would you guys ever do something like 3sets of 10reps of every exercise except core work, at anytime of the year? My coach has got me doing squats, bench press, shoulder press, front squats, good mornings, deadlifts, calf raises - 3sets of 10 reps. Each exercise is performed with a 2 up, 2 down tempo.
My coach has me perform 10 * 2reps of the clean, very fast as well.
One of my friends is very much against this. He believes in low reps, heavy weight and being explosive. For example 4sets of 3reps on the bench press.
Olympic lifts from floor < 3.
Squats and dead lifts < 6
Pressing < 8
Hypers/abdominals < 15
Greater than those specified you will probably build non functional mass. This old idea of a preparatory period of high reps is inefficient on so many levels. Instead increase density by decreasing rest periods and increase volume through sets.
David W, what do you think of body weight circuits in GPP where reps are usually higher than 30? They don’t seem to add much weight, but will improve lactic tolerance, capillarisation and oxidative pathways.
Justy - If you are lifting to improve sports performance never lift to failure. Any rep range can cause hypertrophy providing force and time under tension are sufficient. Many athletes achieve significant (functional!) hypertrophy off singles!
THere are a number of threads on this topic., type ‘Functional Hypertrophy’ into the search engine. BTW What will induce greater hypertrophy 8x2r@90% or 2x8r@75%?
David, my coach was saying that he wants me to go through a hypertrophy phase before the explosive stuff and that lowering the weight at a slower rate helps build the smaller muscles. What do you think?
Bodyweight work can be a great way to activate survivial fibers and do hypertrophy work for young athletes. I also like bodyweight gpp for prehab movements before heavy strength work.
Tell your coach about this website! I think a decent conclusion can be drawn from these posts. Could you do sets of 10 reps in the weightroom? Yes, especially if you’re training age is relatively low. Bodyweight exercises could also be another way to go. But as dcw points out, you want variation in your program, and that means this type of work might appear for a defined period of time, usually at the beginning of the year and perhaps at a few points throughout the year. Most of the exercises you’ve listed would be best utilized when time under tension doesn’t exceed 20 seconds, and as David W points out, this usually means sets of 6 or less. A tempo of 2-0-2-0 isn’t exactly slow for a squat or bench press, particularly during the lowering portion. Taking 2 seconds to raise the weight, on the other hand, might be considered slow for a sprinter. Typically, when performing sets of 10, one could expect to take a good 4 seconds to lower the weight and no more than 1 second to raise the weight. If fatigue slows you down a bit don’t worry too much, just be sure to have the INTENT to go as fast as possible. Of course, this is assuming one adheres to a tempo system.
Originally posted by David W Greater than those specified you will probably build non functional mass. This old idea of a preparatory period of high reps is inefficient on so many levels. Instead increase density by decreasing rest periods and increase volume through sets.
I used to think like this too but I thought a lot more about it, changed our program this year varying exercises, rep schemes, etc, and following a careful logical progression (don’t have enough time to go into it now) And guess what? The first max strength phase this year my female athlete is parallel squatting 115kg (253lbs) and deadlifting 115kg. Both increases of 25kg over her previous PBs Not bad for someone of 56kg and 12 years training age
I agree with you its the way to max strength gains but sometimes the gains stop coming for one reason or another, also with sprinters there’s a lot of other variables that get in the way of lifting
Not bad for someone of 56kg and 12 years training age