If you are an experienced lifter who has been lifting for a year or more, chances are that you are already past the point of newbie gains. What are newbie gains? They are the rapid gains in strength that many lifters experience when they initially start a weight training program. When rapid gains cease, you can’t just keep adding weight to the same amount of sets and reps for your lifts each week; it just doesn’t work. So what do you do in order to keep getting stronger? I want to answer this question by focusing on the use of two different training methods which consist of loading waves, or marker rep training.
Two Reasons Your Body Gains Strength
Your body has two basic goals that it is trying to accomplish when it gains strength. These goals are listed below:
1. When faced with a difficult lifting stress, your body gains strength in order to lift the same weight with greater ease. Your body can achieve this through the use of marker rep training.
2. When adding small amounts of weight to your lifts from week to week, your body gains strength to keep the small additions of weight from becoming more difficult to lift. Your body can achieve this through the use of loading waves.
The basic take-aways from the two statements listed above are that marker rep training and the use of loading waves will provide you with effective training methods that lead to consistent strength gains. The details of how to apply these training methods will be explained throughout the rest of this article.
Marker Rep Training
Marker rep training is based on stopping your sets when you reach your marker rep. Your marker rep is the point in the set where rep speed starts to slow down. For example, if you can maintain a steady even rep speed for seven reps, but your rep speed starts to slow when you hit your eighth rep, the eighth rep is your marker rep because it marks the point in the set where rep speed decreases. You may experience subtle decreases in rep speed earlier in the set, but this is to be ignored. Look for a sudden in crease in effort combined with a sudden decrease in rep speed. This is the threshold that you should be aiming for as the stopping point for your set, and it will generally occur about two reps before you reach the point of failure which is the maximum number of reps that you can possibly perform.
Remember The Weight and Number of Reps
When you start with marker rep training, it is important to remember how much weight you are using for the lift you are performing, and it is important to remember the number of reps you performed when you stopped at your marker rep. One reason for this is because you should keep repeating the same exercise with the same amount of weight for the same number of reps until the marker rep occurs at an earlier point in the set. For example, if your marker rep occurs on your eighth rep for your first three sets of squats with 225 pounds, but your rep speed starts to slow down on your sixth or seventh rep when you reach your fourth set of squats with 225, you should stop repeating sets for the squat because you are training in a suboptimal state based on a suboptimal level of strength.
Converting the Marker Rep
Once you know the number of reps, the number of sets, and the amount of weight that you should be using for marker rep training, your goal is to keep repeating workouts consisting of the same amount of weight and reps until the sets become easy enough to perform all eight reps without slowing down when you reach your eighth rep. This improvement in performance needs to be something that occurs for at least three consecutive workouts. If the sets are easy enough to perform without slowing down on your eighth rep for three consecutive workouts, you have converted the marker rep to a strong rep that is just as strong and fast as the previous reps of the same set. Once you have converted the marker rep to a strong rep, you can add five to ten pounds and repeat the whole process of converting the marker rep again.
Loading Waves
When using marker rep training, the goal is to zero in on a precise amount of effort, intensity, and number of sets that cause your body to want to get stronger in order to lift the same weight with greater ease. You don’t add weight until this has been accomplished. The use of loading waves is based on a different strategy in which the weights increase over the course of three weeks. The loading wave is then repeated with the same weights until you gain enough strength to add more weight to the loading wave. The key is to start the loading wave with the right amount of weight, and finish the loading wave with the right amount of weight.
Start a Little Under and Finish a Little Over Your Second Week’s Weight
When using loading waves, my belief is that you should start by finding a weight that forces you to do the limit of reps you can perform using a steady even rep pace for the number of reps you are planning on lifting. For example, if you are doing sets of six reps for the bench press, you need to experiment and find the maximum weight that you can lift for six reps within the context of maintaining a steady even rep pace for all six reps. The sixth rep is called your limit rep because it is the limit of reps you can perform while maintaining a steady even rep pace. The weight that causes you to reach your limit rep on your sixth rep will be the poundage that you use for the second week out of a three week loading wave. Your poundages for week one should be five to ten pounds under the poundages you will be using for week two, and your poundages for week three should be five to ten pounds over what you use for week two. An example will help to explain this.
