Intensity: You Control It

You will not always be able to control some training variables.

Frequency. Every once in a while you’ll get sick. Every once in a while you’ll have to stay at work late. Things like these could prevent you from getting to the gym as frequently as you would like.

Duration. Some days you get caught in traffic on your way to the gym. Some days you have to pick your child up from school. These are things that could cause your workout to be cut shorter than you had planned.

Load. Maybe it snowed a lot today and your gym is closed due to the weather. Maybe you are traveling and your hotel gym only has a treadmill and a set of 5lb and 10lb dumbbells. These are times when you may not have access to the equipment and the amount of weight you are accustomed to training with.

But one thing you can always control is intensity.

(Training) Intensity refers to how hard your body is working during an activity.

If you were unable to work out some days this week, make sure to push the intensity on the days you are able to.

If your workout has to be shortened tomorrow, make sure to be as efficient as possible for the time you will be working out to keep the intensity higher.

If you aren’t at your regular gym and have to make do with lighter weights, use pauses or tempo, or extend sets for more reps to increase the intensity.

It shouldn’t matter how often you’re able to work out, how much time you have to work out, or what equipment you have at your disposal - you should always be able to find a way to push yourself to a proper intensity level.

One One One

The weight is loaded.

You approach the bar, tasked with a set of three squats.

You barely finished your previous set, with a lighter weight, and because of that, you have already convinced yourself that these next thirty seconds of your life are really going to suck.

How are you going to make it out of this set alive?

Don’t frame the set as for “three reps.”

Not only is doing so daunting, it is also inefficient.

When you begin a set and respect its entirety, you end up pacing yourself to make it to the end. This typically leads to reps being done at lower quality and with sub-maximal force, which negatively affects the subsequent rep. Because of this, the set is more difficult than it needs to be.

Optimize

Instead, break the set up mentally and conceive it as three singles instead of a set of three.

Do one rep with maximal force. Collect yourself, then do another rep with the same level of concentration and intent. Then do the same thing one more time.

Although the math all worked out to be the same, using this method got you to your target of three reps in a more efficient way:

• Bar speed was better preserved.

• Grinding/straining was reduced.

• Less fatigue was perceived.

• Fewer distractions (fewer reps at a time) led to a better focus on movement quality.

Whenever you come to a grueling set in training, go ahead and mentally break it into smaller parts. Your hard sets will feel less miserable and your strength and conditioning levels will improve faster.

How Deep Should You Squat?

A person who can squat to full depth will always be able to squat to partial depth, but a person who cannot squat to full depth may find themself in trouble if they ever reach an inadvertent depth.

Why not prepare for it all and train yourself to own every inch of range of motion that is available, to unlock all of the potential of your squat?

If you ask me, some trainees need to squat deep.

If you ask me, every trainee should (at least) try to squat deep.

A few examples of ones who need to squat deep are powerlifters, weightlifters, and sport athletes. A powerlifter needs to reach a certain amount of depth to be awarded a successful squat in competition. A weightlifter needs to be proficient at squatting as low as possible in order to receive snatches and cleans at lower heights. A sport athlete is destined to wind up in various crouched positions that they must recover from and get out of quickly in order to remain a participant during their games.

Everyone else should be attempting to squat as deep as they can.

To me, “as deep as they can” means as far down as they can go while maintaining form and balance. It does not mean as far down as they are comfortable going.

Depth: Unnatural vs. Unfamiliar

If as you venture to greater squat depth, your heels peel off the ground, your knees sandwich together, and/or your back begins to take the shape of a waxing crescent 🌙, you may be trying to go too deep, for now at least.

If as you journey to greater squat depth, you stop at any point because you are unsure you will be able to get back up, you could probably go deeper, you just have not tried enough of it yet.

The former is an example of someone who is trying to force a range of motion that is unnatural, and an argument could be made that attempting to go that deep should be avoided in order to prevent injury.

The latter is an example of someone who is reluctant to squat deeper because of an unfamiliar range of motion, which is just uncharted territory. This, in effect, presents unexplored room to build more strength, mobility, and coordination than their current squat depth. This should be considered encouraging!

