Hey guys, I’m hoping you’re able to help me. I’m recently jumping back into training. I trained many years ago when I was a kid and had no real idea quite what I was doing. Soon enough my wedding is coming (in 8 months!) and I kind of want to get in a decent enough shape for when we take the pictures that are forever going to plaster the stairway walls.
Ive started to follow Jeff Nippards training programme the functional basic hyper trophy one. It’s an 8 week programme that I am following until I go onto his upper/lower split. Now, it has a mix of reps ranging from 8-15 depending on the excercises whilst implementing the RPE. This is something I haven’t really come across before. When I used to train it was always an 8-12 rep range making sure you go until failure or fairly close if not.
Now my question for you guys is I always , excuse my ignorance, believed that rep till failure in a rep range of 8-12. Having an RPE of 7/8 makes me feel I still have more left in the tank and I’m not truly pushing myself as hard as I should be Am I just being naive and infact this is a perfectly valid and good way to train or am I best going until failure? Are there alternative programmes which have a good outcome on a 4 day upper/lower split.
I have also done some research and found the DC which uses rest pause reps which have some good reviews but again not sure quite how they properly work.
Thankyou for your help and apologies for my lack of experience.
“If you take every set to 3 RIR you’ll probably get 95% of the gains, 2 RIR 97%, 1 RIR 99%.”
More sets closer to failure will affect your ability to recover.
As far as DC and rest-pause I know there’s several people here who’ve run it or are currently running it. There’s also a 5/3/1 RP variant that I think is 4 days a week.
If you feel like you’re not pushing hard enough, you’re probably not. If lower RPE training isn’t working for you, you may want to check out John Meadows or Jordan Peters on YouTube and follow a program with higher intensity work sets. They’ll teach you how to put a program together following those parameters or you can buy one that they’ve put together. They will teach you how to properly allocate volume and frequency within proper parameters for growth and recovery. I don’t know if you’re quite advanced enough to get the most out of DC yet.
FYI Mike Israetel’s entire training method goes to shit the second he verifies the litany of data that says training to failure is more effective than leaving reps in reserve.
Your intuition is correct. Training to failure is the most effective means to muscle growth, particularly so when applied to isolation techniques.
Most science and bro science agrees that 8-12ish reps are ideal, but I’d widen that up to 6-20. Some, like my coach, argue 4-30 is best, but so long as failure is being achieved - you are still growing.
Feel free to watch the video in my comment above for details.
Yeah I actually thought it was interesting because his take this time was actually far more pro-failure. 3 RIR to -2 RIR (forced reps).
Then individualize and adjust per muscle group. For some people and some muscles they respond better to failure than others. But that you need at least 3 RIR.
Wow, seems like there’s a whole lot of info here to chew on! I’m going to watch that video when I get in from work but generally the vibe I am getting from the responses are stuck to the program but ensure I’m going closure to failure. Would you guys employ the rest pause method over a final drop set to finish off an excercise?
The fitness industry are charlatans for overcomplicating this shit causing all this back and forth all around the internet.
Most of these questions for most trainees can be solved by just focusing on taking at least one set to “max safe reps”, picking up progression when it comes. I feel this is true for all volumes across all training levels.
Beginner? A few sets across, improving technique, pushing at least one set (the last one) to the point where you feel form would break down if you were to do another rep. As form tightens, max safe reps will allow you to push a bit harder as time goes on.
Intermediate? Whatever your volume. If it’s 4 sets, the fatigue from your first 3 sets will often force you to push towards “max safe reps” to stay in the rep range on your 4th set. If you need to go higher outside that rep range, you probably sandbagged a little in those first few sets - train harder. Even if it’s lower volume, “at least one set for max safe reps”, that could be your first, your second… or even both depending on the program.
Advanced? If a trainees at this point they should have left this question behind long ago.
Yes there are nuances and stipulations, of course there are. These instructions will get a massive majority of people most of the way that they could ever get to.
@Zager if you’re following a program now, I wouldn’t keep doing a bunch of other research until you’re through it. It will just get in your head, you’ll question what you’re currently doing, and you’ll subconsciously put less into it… fulfilling the prophecy and making it less effective.
That said, I also don’t like trying to guesstimate how far from failure I am every set. I just push every set hard (less close to failure on a barbell move that might hurt me), and try to fail on the last set of every exercise pretty much every time. If you think you might be on your last rep, you’re probably actually more like 3-4 away if it was gun to your head time… so I think it’s safe to just push your sets and get something out of them on the program you’re already doing.
Not that my opinion matter. But if a person is a beginner or has not amassed a decent strength base to draw from. Which will impact their ability to recover and to adapt .
I personally wouldnt worry about following a RPE approach.