John is planning a three-week loading wave for the bench press. He will be doing six reps per set for his loading wave. John finds that the maximum weight that he can use while maintaining a steady even rep pace for all six reps is 205 pounds, which is the amount of weight that he will use during the second week of his loading wave. For the first week of the loading wave, he will cut back to 195 pounds for six reps. During the second week he will use 205 pounds for six reps, and during the third week he will use 215 pounds for six reps. After the third week, he will repeat the same loading wave with the same weekly poundages. John will keep repeating this loading wave until he gains strength and it becomes easier. Once this has occurred, John will add increase the weight by five pounds for each week of the loading wave.
Determine The Correct Number of Sets Based on Personal Capacity
Another key to a successful loading wave is to perform the correct number of sets. This is based on each lifter’s individual capacity for strong sets. We will once again refer to the previous example of John as an example for how to determine this. When John starts his loading wave with 195 pounds for the bench press, he finds that he can perform four sets of six reps while maintaining a steady even rep pace for all six reps of each set. These are all strong sets. When he reaches his fifth set, he finds that his rep speed starts to slow down on his sixth rep. This is a weak set and is John’s marker set, which marks the point where John is no longer performing with optimum ability. This being the case, John should stop after his fifth set.
When starting into the second week, John increases the weight to 205 pounds for six reps. He finds that he can do three strong sets while maintaining a steady even rep pace for six reps. However, his rep speed starts to slow down on his sixth rep when he reaches his fourth set. This is John’s marker set. It is a weak set that is marked by a decrease in strength and is the point at which he should stop repeating sets.
When John advances to the third week, he increases his bench press poundage to 215 pounds for six reps. This forces him to slow down on his sixth rep on his very first set. John can keep repeating sets as long as his reps speed slows down on his sixth rep because this means that he is just as strong as he was for his first set. In John’s case, he finds that his rep speed starts to slow down on his fifth rep instead of his sixth rep when he reaches his fourth set. This decline in performance means that John is in a suboptimal state for lifting, and he should stop repeating sets after his fourth set. If we change the example by imagining that John began to weaken on his third set instead of his fourth set, he should stop after his third set. Regardless of who the lifter is, the concept is simple, when strength decreases and suboptimal lifting occurs, stop repeating sets.
When to Increase Weight
John repeats this three week loading wave three times, which amounts to a total of nine weeks. After repeating the same loading wave three times, he increases his weights because he notices that he has gained strength during the third loading wave. How does he know he is getting stronger? Because his performance improves during the third loading wave. Specifically, when John is training during the first two weeks of his third loading wave, he notices that he can do an extra set before his rep speed starts to slow down. During the third week of the third loading wave, he notices that he no longer slows down on his sixth rep and he can do all six reps using a steady even rep pace. This is a clear indication that he has gained strength and he is ready to add five to ten pounds to each week of the next loading wave.
The key to the successful use of the marker rep method and the loading wave method is to use the right amount of effort. The right amount of effort is going to revolve around the marker rep or the limit rep. The right amount of effort is also going to revolve around the marker set, which means to repeat sets as long as you are at full strength. When you begin to perform in a suboptimal manner as evidenced by a decrease in strength, stop repeating sets.
If you take a moment and consider your current training, it is possible that there are times that you become uncertain in regard to how hard to push and how many sets to do. If this happens, consider using the methods explained in this article. Once you begin to apply these methods, it is important to be patient and give your training time to work. Consistency combined with precision regarding the right amount of effort and workload are the keys to long term success. May you experience the best of training and God’s blessing on your life.