More depth: Making Unfamiliar, Familiar

If you aspire to develop a deeper squat, you will need to practice it regularly.

Obviously, you will have more trust in yourself squatting lighter weights to greater depths than you will heavier ones, so take full advantage of building confidence on your lighter sets. Make a concerted effort to travel further down than you normally do as you are warming up and working up in weights.

If you form the habit of squatting lower during your lighter sets, it will begin to translate to your heavier sets over time.

Once you are equipped with the ability to squat to full depth, it does not mean you need to get there with every set, but there will be a higher probability that you bail yourself out if ever the weight pushes you lower than you want to go.

To sum up, do not force more range of motion if your body is not ready for it, but do reflect on the reason you cut your depth at a specific point if there is still room to go deeper. If it is not due to pain or a mobility restriction, consider testing out a deeper squat.

Be patient, go about it slowly, and drill it with consistency.

Better Than Consistency

Consistency is important.

We all know that a specific fitness goal cannot be reached without it.

But a sitting rock is consistent, yet the rock doesn’t do anything other than stay put.

And doing the same exercises, at the same weights, for the same number of sets week after week is consistent, but one will only get better at doing those exercises, at those weights, for those number of sets.

So we need to take consistency a step further.

We must build momentum.

Momentum is consistent, and it is also on the move. It works to move you from where you are toward where you want to be.

The good news is that momentum is quite easy to initiate.

Start with something, and do more of it, or do it better the next time.

It doesn’t matter at what point you start, so long as you strive for more than just consistency.

It Came Quickly

It is a new year, and if three days ago you planned to establish new and healthier lifestyle habits in 2023, hopefully, things are off to a good start for you.

But it’s possible that despite your good intentions, life got in the way and you got distracted, so things are off to a less-than-ideal start.

Instead of having your meals prepped for the week, you skipped lunch, and right now you are pulling out of the drive-through with your mid-afternoon snack. As you turn around to toss your Burger King wrapper in the back seat, you astonishingly realize that you forgot to pack your gym clothes!! 😱😱😱

Should you give up altogether on eating healthier and trying to make regular gym-going a part of your life?

Of course not.

Just make sure that your next meal is a better choice than the Double Whopper you just devoured. Try to improve each meal from your previous one until you stumble upon the type of meal that is sustainable and that aligns with your goals.

People join gyms every day of the year. Why did you think you needed to join one on January 1st or on the first Monday of the year?

If you cannot get to a gym to work out today, see if you can make it tomorrow.

As for today, here is something active you can do from home that will take you less time than you spend getting through your IG feed…

Do 20 squats, then hold a :30 plank. Then do 19 squats, then hold a :30 plank. Then 18 squats followed by a :30 plank. Continue this pattern down to 1 or whenever you need to stop.

Happy New Year!

Go Up When You Can

When it comes to strength training, an important variable to note is the amount of weight you are training with. Hopefully, it is obvious, but a key goal when it comes to strength training should be to train with heavier weights over time.

While the goal is to do this, some days it is not possible to do so.

Some days you haven’t eaten right, and some days you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Some days your body will be run-down from stress, and some days your nervous system will not be recovered from a workout finished days earlier.

It is okay to repeat weights from previous workouts and it is okay to not go up from your last set. Don’t fret if this happens from time to time.

But do make sure to add weight to the bar when you feel it’s there. When things are feeling good and right.

It should become automatic for you - if you can, you’re going up.

You're a Child

As a parent, you work hard to teach your children good behavior, and you expect them to display it even when you’re not around.

A frustrating situation to deal with is when you notice your child being influenced by sources that lead to behavior that doesn’t align with your expectations.

Imagine how the version of yourself - the one who works hard to find time to exercise and takes time to plan out meals - must feel when other versions of you choose to stray from that course and instead reinforce lifestyle habits that make goal-reaching much more difficult.

The Simplest Day

Day one.

Day one of working out. Day one of eating better. Day one of a new training program.

Day one can come in many forms.

I recently had a day one.

