Which sets/reps should you use?

There are few things I love more than an intense discussion on which set/rep scheme to choose.  Optimizing for performance is an art more than a science.  True success takes into account:  body type, % fast twitch to slow twitch fibers, mindset, experience, technique, health history, THEN goals.   There isn’t an equation where you can plug this information in and come out with your personalized answer.  It takes years and years of your personal trial and error in the gym.  You can often speed that process along by hiring and working with a professional.  The skill of the professional will directly relate to how fast they get you on the right track.  But even the best ones will need regular sessions in order to see what works, make changes, and progress based on rate of progress.  

So, the reality is if you’re hoping to reach success you’re going to need both passion, time, and resources to make that happen.  But that’s true in any field.  The great news is you can achieve a huge number of health benefits without any of those things (cultivating a passion towards your own health is highly encouraged though)!  You can lower your risk of all cause mortality by 25% if you expose your body to 60 minutes of heavy strength training COMBINED across a calendar week.  That's it!  You need to actually make sure the training is heavy though.  The strain is what is beneficial.  If you’re unable to expose your body to heavy strain you’ll need to spend more time.  But the end goal is very achievable even with the busiest lifestyles.   It’s important to note if you have an injury, lack of experience, or aren’t confident in your technique you should, without question, consult a professional to help you get going.  Heavy resistance training is potentially dangerous.  But what i’m hoping to convey is the end result is worth it! 

Motivational comments aside.  The basic outline you can follow is below:

For Power:  1-3 reps   4-6 sets

For Strength:  3-8 reps   4-6 sets 

For Hypertrophy:  8-15 reps 2-4 sets

This all assumes you are working at or near failure for each set.  Most people are either unwilling or unable to go to true failure.  But if you stop at 10 reps each time hoping to build muscle and in reality you could have gone for 8 more reps you aren’t challenging your system enough to generate a muscle building response.  

Lifting doesn’t have to be an isolated penance you pay to have good health.  You eat with family, you go out for drinks with your friends, you walk the dog with your spouse, you can workout with other people as well!   Success is all but assured if you can bring one of the people who you enjoy spending time with into your workouts. 

Exercise = Freedom

The word ‘exercise’ somehow has reached the status of a trigger word we collectively roll our eyes upon hearing as the solution to our problems.  It’s a tragedy!   This word should be synonymous with empowerment and freedom!  Exercise is the solution to 99% of pain relief.  What you will never fully understand unless you go through it is the liberating knowledge that pain is under your control once you have conquered it with exercise.  Your body is built to move and interact with the world.  Pain can be paralyzing and frequently cause the fearful reduction of movement.  Uncountable societal and family factors play into how pain is interpreted and expressed.  But the lowest hanging fruit (exercise) is also the most successful.  

Without question, other things can be completed alongside exercise:  chiropractic manipulations, dry needling, massage, cupping, even surgery!  But none of these things will solve your problem by itself.  They are universally paired alongside intelligent and purposeful exercise.  Where we often get lost is when we start with those things instead of exercise.  The number of issues that can be solved with exercise alone is staggering.  Yes, surgery is sometimes required.  But what happens after surgery?  What is recommended before?  DId the physician write you a script to watch TV for 12 hours a day?  The majority of the time they recommend actual physical therapy; the other they advise slow return to activity.  In both scenarios you’re going back to activity!  

Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.  If you use surgery or any quick fix by itself you have effectively eaten for a day.  If you learn what caused your pain, how to fix it, and how to prevent it from coming back you now have the tools to eat for a lifetime!

Partnering with a professional who understands this relationship between your physical AND mental health is absolutely critical.  Truthfully they can be a Physical Therapist, Personal Trainer, Chiropractor, Surgeon, Masseuse, or anyone in the healthcare profession.

Blood Flow Restriction!

Blood flow restriction is an incredibly safe and useful tool to prevent the atrophy of muscle under any circumstance where resistance training is not appropriate or possible.  The most useful application is seen post surgically or after injury when the body is not able to provide a strong muscular contraction.  

The premise is eloquent in its simplicity; you restrict blood flow to an area in order to stimulate the release of hormones that will aid in strength, recovery, and pain modulation.  When you restrict blood, you restrict oxygen flow to the muscle tissue.  This causes a build-up of lactate and hydronium ion (from lactic acid which is the more mainstream precursor) giving that familiar ‘burning’ sensation in the muscle tissue.  The effect of this is the release of human growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1.  Normally this is experienced under high load or burnout sets or some sort of extreme muscle exertion.  Blood flow restriction makes it possible to experience this biological phenomenon under low load or no-load conditions making it the ideal add-on for injured or recovering tissue.   Body builders have been doing this for decades already and maybe as such, it’s taken longer to become accepted by the mainstream community.   The 4-inch cuffs are by far the safest on the vascular system (thank you physics) but the optimum frequency usage rate is still up for debate.  Currently the most researched format is 30:15:15:15 in terms of reps and sets with an identical amount of rest between each set.  

The chief concern as justification for not using blood flow restriction is from development of a venous thromboembolism.  There is a nice write-up in the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Therapy on this exact issue taking the summaries of 4 experts reviews of the literature.  The conclusion was there is no increased risk over high weight training in the normal person.  

However, for the post-surgical candidate there isn’t any science to show a negative effect but, also nothing to show it is positive without increased risk.  The trick of it all, is what has been shown to be true is the longer you don’t use a muscle the faster it will atrophy.  In the case of surgery that is often unavoidable over multiple weeks!  But blood flow restriction, as noted above, can be an excellent way of exposing the body to stress without weight or heavy weight thus, severely shortening the negative outlook for this lack of use.   Due to the unique nature of each surgery and each patient, clearly let the surgeon and therapist recommendations drive the usage of such a modality.  But the upside is potentially huge, and you should absolutely ask you it if you aren’t doing it yet!   

In conclusion: this is a very exciting and safe (when implemented correctly) method of preventing the atrophy of muscle while it is injured or recovering.  If you haven’t tried it reach out and get educated today! 

Demystifying Program Design

Program design can be tricky but it doesn’t have to be.  To get a measurable amount of actual strength gain you need to hit between 10-30 sets a week.  Yes, 30 is a lot.  You likely won’t run into that range unless you’re in exceptionally good shape, have very specific workout goals, and have a lot of free time.  So lets assume 10 sets is the target for most people.  Three sets of an exercise that hits a muscle group 3 days a week gives you 9 total sets…so one of those days toss in an extra set and you’re good to go.  Example, if you want to target your quads you can try to isolate them with a split squat movement or a leg extension.  Even if you set it up to be 3 sets of 10 (which is a traditional beginner series) you’d see notable strength gains if you would not have been able to complete an 11th or 12th rep during each of those sets. 

One thing you have to take into account is that number 10 comes from a high RPE (rating of perceived exertion) challenge.  You won’t get the strength effect if you’re leaving a lot of reps in the tank each set.  If you complete a set of 10 but you could have done 15, your quad isn’t going to get stronger.  You have to be stressing your system for all 10 sets.  Otherwise you’ll need to add more sets or change your set structure to more reps or pick a different exercise where you can exert yourself more forcefully.  Given the high strain of these required 10 sets make sure you’re warmed up property before you start counting towards the 10.   

The huge number of variables to consider when making a fully program can be intimidating but keep this one at the top of your list and you’ll start to see clear progress in 4-6 weeks.   So, give it a shot!  Shoot me a message if you get stuck along the way.