T Nation

Weight Increases with Double Progression

#1

CT,

Just wondering if you had any rules of thumb as far as how much to increase the weights in various double progression rep ranges.

I was looking at some of the Doug Hepburn routines floating out on the web, and I've seen as little as 2.5lbs for upper body lifts (in Hepburn's Law: 8x2-3 + 6,5,4,4,4,3) to 5-10lbs for things like his "A" and "B" routines.

Charlie Smith had a press routine that went 10x3, to 10x4, to 8x5 then increased by 10lbs.

I can't remember what you had suggested with something like 5x3-5.

Have you found any patterns as far as when when a weight increase is "too aggressive", or vice versa?

#2

[quote]LoRez wrote:
CT,

Just wondering if you had any rules of thumb as far as how much to increase the weights in various double progression rep ranges.

I was looking at some of the Doug Hepburn routines floating out on the web, and I’ve seen as little as 2.5lbs for upper body lifts (in Hepburn’s Law: 8x2-3 + 6,5,4,4,4,3) to 5-10lbs for things like his “A” and “B” routines.

Charlie Smith had a press routine that went 10x3, to 10x4, to 8x5 then increased by 10lbs.

I can’t remember what you had suggested with something like 5x3-5.

Have you found any patterns as far as when when a weight increase is “too aggressive”, or vice versa?[/quote]

I prefer to progress slower… because worst case scenario you will still be able to complete all your sets and thus will have to increase the weight at the next session.

For example if on the bench press you do:

Week 1
225lbs x 5, 225lbs x 5, 225lbs x 5, 225lbs x 4, 225lbs x 3

Week 2
You get all 5 sets for 5 reps with 225 (thus you can increase the weight)

Week 3
You move to 230lbs and once again are able to complete 5 x 5

In that situation you will once again bump it up (to 235) for week 4… whereas if you increased it to 235 you might have succeeded only in doing 5,5,5,4,3 again. So ultimately it will take you about the same time to reach the same weight BUT with a slower progression you develop better form and efficiency.

10lbs for deadlift and squat variations
5lbs for upper body lifts

#3

Thank you.

What are you thoughts on a planned progression through the reps, e.g., “add only one rep per session”? Are there disadvantages to progressing too slow? (Other than it possibly taking longer to increase your maxes.)

So per the example above, something like this:

Week 1: 225 x 5, 5, 5, 4, 3
Week 2: 225 x 5, 5, 5, 4, 4
Week 3: 225 x 5, 5, 5, 5, 4
Week 4: 225 x 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Then add 2.5 lbs, and start at, say, 5x3

#4

The above would be extremely slow progress. Like, slower than traditional periodization.

And 5x3 at 227.5 does not represent an increase in volume or intensity over 225x5x5.

#5

Yeah, I realize it’s a very slow progression. In the book “Hepburn’s Law”, the progression is 8x2 to 8x3, adding a rep each session, then a 2.5 lb increase. It amounts to 2.5lbs a month (4 weeks, twice a week). They make the claim that this is sustainable long term, but it seems awfully slow to me. On the other hand, I’ve seen mention where people try to accelerate progress and stall early, so I’m trying to understand if there’s something I’m missing

#6

Maybe a utmost newb speaking, but you say you add a rep each session with hepburns system.
I recall hepburn and thibaudau training each lift multiple times a week to gain skill in the given lift.

Lets say you add a rep every bench session, and you have 2/3 bench sessions a week, you’ll progress pretty fast with a long term program