In the months prior to my day one, I was inconsistent with my health and fitness. My workouts were sporadic and I wasn’t watching what I ate.

I decided I needed to have a day one.

Things were heavy that day.

The weights were.

My breathing was.

But despite my out-of-shape-ness, on day one I felt calm and focused.

I knew it was a simple day.

There was no pressure to outperform myself from days in the past.

There was no pressure to rush and get through a menu of items for the day.

Instead, I was able to concentrate on the simple task at hand - lay down some habits I could continue with, and some numbers that I could improve upon in the coming days, weeks, and months.

On day one, we don’t have to do anything extraordinary, we just have to do something. After day one is when we work on doing things more and more extraordinarily.

Don’t complicate a simple day.

You're Not In Control

Your body will change when it is ready to.

You don’t have a say in when your goal weight is reached.

You don’t get to determine on which Monday you will hit your next bench PR.

So don’t get upset when you weigh in .7 pounds heavier than you did last week.

Don’t become frustrated when you can barely hit 6 reps with a weight that just last week you took to 8.

Your body doesn’t make sense.

And even worse, your body is the one in control.

So be prepared to be confused with what’s going on with your fitness.

Be prepared to be disappointed, often.

That is - if you’re too wrapped up in the results you are being presented.

If you’re putting in more effort tracking your daily weigh-ins than you are figuring out how you can continue compiling more and more days of what you have been doing, you’re focused on the wrong thing.

Because chances are, what you have been doing - are the right things.

You just have to do those ‘right things’ for longer.

(PLOT TWIST)

It should bring you comfort to know that you actually are in control. You’re just not in control the way you’d like to be.

You indirectly are in control of the results you desire.

You can’t walk into the gym on any random day and add 20lbs to your bench.

But you can walk into the gym, day after day, and put in the work that is necessary to add 20lbs to your bench.

Focus on your daily habits and actions, not the results.

What you do day after day is what brings the results along for the ride.

Be disciplined to not feed off of results, feed off the process.

Should I Use a Belt When Lifting Weights?

Is there point where I should consider getting a belt for squats/deadlifts? Does wearing a belt inhibit any stabilizing muscles? -Alex

Although I am tempted to break this question down to cover more of the thoughts I have pertaining to belted vs. beltless lifting, I’ll answer it more concisely than I’d like, but less concisely than to just tell you “Yes”.

If your goal is to build a stronger squat and/or deadlift, then you should be implementing the use of a lifting belt. If you haven’t been using one, start using one right away. To develop higher levels of absolute strength, the ultimate priority must be to move heavier and heavier weights. A belt will not only help you lift heavier, it will also help you rack up more reps at any given weight, both of which are important for pushing your strength up over time. Not using a belt (unnecessarily) limits the rate at which strength can be built.

The main reason you should consider a belt your friend is that it provides a surface for your body to brace against, which in doing allows for high amounts of trunk rigidity to be generated. It doesn’t matter how much force you can produce with your legs if you cannot create a solid enough midsection to transmit that force into the weight you’re attempting. A decent amount of tightness is required to squat or deadlift any amount of weight. When you lose tightness, some of the force you have worked hard to produce “leaks out” and never reaches the weight you’re trying to move. This makes for a highly inefficient rep. You may be able to muscle through such reps to a certain extent, but at some point you will need to optimize your conditions to keep chasing higher weights. The more reps you complete in your training that are optimal and efficient, the better off you will be. A belt presents area for your abdominal muscles to contract against, improving lifting efficiency and bettering your chances of moving a higher weight and/or extending a set for more repetitions.

As for stabilizing muscles, not only will a belt not inhibit them, a belt will promote the opposite effect. Since a belt poses an environment for our primary (superficial) muscles to contract harder, our (deeper) stabilizing muscles must accommodate for those muscles that are producing higher levels of force by working harder to anchor down and maintain skeletal and joint structure.

The amount of muscle fibers required to lift 300 pounds is greater than the amount required to lift 275 pounds. Recruiting more muscle fibers leads to more strength gain. You will get more benefit from lifting 300 with a belt than you would lifting a lesser amount without one.

