This is what all of my sets usually consist of for bench, incline ect. I’ve made great gains with it. I’ve gone from 3 sets of 10 with 35 pd DBs about a year and a half ago to 3 sets of 10 with 100 pd DBs. My gymn doesn’t have 105 pd DBs so I tried jumping up to 110s; it sucked, and I only got 3 reps (barely). So I decided that maybe I should change up how many reps I do to “shock” my body. I thought I should be able to do 15 reps with 80 pds. LOL. I got to the 11th rep and my arms and pecs just said no. I think doing 10 reps for the last year and a half has trained my body to know nothing different. Have any of you experienced this?
It’s true that you can become stronger in one rep range relative to another, but that’s not what’s happening here. If I had to bet on something, it would be that your range of motion increased when you dropped the weight.
If you really wanna shock your system, stick with the heavy weight for fewer reps. If you’re pressing 100 for 10, you should be able to press 110 for 6-7. So yeah, your body did adapt to doing only 10 reps, but not in the way you thought.
I have experienced this before. A large part of it is mental, but I have had this happen to me in similar ways before.
What I would first try to figure out is, what did you do before trying the 110s? What I mean is, did you tire yourself out with 4 or 5 sets moving up beforehand? If so, I’d reduce the number of warmup sets and make larger weight jumps next time, and see if you can handle the 110s.
Otherwise, just keep working with it trying to knock out more reps. You’ve made awsome progress so far.
[quote]mr popular wrote:
I have experienced this before. A large part of it is mental, but I have had this happen to me in similar ways before.
What I would first try to figure out is, what did you do before trying the 110s? What I mean is, did you tire yourself out with 4 or 5 sets moving up beforehand? If so, I’d reduce the number of warmup sets and make larger weight jumps next time, and see if you can handle the 110s.
Otherwise, just keep working with it trying to knock out more reps. You’ve made awsome progress so far.[/quote]
Thanks. The reason I’ve moved up so quickly is because I had a shoulder surgery about 21 months ago and had already been able to do that much weight previously. Come to think of it though, I think I did 10 reps of 65, 80, 90, 100, and then 110… I think next time I’ll just do the warmups then try to bust out the 110’s. I need to start working in other rep ranges anyways. The 10 rep thing has gotten me by so far, but unless I want to bust my ass for another year to get 10 x 110 I should probably try 5 - 15 rep range.
Cheers,
Mark
Looks like something that happened to me. I could pretty much do 180 lbs in the lat pulldown for 5 reps, but I could barely do 8 with 135. 120x12 is actually a struggle. I guess it’s normal if you work the same rep range for a long time. Training in many rep ranges can help even you out.
haha i face something similar.
i warm up with an empty barbell for bench, and even tho i dont struggle, something tells me not to cross 10 reps. Although when weight is added, i still dont cross 10reps often, i guess it is psycological.
markdp…
do you pyramid your warmup sets before your working weight?
If not I can foresee a problem with fatigue right there.
If none of the above helps, try reducing your rest intervals between your 3 sets to create an oxygen deficit.
[quote]mr popular wrote:
markdp…
do you pyramid your warmup sets before your working weight?
If not I can foresee a problem with fatigue right there.[/quote]
Nope. I usually go something like 10 x 50, 65, 80, 90, 100. I never do more than 10 reps when warming up. It hilarious. I bet I can’t even do 15 x 65; I think I’ll try that today.
yea haha see? same thing as me lol
doing 3-4 sets of high rep pushups could help you with this…
but, i would either increase the weight or add another set…