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 challenging to change our viewpoint.
It’s like we’ve been conditioned 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 informed mindset if we’re truly serious about developing a more resilient, more toned, healthier , 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 key 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 frequent question I routinely get. This time it came from Sal -
Sal asks why just bumping his reps up from 6 to 8 is so much more aerobically taxing and why his total workload decreased by 12 reps when doing sets of 8 versus sets of 6.
This is perfectly normal when working with a fixed load and basing your training off a RM.
The higher the reps, the greater the percentage of effort you’re using 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 using 16% more effort per set than compared to only using 6 reps.
And that means you’re building up fatigue.
And that means you need to rest more between sets, so you can still produce sufficient power to get that next set of 8.
Said clearly:
More reps per set relative to RM = More fatigue generated = More rest between sets
Said another way:
Sets of 8 are more challenging than sets of 6, when working with 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 noticing a performance decrease.
It’s not only possible , but usual 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 quite natural and normal.
When you change your technique to become more effective , 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 less taxing, 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 proper muscles at the correct time and it’s fighting 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 stronger and more muscular.
Assuming you understand the fact that fatigue affects force production, you need to rest more between sets.
So, at the workouts end of the day, resting less between sets doesn’t make you tougher or hardcore .
It just takes away 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 Resilient,
Geoff Neupert.