One of the least
useful, but nonetheless entertaining themes during the programming
lecture at the Starting Strength Seminar is about programming
advancement and whether an athlete falls into the category of novice,
intermediate, or advanced. The gist is that it depends on many
factors and that the structures in and of themselves don’t really
matter, even if they are handy place-holders.
In a discussion with
two other Starting Strength Coaches about the best next program
change to implement for a late-intermediate athlete’s pressing, we
came to various conclusions regarding the minimum effective change,
then what to do after that. What follows in this article are the
various points of those discussions and questions/scenarios
considered by us, the coaching staff. It is our hope that you may
follow along as we walk through this process of making iterative
changes and considering the implications of several different options
with respect, in this scenario, to the press.
As athletes, we
don’t suddenly wake up one day and decide that we must now press
four days a week at the first sign of boredom in the novice
progression. And what follows will not work for an athlete who has
not finished their novice linear progression. It is too complicated,
specific, and individual. Although what follows may seem very sexy,
novel, and chic, if you don’t need these levels of advancement in
programming, then stay where you are. Adding weight to the bar more
often is much sexier.
The athlete in question
has progressed to some sort of Heavy-Light-Medium or Texas Method
split spread over four days:
- Monday – Volume Press
- Tuesday – Volume
Bench - Thursday – Intensity
Press - Friday – Intensity
Bench
The athlete’s primary
coach asked us our thoughts on adding in a third press day – a
determination deemed necessary by the coach and the athlete based on
training goals and history: his press had plateaued and stalled, a
sign of not enough exposure to stress. My first suggestion was to
compress the intensity days into one day, thereby freeing up one of
the four days for the third press variation. The compressed pressing method is discussed here, the punchline of which is that the upper
body lifts – especially the press – like more exposure.
On the newly freed day,
the athlete will pin press.
- Monday – Volume Bench
- Tuesday – Volume
Press - Thursday – Intensity
Press and Intensity Bench - Saturday – Pin Press
(that’s the workout. Pin press and go home.)
We like the pin press
because it overloads the movement, and because of where it positions
the bar at the start position: somewhere between nose and forehead
height. Here the athlete must solve a mechanical problem with his
body right at the most difficult part of the range of motion – when
we are attempting to recover the moment of the bar about the shoulder
in the press, which first starts slightly forward of the shoulder in
the rack position, and later when it is caught after the throw off of
the chest, right at the height where we might set up the pin press.
To coach this in the
press an athlete might be cued to “Throw it back and get under it,”
to address both of these deviations from over mid-foot, respectively
in the rack position and where the thrown bar is “caught.” The
mechanical problem encountered at the start of the pin press lies in
how to initiate the movement of the barbell, whereas in the press it
is already moving up or has stopped/slowed down enough to get back
under it and catch it; to do this the lifter will have to use bigger
muscles than those of the arms or chest and get his shoulders forward
over mid-foot and under the barbell.
In solving this
problem, the hips must be pushed forward of the vertical line of the
barbell. Heavy pin presses will not break off the pins using chest
and triceps, but rather with a combination of the muscles of the
trunk and the hips to pull the trunk and hips back into vertical
alignment. These then hand off the work to the chest, shoulders, and
arms to lock it out.
I have had success
programming pressing five times a week, and I learned that it might
be hard the day after the heavy bench, so pin presses could be
scheduled on Saturday, putting a rest-day in between heavy bench and
pin press. What might be a problem with the programming approach
above is that benching and pressing a total of five times a week is a
ton of work. According to the second coach, the athlete ought to
press three times a week, and then the bench press takes the back
seat, keeping general upper body strength maintained and assisting in
driving the press up. This is a good point. More does not always
equal more.
But that all really
depends on the systemic stress incurred from the previous week and
what was expected for Monday’s training load. It might also depend
on the rep ranges used. I’ve had luck using 3×3 with the pin
press, then running it out per the Texas Method, dropping rep ranges
to three doubles, then a few singles. These suggestions prompt some
questions, such as: would 3 sets of 3 of heavy pin presses affect the
following Monday’s bench pressing in a detrimental way? Would
Saturday pin presses be a productive workout with only one day of
recovery after intensity bench press? How can I specialize the press
and keep a bench press variation in the rotation? It might look like
this:
- Monday – Volume Press
- Wednesday – Pin
Press and Close-Grip Bench Press - Friday – Intensity
Press
The substitution of the
close grip variation of the bench press keeps an assistance bench
press movement (and therefore chest) more involved. It also trains
the triceps very hard since there is more range of motion about the
elbow. This is especially helpful for finishing the lockout. And
importantly, because the close grip variation cannot be as heavy as
the conventional bench press, systemic stress is not as high.
The second coach
involved in the conversation also suggested cycling the pin press
1×5, 1×3, 1×1 over three weeks. While this is a more complicated and
advanced programming move than sets across, it could mitigate fatigue
(it is only one set, after all) and keep progress advancing for very
long periods of time without changing programming. It certainly would
last longer than sets across, but I am not sure it really matters
that much, except when concerned with the minimum effective dose (as
opposed to maximal recoverable volume).
