Forget 10,Einstein
January 17th 2007 12:13
The obvious goal of anyone who lifts weights is to enhance fitness in as efficient a manner as is possible. The idea of workouts that do little to contribute to this goal has appeal to practically no one. Maybe there are a few out there who want to expend energy inefficiently day in and day out,but I can't count myself among them.Your text goes here
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The best way to waste time and effort in the weight room is to rely on techniques and approaches to training that have no real basis in experience. The myth of three days a week comes to mind. I have taken it on in an earlier blog. Suffice to say that three day weeks really yield Two Day Bodies(see my blog). Split routines which train upper body one day and lower body the other are still around and wasting a lot of time and work. Failing to isolate and rocking and rolling your way through sets is still helping people kid themselves about how hard they are working.
Nothing matches number of repetitions for pure blind adherence to tradition and the waste that follows. I remember my first written training routine some 40 years ago with drawings of exercises for the various body parts and the injunction to do "10 repetitions." I wonder now how the number 10 was arrived at. I suspect that it had all the empirical validity of being a round number. Since those days little has changed. Most new trainees are enjoined,I suspect,to do 10 repetitions of most everything. I shudder to think how many have trained for years and never considered any alternative to the magic 10.
Arbitrary is the word for a decision to do 10 reps apart from any plausible rationale. In fact there is no magic number of repetitions that one should aim at in weight movements. Moreover, the determination to do 10 reps is a tremendous limitation on the intensity and thereby the long term benefits of weight training. If you manage to free yourself from thinking about reps at all you in for more productive workouts.
Let's consider the decision to do ten reps. That decision incorporates another: how much weight to use. You are bound by your 10 decision to pick a weight that you think you can do 10 times. In reality you have pick a weight that is either too little or too much. If you easily power through 10 reps and stop, it is obvious that you are not taxing your muscles. If you cannot reach 10, you are actually doing more for yourself, unless the realization that the weight is too heavy means that you begin to cheat from the very first rep to reach your arbitrary goal.
Now imagine every exercise of every part of your body dominated by slavery to 10 repetitions. Every exercise done 10 times, but sometimes too easily and other times barely done and that with poor form. The number is the most important consideration, more so than what is good for muscle growth. I hope the picture is getting clear. There is no rationale for 10. Its a superstition.
What is better? It is better to select three different weights for a given exercise-one thats light enough to do several more than 10 reps, one that allows for several less than 10 reps and one that just about 10. These weights should be rotated so that a muscle is never really doing the same number of repetitions or weight in consecutive training sessions. Higher and lower rep schemes complement each other very well and increase both strength and endurance at the same time.
Whatever weight you are using-heavy or light- you should be doing the maximum number of reps possible with strict form(and even throwing in a little cheating at the end. See [I]Don't Cheat Until You Know How.)Stop counting and being a slave to it. Concentrate on working the muscle to its limit. You will start to see what real rational and intense training can be. Your servant,as always.
.
Forget 10, Einstein, Think Muscle
The best way to waste time and effort in the weight room is to rely on techniques and approaches to training that have no real basis in experience. The myth of three days a week comes to mind. I have taken it on in an earlier blog. Suffice to say that three day weeks really yield Two Day Bodies(see my blog). Split routines which train upper body one day and lower body the other are still around and wasting a lot of time and work. Failing to isolate and rocking and rolling your way through sets is still helping people kid themselves about how hard they are working.
Nothing matches number of repetitions for pure blind adherence to tradition and the waste that follows. I remember my first written training routine some 40 years ago with drawings of exercises for the various body parts and the injunction to do "10 repetitions." I wonder now how the number 10 was arrived at. I suspect that it had all the empirical validity of being a round number. Since those days little has changed. Most new trainees are enjoined,I suspect,to do 10 repetitions of most everything. I shudder to think how many have trained for years and never considered any alternative to the magic 10.
Arbitrary is the word for a decision to do 10 reps apart from any plausible rationale. In fact there is no magic number of repetitions that one should aim at in weight movements. Moreover, the determination to do 10 reps is a tremendous limitation on the intensity and thereby the long term benefits of weight training. If you manage to free yourself from thinking about reps at all you in for more productive workouts.
Let's consider the decision to do ten reps. That decision incorporates another: how much weight to use. You are bound by your 10 decision to pick a weight that you think you can do 10 times. In reality you have pick a weight that is either too little or too much. If you easily power through 10 reps and stop, it is obvious that you are not taxing your muscles. If you cannot reach 10, you are actually doing more for yourself, unless the realization that the weight is too heavy means that you begin to cheat from the very first rep to reach your arbitrary goal.
Now imagine every exercise of every part of your body dominated by slavery to 10 repetitions. Every exercise done 10 times, but sometimes too easily and other times barely done and that with poor form. The number is the most important consideration, more so than what is good for muscle growth. I hope the picture is getting clear. There is no rationale for 10. Its a superstition.
What is better? It is better to select three different weights for a given exercise-one thats light enough to do several more than 10 reps, one that allows for several less than 10 reps and one that just about 10. These weights should be rotated so that a muscle is never really doing the same number of repetitions or weight in consecutive training sessions. Higher and lower rep schemes complement each other very well and increase both strength and endurance at the same time.
Whatever weight you are using-heavy or light- you should be doing the maximum number of reps possible with strict form(and even throwing in a little cheating at the end. See [I]Don't Cheat Until You Know How.)Stop counting and being a slave to it. Concentrate on working the muscle to its limit. You will start to see what real rational and intense training can be. Your servant,as always.
.
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