Press Singles | Carl Raghavan

by Carl Raghavan, SSC | July 29, 2025

The compressed Texas Method is one of my favorite ways to move
lifters into intermediate programming – especially when their press
and bench start needing more frequency, but you still want to keep
the overall structure as close to the Starting Strength linear progression.

Quick
refresher for new readers: a typical first week of a compressed Texas
Method (upper-body only) might look like this:

• Monday: 5×5 Bench
• Wednesday:
  5×5 Press
• Friday: 5–7×1
  Press + 1×5 Bench

Why
Singles?

Heavy singles on the
press are a major departure from the classic SSLP approach. The press
doesn’t move enormous loads like squats or deadlifts, but singles
develop a different skill set. They build confidence under maximal
load, they force you to perfect your bar path, and they demand
intense focus.

The good news? Heavy press singles aren’t that fatiguing overall.
Regular exposure to near-maximal weights sharpens your ability to
handle heavy efforts precisely – something you can’t fully
develop with fives alone. In short, they give you more “touches”
at truly challenging weights. Anyone who’s pressed heavy knows a
triple feels very different from a single at 95–97% of 1RM. It’s
another universe entirely.

A strong presser
can usually hit a bodyweight single. The truly advanced might manage
a bodyweight set of five – a rare sign of technical mastery and
force production.

At this
level, you don’t need many heavy singles. One to three is plenty,
from my experience. You can add a few lighter singles as back-off
practice, but the true heavy work stays low. Creep up to five if
needed, but past that, technique and recovery start to be affected.

Weaker
lifters – those not even pressing 50% of bodyweight – often need
more singles to get anything out of them. Sets of five alone don’t
create enough intensity to drive progress. That’s why I sometimes
have them do up to 15 singles in one session, using “on-the-minute”
style. This keeps the session tight, builds repeated exposure to
heavy weights, and develops skill without turning it into an endless
slog.

Sometimes,
weaker lifters even benefit more from triples on volume day rather
than fives, simply because their fives aren’t heavy enough to
matter.

Spoiler alert: if you’re not in the “strong” group, you’re in
the weaker group. That’s it. No participation trophies. You’re
either pressing bodyweight or you’re working to get there. Simple.

If
You Miss a Rep what do you do?

If you miss a single
because your bar path looked like a toddler scribbled it with a
crayon, perhaps try again at the same weight. If you’re 99.99%
certain you’ll make it, go for it. But if you still can’t finish
the prescription, you have options to salvage the session:

• 5–10% Off
Approach: Drop the weight 5–10%, finish the singles, maybe add a
few extra as penance. Get the work done.

• 10kg Off, Plus 1kg: From weightlifting (“the grey book” strategy). Strip 10kg,
then work back up set by set to reattempt the missed weight.

• Scattergun
Approach: Bounce between your top set and up to 12% lower, mixing and
matching until you accumulate the planned singles.

• Raise the Floor and
Ceiling: Andy Baker’s strategy. Last week: 80-90kg. This week:
82-92kg. Even if you don’t push the top end, raising both the
floor and ceiling increases overall stress. Win.

A heavy day
of fives and a heavy day of singles is a staple in my programming for
early intermediates because it works. Fives build volume,
consistency, and general strength. Singles teach you to handle
heavier weights, refine your bar path, and push into true hard-effort
territory – something no other rep range matches. Together, they
prepare you to keep progressing once the novice phase ends.

There’s
no universal timeline for switching from SSLP to a compressed Texas
Method press setup. You don’t change programs because you’re
bored or think “it’s time.” You adjust when progress demands
it.

Prescription and
timing come down to a coach’s eye. You can’t jump programs and
expect linear gains to continue untouched. Sometimes, it takes a few
weeks to adapt before progress picks up again.

Remember:
the goal on singles day is to do heavy singles. That’s it. Sounds
insultingly simple, and it is. But whichever strategy gets you there
with the fewest misses, the best bar path, and the highest technical
sharpness – that’s the winning strategy.

It’s not a
neat, one-size-fits-all answer. Welcome to intermediate training,
where “just add weight” still works in theory, but in practice,
things get messier. We’re human after all, not robots.

Discuss in Forums