Lifting Heavier Sets First after Warm-up

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Can it be a good idea to lift the heavier sets first(after a good warmup) to get heavier reps while conditioning catches up.

E.g. top set of 5 first then middle set etc?

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2

Yeah man! Paul Carter talks about it and calls it an over warmup. We used to just say you were losing reps. It’s a valid technique either way

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Thanks. I used the deadlift as my second exercise after benching so it seemed to work well. Might be a keeper.

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That’s a little different. You mean you feel better after some heavy work on the next exercise?

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More so that I was warmed up enough to consider skipping a prolonged warm up for the main sets.

I am just going through the motions on the bench for now. Aimed for a 10 rep max got 8.

But unbelievably once a week training is working very well. I do powertwisters (heavy duty springs every other day as well though).

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6

Sorry didn’t see this. Sounds like you’re on track though!

7

I grew toward a few warm up sets of 1 to 4 reps (higher the weight the fewer the reps) before the first working set. For example: when I was warming up for my two sets of 10 reps with 495lb squats my warm ups were:

  1. Empty bar
  2. 135lb
  3. 185lb
  4. 225lb
  5. 275lb
  6. 315lb
  7. 365lb
  8. 405lb
  9. 455lb
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8

Thanks guys. It is going fairly well. Sometimes doing the top set first kills the next sets when I go back down though and also the 90% singles.
It does prove I’m getting stronger weekly though.
Wearing a belt has been a game changer too. I’m thinking of getting a lever belt at some point too .
I need another a month or so hopefully to get back to my previous 1 rep Max . If my formula still works after I reduce to doubles and triples and then singles to condition myself for a 1 RM.

Previously I could say add 20 percent more comfortably once I can do 5 good deadstop reps .

So 200 kg X 5 allowed for 240 kg with a belt.

I am lifting every 5 days adding 2.5 kg for a top set of 5 until that no longer works.

Belt is vastly improving recovery but I find it works the abs a little differently.

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I’ve been messing around with my squat programming recently. 4 sets.

I do warm-ups and then a top set of 5, then drop some weight off and aim for 3 sets of 8-10. What i’ve found is my second set feels way easier than if I was to go straight in with a set of 8-10. Getting your whole body braced all tensed up for a heavy set…dials in your form I guess.

I was originally planning to do 4x4-6 which i’d been doing for a month or so, but after the first set was more of a grind than I expected I switched up to 8-10 for the remaining sets. As long as the overall volume whilst keeping a heavy set in there goes up week to week I don’t think I need to overcomplicate things. The reps changing all the time naturally it kind of periodizes itself.

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