Form, Lifting Technique & Progressive Overload
Embedded Files
Form is extremely vital and the foundation to progressing in your strength.
Once you’re feeling the lift in the right muscles and you feel like the weight feels lighter, that is a good sign to increase exercise difficulty, this can come in the following forms:
Increased Reps
Increased Sets
Increased Instability/Difficulty
Increased Tempo & Time Under Tension
Progressing from Machines to Free Weights
Progressing the Exercise Itself
Increased Range of Motion & Mobility
Decreased Rest Times
RIR & RPE - How heavy should you lift?
RPE - Rate of Perceived Exertion: 10 being the hardest effort & 0 being too easy
This is as simple as “on a scale of 1-10 how hard does his feel?”
RIR - Reps In Reserve: 0 being the hardest effort & 10 being too easy
This is a more of a sophisticated way of assessing difficulty by getting specific about how many more reps you feel like you could’ve done had you not stopped.
So if you did 12 reps of squats at 40kgs and by the end of the 12 reps you felt like you could’ve probably done 4 more had you not stopped, then that’s a 4 RIR.
You generally want to train to an RIR or 1-4 (RPE 6-9) depending on the phase you’re in & the goals of your training.
Tempo
Tempo is another way to progress an exercise without adding weights or reps. It’s to specify which portion of the rep you should spend more time in for progressive purposes.
Each number represent the number of seconds to spend in the phase of the rep. X means to go as fast as possible.
The numbers are usually always in this order as seen on video.
This video demonstrates a tempo of 3-2-1-0 in the squat exercise.
What is Training Volume?
Training Volume = kg lifted × reps performed × number of sets done
Training volume gives us a good idea of the total amount of work performed in an exercise/workout. You don’t have to worry too much about this, this is more for me to understand better on how you’re progressing.
If the number goes up, that means you’re progressing and getting stronger.
It’s worth noting that sometimes the number won’t reflect true strength as when you get stronger, you won’t be improving as rapidly as when you first did in your newbie phase.
E.g. Progressing from 40kg for 12 reps to 42.5kg for 10 reps for 3 sets each
40kg × 12 reps × 3 = 1440
vs.
42.5kg × 10 reps × 3 = 1275
Progress is progress, going up in weight and maintaining good form is a win - even if the numbers don’t exactly reflect that!
Why is it a Rep Range and Not a Specific Number of Reps?
This is to give you leeway to train hard with your weights.
Your training tab shouldn’t look neat like this:
This shows that your first and second set weren’t as effective as they could’ve been. Each set needs to challenge your muscles enough to the prescribed RIR.
And so it should look messy like this:
Picking a weight that is challenging, meeting prescribed RIR, and assessing if you should increase or decrease the weights for your next sets accordingly.
Do I have to Stick to Sets & Reps Prescribed?
NO!!
The sets and reps are my professional suggestion but when we understand the principles of strength & hypertrophy (putting on muscle).
Some pieces of equipment go up in weight in larger intervals that your muscle can handle, especially your smaller muscles.
So if you pick up the 3kgs to do lateral raises (a considerably smaller muscle is responsible for this movement) and you’re prescribed 8-12 reps. If by the time you’re on the 12th rep you feel like you could do 5 more to reach muscle fatigue, and with the 4kgs you can barely get 6 reps then you can stick to the 3kgs and push past the prescribed rep range to achieve the desired goals (fatigiing the muscle).
Let’s consider this other common scenario a lot of us are in when ut comes to our set & effectively performing a set:
You pick up a 20kg to do goblet squats for 8-12 reps, you notice by the time you get to the 12th rep, you have more reps in the tank before feeling your muscle is fatigued. What many women do is they just stop at 12 reps and go heavier next set.
But to make the most of your set, you should actually think more about training closer to the prescribed RIR/RPE instead of being married to the rep range. So what that would look like is because you know mid set that you have more reps before you reach 2 RIR, that you decide to do more than 12 reps to reach that. You’ll find that you’ll have done 16 reps and your set was much more effective than had you just stopped at 12 reps.
The more you advance in your training, the less sets you actually have to do because of how much better you get at training close to failure - compared to a newbie who may be doing more junk volume* in their sets.
* Junk Volume - training volume that isn't stimulating to your muscles.
Google Sites
Report abuse