I’ve tried the low incline db presses, they’re ok with light weight. Planning to work my way up to heavier dumbbells again.
I’ve also added some low-mid traps specific stretches and exercises with cables between my main sets to aid in my shoulder recovery, shoulder is already feeling better after 1 week.
I’ve been eating between 2500 and 2600 calories daily and I’m actually losing weight (down 2lbs), while I wasn’t able to lose any at 2000 calories, go figure. (Fyi, as a sidenote, eating 170+ grams of protein daily makes for some fun toilet visits, multiple times a day…) I’m going to have to bump up my calories like you guys said, not much of a problem as, apparently, I can eat 1k calories worth of chicken, rice, eggs and veggies in one sitting, being hungry again 2 hours later.
I still have a question about my accessories 'tho, mainly about making progress on them. For example the incline dumbbell presses, they’re not based of off percentages of main lifts. In the past I’ve had a tendency to overdo it on those. I used the double progression system which works fine when starting out, but I always push it too far and end up using too much weight, injuring myself and most importantly, feeling run down for a few days after a session like that. Am I lifting too close to failure? How should I go about making progress on exercises like that (db presses, rows, pulldowns, lateral raises, …)?
I’ll try and break it down a bit. Keep in mind I’m one of the smaller gents on here but I do like to think and use my problem-solving abilities quite a bit and have made many mistakes that I’ve learned from.
If you’re doing double progression then in theory, you shouldn’t get to a point where you are using too much weight. I can see two reasons why you are getting hurt. Either, you are sacrificing form for weight (ego-lifting) or you have poor form to begin with.
If a friend of mine expressed the same problem my first thought would be that I want to see them doing the exercise and I would be paying close attention to if they’re controlling the eccentric portion of the lift. Are you doing this portion somewhat slowish, and maintaining an active contraction in the target muscle(s)?
If yes to the above, then a solution might be increasing weight less often. One thing you could do is triple progression. Let’s say you’re currently doing Incline DB Presses for 4x6-8 reps. And last workout you managed 4x8. Well, next workout do 5x8, and the workout after that increment the weight but only do 4x6 (even if you can do more). That’ll be a little mini-deload and have you spend more time with a weight before progressing.
Another approach is to increase volume
Let’s say you start with 4x6-8. Once you do 4x8, you’re capping out at 32 reps. Now do 4 sets of 8-10. 40 reps. Now 3x10-15. 45 reps. Then increment weight (a slightly larger increase might be required). And return to 4x4-6 reps.
If you don’t want to go that high with your reps I also find that changing exercises is a good way to feel less beat up. So, do double progression with a lift for 4-6 weeks and then change the lift to something similar. Incline DB → Smith Incline
Lastly, as a tool for the future. Have you seen The Invention of Lying? It’s a movie about a guy living in a world where no-one has ever lied before him. Now imagine you’re the first person ever in history to start training and look back at the problems you’ve identified,
And think, “when I do this, this bad thing happens. What are the inputs that contribute to this bad outcome and how can I alter the inputs to yield a different outcome?” which in your case means “how to progress at a sustainable rate where I don’t injure myself”
And finally, to answer this
The answer is “it depends”. Because too close is too narrow a view. On some exercises I recommend going to failure and not worry too much about progressive overload. Lateral raises for instance. Just do three sets to failure with a weight heavy enough that you feel the target muscle decently well after just a few reps. Incline DB Press, do one set to failure.
Progressively overloading in accessories is less important. As long as your main lifts are progressing, you are progressing.
I second @Voxel
In 531 (as in the by the book programmes) the accessory work is secondary to the main lifts. And I mean totally secondary. If you are noticing a drop off in recovery and you can not eat / sleep / recovery more then ease off of the accessory work. Adding 2kg to you incline dumb bell bench should never come at the cost of your 531 lift.
This will stop you from feeling run down. But not injured.
Injury is 90% of the time poor form. Even if the form is “good” for the general population it might not be “good” for you. For example. My squat stance is very wide. If I squat with the “normal” width stance I get hip pain. One thing to do is video your exercise and post in the injury section of the forum. I have had help with 2/3 injures. The people here are VERY knowledgeable.
One thing I will note is that doing an accessory in the 6-8 rep range AFTER a 531 lift is tough. I would up the rep range to 10+. Trying to do two strength moves in one work out will leave you tired and injured.
In the mean time if adding weight is leading to injury then again Allberg’s suggestions are a really good way of progressing with out adding weight.
We (people as a collective) rush to add weight to the bar to measure progress. There is a lot to be said about owning a weight. Before you add weight - can you do 4x8 with a 1 second hold at the bottom of each rep? Maybe a two? Can you get your rest period down from, say 120 second to 90, then 60. Then 30. If you move from 4x8 in 10 mins to 4x8 in 4 mins that’s progress. Because your 4x8 looks more like 1x32. These are all ways to progress with this lift.
I know it ventures out side of the 6-8 rep range. But honestly accessory work is only 10% of the whole picture. Its hardly make or break.