When it comes to strength training, there are a few aspects of training that I constantly emphasize; even to the point of annoyance. Why do I do this? Because some things must be emphasized again and again or people will quickly forget the most important aspects of training. One of those important aspects is to train a muscle group as long as it is at full strength. Conversely, you should stop training a muscle group when it is no longer at full strength.
Strong Sets
As long as you are performing sets while you are at full strength, you are doing what I refer to as strong sets. If you exceed your capacity for strong sets, you are doing weak sets and are training in a weakened state. If limiting yourself to strong sets limits you to a couple sets and it doesn’t seem like enough, try training more often.
What Strong Sets Look Like
Having emphasized my belief that it is best to train a muscle group as long as it is at full strength, I think it is important to have a visual picture for what it looks like. This is easy to identify when a lifter is using the same weight from set to set while performing the same exercise. Basically, every set should look the same in terms of the number of reps and the speed of each rep. If you reach a set where you can’t do as many reps, or your rep speed starts to slow down in comparison with previous sets, you are no longer at full strength, and you are no longer in an optimal state for strength training.
A Demonstration of Strong Sets
Mike Tuchscherer is an outstanding powerlifter. In the video below, he does eight sets of squats for five reps each. Each set looks very similar in terms of form and rep speed. His form doesn’t break down at the end of his sets, nor does it break down as he continues to repeat sets. The same is true of his rep speed, it remains nearly constant across all 40 reps that he performs in this video. This is very similar to how the Russian powerlifters tend to train; perfect form and consistent rep speed. No slowing down, and no breaking down. Training to failure is avoided. Watch Mike train.
I must point out that Mike is probably training at around 75% of his single rep max. If he were training at 80% of his single rep max, he would probably only be able to do four to six sets at full strength. Many lifters can only remain at full strength for two or three hard sets, and some lifters may only be able to do one. If this is true of you, don’t be fooled into thinking that you must imitate someone who does a lot of sets because there are a lot of strong lifters who just work up to one hard work set for each exercise. Let your own capacity be the guide for how many sets you do and it will make a positive difference over time. Best of training to you.