If you want to experience long term strength gains, one strategy that will help you to accomplish this is to use a progression method based on converting weak reps into strong reps. Many lifters do not understand this concept as they believe that they must push as hard as possible to add weight, sets, or reps to their workouts to get stronger. I do not agree with this belief. You can get 5 to 10 pounds stronger by repeating the same workout, or the same cycle of workouts, without adding any weight, sets, or reps. This works especially well when you set up a training system based on converting weak reps into strong reps.
The Goal Of Your Body
When your goal is based on converting weak reps into strong reps, the same weight and reps will become easier to lift over time. This is important because the goal that your body is trying to achieve when it gains strength is to allow you to lift the same amount of weight and reps with greater ease. When you train in agreement with the goal that your body is trying to achieve when it gains strength, your body will keep responding with strength gains. In contrast, when you train in contradiction to this goal, your body will eventually respond by refusing to gain strength. This is exactly what happens to chronic high intensity lifters who believe that they must always immediately add weight or reps to their workouts at the first hint of a strength gain.
Ask yourself what you normally do when you gain strength. Is your immediate response to make the workouts harder by increasing the weight or reps? Hopefully not, because it defeats the main purpose that your body is trying to achieve when it gains strength. It is better to respond to a strength gain by allowing the same workouts to become easier for a time. Converting weak reps to strong reps will help you to do this. In order to convert weak reps to strong reps, you must understand the meaning of weak reps and strong reps.
Strong Reps
Strong reps are reps that can be repeated using a steady even rep pace within the same set. Of course, there is a limit to how many strong reps you can repeat using a steady even rep pace. Eventually fatigue will set in and your reps will start to slow down at the end of a set.
Weak Reps
The slower reps that occur at the end of a set are called weak reps.
Weak reps show up when pushing for max reps to failure; especially when doing sets that range between 5 to 15 reps. Under these conditions, most lifters will end up doing 2 to 3 weak reps at the end of a set. Those who push to the point where they are doing weak reps at the end of their sets do not need to focus on adding weight or reps to gain strength. All that is needed is to repeat the same workouts (or the same cycle of workouts) with the same amount of weight and reps. When training in this manner, the goal of your body is to gain enough strength to make the slower weaker reps easier. As the body gains strength over time, the slower weak reps will start to speed up. Eventually the slowness of the weak reps will vanish as they are converted into strong reps. An example will help to explain this.
Jim was capable of bench pressing 200 pounds for 10 reps. When doing this, the first 8 reps were strong reps that could be repeated using a steady even rep pace, however, the ninth and tenth reps were slower weaker reps. As Jim gained strength, it started to become easier to do 10 reps. As the weight became easier to lift, the slower ninth and tenth reps started to speed up. Eventually, Jim could perform all ten reps without slowing down on his ninth and tenth reps. In this example, the weak reps were converted into strong reps so that all ten reps could be performed as strong reps. After converting weak reps to strong reps, Jim added ten pounds which forced him to repeat the same process with 210 pounds.
Marker Rep Training
When considering Jim’s example, he kept repeating workouts in order to convert two weak reps into strong reps. This process can be simplified even more by stopping a set after the first weak rep. If you were to do this, you would only need to convert one weak rep into a strong rep. I refer to it as marker rep training because the first weak rep within a set is called the marker rep.
The marker rep marks the point in a set where rep speed starts to slow down. In addition, the marker rep is the point in a set where reps suddenly become more difficult than the previous reps. This being the case, your body will want to eliminate the sudden increase in difficulty by gaining strength. As strength is gained, the marker rep becomes easier and faster until it is converted into a strong rep. It may only take one week to convert a weak rep into a strong rep for a beginner, but it may take eight or more weeks for an advanced lifter to convert a weak rep to a strong rep. After the complete conversion of a weak rep into a strong rep, you can add 5 pounds and repeat the process.
If you use this strategy, the additions of weight will never feel as though they are becoming harder than the last addition of weight. The emphasis is on allowing workouts to become easier rather than to emphasize the need for making them harder. The result is that you will be training in agreement with what your body is trying to accomplish when it gains strength. This will help you avoid training plateaus. If you are experiencing a training plateau, consider the strategy in which you convert weak reps to strong reps in order to start gaining strength again. Best of training to you.
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