[Antonio]

Got it, thanks guys

Is there anything we can do with elbow position, like having elbows tucked in, would that bias upper pecs more than having them flared out?

[Antonio]

But that is not overhead press, that’s high incline press – these 2 are different exercises, JP does both, high incline smith and plate loaded fully overhead (vertical) press

[Antonio]

@allisontestuhotmail-fr Thanks, I’ll bump it up by 200 kcals on TD days, when weight is stalling, how long would you usually wait before adjusting?

[Antonio]

@jrparker92 I think I’ll end up doing similar, food, sleep etc is consistent for me as well, and all other body parts are progressing, I’ll try next week and see if I regress again, I’ll lower the volume to similar to yours if that happens

[Antonio]

@jrparker92 Thanks for sharing your experience, I’m glad it’s progressing for you now

How exactly do you count set for chest, I also do one direct set for chest, if we count close grip presses for triceps and overhead for delts.

[Antonio]

@youngoscar Everything from the recovery standpoint is fine, all other lifts, pulls and legs are progressing well, even related things like lateral delts and chest, only front delts and triceps are regressing

@Maddy-Lulu-Belle-Daniel I thought I was micro loading by adding 0.5k kg would you recommend buying some 125 and 250 g plates?
@Hilly Most of my compounds are 5-8, I do higher reps up to 15 on other lifts, I’m trying to micro load every week, hence the jumps

@Michaela thanks a lot, that’s what I was thinking about as well, I’ll keep the same load next time and see how it goes – even though I was able to constantly keep adding 0.25 and .5 kg to those lifts for the last 4+ months, I changed to FB recently so I thought it might be some issue with my programming

Related to the initial message, since my weight has been stalling for the last 3 weeks, would you bump calorie intake, if so, how much, would 50 kcals be enough? Note that I gained 3kg in the last 3 months, but nothing really in the last 3 weeks

[Antonio]

You gave yourself the answer here:

“Here are two scenarios I’ve experienced:1) When I do 3 sets of pressing exercises, I progress on all sets the next time I perform those exercises.2) When I do 5 sets of pressing exercises, I still progress at the same rate on all sets during the next session.”

If you are recovered the next workout keep going. I can’t imagine this to happen, but if it does for you 5 sets maybe better than 3. So keep doing it until it is too much.

As in FB eod I could recover 3 sets of push. But not more. Sometimes less depending on circumstances.

On Lifts like deadlift I ca progress with just one hard set. You need to figure it out by yourself.[/quote]

Thanks Allison and thanks B, appreciate you all

[Antonio]

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, my question was more towards how to determine if an individual would benefit from more or less if progression happens, not to determine an exact number of sets per exercise, I do 1-2 sets on all of the exercises as I’m running FB split.

[Antonio]

Hi buddy, I’m not a sponsored athlete, but I can share my opinion.

I wanted to run the same split, but I think you won’t be able to recover from Lower A to FB A on time for legs, after three sets of hams, I think it will take you more than 48 to recover.

Because of the programming difficulties with this split, I ended up doing 3 FB sessions weekly.

[Antonio]

It’s not that I don’t feel any fatigue at all, I definitely do. For example, I know I can’t manage 4 sets of chest presses when doing a fb eod. But I can still handle 1 or even 2 sets without much issue.

I think the difficulty for me lies in trying to look at this in a purely linear, mathematical way. The reality might be more complex, like this:

• If I do 1 set, I gain x amount of progress over a certain time frame (y).
• If I do 2 or 3 sets, I still gain the same x amount within that y time frame.
• However, if I push to 4 sets, my progress might decrease to less than x in that same y period.
• On the flip side, if I only do 1 set but stretch the time frame to 2y, I might gain less than x.

I apologize for using mathematical terms, but I’m trying to fully grasp how the rate of muscle gain actually works over different training volumes.

[Antonio]

Hi mate

My 2cents.

Something needs to be first, something has to be last.

What order things go it will be determined by what your priorities are, how well you are functioning, and what impact “muscle group A” has on “muscle group B”.

Once you have a good handle on those parameters, you’ll be in a pretty good spot to make good decisions for your set up.

@bigbenchriche thanks, but in my case, the priority is muscle mass, I’m nowhere near worrying about certain muscles being the priority

[Antonio]

Thanks Marc, much appreciated mate

Michaela I’m totally the same when it comes to quads

[Antonio]

There are zero rules to exercise order , exercise selection or even rep Ranges . The only framework to this stuff is total session volume and body part volume not getting too high . The rest , is entirely and should be , personalised based exactly on what you like doing

Understood JP, have to structure a session in a way that brings ME most progress, got it!

[Antonio]

I think you are over thinking this a bit with the lengthen and shortened ranges. The converging press would be a wiser choice in my opinion as Oscar suggests

I agree here TBH.

I would try both – See which one feels the best in terms of connection within the work and then go at it hard – when it stalls switch to the other[/quote]

Thanks guys

I just like to understand things, everyone these days is talking about emphasizing lengthened position so I want to understand if there’s some merit to it

[Antonio]

Thank you all@youngoscar the only reason I don’t want to include a converging plate loaded press would be because it’s heavier at the top, when performing it for the chest would you still lockout the elbows fully or stop when the chest gets fully shortened?

Personally my choice would be the converging press as It drops off on that fully lengthened position where I am most vulnerable and challenges me in the short position where it is safe and there’s value to be had .

Now if you can’t progress on it because it’s too heavy to get fully short , i would just use the smith machine on a 30 degree incline.

Yes to fully shorten the pec you have to lock the elbow .[/quote]

Got it! People tend to favor pec exercises that emphasize the stretch position because pecs are believed to grow better when trained in a lengthened state rather than a shortened one.

Do you have any thoughts about that @youngoscar ?