In the last two articles, I have been discussing the 6/15 workout, which is based on choosing three basic exercises per workout, and doing one to three sets of 6 reps followed by one set of 15 reps for each exercise. The three exercises should consist of a squat or leg press exercise, a pressing exercise for chest or shoulders, and a pulling exercise for the back muscles.
The Marker Rep
The key to this program is to dial in on a precise amount of intensity for each set by using a weight that forces you to stop at your marker rep. Your marker rep occurs towards the end of the set and is the point in the set where you notice that it takes a sudden increase in effort to keep repeating reps. This usually occurs when you can no longer repeat reps at the same pace. The pace is altered when you are forced to pause longer between reps, or when you are forced to decrease your rep speed. When you notice that your rep speed or rep pace is slowing down, you should stop the set. If you are using the right amount of weight, this will happen at your 6th rep or your 15th rep assuming you are doing the 6/15 workout. Stopping at the marker rep will usually mean that you are leaving anywhere from one to three reps in the tank. The exact number of reps that are left in the tank is dependent on a person’s individual characteristics and the exercise being performed.
When To Increase Your Weights
In this article, the main objective is to discuss how to know that it is the right time to increase your weights when using the 6/15 workout. The main signal for this is the conversion of your marker rep from a weaker slower rep to a stronger faster rep. When you gain enough strength to maintain the same rep pace for every rep of the set; including the last rep (which is the marker rep), the marker rep has been converted. You will then be able to perform the last rep at the same speed and pace as the previous reps of the set.
Converting The Marker Rep
As long as the marker rep is slower than the previous reps of the same set, you have not converted the marker rep yet. If you have to pause longer before your last rep in order to gather your strength before doing your last rep, you have not converted the marker rep yet. The slowness of the last rep must disappear, and any indication of a longer pause that occurs before you perform your last rep must disappear. The last rep of the set should look like the previous reps of the same set in terms of rep speed, rep pace, range of motion, and maintaining good form. Once these improvements have been established for three consecutive workouts, you are ready to add 5 pounds to the lift in which you have converted the slower weaker marker rep into a faster stronger rep.
Lifters get into trouble when they think that adding weight will automatically cause an increase in strength, when the truth is that the added weight does nothing more than to cause a break down in form and rep speed. Before weight is added, the quality of the performance should increase so that the last rep looks like the previous reps of the same set in terms of speed and form. Once quality improves, it’s a sign that you are ready to add weight.
The Workout Will Get Easier
When using this method of progression, the set actually gets easier over time. This is exactly what your body is trying to accomplish when it gains strength, it’s getting stronger in order to make it easier for you to lift the same amount of weight and reps. That’s the whole purpose of physical adaptations, they create changes within your body that make it easier for you to deal with difficult conditions in the environment so that you don’t remain overwhelmed with difficulties. However, if the environment counters every adaptation with an immediate increase in difficulty, it becomes pointless for your body to keep adapting. Let your workouts become easier by converting the marker rep to a faster easier rep before you try to add weight.
Personal Experience
The marker rep conversion strategy outlined in this article helped me to gain strength better than the other strategies that I had tried with the 6/15 workout. I had tried training to failure in every workout, which definitely did not work. I also tried doing three workouts per week in which two of the workouts were only moderately hard, and the third workout was a high intensity workout in which I pushed to failure. This strategy worked a lot better than always training to failure, but in the long run, nothing worked as good as the marker rep conversion strategy.
If you are looking for a simple workout that delivers results on a consistent basis, I recommend the 6/15 workout in combination with marker rep training. If you fail to dial-in to the right intensity, and you don’t train according to your capacity in terms of repeating sets as long as you are at full strength, it will be just another workout. However, if you get the details right, you will get the right results. Best of training to you.
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