Training for Strength and Testing for Strength
If you are going to test your strength on a regular basis during your workouts, I suggest learning to do so by testing what I refer to as training thresholds (and precision points). These training thresholds consist of the marker rep, strong rep max, and your limit of strong sets. The reason for doing this is to avoid constantly pushing to failure on a constant basis as it can lead to overtraining. How do you do you test training thresholds? I will give some examples. If you follow these methods, you can easily monitor your strength without having to exceed the boundaries of effective strength training practices.
Testing the Marker rep Threshold
The marker rep threshold is a simple way to test your strength in every workout without inducing counterproductive strain. What is a marker rep? It’s the first rep that you come to in a set where you can no longer maintain a steady even pace from one rep to the next. The first rep where rep speed starts to slow down from one rep to the next is your marker rep. If we consider an example of when your marker rep falls on your tenth rep, then it would mean that could perform nine forceful reps (which I refer to as strong reps) with a steady even pace from one rep to the next. However, if your rep speed starts to slow down on the tenth rep, then your tenth rep is your marker rep. In this particular case, you will know that your strength is increasing when you improve from being able to do nine reps using a steady even pace, to ten reps using a steady even rep pace. Testing for the ability to do more strong reps before you hit your marker reps is a simple way to incorporate testing your strength into every workout without needing to push to failure in order to know whether or not your strength is increasing.
The following video shows Ronnie Coleman doing a set of leg presses and it is an excellent example of how to push to your marker rep and stop. Ronnie does nine reps using a steady even rep pace and stops after fatigue forces him to slow down on his tenth rep (his marker rep).
Testing the Strong Rep Max Threshold
The truth is that you don’t even need to push all the way to your marker rep to improve your strength, you can stop a set on your last strong rep. Your last strong rep is your strong rep max, which is based on the maximum number of strong reps that you can do using a steady even pace from one rep to the next without slowing down. We can look at an example of a strong rep max of eight reps. If at some point it feels like it is getting easier to perform eight strong reps, you can test yourself by adding on a rep, or adding on a small amount of weight. If you add on a rep or some weight, and it doesn’t force you to slow down your rep speed on your last rep, then you have found that you have successfully gained strength by testing your strong rep max.
This next video is an example of a strong rep max. Ronnie Coleman does 13 strong reps and stops (the person counting reps for him only counted 12, but Ronnie actually does 13). He does not push to failure; he doesn’t even push to his marker rep. Ronnie uses a variety of training methods and there are times when he pushes his sets well past his strong rep max, but on this exercise, he is stopping close to his strong rep max.
Testing the Marker Set Threshold
When your strength improves, you will be able to do more sets with the same amount of weight and reps. Knowing this provides you with another option for testing strength without the need to push to failure. For example, you may be using three sets of eight reps for an exercise because your marker rep falls on the eighth rep for all three sets. If you proceed to a fourth set, you find that you hit your marker rep on your seventh rep instead of your eighth. This is called a marker set because it marks the first set where you are no longer at full strength. I believe it’s better to avoid doing a marker set. At some point, the amount of weight that you have been using for three sets of eight reps may start to feel easier. When this happens, you can try testing your strength by adding on a fourth set to see if your marker rep has improved from seven reps on your fourth set to eight reps. If this improvement has been made, it’s a good sign that you have gained strength. Once again, this is a way to test for strength without overdoing it and compromising strength gains.
All of these methods discussed in this article will help you gauge your strength by testing your training thresholds rather than pushing to failure. It will help you to train at the right level of effort instead of pushing too hard to make consistent progress. Best of training to you.