3 reviews for 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 Iāve used several times for both bench press and overhead press. While I have long arms and donāt 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 oneās 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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Jessie K.
Man, 333 weeks complete
8 years of prior experience
As expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
Week 1 review: (I'll be updating as I go along). Just finished my first week on the program. I PR'd my bench on the 4th day as it instructs you to do. This is most likely not due to the program as much as it's due to just expressing some strength I had built previously. I am, at the moment, quite dubious of benching 4 days in a row for this many weeks, but I'm willing to try as I've had a hard time increasing it. Like the author, I'm long armed and struggle with pressing, but I am hopeful the increased frequency can help me push past plateaus. Will update weekly if I remember. Week 3: I've PR'd twice now with tomorrow, hopefully being the 3rd. Definitely benefiting from "greasing the groove." Weirdly, it's my forearms that feel the most beat up š¤. Final update (for now), week 4: I failed my pr at the end of week 3, my forearms and delts felt pretty fatigued. Going to take a layoff for a week and come back and try to PR one more time. Not sure how anyone could run this program for 12 weeks straight unless you're on gear. š
Jkstrength
Man, 362 weeks complete
8 years of prior experience
As expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
8-25-24 Update: Iām currently in week 3- day 2. Things have been going good. I was able to run it 4 days straight, but right now Iām running it 2-2. Sticking to program and not changing anything. (Bench) already am 5 lbs away from my My most recent PR which was 290 lbs. Iām hoping to hit 300 lbs as a New PR soon. Not forcing anything, paying attention to form and being realistic. First week hit 280, then 285. (Also want to mention I normally run a conjugate style program( change out movements everyone couple weeks) but not for this program. Seems to be working. Will continue to update. I want to point out that I just started this program, I will be on my second day tomorrow. So this isnāt a honest review yet. This program has no reviews yet so I wanted to let those who try this know, itās strictly a bench and or OHP program. The way itās layed out. If your struggling in ether of these lifts or just need something to follow to help boost one of them this is an ideal program with not insanely amounts of reps or sets. Stick to your favorite or stronger grip and follow the program. I think itās layed out based off rep maxās which is good thing, sometimes the whole Rpe or percentages can be confusing or in my opinion off. He lays it out easy enough to understand and to be honest you canāt go wrong. Day 1 is based off what youāll be doing. Also want to point out the volume is more than enough for a āchest workoutā he has you benching/OHP 4 days a week. Up to you if you wanna break it apart. But this is to drill form and consistency into your lift. Do the reps, do the work, get away from the barbell. If your serious about it, getting these lifts up donāt kill yourself on your accessories, again you donāt wanna create a ton of fatigue, so a couple of accessories- hit them hard and thatās it. Iāll do another review as I go, Iām curious to see what I can bench at the end of this.
Jayvin Williams
Man, 182 weeks complete
1 year of prior experience
Less than expected strength gains
As expected muscle gains
So Iām pretty new to lifting and thought Iād check this program out because I wanted to get my overhead press up. Iād been bench pressing for about 6 months and started other stuff about a month ago do to a recovering back. Bench was 205 when I started this program and I hit 215 during it. But my overhead was 125 and hit 135 at the end. I donāt know if the overhead singles helped get my benchpress up or not but I thought Iād mention that. Considering Iāve never really taken overhead seriously before (I went for my first 1pr max right before this program) Iām not super impressed. My 135 is iffy I almost push press it a little which isnāt much better. Obviously 2 weeks is not very long so Iām sure Iād get more if I kept at but I donāt feel this program is good for new people like me for the obvious reason itās a specialization program. I might come back and try to implement this more fully into my routine and other workouts but for now Iām just going to do more 6-8 rep range work for strength and hypertrophy instead of just specializing in 1 rep stuff. Should see more long term results due to my current novice status. Really fun program tho so if you just want to hit a lot of singles doubles and triples and obvious strength gains this is it for you