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Barbell PTTP Frequency Variance

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Chase Hines

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Hey Everybody!

Long time StrongFirst follower first time post. I’m running extremely on limited training time right now & I’m fully expecting to see that continue to decline over the next few months as I’ve got a new little one on the way.

I’ve got a solid set up at home so I don’t have to travel to a gym but I’m finding it difficult to consistently make 4-5 solid training session per week for PTTP cycles.

I love the results, simplicity & time investment for PTTP so I really don’t want to go away from it.

I understand that’s PTTP is a high frequency program and taking away frequency is not ideal but it looks to be my only option going forward. I just want to be realistic and not set my self up for failure by having to high of an expectation for weekly training frequency.

I plan to test this to see what my personal results look like but I thought I’d get yalls feedback.

Has anyone consistently ran PTTP 2-3 a week and continued to hit their goals?
 
@Chase Hines, welcome to the StrongFirst forum.

Chase Hines said:
Has anyone consistently ran PTTP 2-3 a week and continued to hit their goals?
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It's important to remember that training volume is a key determinant of success. You may wish to simply investigate another program, one that uses a Light/Medium/Heavy rotation or something else suited to 3 training sessions per week.

Once you step away from daily or near-daily training, the landscape changes.

If you wish to "adapt" PTTP to 3x/week, focus on keeping the total volume of 50 deadlifts per week. Consider, e.g., adding a third set of 5 to each of your 3 training days - that would give you 45 reps per week instead of only 30 reps per week if you just eliminated the other days. Or you could make your 3 days total 10, 15, and 20 reps, respectively, getting your 45 weekly reps that way.

-S-
 
Thanks for the quick response Steve. I’m a fan of LMH from my time with ROP.

I also like your suggestion of added an addition set of 5. Is the recommendation for that 3rd set 90%? I’m almost leaning this direction out of pure simplicity.

How would you recommend structuring PTTP style deadlift cycle progressions with LMH approach & the addition set of 5?

I’ve always ran structured wave cycles from the book with 4 steps forward 3 steps back.
 
I think the 3rd set could be either the same weight as the 2nd set or made again lighter, so I'm not sure whether I'd do 100, 90, 90 or 100, 90, 80, using 100 as the first weight for the day.

As to other variables, you're on your own there - we've already changed the program in one important way and can't be sure about the others. Wave cycling should still work, I'd think.

There are a million things you could change, e.g., the Russian language version of PTTP specifies 5-3-2 with the same weight instead of taking some weight off the bar for a second set of 5. Here's an interesting 15 rep total that would be harder than anything we've discussed thus far: 2-3-5-3-2, all with a single weight. Ah, so many possibilities ...

-S-
 
Chase Hines said:
I’ve got a solid set up at home so I don’t have to travel to a gym but I’m finding it difficult to consistently make 4-5 solid training session per week for PTTP cycles.
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Two sets of DL takes about 5 minutes, including rest between sets. Two sets of presses takes another 5 minutes. Is it not possible to find two 5 minute windows to train?

Personally, when I am really busy (I've been primary caregiver for an infant during non-working hours while working full-time) I find it easier to fit in frequent minimal sessions than less frequent longer sessions.

Missing a session is also less disruptive to your training when you are doing 4-6 sessions a week rather than only 3.

Chase Hines said:
and continued to hit their goals
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I recommend making your goal just to maintain continuity in your training. Keep the weights in the easy to moderate range. Nudge up that 80% weight that feels relatively easy. Backcycle frequently rather than trying to milk cycles to new maxes. This makes training physically and psychologically less stressful during a time when your other stressors are high, but just because you aren't pushing for new maxes doesn't mean you aren't getting stronger.
 
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+1 to everything @Steve W. said.

Another option: Just one set per day. Each following set gives diminishing returns and doing just one set spares you rest time between sets and helps you to stay on track and grease the groove.
 
Following on what @Bauer said, a pretty solid guideline is our Daily Dose deadlift program - one set of 5 reps each day, almost every day. This allows you to deadlift and still have other foci in your program. If you're primarily strength training, then PTTP is a good model, with 10 deadlifts each day, almost every day.

-S-
 
Less frequency = more recovery so you can afford to workout with heavier weights across more sets. If strength is my goal and I'm only working out twice weekly I push the weight up to around 85% and focus on triples - three to five sets is a great workout
 
Chase Hines said:
got a new little one on the way.
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To be honest mate just concentrate on consistently working out more days a week than not. Don’t worry about a lot of progress & you’ll maintain what you’ve got easily enough, which is important, with a few little gains here & there. It’s not forever, there will be a time when things even out a bit & you’ll have more time to put into training.
 
The PTTP program works and although I’m a fan, there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing Deadlifts “only” 2 or 3 times a week. And who knows - the additional recovery time might yield impressive benefits.
 
Thanks for the input everybody. Im going to just enjoy my practice and take it easy with a somewhat less programmed approach for awhile. I’ll try to do more when possible & be ok with doing less when that’s where life takes me.
 
Depends on how heavy you're trying to go, but I maintain a 370lbs deadlift (not much, but it keeps me in good shape) only doing them 2-3 times a day, 2-3 days a week. The recovery time does mean something. However, this is not my main program, and someone my size could certainly get much heavier with the move. But, for just health's sake, I find doing just a few deadlifts like this works wonders.
 
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