adding weight to a barbell
One of the basic concepts of Precision Point Training is that progression occurs by giving your body time to adapt to the same workouts so that they become easier. This will occur if you are getting stronger because a given workout poundage for a given amount of reps will become easier as you get stronger.
It seems to be a common weight training method to immediately increase the amount of weight or reps that are being used as soon as a lifter experiences a strength increase. I don’t believe that this strategy is a necessary element of effective training. You don’t need to immediately increase the amount of weight or reps that you are using every time you get stronger. If you train right, your body will grow stronger off the same workout poundages and reps for several weeks or even months, and the workouts will become easier. This is exactly what your body wants because the primary goal of your body when faced with a difficult exercise stress is to adapt so that the training stress becomes easier, yet lifters are often obsessed with making their workouts harder. Of course the weight and reps will eventually need to be increased, but let yourself get stronger as a result of the same workouts becoming easier first.
Simple Workouts Becoming Easier
Allowing a workout to become easier is a simple concept if your workouts are simple, but it may be a little more complex if your workouts are complex. For example, if a lifter is doing three sets of eight reps for all of their exercises, the basic precision point strategy is for the lifter to use an amount of weight that allows them to lift with a nice even rep rhythm until they reach their 8th rep. The 8th rep should be the point in the set where rep rhythm and rep speed involuntarily starts to slow down due to fatigue. This is where the lifter should stop. The lifter should keep on doing 8 reps with the same amount of weight in future workouts until strength has increased to the point where the 8th rep becomes easy enough to do without having to slow the rep speed or rep rhythm. After the 8th rep has become easier, the lifter should give themselves at least one to four weeks before adding weight, and then the process can begin over again with the added weight for 8 reps. While this is the simple version of allowing workouts to become easier, not everyone works out with the same exercises or amount of weight and reps in every workout.
Training Cycles Becoming Easier
Many lifters want variety in their workouts which makes the concept of allowing workouts to become easier a little more complex. For example, some lifters use the same weekly cycle where they use different training poundages on different days each week. The concept of allowing workouts to become easier can still be applied, but it will be applied to the workout cycle. In other words, if the cycle is repeated every week with the same workout poundages and reps, then the cycle should start to feel easier from one week to the next. If you use a three week or a six week training cycle, then the next training cycle should feel easier if you were to repeat the cycle using the same progression of weights and reps as the previous cycle. Of course, if your body is responding within three weeks or six weeks, you may be ready to increase the weight or reps without having to keep the weight and reps the same.
Complex Training Becoming Easier
Another variable that adds complexity is if you were to constantly change the exercises and the amount of weight used. If you train in this manner, understand that the main principle behind allowing workouts to become easier is that anytime an exercise is done for a given amount of weight and reps, the next time that same exercise is done for the same amount of weight and reps, the goal is for it to become easier than it was the last time. For example, if you use 180 pounds for 6 reps in incline press in a workout, it may be a month later before you include incline presses with 180 pounds for 6 reps in your workout again. But the bottom line trend is that 180 pounds for 6 reps in the incline press should be getting easier, whether it’s repeated in the next workout, a week later, a month later, or any amount of time later.
Long Term Progress
I believe the principle of allowing workouts or training cycles to become easier over time works best with consistent workouts or with relatively short workout cycles that are no more than three weeks long. You can do longer cycles of constant change if you desire, but gauging whether or not the workouts or training cycles are becoming easier becomes more difficult. Having said all this, I believe an effective strategy of progression for consistent long term strength gains is to follow the concept of allowing the same workouts or workout cycles to become easier over time before making them harder. It may not be a popular concept, but it works if applied correctly. Best of training to you.