Weight training progress comes in the form of either fast, medium, or slow strength gains. If you keep repeating the same amount of reps per set and are able to add five or more pounds to your lifts each week, you are gaining at a fast rate. Fast gains are often made for three to six months by beginning lifters who are using a sound weight training program. Some can make rapid strength gains for up to a year. The ability to increase your strength by five pounds every three to seven weeks constitutes strength gains that occur at a moderate pace. A lot of lifters can gain at a moderate pace for a year or two after reaching the point where their body no longer responds to training with fast gains. After that, the goal is simply to gain at all, which usually amounts to slow gains.
It Sounds Slow
Within this past year, I was having a discussion with someone about weight training. The discussion involved the rate at which strength gains are generally made. I said that no one can make fast gains forever and every lifter who lifts long enough will reach the point where the only type of gains that can be made are slow gains. I emphasized that small amounts of weight had to be gradually added in order to keep gaining. The person I was speaking to responded, “Do you mean something like only five pounds per week?” I replied, “No, adding five pounds to your lifts every week means that you are making fast gains. If you keep adding five pounds per week for a year, you will finish the year 250 pounds stronger than when you started.” I had to specify that an advanced lifter should be content if they can add five pounds to their lifts every eight to twelve weeks.” This sounds slow. The reason for this is because it is slow. At the same time, those who have been lifting for more than two to three years must accept this.
5 Years and 10 Years of Slow Gains
Imagine a powerlifter who can bench 400 pounds, squat 700 pounds, and deadlift 600 pounds. If they are at the stage where they can add 20 pounds to each lift every year, it will add up to 100 more pounds to each lift in five years. This amounts to a 500 pound bench, an 800 pound squat, and a 700 pound deadlift in five years. If you up the time to ten years, the same lifter will be benching 600 pounds, squatting 900 pounds, and deadlifting 800 pounds. The trick is to gain just 5 pounds of strength every twelve weeks. It sounds so slow, but if you are committed to a long term lifting plan, it will really add up across the years.
A Good Strategy Turns Into a Bad Strategy
One of the most confusing things about weight training is that lifting strategies that produce fast gains often seem like the best strategies. These strategies truly are the best strategies for short term lifting progress. However, a strategy that produces fast gains is often a bad strategy if your goal is to keep gaining year after year.
The overload principle enables you to make fast gains if you are at the stage where you have the ability to do so. When practicing the overload principle, you simply try to break a personal record every workout or every week by lifting the same amount of weight for more reps, or by performing the same amount of reps with more weight. You simply push yourself to do more, and you keep doing this as long as your body responds with strength gains. The problem is that it will eventually stop working. At that point, a different approach to training is needed.
Back Off on Training Intensity
If you can’t add five or more pounds to your lifts every week by simply pushing yourself to do so, you will most likely need to alter your training intensity. Instead of going all out by trying to break a personal record each week, cut back on the intensity. This is the exact opposite of what you will read or hear within a lot of weight training circles. Many lifters and coaches will try to get you to push even harder in order to keep gaining. Some will point to a lack of effort and a lack of training intensity for the reason as to why your gains have slowed down. However, if you have been maxing out on reps every time you work out, it makes no sense to try harder because you are already trying your hardest. You would be much better off if you left one to three reps in the tank and kept repeating workouts with the same weight and reps until it gets easier. An example would be helpful.
Allow The Same Workouts To Become Easier
We will imagine that you leave one rep in the tank when benching 225 pounds for 8 reps. Your goal is to keep repeating workouts with 225 pounds for 8 reps until it feels as though you are leaving two reps in the tank instead of one. If you can do three consecutive workouts where it feels like you are leaving two reps in the tank instead of one rep in the tank, you can add five pounds. You may be at the stage where it takes 3 to 7 weeks before the same weight and reps have become easier to lift allowing you to add 5 pounds. I would refer to this as a medium rate of strength gain. Eventually you will find what all long-term lifters find, which is that the only way to make gains is to make them slowly. At this point, adding 5 pounds to your lifts every eight to twelve weeks is commendable, especially if you can do it year after year.
Finding The Right Training Intensity
The exact intensity that allows you to keep gaining slowly for years is going to vary from lifter to lifter. In my own case, I prefer to push myself to keep repeating reps as long as I have the ability to maintain a steady even rep pace within a set. Others use the RPE scale which stands for rate of perceived exertion. Maximum exertion refers to doing as many reps as possible within a set and correlates to a ten, which is the highest number on the scale of exertion. A nine means that you perceive that you are leaving one rep in the tank because nine is one less than ten. An eight means that you perceive that you are leaving two reps in the tank. A seven means that you perceive that you are leaving three reps in the tank. A six means that you perceive that you are leaving four reps in the tank as six is four less than ten. Most lifters who use this scale will respond best if they use a training intensity that ranges between seven to nine, which is equivalent to leaving three, two, or one rep in the tank. It’s up to each lifter to find the exact intensity that they respond to best.
.
If you were to compare weight training to running, you basically have three different mindsets. These mindsets consist of a sprinter’s mindset, a middle distance runner’s mindset, and a long distance runner’s mindset. The sprinter only cares about a short-term outcome of running. The middle distance runner is thinking of a distance that is longer than a sprint, but is not exceptionally long. A long distance runner is thinking of a long race. Each must adjust his pace and effort according to the length of the race. The same is true of short term, medium term, and long-term lifting. If you want to gain fast, you can push harder to gain faster. However, this will lead to burnout if you do it too long. Back off if you want to avoid burnout and keep gaining longer.
What I am writing about is completely overlooked by a lot of lifters. It’s very easy to keep looking to a period of time in which you were able to make rapid gains and believe that it will always be the best way to train because it brought such rapid results. The problem is that it invariably stops working and you must adjust your training to a strategy that works now. Think about these things and consider whether they apply to your situation. If they do, make the appropriate adjustments by easing up on the intensity and allowing the same training to become easier before adding more weight. Best of training to you.