Comment below with your thoughts on lifting with a belt...

I’m looking to answer more of your questions in 2020. If you have any, please contact me through social media or email with the links below! (Someone please ask me about when to not use a belt. 🤞🏼🤞🏼)

Top Sets and Back-Off Sets

Top Sets

Each training session, as you are completing your working sets, you should aim to reach a “Top Set”. As you may guess, this is the set in which the highest amount of weight is used for the day.

Some days, a top weight will be used for multiple sets. Other days, you will be able to continually escalate the weight throughout your working sets, all the way up to one single top set.

The top set(s), is the peak of the training session. Sometimes this also represents the end of the session. Other times it does not.

The higher the weight you work up to, the less sustainability you will have. As you near your limits, fewer repetitions and fewer sets will be possible to be completed. But just because you can no longer climb in weight or continue to train with a relatively high-percentage weight, does not always mean you need to (or should) quit for the day. This could be an excellent time to utilize back-off sets.

Back-Off Sets

Back-off sets AKA “Down Sets” are done with weights that are reduced from your top weights. They are used to accumulate more training volume in a safe way. Tallying up more reps - in a fatigued state, is what carries over to more strength, more muscle, and more total energy expenditure down the road, even with the use of sub-maximal weights.

A highly overlooked reason to employ back-off sets is to help build confidence. Lets say you work up to a top weight of 405lb and then drop back to 330lb to do some down sets. 330 is going to feel like a toy. Your body will be tricked into it feeling lighter than it felt working up to, and past it from zero. This presents a great scenario to become more efficient with weights that are under your top weights for the day. You will learn to move these weights faster. You will learn to not let weights that used to get in your head, get in your head anymore. If you use them correctly, back-off sets can help bring up your top weights, and the higher your top weights, the higher your back-off weights will be as a result.

Back-offs can be used to do any number of sets, for any number of repetitions, and loaded to any percentage of a lift.

As an example of all of this, below is the deadlift workout my 5:45pm class did just last night…

This workout involved working up to a top set - a top single.

After that, back-off sets were completed, on the minute, at 80% of the top weight reached.

After the back-off sets where completed, with whatever time was left, we worked up to a single again, this time using the lifters’ non-preferred stance.

Working Sets

Unlike warm-up sets, working sets are always important. In fact, they are actually the only thing that is important.

Working sets AKA simply “work sets” or “main sets” are what your training is all about. These are the sets that you want to record and track. These are the sets that you look to progress upon. The toughest part of your training sessions should be as you are completing your working sets.

Working sets are the sets that build strength and muscle, and the ones that help you to lose body fat. In order to accomplish any of these changes, you need to be working with an adequate amount of weight. Warm-up weights are too light to stimulate your tissues to the point of adaptation.

Up until your first working set, your only objective should have been to have yourself prepared to that point. You want to feel warmed-up, but still fresh. You should have used your warm-up sets to groove crisp and deliberate movement for the lift you are training. Now that you are feeling good and have things firing well, it is time to push the intensity.

There is not a minimum or maximum number of working sets that need to be completed, just know how to differentiate them from your warm-up sets.

In coming posts, I will go over “top sets” and “back-off sets”, both of which fall into the category of working sets.

Warm-Up Sets

To put it simply and artistically, the way I see it, warm-up sets should be used to slowly wake up and excite your nervous system. To not use warm-up sets would somewhat be the equivalent of slapping your nervous system in the face while at rest, and expecting it to perform at a high capacity, at that moment.

Warm-up sets, AKA ramp-up sets, or work-up sets are meant to prepare you for your working sets. During warm-up sets, we are not looking for much of a training effect. We are simply using the weights we take to gradually warm our body up and to slowly become acclimated to heavier weight. I like to think of warm-up sets only as stepping stones that must be taken to reach your first real set (working set).

There is no ‘set in stone’ way to go about structuring your warm-up sets. You don’t have to waste too much mental energy on deciding what weights you’re going to take for your warm-ups because they really aren’t that important. Your working sets are what is important. If you spend too much mental and physical energy on choosing and performing your warm-up weights, you won’t be able to take on your working sets with as much intensity.

