Does the set/rep protocol of 1 set of 10, 1 set of 8, and 1 set of 6 reps work? What would be its advantages over say 3 sets of 10 or 5 sets of 5?
Adam Marshall
Everything has advantages and disadvantages. Sure a 10, 8, 6 rep scheme works, but whether or not it’s “better” than the other two schemes you listed will depend on many things. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
Well is it a “best of both worlds” approach? I don’t intend to use it, my brother said it worked for him but I simply do not trust it as it did not give me gains when I started lifting using it.
Adam Marshall
It works as long as you don’t go too heavy and cause too much fatigue on the initial sets. For example if you are really working on a heavy 4-6 rm and you do a heavy set of 10 and then another heavy set of 8 prior you will already have accumulated so much fatigue that the set of 4-6 will be with a less than optimal weight for that rep range. I prefer the opposite approach and rarely ever do warm up sets of more than 5 reps. Once i’ve hit the heavy stuff I back off and strip weight off and do the higher rep sets. You will find this approach is more efficient and allows you more total volume (weight X reps). So in your case I would start off with more warm up sets but lower reps, not to induce fatigue but just to warm the body up, get used to the movement, and let your body know that the weight is getting heavier, then once you hit your 6 rep working weight strip some weight off and do your final sets of 8 and 10.