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Post by johnbhoy on Feb 2, 2011 15:54:10 GMT -8
John. You have mentioned how a single set to failure, after a while fails to produce an overload. I was thinking about this recently and this idea came to me. I perform a set of, let's say 8 reps to failure on the barbell curl. Let's imagine that I need to get 4% stronger to manage 1 extra rep. Imagine that set produces a 2% strength increase, the kind of improvement often seen in a fairly new trainee. On the following workout I then do 8 reps again with the same weight. That amounts to the same amount of work on a slightly stronger muscle, so progress stops. Strict form and 'high intensity' make no difference, strength and size remain the same. Do you see what I'm getting at. Feel free to tell me if you think I am talking crap. John
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Post by John A. Casler on Feb 2, 2011 23:50:45 GMT -8
John. You have mentioned how a single set to failure, after a while fails to produce an overload. I was thinking about this recently and this idea came to me. I perform a set of, let's say 8 reps to failure on the barbell curl. Let's imagine that I need to get 4% stronger to manage 1 extra rep. Imagine that set produces a 2% strength increase, the kind of improvement often seen in a fairly new trainee. On the following workout I then do 8 reps again with the same weight. That amounts to the same amount of work on a slightly stronger muscle, so progress stops. Strict form and 'high intensity' make no difference, strength and size remain the same. Do you see what I'm getting at. Feel free to tell me if you think I am talking crap. John Hi John, That is exactly it. You will reach a point with a SSTF where it becomes circular, and you will not be able to produce a greater stress (stimulus) than the last time, so NO OVERLOAD. While you can make excellent progress initially with SSTF, it will plateau and no further progress will be possible. However, all you need do is add a second set of the same exercise and you then create a stress that the body hasn't experienced before (OVERLOAD) and if you have the potential you will grow stronger and larger. Now do know that this two will have a plateau, but it will simply be HIGHER than a SSTF.
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Post by johnbhoy on Feb 3, 2011 6:32:59 GMT -8
John. You have mentioned how a single set to failure, after a while fails to produce an overload. I was thinking about this recently and this idea came to me. I perform a set of, let's say 8 reps to failure on the barbell curl. Let's imagine that I need to get 4% stronger to manage 1 extra rep. Imagine that set produces a 2% strength increase, the kind of improvement often seen in a fairly new trainee. On the following workout I then do 8 reps again with the same weight. That amounts to the same amount of work on a slightly stronger muscle, so progress stops. Strict form and 'high intensity' make no difference, strength and size remain the same. Do you see what I'm getting at. Feel free to tell me if you think I am talking crap. John Hi John, That is exactly it. You will reach a point with a SSTF where it becomes circular, and you will not be able to produce a greater stress (stimulus) than the last time, so NO OVERLOAD. While you can make excellent progress initially with SSTF, it will plateau and no further progress will be possible. However, all you need do is add a second set of the same exercise and you then create a stress that the body hasn't experienced before (OVERLOAD) and if you have the potential you will grow stronger and larger. Now do know that this two will have a plateau, but it will simply be HIGHER than a SSTF. My own experience has been that a single set within a rep range will take me so far. I then have to resort to specialisation routines or things like Matrix training with different fatigue patterns to eke out a little bit of growth. Perhaps the whole thing is a bit simpler than I thought. Thanks for the reply. John.
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