Strength Training - It's Not About Reps, Sets or Loads

I may have just branded myself a fitness heretic for making such a bold statement (although I prefer to think of myself as a courageous idealist), but that's one of the benefits of getting old. Call it cantakerous or eccentric, but each day I lose another few grey hairs (although I'm pretty sure it's the dark brown ones that are abandoning ship), I find I'm less and less worried about offending people. Especially when I'm telling the truth. Status Quo, be damned!

There - I said it.

It may sound like I'm being silly (well, maybe, just a little, but again, oldsters like me like to amuse ourselves) but there are those out there who live and die by their "three sets of ten reps each" mantra. It's garbage. Unless it just happens to precisely meet your specific muscle building objectives, dogmatic loyalty to a particular template whose most attractive feature is that it is a predictable quantity of sets, reps and loads, you're missing the point. And you may be missing important opportunity to get a much more effective strength workout in.

The basic strength training equation is this:

Relative Intensity x Time Muscles are Under Load

The first part addresses the workload difficulty in terms of an individuals unique capacity (the only relevant reference point), and the second part addresses the volume of the work performed. And they have an inverse relationship. The more weight you lift the less time you can keep it up. Makes sense, right? So the trick is to manipulate those variables to improve your strength and/or endurance exactly the way you want. How many ways are there to do that? More than a million. So where do you start? With the right exercises, proper form and loads that don't overwhelm you in just a few lifts (because that's high-risk power training appropriate for only a very few narrow athletic applications) but that you can't push for several minutes straight (because that would only improve your strength modestly and use a ridiculous amount of time to accomplish very little).

That's where reps, set, and loads come in - simply as tools in your tool box - not as the compass to point the way to your destination. It's fine to have a set routine but what's much more important is that your understand what you're trying to accomplish, how to accomplish that goal and why the method you choose works best.

An experienced, nationally certified trainer can be a big help with that but there are great books that explain these points well too.

I will be covering these points in more detail myself in future posts. If you can't wait, I'm available for on-line coaching at Dan@TriValleyTrainer.com.