Maconi Modified Pressing Routine

As with almost all routines, this routine is heavily influenced by others. Pavel Tsatsouline, Kelly Baggett, and Greg Nuckols all have content that influenced this set up. It is a routine I’ve used several times for both bench press and overhead press. While I have long arms and don’t have the greatest genetics for pressing strength it has helped me to reach a ~365lb bench and ~2x225lb overhead press.

This can be incorporated into a hypertrophy based program as well, but I would not add much pressing volume. In most instances this does not have to affect your upper body pulling or lower body work much but it can and should change your upper body pressing. If you are interested in hypertrophy of your chest, delts, and triceps during this time I would recommend sticking with higher rep ranges (12+) with exercises that are generally less taxing and I would do it after the pressing work on Day 1 and Day 2.

If using this for bench press I would subsequently drop 4-5 sets from your typical chest work and focus more on isolation and machine work for the time being. Similarly, if using this for overhead press I would drop 4-5 sets from your typical delt work and, again, would focus more on isolation and machine work.

The idea, of course, is to expose oneself to high frequencies with a heavy load, and to do so at an RPE that allows one to maintain proper form. You should not be failing any reps, and only the 1RM on Day 4 should be a true 0RIR set.

• Day 1: 4 sets of 3 with a 5RM

• Day 2: 3 sets of 2 with a 3RM

• Day 3: 5 sets of 1 with 80% of most recent 1RM

• Day 4: 1 set of 1 with a 1RM (hopefully a new max), 3 sets of 1 with a 3RM

• Day 5: Off

• Day 6: Off

• Day 7: Off

This can be repeated as long as desired, with 12+ weeks being common. As always, nutrition will impact one’s results and strength is going to go up faster in a slight surplus compared to a deficit. I would not recommend this routine to someone in a deficit.

About Dr. Dave Maconi

Dr. Dave Maconi is a fitness coach and educator. On the Brains and Gains podcast, Dave discusses all things exercise science, nutrition, health, and personal development. Every week, he invites health experts and thought leaders to share their expertise. Each episode ends with a charity donation to the charity of the guest's choice.

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