Southwood Program Help

i went to the gym for the first time in a long time yesterday to see what my 1rm were. i did bench:115lbs,squat:125,power clean:100lbs,deadlift:145

i am starting a 8-6-4 full body routine program 3 days a week with these lifts,but i am adding some step ups and split leg squats into my workouts simple because my track coach recommended them.also some ab workout after my workout.

my question is when doing doing these lifts is how much weight should i be lifting each set. i really want to increase my strength and explosiveness so i can get better in track. i dont care about size

for example for my bench press should i be doing
8x85
6x95
4x105

also when should i max out. i read online that maxing out to often can really hurt your lifts.

The basic high school program, as written by DJ, is to use the same weight for all exercises, so it’ll probably be how much you can overhead press.

So, if you OHP 95 for 10, it’ll be something like this for all exercises:
95 x 8
95 x 6
95 x 4

Even if you’re changing the weights for the different lifts, it’s still straight sets, no ramping, I believe.

thanks

[quote]libanbolt wrote:
i am starting a 8-6-4 full body routine program 3 days a week with these lifts,but i am adding some step ups and split leg squats into my workouts simple because my track coach recommended them.[/quote]
Either do the entire program your track coach gave you a while ago or do the Southwood program as its written. Mix and matching will not improve the results at all.

Like 1 Man said, the article suggests either using the same weight for everything or changing the weights. Basically, you never want to hit failure, so if you’re changing weights each set, you need to kind of play it by ear and adjust things based on how easy or hard the previous set felt. You want to get all the reps while keeping some bar speed without really griiiiiinding out a rep.

Testing a max too frequently definitely can slow down your progress either by interfering in your regular program consistency or, worst case scenario, causing an injury. So do like the article suggests. After a month or so of 8-6-4, once you progress to the 5x5 work:
"Every fifth workout, we change one small thing by playing with the reps and sets. We shift to just three sets. A set of five, add weight, a set of three, add weight, and then a heavy double. This is the 5-3-2 workout. The goal is to go as heavy as possible on the double. "

That’s as close to a “max” as you’ll get for now. And again, the biggest thing is to avoid hitting failure, although the heavy double can be a grind since it’s only once every few sessions and isn’t the norm.