Eric’s “Not that kind of Density” Progression

Eric’s “Not that kind of Density” Progression

DISCLAIMER: This is totally100% paraphrased from Eric’s chats.

The goal is to be able to build work capacity at maximal end weights. That means I have to learn to do a lot of reps at one shot with big weights. I have to begin with 90% of my max.

2 weeks ago Eric made me do a workout wherein I repped out 90%. This workout is going to be my “Base” for this type of progression. I took 90% of my max of 243 kgs i.e. 219 kgs for 4 sets going 6, 5, 5 and 3. We are going to disregard the last set and focus on the first 3 sets.

Base @ 90% = 6 + 5 + 5 = 16 reps

Now every week I will try to shift the density to the first set. So initially I will add reps to the first set and remove reps from the last set. 6 5 5 will become 7 5 4 then maybe 8 5 3 then 8 8 and then hopefully we go up to 16 in one set. This is the ultimate goal.

Now let’s say I am stuck and unable to get any reps. The plan, at that point, is to reduce rest intervals between sets. So this means that on a larger theme: rest between sets has to be monitored. So let’s say I take 10 minutes between sets and I am stuck at 6 5 5 then the next workout I will reduce the rest thereby increasing work in a shorter period of the time and the following week I will go back to the old rest periods but I should be good to add a rep. For example:

Week 1: 90% x 6 + 5 + 5 @ 10 minutes

Week 2: 90% x 6 + 5 + 5 @ 10 minutes (stuck)

Week 3: 90% x 6 + 5 + 5 @ 8:30 min

Week 4: 90% x 7 + 5 + 4 @ 10 minutes

This is a worst case scenario. The goal is to build a solid amount of endurance capacity at maximal weights so that in theory 90% is actually less than 90% and then this theoretically also means I am due for a PR.

After conquering 90% we will go to 93% i.e. 226 kgs.