This article is a continuation of articles about adding a pound at a time to your lifts as a means for consistent long term progression. It sounds like it should be easy, but it can be hard if your training is too hard and you are not adding a pound to the right level of effort.
In the last article, I discussed the importance of stopping a set when you reach your limit rep, which is the last rep that you can perform using a steady even rep pace during a set. Just as there is a limit rep that tells you when to stop doing reps, there is a limit set that tells you when to stop doing sets. Stopping at your limit set will be the focus of discussion in this article as the limit set helps you to train at the right level of effort in order to keep on adding pounds to your lifts.
The Limit Set
Your limit set is the limit of sets that you can repeat at full strength for a muscle group. If you surpass your limit set capacity, the next set will be your marker set. The marker set marks the first set where your strength begins to decrease. If you reach your marker set, the weights will feel heavier and your workout will become more strenuous at that point. Most people can push to their limit rep for two or three work sets for the same muscle group before they begin to weaken. However, some people may be able to do more than three sets and each individual should do the number of sets that fits their capacity to train at full strength.
Repeating Sets at Full Strength
When doing work sets, it is fairly easy to tell whether or not you are at full strength when repeating sets for the same exercise with the same amount of weight and reps. This is because you can easily compare your strength level from one set to the next and know whether or not the same amount of reps are getting harder. It’s a little harder to tell whether or not you are at full strength if you are using a different amount of weight for each set. The only way to tell whether or not you are at full strength is to use your experience from previous workouts to know how many reps you can perform with a given weight when you are at full strength. Regardless whether you use the same amount of weight, or a different amount of weight from set to set, you must monitor your strength level so that you do not exceed the number of sets you can do at full strength for a given muscle group.
Why is it important to refrain from exceeding your capacity to repeat sets at full strength? Becuase it will increase the likelihood that your body adapts to your training by growing stronger. When you exceed your capacity to train at full strength by doing too many sets, your body may favor an endurance adaptation over a strength adaptation. This simply means that your body will give you the ability to train longer without getting stronger. The safest option is to stay within the boundaries of your limit set, which is the last set that you can do at full strength for a muscle group.
Strength Training Thresholds
When you train with the right level of effort, it makes it easier to keep adding a pound to your workouts without eventually becoming overwhelmed with the accumulation of added weight. Adding an extra pound to a workout that is already too hard is simply going to make a hard workout even harder. It is best to progress from a level of effort that borders a strength training threshold. I suggest downloading my free book on Strength Training Thresholds (click on the highlighted title to go to the download page) if you want a thorough explanation for why you should be using Strength Training Thresholds in order to make long term consistent progress. When you progress from a threshold level of effort, you can add weight without ever feeling as though the workouts are becoming harder and harder over time. Each time you add weight, it should feel like you are training with the same amount of effort the last time you added weight.
In the next article, I will discuss how to add a pound to right level of effort in terms of heavy single rep training. Until then, best of training to you.