Picking weights for first cycle

C

cookieman9000

New Member
Hey, I tried asking this in the last thread I made, but got no answers.
This is my question basically:

I have a problem of what weights to use. I'm pretty familiar with my maxes on my lifts, but the problem is that if I do say bench press and overhead press on the same day. Since I'll be doing bench press first, my overhead press will suffer even if I take a long break between the two lifts in the same workout, and I have no idea exactly by how much it'll decrease. Though I can estimate a max range.
Is it okay if I use my 10 rep max (or any other rep max for that matter), lower than my actual 10 rep max on my OHP just to make sure I'll get my 10 reps at the end of the 2 week block? Same goes for any other lift that may suffer.
I will still pick a challenging weight, just not a weight that's my absolute limit.


My recovery between sets is pretty crappy compared to most people, so even just 1 challenging set of bench will effect my overhead press.
 
Just start at 75% of your actual max. You should be getting stronger throughout the cycle. as long as you´re eating properly, so in effect your max now wont be your max in two weeks so you should be able to complete all exercises properly.

You could also split your final session into two days. Say you train mon, wed and fri. Do the first half of the final session thursday then the second half on friday, or friday/saturday. You can thereby split up the exercises that "interfere" with each other. Thats what Ive done loads of times and it worked.
 
gbglifter said:
Just start at 75% of your actual max. You should be getting stronger throughout the cycle. as long as you´re eating properly, so in effect your max now wont be your max in two weeks so you should be able to complete all exercises properly.

You could also split your final session into two days. Say you train mon, wed and fri. Do the first half of the final session thursday then the second half on friday, or friday/saturday. You can thereby split up the exercises that "interfere" with each other. Thats what Ive done loads of times and it worked.
Click to expand...

I see.
By the way, would you recommend me to just start with the generic routine first, 10/5/5rm. Because after looking at the logs here, there are many tweaks and changes I noticed. Although of course the principals remain the same.
 
Yupp. Just do the generic routine for at least one full cycle then see how you feel. I do 12, 8 and then 5 for three weeks each, sometimes extending 5´s and/or negatives. The magic rep-ranges you´ve always heard about: 12 and 8 for hypertrophy, have just stuck in my head and I feel they work really well combined with the closing heavy 5´s etc.

But yeah you´re right, the principles remain the same: progressive load and deconditioning.
 
gbglifter said:
Yupp. Just do the generic routine for at least one full cycle then see how you feel. I do 12, 8 and then 5 for three weeks each, sometimes extending 5´s and/or negatives. The magic rep-ranges you´ve always heard about: 12 and 8 for hypertrophy, have just stuck in my head and I feel they work really well combined with the closing heavy 5´s etc.

But yeah you´re right, the principles remain the same: progressive load and deconditioning.
Click to expand...

To be honest 12,8,5 sound better to me than doing 15/10/5. Can there be any drawback to starting like this? The reason is convenience mainly, because on some exercises finding my 15rm is going to be more difficult to find than 12. Because at 15 the whole endurance thing, starts to become more significant than say 12.

I know my 5-10rm in all of the exercises, so with it it'll be easy to estimate how much I can do for 12 reps. But for 15 reps it'll be harder, if you get my point.
 
Last edited:
There are max rep calculators that really are very accurate tbh. If 12, 8 and 5 sounds better then just do that instead.
 
gbglifter said:
There are max rep calculators that really are very accurate tbh. If 12, 8 and 5 sounds better then just do that instead.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Also I have another question, again I couldn't find. (sorry)
How much percent of my max weight should I start. I hear some places say 75%, some say 5lbs each workout without even regarding the percentage.
How can I know how much percent to use?
 
cookieman9000 said:
Thanks. Also I have another question, again I couldn't find. (sorry) How much percent of my max weight should I start. I hear some places say 75%, some say 5lbs each workout without even regarding the percentage. How can I know how much percent to use?
Click to expand...

75% minimum. I would start there and jump up 5% each workout.
 
Totentanz said:
I know for a fact that the chapter on cycle layout tells you what percentage to start at and what increments to use. Review the chapter.
Click to expand...


I found the 75% thing. But I still see many instances where people start with a weight higher than their 75% max, even in the official site. For example in my case in the 15 rep week, if I do pullups. My max for 15 reps is BW+ attached 20lbs. Taking my bodyweight which is 185lbs, and adding 20lbs. Which is 205lbs. Then taking 75% of that would put me at around 155lbs more or less, which is clearly much less than my bodyweight. And I don't have any machine or rubber bands to do pullups with less than my bodyweight.

Then what do I do?
 
Last edited:
Start at BW and add 5 pounds each w/o or use a chair to rest the top of your feet on and estimate the amount of assistance needed so the initial loads are lightened or just slow your initial eccentric tempo down or spend $20 on bands or etc. etc. The fact that you can already do 15 pull ups is impressive by itself.
 
Old and Grey said:
Start at BW and add 5 pounds each w/o or use a chair to rest the top of your feet on and estimate the amount of assistance needed so the initial loads are lightened or just slow your initial eccentric tempo down or spend $20 on bands or etc. etc. The fact that you can already do 15 pull ups is impressive by itself.
Click to expand...

Then will it be okay since I'll be basically using a much higher weight than my 75%?
 
cookieman9000 said:
Then will it be okay since I'll be basically using a much higher weight than my 75%?
Click to expand...

No, you'll die if you do that.

Not really. I've pretty much been working with 90%+ of my rep maxes all the time. I've gotten away from sub maximal training myself. I seem to get better results working with heavier weights.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top