I’ve previously used GTG for endurance purposes, to increase my pushup and chin numbers. It worked extremely well!
Now, I remember Pavel mentioning in the “Naked Warrior” that GTG can actually be used for strength. Unfortunately, he does not give guidelines for this when it comes to weights (he only says how to do this with bodyweight exercises).
So has anybody used GTG to get their weight numbers up? If so, does anyone know what kind of loads to use, how frequently, and for how many repetitions?
80 to 85 percent of max. If you use his tension techniques, you can use as low as 60 percent. No more than five reps per set for strength. Number of sets is up to you. I believe he recommends five days per week.
I’m actually kind of doing a similar thing right now, although I’m not doing Pavel’s routine, it’s pretty similar. I have a thread called “nervous system training” in this forum.
[quote]downintucson wrote:
80 to 85 percent of max. If you use his tension techniques, you can use as low as 60 percent. No more than five reps per set for strength. Number of sets is up to you. I believe he recommends five days per week. [/quote]
Nice and simple answer. Thanks!
By the way, have you tried this method? If you have, how were your results?
In power to the people he recommends,
Do 2 sets of 5 reps, first set heavy, second set 10% lighter.
Never lift to failure, alway keep a couple of reps in reserve.
Lift 5 times a week.
Periodise your workouts, you cannot lift to the max everytime you workout.
He recommends doing the deadlift and the sidepress.
I tried this with overhead squats and went from 90lbs to 185lbs in a few weeks. I remember in an interview Dan John also talked about how he tried this for his incline benchpress. If i remember right, he started around 180lbs and went to over 300lbs in a month.
[quote]Psnatch wrote:
I tried this with overhead squats and went from 90lbs to 185lbs in a few weeks. I remember in an interview Dan John also talked about how he tried this for his incline benchpress. If i remember right, he started around 180lbs and went to over 300lbs in a month.[/quote]
Is that with the Power to the People routines, or Greasing the Groove?
i tried gtg ruotine with powerlifts.this is my experience.
gtg works extremely well with deadlifts(doing heavy singles 80-90% 1rm).it works quite good for squats and it is not good for bench.this is just my personal experience,but bench is better increased by westside methods.
stay strong!
[quote]BALBOS wrote:
i tried gtg ruotine with powerlifts.this is my experience.
gtg works extremely well with deadlifts(doing heavy singles 80-90% 1rm).it works quite good for squats and it is not good for bench.this is just my personal experience,but bench is better increased by westside methods.
stay strong![/quote]
Just for interest, you got any more numbers to throw out? Such as at what weights did you start in the squat and deadlift, how many times a day you repeated the heavy singles, and how long you did gtg type training.
By the way, have you tried this method? If you have, how were your results?[/quote]
I have tried it and found that the method worked best for me if I didn’t try too hard on any one training session. I looked at my training in more of a “I’m going to get five solid workouts this week” fashion instead of “I’m going to beat the hell out myself today”. I increased weight so that it was just a little challenging.
My best result was putting 50 lbs. on my stiff-legged deads in a month. I have also found that GTG seems to work better on lower-body-dominant exercises.
Used PTP for my dead and bench. Went from 585 - 635 deadlift (no belt). Bench went from 405-440 all in around 6-8 months. I went from about 195-205 bodyweight during this time so take that into consideration.
I could not find the magic formula for squats though, no matter what I tried.
I have since moved on and gotten stronger using other methods. PTP is very hard to get into, everyone will go too heavy and do too much when they first start. Its a very slow progression. I used a 4 steps forward 3 steps back approach, when the weight felt like shit I backed off and built up again. I pulled and benched 3-4xs a week.
I hope this helps answer your questions. Let me know if you want me to clear anything up.
[quote]coffee wrote:
Used PTP for my dead and bench. Went from 585 - 635 deadlift (no belt). Bench went from 405-440 all in around 6-8 months. I went from about 195-205 bodyweight during this time so take that into consideration.
I could not find the magic formula for squats though, no matter what I tried.
I have since moved on and gotten stronger using other methods. PTP is very hard to get into, everyone will go too heavy and do too much when they first start. Its a very slow progression. I used a 4 steps forward 3 steps back approach, when the weight felt like shit I backed off and built up again. I pulled and benched 3-4xs a week.
I hope this helps answer your questions. Let me know if you want me to clear anything up.[/quote]
How much weight you were using based on a 585 pull?
I looked back in my log. It looks like I started at 500 for 3s. I would do a backoff set with about 50 lbs less and adjust that along with my work sets. When the weights felt too hard to get 3s then I would switch to doubles for a few weeks and then try for a max. I made 5 lb jumps.
I was pulling touch n go during this routine. I now pull each rep with a pause on the floor. Dont know if that matters, just thought I would mention.
[quote]coffee wrote:
I looked back in my log. It looks like I started at 500 for 3s. I would do a backoff set with about 50 lbs less and adjust that along with my work sets. When the weights felt too hard to get 3s then I would switch to doubles for a few weeks and then try for a max. I made 5 lb jumps.
I was pulling touch n go during this routine. I now pull each rep with a pause on the floor. Dont know if that matters, just thought I would mention.[/quote]
Pause vs. no pause makes a huge difference for me in bench presses… So yeah. It does matter.
[quote]TYPE2B wrote:
coffee wrote:
I looked back in my log. It looks like I started at 500 for 3s. I would do a backoff set with about 50 lbs less and adjust that along with my work sets. When the weights felt too hard to get 3s then I would switch to doubles for a few weeks and then try for a max. I made 5 lb jumps.
I was pulling touch n go during this routine. I now pull each rep with a pause on the floor. Dont know if that matters, just thought I would mention.
Pause vs. no pause makes a huge difference for me in bench presses… So yeah. It does matter.[/quote]
It does not matter. You cannot bounce 500lbs of dead weight. Its nothing like a touch and go bench press.
[quote]BIGBOSSTRON wrote:
TYPE2B wrote:
coffee wrote:
I looked back in my log. It looks like I started at 500 for 3s. I would do a backoff set with about 50 lbs less and adjust that along with my work sets. When the weights felt too hard to get 3s then I would switch to doubles for a few weeks and then try for a max. I made 5 lb jumps.
I was pulling touch n go during this routine. I now pull each rep with a pause on the floor. Dont know if that matters, just thought I would mention.
Pause vs. no pause makes a huge difference for me in bench presses… So yeah. It does matter.
It does not matter. You cannot bounce 500lbs of dead weight. Its nothing like a touch and go bench press.[/quote]
I’ve seen some dude in the gym who starts out from the top. He rack pulls it from the rack, and then does deadlifts. It looked as if he’s playing basketball with rubber plates, and the plates weren’t rubber, they’re cold iron… Yes, it makes a huge difference.