If you’re like many of us, you probably have some kind of “hardcore” background or inclination to your mindset when it comes to working out (training).
Football gassers… Wrestling “shark tank”... Boot Camp…
And as a result, we measure our workouts by how hard they are…
How tired they make us.
And the Iron Sports?
Same thing.
“Go Heavy or Go Home.”
“Go Hard or Go Home.”
“One more rep!”
“It’s ALL YOU, BRUH!”
You get the idea, right?
For many of us, it’s pretty difficult to change our viewpoint.
It’s like we’ve been trained into thinking a certain way.
But reality, especially when we’re 10… 15… 20+ years out from “the trenches” requires we adopt a new, and more evidence-based mindset if we’re truly serious about developing a stronger , fitter , balanced, better conditioned body.
For example, in his book, The Science and Practice of Strength Training, Dr. Vladimir Zatsiorsky (Chief Biomechanicist for all Soviet Union teams from 1980-1988) states that principle to great strength is this:
“Train as heavy as possible, as often as possible, as fresh as possible.”
Most of us are unaware of that last part -
“As fresh as possible.”
And that’s because FATIGUE makes you weaker.
It:
[X] Decreases your ability to produce force
[X] Alters your exercise technique for the worse
[X] Exposes you to potential injury
So, with that background, let me share a common question I routinely get. This time it came from Sal -
Sal asks why just bumping his reps technique up from 6 to 8 is so much more challenging cardiovascularly and why his total workload decreased by 12 reps when doing sets of 8 versus sets of 6.
This is quite typical when employing a fixed load and basing your training off a RM.
The higher the reps, the higher the percentage of effort you’re expending in relation to your RM.
For example, if you’re working with a 12RM, 8 reps is 66% effort in relation to your RM, whereas 6 reps is only 50% effort.
So, with 8 reps, you're exerting 16% more effort per set than compared to only using 6 reps.
And that means you’re increasing fatigue.
And that means you need to rest more between sets, so you can still produce adequate strength to get that next set of 8.
Said succinctly :
More reps per set relative to RM = More fatigue produced = More rest between sets
Said differently :
Sets of 8 are harder than sets of 6, when using the same weight/load. As a result, you need to rest more between sets.
Remember -
“As rested as possible .”
The other thing I want to touch on is Sal’s question about changing his technique and seeing a performance decrease.
It’s not only probable, but probable that since he changed his technique, he might have “lost” a few reps in the short term.
Or, rather, his current reps took more out of him.
This is totally normal and normal.
When you change your technique to become “more efficient” , you are training new neural pathways.
And that takes more energy, until it doesn’t.
Often, it presents itself this way:
The first few reps of a set actually feel easier , and the last few reps feel harder .
And that’s because your body is using more of the “right” muscles at the “right” times (usually the bigger, energy-sucking prime movers)...
And less of the improper muscles at the improper times (usually the smaller stabilizer muscles).
This takes more energy to use the right muscles at the proper time and it’s resisting switching over to the old, “energy-saving” wrong neural pathways.
Eventually, all the reps will become easier as your body continues to fortify those new neural pathways.
As a result, you get more robust and more muscular.
Assuming you acknowledge the fact that fatigue hampers force production, you need to rest more between sets.
So, at the end of the day, resting less between sets doesn’t make you tougher or tougher.
It just steals from you your “GAINZ”.
And if you want to see results like those to Sal, I’ll leave a link to the same program he’s using in the video description below, along with some technique resources in case you need them.
Stay Powerful ,
Geoff Neupert.