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 intense they are…
How tired they make us.
And the Iron Sports?
Same thing.
“Go Heavy or Go workouts 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 programmed 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 scientific mindset if we’re truly serious about developing a stronger , fitter , balanced, more athletic 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 cornerstone 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 typical 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 metabolically demanding 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 building your training off a RM.
The higher the reps, the larger the percentage of effort you’re applying 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 accumulating 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 succinctly :
More reps per set relative to RM = More fatigue accumulated = More rest between sets
Said differently :
Sets of 8 are harder than sets of 6, when working with the same weight/load. As a result, you need to rest more between sets.
Remember -
“As recovered 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 possible , 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 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 heavier .
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 fewer of the “wrong” muscles at the improper times (usually the smaller stabilizer muscles).
This takes more energy to use the proper muscles at the right time and it’s battling switching over to the old, “energy efficient” wrong neural pathways.
Eventually, all the reps will feel easier as your body reinforces those new neural pathways.
As a result, you get more robust and more muscular.
Assuming you respect the fact that fatigue interferes with force production, you need to rest more between sets.
So, at the end of the day, resting less between sets doesn’t build your toughness or more hardcore .
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.