Hopefully this question won’t come off as too stupid, but I am looking for a template that focuses on increasing power of not just the squat, bench and deadlift, but the overhead press as well.
To explain further, I did Strength 1 a while back, and while there is a fair bit of overhead pressing in there, it mainly is in the beginning stages of the program, and is usually sets of 8.
I looked into the Strenghtlift template (to be honest, I had no idea what that term meant before that point), but in the description it says it is for people who want to focus on “the squat, overhead press, and deadlift”. My problem is it doesnt mention benching.
In your opinion, what would be the best template that is focused on increasing 1 rep max on the 3 powerlifts, as well as the overhead press?
I am currently nursing a hip injury, so my lower body movements, like the squat and deadlifts are very low intensity, until it gets better. I would want to focus on my upper body strength as much as possible for now.
I don’t think we have a template that focuses on all 4 save for maybe the General S/C program. The issue is, I don’t think that we can really develop both the press and bench at the same time outside of very untrained individuals.
That said, you could take the strength 1 template and:
add a 4th day where you do the “comp bench” rep scheme for overhead press
take the 3rd movement from day 2, a bench variant, and make that the 2nd movement on day 4
in it’s place on day 2, do a press variation, e.g. pin press, paused press, or high incline press
I had quite a good success in developing a ~250 bench to 330 bench and ~170 press to 225 press at the same time. I was benching twice/week, and pressing twice/week. I think that it took about 15-22 weeks, and I gained about 10lb of bodyweight. Maybe even 15lb.
Yea I think there’s obvious carry over for most individuals, but I think this becomes less and less as one gets more and more trained and thus requires more and more specialization.
FWIW, I developed a 245lbs press and 340lb bench at the same time, then took my bench up to 430 and my press only went up to 265.
To piggy back off of this, I’m wrapping up the 7-week 4-day, GPP (hypertrophy bias) template this week, and plan to start PL2 next week. My main goal is improve strength in bench, squat, and DL, but dont plan to compete That being said, have been seeing good progress in my OHP over during the 7-week GPP program, and I have come to enjoy it.
Would you have an example of how you would program some heavier OHP work within the PL 2 template? If you don’t think its practical, im fine with that too.