Irish,
I just wanted to cut the crap and expedite the process.
How is it going?
I'm stuck at 225# for 7 reps on my bench and I'd like to go up without killing myself.
Do you use a progressive overload approach to all your lifts?
Hell yeah! I do 1 or 2 warm-up sets and then I do 2 worksets of everything. I leave everything on the table with those two worksets. That means I train to failure (RPE of 10) on both sets. Depending on the exercise I may work in a rep range of 6-12 reps. Once I get to the number of reps I have defined as the upper limit for that exercise, then I add 2.5 or 5 pounds to the bar or weight stack and start over how ever many I can get with the new weight and keep trying for just one or two more reps each week.
Take my bench for instance. When I first loaded 225 on the bar I was only able to get about 5 reps. Now I'm up to 7 reps. When I get to 10 reps at 225#, I'm going to put 230# on there and start over and work back up to 10 reps. Rinse and repeat. I do that for everything.
Boho and I didn't used to work out together and she was not making much progress. Once we moved down here and started going to the gym together, she was kind of shocked at the level of effort I've been coaching out of her, but you know what, she's really starting to make progress now. When we started she could barely bench the bar. I'm hopefully gonna have her benching 2 plates within a year if she doesn't poison my food first.
At my age it's a slow process, but I'm kind of a nerd, so I like the record keeping aspect of it.
