Training Work Capacity / Useful Intensity / Latest Podcast

Training Q&A [Moderated]
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Super excited about the most recent (3 part?) podcast. I’ll post my question first and then my long preamble below for context.

Assuming someone is trying to slowly add per-session work capacity to a lift by increasing overall volume, what would the theoretical floor be on useful intensity?

E.g. Someone is currently using Texas Method (sorry). Their current Friday 5RM is 300lbs. That means their Monday working weight would be roughly 270lbs and their ‘calculated’ 1RM would be 330lbs. If this person wanted to start adding sets of fahve to Monday at a lower weight, how low can they go and still be in the sweet spot for usefull stress. They’re already working at 82% of their estimated 1RM. Can further sets be performed at 75%? 70%?

Is this question worth asking? Is it appropriately nuanced?

The reason I ask - 36yo male. I’ve done an LP. Was up until recently running a very lazy texas variant but making weekly progress despite the best efforts of my toddler & newborn. Took about 5 weeks off due to vacation followed by illness.

Now I’m trying to aggressively LP back to where I was, with a child induced time crunch. Each session I alternate between Squat + Bench and DL + Press. I don’t have time to warmup and rock a third lift, but I have started to play with adding in another quick work set. Keeping the weight the same as led to failed reps on the extra sets (or an NDE on the deadlift). I’d like to subtract some weight (but not too much), work up to higher number of sets per session and then slowly close the gap between my ‘work’ sets and my ‘bonus’ sets.

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I think we discussed this in the podcast, but in general, somewhere around 65-70% is a good “floor” for useful intensity. We like accumulating most training volume in the 70-80% range, so if you were to add sets starting at around 70% of an estimated 1RM, that’d be a reasonable place to start (though I’m talking outside the context of TM here).

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Thanks Austin. I must have missed that part during an announcement on my commuter train.

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Austin Baraki;n7950:
I think we discussed this in the podcast, but in general, somewhere around 65-70% is a good “floor” for useful intensity. We like accumulating most training volume in the 70-80% range, so if you were to add sets starting at around 70% of an estimated 1RM, that’d be a reasonable place to start (though I’m talking outside the context of TM here).[/QUOTE

If we’re doing supplemented lifts, say a beltless squat or pause squat or paused deadlift, is the 70 to 80 percent recommendation with respect to the competition lift they’re designed to train or is it 70-80 percent of the beltless squat, paused deadlift 1rm we’re actually doing? Because for example it’s very hard for me to do many paused deadlifts at 75 percent of my competition deadlift 1rm.

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Fortunately, using RPE targets eliminates all this confusion, right?

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Indeed it does.