prilepin's chart

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cincymma79

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Gyms I frequent follow this or Westside or both, can someone explain the chart so I an apply it? I usually do whatever they write on the board but maybe if I understood it better I could follow it on the days I work and train outside the gym.
 
NurseKnuckles said:
its pretty self explanatory, iddnit?
Click to expand...
Yes and no
The more articles I read on it the more confuse I are
How do you progress on it? Up the weight if you hit the max rep end? Should I do each line like the 531 lay out? Pick one range?
 
cincymma79 said:
Yes and no
The more articles I read on it the more confuse I are
How do you progress on it? Up the weight if you hit the max rep end? Should I do each line like the 531 lay out? Pick one range?
Click to expand...

You're looking at it in completely the wrong way.

It's not a program. At all. You don't "progress" on it.

It's simply a rough guide of the reps you might aim for at given intensities.
 
JimRussel said:
You're looking at it in completely the wrong way.

It's not a program. At all. You don't "progress" on it.

It's simply a rough guide of the reps you might aim for at given intensities.
Click to expand...

Ok. What do I do with it? I don't get it. Like today for instance I benched.
Warmed up for a fair amount and then did 275x5 300x5 and then 315x5. Max is 375-380. Wasn't brutal but was hard. So let's say I stayed at this rep range . Would I just add weight or retest a max every month or two and then rearrange?

5*5 was so much easier, but just got to be too much volume for upper body and deadlift
 
it gives you an idea of weight vs. what reps x sets range should I be in for XYZ goal.

This is important when designing a program. To know what weight you should be using at what intensity at a given point in your training. But people shouldn't be designing their own program.
 
So I'm chasing 405 on bench, would I be better served to stay on that 90% line for 12 weeks or bounce around a bit?
 
Although I would point out the chart was based just on observation of olympic lifters, not powerlifters, who were fairly mature in their development, and were lifting fairly heavy weights at high speeds. If you're performing the powerlifts and don't have a 600lb squat, the amount of volume you can tolerate at a given percentage of your 1RM may vary significantly.


Namely you should be able to do potentially more volume at the higher ends of your percentage, because you aren't fucking yourself up as badly as someone who can put significantly more weight on their body. In particular keep in mind that good execution of the Oly lifts requires that you haven't acquired significant fatigue.
 
cincymma79 said:
So I'm chasing 405 on bench, would I be better served to stay on that 90% line for 12 weeks or bounce around a bit?
Click to expand...

In all your time posting here, and everyone constantly telling you, you still haven't learned to not "chase" numbers. If you keep getting stronger, eventually you will bench 405.
 
cincymma79 said:
So I'm chasing 405 on bench, would I be better served to stay on that 90% line for 12 weeks or bounce around a bit?
Click to expand...

But no, hammering low rep, 90% sets is not the path to bench success. Stop thinking so short term. You aim should be to find a program or training method that allows for long term success and sustainable progress.
 
It's thirty pounds, which is of course a lot for bench and at my weight it's getting to be quite high for a natural old athlete. So what program/s would you recommend? The conjugate worked great for my deadlift but the other lifts not so much. I got mileage out of squatting three days a week with a different variation of the squat each time but I can't keep up that tempo for more than about ten weeks. Backed it down to twice a week for triples at about 80%, front and high bar. Also do a few sets of pause squats. Pretty much if I could do my max lifts about three times I'd be at my goals already.
 
Sheiko did wonders for my bench over 12-14 months. YMMV.
 
selfcritical said:
Although I would point out the chart was based just on observation of olympic lifters, not powerlifters, who were fairly mature in their development, and were lifting fairly heavy weights at high speeds. If you're performing the powerlifts and don't have a 600lb squat, the amount of volume you can tolerate at a given percentage of your 1RM may vary significantly.


Namely you should be able to do potentially more volume at the higher ends of your percentage, because you aren't fucking yourself up as badly as someone who can put significantly more weight on their body. In particular keep in mind that good execution of the Oly lifts requires that you haven't acquired significant fatigue.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this always bothered me about Prilepin's table.

Stronger people are more neurally efficient and any given percentage of maximum they are recruiting more muscle fibers. So working at any given high percentage is more work and has a higher risk of over-training.

Oly lifting is also slightly different, with the emphasis on doing it explosively. As I understand it anyway, it's a little like sprinting in that you usually want to comfortable you are in good shape it to move fast and give it close to 100% before you start a rep, which naturally keeps the volume of training sessions down.

I think it's no surprise that the volume recommendations that come off the table are pretty low compared to Sheiko and a lot of other powerlifting programmes.
 
JimRussel said:
But no, hammering low rep, 90% sets is not the path to bench success. Stop thinking so short term. You aim should be to find a program or training method that allows for long term success and sustainable progress.
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
I'm sure I've seen two versions of this chart, the original which was olympic based, and a modified one for powerlifting. The second was a bit lower intensity IIRC.
 
I used it to set myself up a DUP type training programme. Well i used the chart and also followed a Texas method type template.

I did medium days/volume days, Lighter days for higher reps and heavy day. I just basically started at the lower end of the percentage and worked my way up week on week to the higher percentage, using the chart as a guide. You won't die instantly if you do more reps than it suggests or a higher percentage. Programmed it so that took me about 12 weeks after which I tested.

There is no need to go as higher as 90% unless you are peaking. The majority of your work should be in the 70% to 85% range I think.

It's far from perfect but it worked for me.
 
cincymma79 said:
So there appears to be different numbered workouts. Which one did you use and which one could a natural lifter do?
Click to expand...
29, 30, 31 would be a good 12 week training block.

37 is a good all around program.

A natural lifter can do all of them lol.
 
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