find the OTHER forms of progress that exist in training. Your press weight might move FASTER, or smoother, or you may require less rest between sets of press, or you may finish all your press sets and then kill your assistance work later in the workout, or etc etc etc.
But if you get all in your head that the weight and reps aren’t moving on your press like the rest of your lifts, you’ll end up doing stupid things trying to make it happen and totally bork it.
I haven’t been on a single program long enough to start pushing into new territory like I’m planning on doing here, so hopefully the bbs and ssl stuff is working sufficiently to ignite some strength gains.
I’m finding it’s a pretty fine line between just enough and too much in regards to any type of pressing for me.
I’m nervous about this, once I move my gear into the garage. I do all seated ohp because ceiling height won’t allow standing. For all I know my standing ohp could be half of my seated lol.
Thanks man, I’m hoping that’s the case. Still slowly creeping up to it though.
I saw this conversation and though of the same thing. % increase for press is massive compared to other lifts. For me the ratio is 1:2.5 deadlift to press (give or take).
Try some different pressing movements. Incline bench 350 method helped me a ton. Built some size and that in turn helped the numbers go up.
Any thoughts on how that would work with supplemental work on what I’m currently doing? After ohp drop the BBS sets and just do incline 350? I liked it when I was doing GMM.
I’m not familiar with the programme you’re running. So can’t comment.
How I did it:
I ran a dedicated hypertrophy programme which includes 350 method incline bench and 3x10 behind the neck press. I ran this for 6 weeks and when I returned to normal pressing and my numbers shot up.
I will add it took 3 weeks for the new muscle to become effective. But I took my incline bench 50kg 20 reps to 66kg x24 and btn press 55x11 to 60 x11.
This made my upper body bigger. My upper chest is now “solid”. I’m noticeably bigger.
As I say 3 weeks after running this press became easier. I read delts respond better to high reps better than weight. Did for me.
I’m up to try pretty much anything at this point to get it feeling better/stronger. I’m going to get a new supplemental plan together before the next leaders coming up here, so I may try to work that in on ohp day as the supplemental and keep it light on the assistance stuff that day.
Moving onward. 345 felt good. Really locking down form on deadlifts.
Edit: wanted to add in that a buddy of mine who lifts regularly and I split the cost of a texas DL bar. We plan on trading it back and forth frequently, so it’ll be making appearances here and there (hopefully more often than not!!!). First time using it today and it was very, very strange. It’s going to take some getting used to for sure.
Did a quick look at what the anchor cycle is going to look like after deload week… definitely starting to get into some weights that I haven’t ever done for reps before, so hopefully some rep PRs will be on the way…
OHP
W1-105
W2- 110
W3- 115
Bench
W1- 175
W2- 190
W3- 200
Squat
W1- 275
W2- 290
W3- 310
DL
W1- 300
W2- 320
W3- 335
Bench and OHP w3 look questionable as far as getting to 7-8 reps to me, just knowing my ability and how stuff has been feeling. Hopefully a deload and stuffing my face will assist with this…
Squat and deadlift, on the other hand, I’m ready to fucking destroy 335 and 310. I think aiming for at least 10 reps on each would be a good point to shoot for, without being terribly far out of reach.
Great work on the widowmaker. Lol your 20 rep weight is closer to my 1rm. I hit 18 reps at 165 today and took a hell of a lot more rest-pause than you did for that set.
So you get a month off from widowmakers?
Thanks man I appreciate that. Yup, 1 week deload, then 3 week anchor where I’ll be doing PR sets, which also are going to suck haha.
That’s no joke either man. You should def be proud of that.
I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately but I think it’s all about perspective, as in you very well could’ve pushed yourself harder physically than I did. So long as you push yourself, it’s good work.
Last coat of poly this morning. Going to let it dry, and then do some finishing touches. Going to get it back there tomorrow.
Starting squat and bench platform today, not sure how I want to do it yet though. I have 3 horse stall mats left and a sheet of 1/2" plywood. Might just cut a sheet of plywood to fit inside the rack, back 7’ and cover in horse stall mats.
Fuckin shit man that was blazing! Even moreso if you’re using Stevie-approved 13-gauge strings. Haha but really, that’s a whole lot of expression in those licks.