But on the other hand, warm-up sets are important. If you skip warming-up altogether, your first working set will feel shockingly heavy, and you will not be able to move the weight with as high of quality as you would have, had you have gone through a series of warm-up sets.

The Warm-Up

Always start light and work heavier. Always practice crisp and deliberate repetitions. Never take a warm-up set to exhaustion.

Your warm-up weights are going to be light enough that you can move them well. Work on moving the weights like you mean it. You will need to move the weight like you mean it once you reach your working weights, so it is very productive to dial this effort in right off the bat. Not only will these weights be so light that you can move them easily, they will be so light that there is not a point to overdoing it with repetitions, it will only work to your detriment later in the session, and also months down the road.

Let’s say you are overhead pressing, and your first working set calls for 95lb for 10 reps. DO NOT just slap 95lb on the bar and jump right into your first set. DO NOT do 10 reps for each warm-up set.

This is (one of many ways) I would recommend working up to a set of 95 x 10…

Bar x 5

Bar x 5

65 x 5

65 x 3

85 x 3

95 x 1

Next set would be 95 x 10

Here is another way to warm-up to 95 x 10…

Bar x 8

55 x 6

65 x 6

75 x 4

85 x 2

95 x 1

Next set would be 95 x 10

In the first example, I took the Bar and 65lb two times. I like to do this at times. Many times, taking a weight twice will make for it feeling a lot better the second time. Any time a weight feels better, you can move it better. The better you move a weight, the better you can recruit motor units. The better you can recruit and put motor units to use, the more weight you will be able to lift, and for more repetitions.

If you do like to take weights more than once, do that earlier on in your warm-up schedule. Remember that the weights will continue to get heavier the further you go, which also carries with it a greater risk of exhaustion. Notice that in the first example, I only took 85lb one time. 85 is close enough to 95 that I wouldn’t get much from taking it again. It wouldn’t do much more than bring on unnecessary fatigue.

In the second example, more total repetitions are performed, and smaller jumps are taken. This is a matter of preference. Some lifters like taking smaller jumps. Some lifters like to take the early and lighter sets to more reps. It is a matter of experimenting with different weights and jumps to determine how you perform best, and what helps build your confidence the most to take on the working sets.

You will notice that both examples show a total of 6 warm-up sets, and that in both examples I took my working weight of 95lb for 1 rep as my last warm-up set. You may think: You did 1 rep with 95, why not just continue on to 10 and make that the first working set? This is something I like to do. Not all of the time, but I wanted to include it as an example of another variable you can use in your warm-ups. Taking 95 for one last crisp rep allowed me to feel the working weight without the exhaustion associated with going all the way to 10. A lot of times this feels nicer and less shocking than going from 3 warm-up reps to 10 working reps does, and also with a heavier weight factored in.

The better you understand how to effectively use warm-up sets, the more you will see how unimportant they are. Do them, but do them in a way that preserves energy, doesn’t take a ton of thought, and most importantly, do them in a way that has you feeling good and moving well by the time you are finished with your last warm-up set.

Set Intensities

In my next several posts I will be laying out how you could expect the sets (of any given lift or exercise you do) to look.

During this series of posts, I will be referring primarily to barbell lifts such as squats, deadlifts, and presses.

I will go over Warm-Up and Working Sets, Top Sets, and Back-Off Sets.

The loading (amount of weight being used) of each set is what differentiates warm-up sets from working sets, and amongst your working sets, what separates your top sets from your back-off sets.

In order to progress, a combination of different intensities should be used during each training session. This means that you should expect to go through, at the very least, warm-up sets followed by building up to a top working set. In some instances, you may even utilize back-off sets.

“Warm-Up Sets” to come soon.

What I’d like to know is - Are you familiar with any of these terms? Please comment below.

Replicate

What have you done before that you wish to do again?

Demonstrate somethings possibility, and it will always be there for you to go back to.

If you have lost 15lb before, you can lose 15lb again.

If you have lifted 300lb before, you can do it again.

