So I’m starting the 12 week strength program soon and I’m going through the first weeks, inputing the weights I plan to use on each excercise. But since I’ve never tried the 3-0-3 tempo squat before I have no idea where to begin. What percentage of my 1rm should I aim for the first few times? I’m thinking 50% or maybe less… but maybe that’s to light, idk
If you’ve never done a movement before you warmup and find the first set by adding weight and repeating until you reach the correct RPE. There is no correlation that can be assumed between a comp lift and an assistance lift. So don’t go in with a load in your head or you’re bound to either nocebo yourself into going lower than you should, or pushing yourself heavier than you should. After this week you’ll have the data to plan loads from here on out.
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PWard’s advice is decent, but so is starting at 50%. I mean you gotta start SOMEWHERE and just go from there. You’ll likely be able to add a lot quickly since you’ll adjust to the lift and become more practice after a week or two. Since those lifts are ramping in intensity then you can always just work up until you hit the right RPE.
I squat in the mid 4s and my first time doing 3-0-3 tempos for sets of 8, I used 185.
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I did it the same way PWard suggests and it worked out. I’d say I tend to underestimate my RPE 7 so then I’ll bump it up a bit higher for RPE 8.
I ran into a lot of exercises I have no training data for as I went through the bridge so I’ve used this method for a variety of exercises and found that it works well.
Also with the 3-0-3 tempo squat I recommend a metronome to get the 3 count set in your head. I counted it by saying "Rep# - 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 3 " All of that is in my head of course.
Just tried this today. Ended up with 225@8 for my last set of 10. For reference, my 1rm is 485. I can see this being something that will get easier as I get used to it, but 10 reps of this at pretty much any weight is exhausting. I was very out of breath after every set
Start with the bar and add weight.
I’ll warm up with 135 then move onto 185x8@6, 225x8@7 and 275x8@8.
I’ll add that it’s very easy to go faster than you think you are for these. A metronome app helps a lot for this.
I respond VERY well to higher rep grinds, and after just a little training with these, the weight I can do them at goes up rapidly compared to what I can do for FAVs (Seriously, by week 4 The Bridge 1.0 I was doing 270x5@8 for sets across and was doing 230x8@8 for sets across for 3-0-3s), so take @PWard 's advice to heart and go with what your warm up RPE is telling you.
I’m sensing a trend when it comes to PWard’s advice. In that it’s really good.
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