MAKE EVERY SET COUNT
Have you ever felt like, “this can’t be right, I’m not completely obliterated, how the hell this will lead to muscle growth”.
The thing is, optimal stimulus comes when you go at least 2–4 reps shy of failure— we’ll define what failure means in just a second, because let’s say you did 10 repetitions in any given exercise, how can you be sure that you milked the most possible gains out of them? or that you’re gaining muscle at all?
It’s simple, you need to implement good LIFTING HYGIENE so you reach EFFECTIVE REPS EVERY SET, effective reps are those last reps in a given set that are challenging, those are the ones you need to seek out, otherwise you’re just wasting your time and introducing junk volume.
Here are a few coordinates for you to find those EFFECTIVE REPS:
FAILURE IN COMPOUND MOVEMENTS is technical failure, is when your technique/form goes to the shitters, not when you get stapled under the bar.
FAILURE IN ISOLATION MOVEMENTS is when the muscle simply stops moving due to the increased temperature of the muscle just shuts down contraction like in a concentration curl, and/or too there is too much acidity in the muscle generating an unbearable burn, like in a lateral raise.
If you’re lifting heavy, anywhere from 3-10 rep range, your goal is that the reps get slower, you don’t need to go to failure, if you’re pushing yourself hard to complete the rep and the weight is moving slower, you’re doing it right, if all your reps look exactly the same and are all fast as fuck, put more weight on the bar and try to find the weight that makes your move slowly.
If you’re doing pump work, anything above 12 reps, your goal is to feel the muscle burning, if with 15 you didn’t feel the muscle burning keep going, go to 20, go to 30, the goal is the burn, Ideally, if you need more than 15 reps to feel the burn, then up the weights.
Don’t CHEAT YOURSELF, use a full range of motion, you’ll move less weight but the stimulus to hypertrophy will be significantly higher.
In the concentric phase of the lift, move as fast and as explosively as possible, the concentric phase is when your muscles are contracting e.g. when you’re extending your legs to get up from the bottom of a squat, when you’re pressing the weight away from your body in the bench press when you’re bending your elbow in the curl when you’re pulling your body towards the bar in the pull-up, every one of these scenarios, try to move the weight fast.
In the eccentric phase of the lift, emphasize control, and try to feel the tension in the target muscle, the eccentric phase is when your muscles are extending e.g. when you’re descending to the bottom of a squat when you’re descending the weight towards your body in the bench press when you’re extending your elbow in the curl when you’re going down in the pull-up, every one of these scenarios, try to move the weight with control, not exactly slow, but with control.
Add an isometric component to the lift, give a big squeeze to the muscle at the peak of contraction or simply pause in the hardest part of the lift so it gets even harder e.g. count to two on the bottom of the squat, or when the bar is at your chest in the bench press OR when your chest touches the pullup bar try to drive your elbows behind your back and reaaally feel those lats contracting when doing shrugs or lateral raises hold the weight at the top part of the contraction.
Effective reps are the only ones that count, MAKE THEM COUNT, BABAE!
PRAISE BRODIN!
Big KISS,
THE POTATO MAN
Good post, this is a repost from a couple years ago, but good none the less.
This is why so many have little to no gains. 75% of the gym doesnt push hard enough to have meaningful gains, 10lb/year on bench isnt meaningful.
20% do better than them but are constantly hurt because they go past technical failure, into full failing and if solo do bouncy partials, and with a spotter to assisted failure EVERY SET.
The other 5% of us make slow and steady gains uninjured because we lift more or less like you are describing, i am in the 2-4 RIR for deads/squats, and 1-2 RIR for bench ohp and rows, that has always ben safe but i know well what i can and cant do.