Progress vs. performance, which is more important to you when you do a weight training workout? If you are consumed by performance, your eye will constantly be on pushing yourself to break a record by doing more reps or using more weight. Many would say, isn’t that the goal? Yes, it is the eventual goal, but it should not be the perpetual goal that a lifter tries to achieve in every workout.
There was a time when I thought I was cheating if I didn’t push myself to break a new record in a workout; now I think differently. I understand that if I exceed my threshold capacities to train at full strength, then I am cheating. What do I mean by exceeding my threshold capacities? I mean pushing past the point where my strength and performance are noticeably compromised during a set, or compromised from one set to the next, or when reaching a weight that exceeds my ability to maintain good form and steady speed throughout a rep.
Advice from a Champion
Consider listening to Mikhail Koklyaev has to say in the videos below. Koklyaev is a champion Olympic lifter and power lifter from Russia. He draws a distinction between the mindset that many American lifters have when approaching a workout, and the mindset that the Russian lifters have when doing a workout. Koklyaev doesn’t try to break a record in every workout. He does a lot of training using 70% of his single rep max. He can lift 417 kilos, but he sticks with doing a large volume of training with 290-300 kilos for weeks and months until he gets better at lifting it. When I say a large volume, don’t mistake that for thinking that he pushes to failure with 70% of his max. Most Russian lifters stick with five reps, even though they can do many more per set. They often do many sets in this manner with lower reps.
Are you focusing how much you can lift in today’s workouts, or are you focusing on consistent strength gains over time? Progress vs. performance; you must decide which to focus on. Progress comes from pushing to your capacity to train strong, but not exceeding it by training past your ability to maintain a steady-even rep pace within a set, or by training past your ability to remain at full strength from set to set. It also means staying within your capacity to lift heavy without grinding or slowing down within a lifting motion.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, even though it goes against what many others say: you can do the same workout again and again using 70% of your single rep max and make progress, if (and that’s an important if) you push to your capacity of training strong without exceeding it. This means you can do the same amount of reps for the same amount of sets, using the same amount of weight from one workout to the next, and you will gain strength without having to push to failure, or do grinder reps, or do a marathon workout. The workout will eventually get easier, then you add weight.
Am I saying that it should be rule that you always do the same workout from workout to the next? No, you can vary the weight from one workout to the next, but learn how to train within your capacity to train strong. The books Strength Training Thresholds and Strength Training Capacity go into a lot of detail to explain how this works. These books are for free, just click on the titles access a download.
Breaking a Record with Easier
If you want to break a record, your first goal should be to break a record in terms of how easy it is to do the same number of reps and sets that you have been doing in your workouts with a given amount of weight. The easier it gets, the stronger you are getting, and you will eventually be able to add weight. This requires a mindset that is focused on long term progress instead of daily performance. If you are struggling to make progress, consider applying these concepts to your workouts. Best of training to you.