If you have pulled yourself up from tough circumstances before, you can do it again.

Maybe it will require a different path.

Or maybe all you will need is to replicate your process.

What You Think Is Long-Term, Is Actually Short-Term

The calendar year is already halfway over, and most of you reading could agree that 2019 is going by pretty fast.

Back in January, June seemed far away.

Some of us may have set a goal to lose a certain amount of weight.

Some of us may have set a goal to add pounds to the weight we can lift.

Setting out to lose 20lb. or to add 20lb. to your squat in 6 months is more difficult than it looks on your calendar.

Failing to reach these types of goals is frustrating, but do remember that half-a-year’s time is actually a short amount of time - it’s already June 2019, remember?

There is nothing wrong with chasing short-term goals, and really, most of the goals you will have will be short-term. Just don’t confuse long and short, and expect to see long-term results in a timeframe that is surprisingly short-term.

If you didn’t lose the 20lb. you hoped to by June, maybe you lost 12.

If you didn’t add 20lb. to your squat, maybe you added 12.

That’s on pace to make a 24lb. difference in a year…

still a short-lived amount of time.

"Control"

If we are talking about lifting, the word “control” is a word that I have come to dislike.

Many people tend to interpret controlled lifting as being synonymous with slow lifting. That is a problem because in order to demonstrate supreme control, you actually need to be able to lift a weight fast.

There is more to lifting than just moving a weight. We need to train our muscles to contract against resistance. One connection that needs to be made is for that muscular contraction to happen quickly, not to just happen.

Really, I am a huge proponent of lifting in a controlled fashion.

But just because you are doing an exercise slowly, does not necessarily mean you are the one who is in control.

Doing slow and (seemingly controlled) squats, but with wobbly feet - allowing your weight to shift from the front to the back part of your feet - is not controlled.

Bench pressing the bar up for a 3-count (and down for the same) is practicing little control if your back is relaxed and the bar flops around like a leaf in the wind, spanning from over the top of your forehead to over the top of your chest.

Control comes back to your body.

Can you produce enough tension throughout your body to handle and support the weight you are about to take? Have you established the proper body positions, positions that are necessary to safely begin the set? From the positions you create, are you able to generate enough force to move the weight without crumbling out of position?

Over the past couple of years, I have fallen in love with the word “deliberately”.

Deliberately means to do something consciously and intentionally; on purpose.

It is hard to not be controlled if you are doing things deliberately.

Approach your sets deliberately, don’t just go through the motions.

Once you have begun each set, move the weight deliberately, not casually.

Work on putting some speed on the bar.

This is where you really begin to understand what control is.

Getting Toned

A goal that many trainees have is to “get more toned”.

They want their arms and legs to have better shape.

They want a flatter stomach.

They want to look lean and athletic, but they don’t want to look too bulky.

While there is nothing wrong with having this type of goal, most people who desire this kind of physique do not understand what it takes to get there.

They think they do.

They read online and in numerous fitness magazines that “higher reps with lighter weight will make you more toned, and lower weight with heavier weight will make you bigger”.

Both of these claims sound sensible, but neither of them are true.

“Toning up” is simply the building of muscle tissue combined with simultaneous body fat reduction.

In order to satisfy your goal of toning up, you need to have both of these things, not just one or neither of them.

Tricep pressdowns done with light weight for sets of 30 reps will do neither of them for you. They won’t build muscle and they will do nothing to help you lose body fat.

“But Drew, I see all kinds of in-shape people (people who look how I want to look) doing tricep pressdowns with light weight for sets of 30 reps!”

If a person is already in shape, they can train this way. They are already lean enough and built in a way that showcases their toned features. They could even make you believe that doing tricep pressdowns with light weight for sets of 30 reps is what is responsible for their appearance. It’s not.

If you want to look more toned, you really must understand energy expenditure.

If you aren’t as toned as you want to be, you have more body fat than you want to have. You have a surplus of energy. That’s all body fat really is.

In order to get rid of some of that body fat, you need to create a deficit of energy.

To do this, you will probably want to eat less (fewer calories in), and you most definitely need to expend more energy during your workouts (more calories used).

