The Value of Repetition Work and Intern Interviews

So, let’s begin with a discussion on getting big and strong.

That is always a good topic.

One of the best ways to improve your lifts, add muscle, get jacked and get stronger all over is through repetition work.

Sure, increasing limit strength is really important for being stronger, but so is getting better at rep work. Look at it like this: if you increase limit strength (the amount you can lift at a maximal exertion) all of your other lifts go up.

To illustrate: let’s say that you just begin going to the gym and you cannot squat an empty bar, and can’t do a pushup-you have very little limit strength. We can also assume that you cannot handle much weight on accessory work like dumbbell bench presses, pulldowns and more.

Increasing limit strength will allow you to get stronger overall because when you have a higher amount of limit strength you can handle more weight and more work on the other stuff right?

To illustrate again: let’s say you’ve been training hard for 6 months and now can squat 225, bang out 25 perfect pushups and pullups, it’s a safe bet that you can handle a lot more weight for more reps on the accessory work like the ones listed above. Right?

Increasing limit strength increases your work capacity in a way.

What about increasing your strength on repetition work? Will that help?

Of course it will.

As the great Chief Seattle said ”All things are bound together. All things connect.”

If we take this and apply it to training, everything we do in the gym is connected to something else.

Lots of people like to bash bodybuilders as not being strong, but I know some really strong ones. Bodybuilders do tons of rep work with tons of weight. If you calculated the tonnage of their training it would look like a Sheiko program.

Think about it. If you dedicate some time to smashing weights for tons of reps you can’t help but get bigger and stronger.

To illustrate a third time: let’s say that at the beginning of a training cycle you are doing 3 sets of 8 on the incline dumbbell bench and 3 sets of 12-15 on some flyes and call it a day how strong are you going to get?

How much beef are you going to put on?

I’ll bet that if you did more you’d get more.

What if you dedicated 30 minutes at the end of your session for 12 weeks to smashing a bunch of assistance with heavy weights, no rep scheme and way more sets than you would normally do?

Would you get bigger and stronger?

Damn skippy you would.

Let’s say that at the end of your bench session, after you did what your program calls for you went over to the dumbbell rack and grabbed the same weight that you normally would use for 8 reps on the dumbbell bench press, but instead went beserk and smashed it out for as many as you could, rested 30 seconds and did it again, and then grabbed the same weight you would use for flyes for 12-15 and did the same? Then you rested for a minute or two and did this for 15 minutes and applied the same thing to dumbbell rows and pulldowns?

Get strong at this stuff too.

Would your back and chest grow and would your bench inch up?

I am willing to guess that it would.

It seems that these days people are locked into a program and don’t deviate from it. I am not saying that following a program is not a good idea. On the contrary. I am a firm believer in programming. However, I frequently write into my programs for people to “get after it”, or “get swole”.

I don’t know how many people do, but I do know that if more people pushed themselves a lot harder than they normally would they would all be stronger and have more muscle.

Training balls out all the time is not a great idea either. You need to have periods of high intensity and periods of lower intensity to prevent burnout. This is basic programming, but when we think of accessory work it is good to get after it more often than not. Accessory work is lower intensity on your nervous system than 3 sets of 3 squats at an RPE 10 right?

If you follow an RPE based system, this is the ideal thing to do on your volume weeks. If you did this all the time including the Intensity blocks you would have some difficulty recovering. However, if you do it on the Volume weeks I am willing to bet your recovery will be better on the Intensity weeks. All things are connected.

This is really making this concept simple and is in no way a guide to programming, just food for thought.

On another note, I went to a Halloween party Saturday and no one got my costume.

My best Cosgrove costume.

They all thought I was the Highlander.

When I said I was Alwyn Cosgrove, no one got the joke.

Hopefully you all do.

On a final note, we interviewed a potential new intern this week. Most interns show up for these either in a business suit or shorts and a t shirt (never a good choice) but this was a first.

This guy showed up in a canvas squat suit.

We accepted him on the spot.

The point?

Know your audience.

Ask me a question-Be sure and Type to Murph in the header

Find me on Google-search for Total Performance Sports Everett, Mass. The Best Gym in Boston, Facebook too.

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#bostonsstrongest

Vincere vel mori