I was reading “Strength Progression: The Key to Muscle Growth” and I don’t know what is the best option to chose to progress in my strength..

this is my actual workout 4 times per week

PUSH
guillotine bench press
incline smith machine press
low to high cable fly
lateral dumbbell raises
overhead dumbbell extensions

PULL
leg press
hack squat
weighted pull-ups
bent-over barbell row / or a DL variation sumo, rack pulls, romanian.. still gonna decide
barbell curl
scott curl

40-60 reps per bodypart
rep range below 8 reps, maybe a little bit more for some isolation exercises

so my questions are

-like I said before how should I progress in strength?
-should I have 2 heavy days, and 2 light days ?
-what you think about the train itself and the exercise selection ?

PS: I have 3 exercises for chest because I wanna emphasize it

Bandid0 - 11 July 2010 09:53 PM

-like I said before how should I progress in strength?

You can use the following progression
1 week 80% from your prev. maxes
2 week 90% from your prev. maxes
3 week 100% from your prev. maxes
4-6 weeks 105-110%
and recycle

Bandid0 - 11 July 2010 09:53 PM

-should I have 2 heavy days, and 2 light days ?

You don’t have to.
But if you feel that you need to drop the weights for 10% in light day

sounds cool

4-6 weeks i increase my previous maximum weight by 5 or 10 % ?

Bandid0 - 12 July 2010 09:51 PM

sounds cool

4-6 weeks i increase my previous maximum weight by 5 or 10 % ?

Or even more, if you can
It’s really up to “how it going”

Don’t worry about percentages.

If you can increase upper body exercise by 5 lbs in 4 weeks and lower body by 10 lbs, you are doing good. The smaller the jumps the better in the long run.

thanks for the replay anoop

I have been reading a lot and I think that I should keep thinks simple..
Training should progress by itself.
In example. If I can put more weight in every training, I will.
If I can only do it every week, I will just do it every week.
If I can only do it every 2 week, I will just increase it every 2 week.

I am not a very advanced lifter and therefore I can progress a lot more frequently so there is no need to use an advanced method…
what method you think that will work the best ? the rep range method ? hope you understand what I just wrote

Also, I will change my chest exercises I will do flat dumbbell bench press instead of guillotine bench press, because I guess it’s hard to progress with that exercise.
so it will be
incline dumbbell press
flat dumbbell press
low to high cable fly
(I prefer dumbbells instead of barbell and I wanna emphasize the upper chest)

PS: do you think I should add military press to the push workout ? or it’s too much volume ? If it is should I keep the lateral raises or the military press ?

thanks for the help

Bandid0 - 19 July 2010 12:03 AM

thanks for the replay anoop

I have been reading a lot and I think that I should keep thinks simple..
Training should progress by itself.
In example. If I can put more weight in every training, I will.
If I can only do it every week, I will just do it every week.
If I can only do it every 2 week, I will just increase it every 2 week.

I think this kind of training might work only in initial stage.
Lately it wont.
Because of fatigue you accumulate.

You can use simple linear progression.
Suppose you start from -10kg from your best results
You add each(or each two) workout 2.5kg, so it takes roughly 4 workouts to return to previous results.
You try to add until you hit the wall(you can’t add more weight)
So you deload again to -10-15kg
And start again

Also, I will change my chest exercises I will do flat dumbbell bench press instead of guillotine bench press, because I guess it’s hard to progress with that exercise.
so it will be
incline dumbbell press
flat dumbbell press
low to high cable fly
(I prefer dumbbells instead of barbell and I wanna emphasize the upper chest)

PS: do you think I should add military press to the push workout ? or it’s too much volume ? If it is should I keep the lateral raises or the military press ?

thanks for the help

A guillotine bench press works your chest lot more than a regular flat bench. When I say progress, it doesn’t have to big jumps. Even small jumps are counted as progress. So don’t fall into the rut of thinking that you have to make huge gains to have progression and change exercises. It won’t be great if you can bench a lot but if your chest doesn’t show it.

I do think adding military press is good.