Tricep pressdowns done with light weight for sets of 30 reps isn’t going to increase your energy expenditure.

Squats, presses, and deadlifts done for 6-12 reps will.

Tricep pressdowns done with light weight for sets of 30 reps will keep you stagnant and free of results.

Squats, presses, and deadlifts done for 6-12 reps will get you the toned body you crave.

An Uncommon, Yet Effective Way To PR

I recently wrote about three ways you can set new PRs: 1RM, Rep PRs, and Volume PRs.

It is important to PR.

It is indicative of progress.

If you are never reaching higher weights, not pushing to do the same weights for more reps, or never adding more sets to accumulate more total poundage, you’re not making progress.

A good mentality is to try to PR (in some way) every single session.

For a while you will be able to do this, but you will notice that the longer you lift for, the harder PRs are to come by.

An experienced lifter won’t see PRs as frequently as a novice lifter.

Some days you won’t be able to hit higher weights. Some days you won’t be able to do more reps. Some days you will be too beat up to crank out more volume.

Pre-Exhausted PRs

Pre-exhaustion is a method that is most commonly used in bodybuilding to induce more muscle growth. This is where we intentionally fatigue smaller muscle groups first, which will then require the bigger and stronger muscle groups to work harder during compound exercises.

An example of this is to do bicep curls before doing pull-ups. The biceps would fatigue to the point they could not contribute to the pull-up as much as if the curls were done after the pull-ups. The pre-exhaustion of the biceps forces the lats to work harder to perform the exercise.

PR attempts are conventionally taken when a lifter is fresh, but we can utilize pre-exhaustion to push the body in a different way, and to boost PR numbers when we return to a fresh state.

Don’t be afraid to push your numbers later in your workout when you are fatigued.

The fatigue makes you work at a disadvantage. When a disadvantage is introduced, there becomes more room to build up.

Then, when you take that disadvantage away, you be left stronger.

Push to lift heavier and heavier weight in a state of fatigue.

Push to do more reps of a certain weight in a state of fatigue.

If you can hit a 600x1 deadlift at the end of your deadlift workout, how easy will it be to hit 600+ at the beginning of it?

Types of PR

When lifting weights, there are 3 main ways to PR.*

“PR” means to set a new personal record.

1RM

For the majority of lifters, the most sought after PR is the 1RM (1 Rep-Max). This is the maximum amount of weight that can be lifted a single time for a given exercise. If you take your max bench press from 80lb to 95lb - your PR bench used to be 80, but is now 95.

Repetition

You don’t necessarily have to push a higher weight to PR. You can set new repetition, or rep PRs. This is the number of repetitions that can be completed at any given weight, for any given exercise. If during your last training cycle you could squat 275 for 8 reps, and your current cycle has you squatting 275 for 10, you have established a new rep PR (for 275lb). The convenient thing about rep PRs is that they can be set for every single weight. This gives you more opportunities to set new ones.

Volume

The type of PR that is most overlooked, yet the easiest to make is a volume PR.

Volume = Sets x Reps x Load (weight).

Calculating and tracking your volume can be complicated if you want it to be. Because of this, I typically only consider the total volume for the main lift of each training session.

Here is a very simple way to ramp up volume over a relatively short period of time…

Let’s say that today you deadlifted for 5 sets of 5 using 135lb for all five sets. That would put you at 3,375lb worth of volume. The next time you deadlift, you could increase your volume by doing everything the same, except for bumping up the weight to 145lb on only your fifth set. That would give you 3,425lb worth of volume. The next time you deadlift after that, you could boost your volume again by using 135 for your first three sets, then 145 for your remaining two. That would be 3,475lb worth of volume, and you would have volume PR’d three deadlift sessions in a row. Continuing to fill your working sets with heavier and heavier weights will get you stronger over time.

As you see in the above example, it is very feasible to set new volume PRs and it is something you can do pretty quickly and regularly.

*There is another “type” of PR that I use. It opens up your PR setting possibilities even further, and I will write about it in another post (once I can come up with a name for it, or figure out if there is already a name for it).