The primary coach
wondered what percentages to start pin presses with, and we concluded
to titrate it per the Blue Book, then base it off of bar speed and
technique. It also depended on what the previous week’s set of five
looked like, then to make a decision as to what the following week’s
triple should be. We guessed about 10% increase for each reduction in
rep range. To that end, we have seen good results programming like
this:
- Monday – Volume Press
- Tuesday – CGBP 3×5
- Thursday – Pin Press
5/3/1 - Friday – Intensity
Press
Depending on the
advancement of the athlete, the bench (or close grip variation)
progression could run out 3x5s, then cycle over three weeks 3×5, 4×4,
5×3 to keep it moving, while still keeping it in the back seat so it
does not eat into recovery. Likewise, the pin press might be able to
be run out at 3×3 to 3×2, then 3×1, then cycled as weekly 3/2/1 or
5/3/1. This is similar to how Practical Programming maps out cycling
the intensity day of the Texas Method. But this decision depends on
the stress incurred by the athlete over the latest part of his
training cycle. If bench and pin press are both progressed hard in
sets across, and then run-out in the the 5s, then 3s, and 1s, instead
of cycled right away, then that could be too much stress from which
to recover. It depends on the capacity of the athlete to recover.
It’s final mutation might look something like this:
- Monday – Volume Press
- Wednesday – Pin Press
and Close Grip Bench Press - Friday – Intensity
Press
Ultimately, we want the
intensity of the press to increase over long periods of time. We care
about the singles. At the beginning of pressing in this way, sets of
singles across are generally prescribed, with more sets for less
talented pressers. I am one of these terrible pressers and have been
prescribed 10 singles for months on end. That is a long pressing
session that was meant to teach me to groove the bar more
consistently.
It is not long before
working in a range becomes preferable, maybe within 10% or so. The
intention is to raise the floor and ceiling of that 10% range,
because there may be days when it is just plain hard to groove the
thing. Be wary of racking up a bunch of misses though – you are
just practicing bad technique. If you begin missing, go down in the
load range until the technique is back together again. Then work
back up if you can. Next week try to get at least one of those sets
better, starting with the bottom of the range. This will require
diligent note taking in your training log. It might look like this:
Intensity Press day: program calls for 10×1 @ 225-235
- 225 x1 (first set moved
fast; add 5lbs) - 230 x1 (a 5lb increase
from last week’s single, beginning to raise the bottom of the
range) - 235 x miss (may have
been too heavy a jump; perhaps just +2.5lbs next week) - 235 x miss (back off on
next set to “re-groove”) - 230 x1
- 230 x1
- 232.5 x1 (supports
previous suspicion that a 5lb jump was too much) - 235 x1 (a 5lb increase
from last week’s heaviest single; very fast) - 235 x1
- 240 x1 (PR, but was a
grind and you know it won’t go for a second attempt) - 230 x1
- 230 x1
In such situations,
when the iron is hot it is often time to strike. So if you are
smoking your heavy singles, ascend them. There are many times when
I’ve witnessed this happening with one of my athletes and sneaked
microplates on their barbells to surprise him with a new PR without
him realizing it.
But you might be
wondering, why would someone ever want to or need to press so much
and so often. The press, at maximal weights, is generally closer to
bodyweight than the other barbell movements. A deadlift, on the other
hand, at maximal weight might be 2.5 or 3+ times bodyweight. And it
had better move in a straight, vertical line over mid-foot otherwise
it will not go. So we arrange the mechanics of our body to make that
happen. And because the press is lighter and because of the long
kinetic chain, it must be practiced often and very heavy to keep the
technique in order. For this reason, we need to approach the press
much more like the Olympic movements, due to the practice element.
This is an important distinction between training and practice.
We oughtn’t practice
the press at light weights, since light weights can be done with an
inaccurate bar path and not be suitable practice for heavy attempts
that require mechanical correctness. Heavy presses require both
strength and accuracy, and accuracy must be practiced under
actual performance conditions. The training stimulus from light
movements is minimal, and light presses do not constitute practice
for heavy presses.
There is both a
training and practice aspect to the press that is not present in the
deadlift. The deadlift bar path is short and guided by contact with
the legs, and is therefore far less practice-dependent than the
press. But the press is the most technically complicated of the slow
barbell lifts, and is far more subject to deviation from the most
effective bar path, so practice with heavy weights is as
necessary as training with heavy weights.
When our deadlift is
600lb, we could get a valuable training effect from 2 sets of 5 at
85% (510). A 200lb press, on the other hand, will not gain much
training or practice benefit from working sets at 140lb. But
pressing 5×5 at 180lb (90%) would be a valuable training and
practice stimulus. A 600lb deadlifter, on the other hand, using 540
(90%) for multiple sets of 5 is probably not a good idea, since this
much workload requires an enormous recovery capacity. This is also
why we can press 10 singles, but at a much higher percentage than the
deadlift with respect to maximal weight.
You might surprise
yourself when your practice and training come together and you
experience a sustained increase in performance, even when your coach
knew it was going to happen because of the programming anyway. If
your programming is not facilitating this end, then something needs
to change. No one cares about your 5×5 press or your heaviest set of
5 pin presses, even though that might be a cool bit of training
history.
As our conversation
wound down, our conclusion was thus: “None of these are right or
wrong. They are based on personal preferences, as well as many years
and athletes of experience, and the very specific, individual, and
complicated case in question.” So it doesn’t matter, except for
when it does. And when it does, it depends on a bunch of factors.
Thanks to Jordan
Burnett SSC, Victoria Diaz SSC, and Mark Rippetoe for contributing to
this article.
