Thursday, May 6, 2010

Training Tip - When to Increase Weight


If you are familiar with Max-OT you know the rep range we shoot for is 4-6 reps. When you can get 6 reps on your own with good execution it is time to bump up the weight. That being said you don't need to get 6 reps on every set of an exercise before you increase the weight. That's one commonly misunderstood principle. Let's examine.

We'll assume you are doing 3 working sets of an exercise. If you hit 6 reps on the first set you need to bump up the weight for sets 2 and 3. You should not be getting 6 reps every set. If you are, your intensity needs to be examined.

The reality is you should be closer to 4 reps on the last set of any exercise. It is even OK to get only 3 reps on the final set.

Don't get into the mind set that you should always be getting 6 reps. It will limit your weight progression, however this does come with one warning.....Don't sacrifice weight increases for good exercise exectution. You always want to find the best balance of both.

Believe. Achieve.

http://www.jeffwillet.com/

2 comments:

  1. Greetings Jeff, would like to know when you prepared in 2003 did you use intervals for you Max-OT cardio or did you use a constant pace for the 16min. Thanks.

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  2. I prefered to use an interval or hill setting where the resistance varied throughout my 16 minutes

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