Not trying to major in the minors and ultimately I guess it doesn’t matter but I’m curious if you guys do the same exercises for assistance more than once a week.
So for example your bench day you have dips,pullups, single leg squats. Will you do the same for your press day later in the week or do 3 completely different exercises.
Once again I know it doesn’t matter I’m just curious what you guys do.
Thanks
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.
I have asked a similar question, because I follow the Krypteia for the most part. I do only a small number of assistance exercises:
Pull ups, DB squats, dips, DB straight leg deadlifts, and DB incline presses.
That’s it. For over 1.5 years now. I didn’t get much feedback on my question, as I wonder if I should add in more. Personally, I loathe curls, tricep pushdowns, calf raises, anything on machines, or any isolation moves so I never do them.
I don’t know if this is any help, but I vary mine from day to day, but not from week to week. On OHP days I superset with pull-ups and chin-ups, followed by RDL’s and/or hanging leg raises and finished off with incline DB bench. On deadlift days I superset with the AB roller and maybe face pulls, followed by chin-ups and incline DB bench. On bench day I superset with DB rows, followed by split squats and/or hanging leg raises and some incline DB bench. On squat day I do the same as deadlift day except I do DB rows instead of chin-ups.
I tend to keep mine the same from week to week:
Press- Face pulls, tricep pushdown, sit ups.
Deadlift- Chins, push ups, back extensions.
Bench- DB Rows, tricep pushdown, ab wheel.
Squats- Chins, push ups, KB Swings.
I aim to increase the weight when I get to 50 good reps on the previous week. Sometimes if I’m feeling fresh, I may swap push ups for dips or swings for one-armed swings etc. If I’m feeling really beaten up during/after the main lift, my 25-50 pulling reps may just be band pull aparts for example.
You do incline DB press four times a week?
Yeah… I vary the bench angle and the weight so it doesn’t feel like I’m doing too much work with them. I was alternating them with dips but I had pain in my collar bones. It was a form problem but I’ve dropped the dips for the next cycle or two.
Try knocking out 100 consecutive (i.e. don’t let the bar/rope/whatever go) reps with a weight that is challenging for 50. It is a great test of pain tolerance, gets a fantastic pump and good for tendon health.
All for a few minutes at the end of your training. I can’t really think of a good reason not to do this.
Giving me some ideas thanks. I’ve been keeping my press and bench days the same then my squat and deads the same. For those of you who are supersetting how do you like it? I’m coming to a point in my life where I need to shorten my workouts.
I do one exercise, then I follow it up with another.
One assistance exercise I’ve added in in the past couple months is the DB clean and Press. The DB press is listed in the push assistance and DB/KB cleans are in single leg/core, so I just count the reps for both categories. It’s really added some mass to my shoulders and helps shorten the workouts by combining the two movement categories. This is absolutely not the intent, but you get a great conditioning effect from it to just as a bonus. It’s perfect on like a bench press day where you may not feel like doing any true lower body work due to a previous or upcoming squat workout.