What to Do If I 'Barely' Finish Sets?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Hey guys,

I’ve been training for several years now and have steadily progressed. I was just wondering something though…

What do you do if you ‘barely’ finish a set?

For example:

Let’s say you are aiming for 3x8 on Flat Bench. So for example, I’d do 100kg/220lbs for 3 sets of 8. If I get 8,8,8 but only barely, i.e. I struggle like hell on the last rep of the last set and barely manage it, but I DO manage it, is this the right time to increase the weight? I only ask because if I were then to increase the weight and do 102.5kg/225lbs the next time I do Flat Bench, I usually only get around 6,5,5 instead of 8,8,8 which I got before on the lower weight.

Should increasing the weight by this small amount really be causing my reps to reduce by 2 or more at times? That is what has been causing me to question whether I should be increasing the weight or not if I manage all the reps on all the sets.

I often find as well that if I increase the weight the next time after only barely managing to get all the reps on all three sets the week before, I seem to hit a wall and get stuck on the new weight for weeks on end which often makes me think “should I have increased it in the first place?”.

Thanks.

2

Repeat, same weight.

Once all three are done to positive failure, add weight.

Your last paragraph was your answer.

3

I am going to disagree and say if you can get 220 for 3x8, you should move up in weight. Force you body to adapt. I do 5/3/1, and grinded out 7 reps on my 5+ day at 285, two cycles ago, but then the last cycle, 290 went for 7 easier, and last week, 295 went for 7 the easiest of all. Should have tried 8. If I had said to myself that 285 for 7 feels hard, so I won’t go up 5 lbs, then I would not have gained the strength to hit 295 for 7.

4

[quote]Vanch wrote:
Hey guys,

I’ve been training for several years now and have steadily progressed. I was just wondering something though…

What do you do if you ‘barely’ finish a set?

For example:

Let’s say you are aiming for 3x8 on Flat Bench. So for example, I’d do 100kg/220lbs for 3 sets of 8. If I get 8,8,8 but only barely, i.e. I struggle like hell on the last rep of the last set and barely manage it, but I DO manage it, is this the right time to increase the weight? I only ask because if I were then to increase the weight and do 102.5kg/225lbs the next time I do Flat Bench, I usually only get around 6,5,5 instead of 8,8,8 which I got before on the lower weight.

Should increasing the weight by this small amount really be causing my reps to reduce by 2 or more at times? That is what has been causing me to question whether I should be increasing the weight or not if I manage all the reps on all the sets.

I often find as well that if I increase the weight the next time after only barely managing to get all the reps on all three sets the week before, I seem to hit a wall and get stuck on the new weight for weeks on end which often makes me think “should I have increased it in the first place?”.

Thanks.[/quote]

You might have better results if you “ramp up” over your sets as nearly all advanced and intermediate lifters do and to use a rep range as well and increase weight when the upper limit of the range is reached.

For example, if you use the range of 8 to 10 reps, increase weight when you can reach 10 reps and you’ll likely be back down to 8 reps next time around with the heavier weight.

To ramp up, rather than do 225 for 3 sets of 8, after warmups, you’d do 185 for 10, 205 for 10, and then do a nice, difficult set for 8 to 10 reps, but NOT a grinding death set. Of course you will experience some death sets from time to time as you try very hard, but progression is key, not destroying yourself.

5

Rest longer between sets. Get 8 on all of 'em. Feel like a beast. Increase weight next time. Repeat :slight_smile:

I personally don’t like horribly grinding reps, and definitely felt that I progressed better when I learned to stop particularly ugly sets, rest a couple of minutes, and added another set in that I may not have planned on doing in an effort to accumulate ‘quality reps’ within my training session.

S

6

The following is what I have been doing for my assistance exercises for the past year and it has been working very well. It incorporates a few of the concepts that BrickHead and Stu mentioned, while still being slightly different.

Using your example of 3 sets targeting 8 reps, I would use a rep range of 6-8 reps, and on the first two sets I would only go for 6 reps, then I would push for 8 reps on the third set. If I was able to get the full 8 reps on the third set, then the next time I repeated the exercise (the next week, assuming you’re on a weekly schedule), I would keep the weight the same, but go for 7 reps on each of the first two sets and then again push for 8 reps on the third set.

Alternatively, if I was not able to get the full 8 reps on the third set of the first week, then I would stick with going for 6 reps on each of the first two sets. Only increasing the number of reps on the first two sets once I was able to get 8 reps in the third set.

Once you have managed to get 8 reps in all three sets, then the subsequent week you increase the weight, but drop the number of reps in the first two sets back to the low end of the range and start working your way back up to 3x8.

Week 1: weight =225 lbs

set 1: 6 reps
set 2: 6 reps
set 3: 8 reps

Week 2: weight =225 lbs

set 1: 7 reps
set 2: 7 reps
set 3: 8 reps

Week 3: weight =225 lbs

set 1: 8 reps
set 2: 8 reps
set 3: 8 reps

Week 4: weight = increase weight to 230 lbs

set 1: 6 reps
set 2: 6 reps
set 3: 8 reps

Week 5: weight = 230 lbs

set 1: 7 reps
set 2: 7 reps
set 3: 8 reps

and so on.

Remember that if you fail to get the targeted 8 reps on the final set in any given week, you repeat the workout without increasing the reps on the first two sets. This scheme seems to allow for continuous steady progress at a rate that’s providing me with enough time to adapt physically to the slowly increasing stress without burning out the nervous system by continually trying to force it to adapt to heavier weight too quickly. I also find that by initially only going for the upper end of the rep in the last set, I manage to get in quality reps with few grinders.

If you want to give yourself more time to adapt to a given weight, all you have to do is widen the rep range; for example, increasing the rep range to 5 to 8 reps adds an additional week with a given weight.

Obviously there are a lot of ways that will work; the above is just one method that I’ve found works for me mentally and physically.

Best of luck.

7

[quote]Vanch wrote:
I often find as well that if I increase the weight the next time after only barely managing to get all the reps on all three sets the week before, I seem to hit a wall and get stuck on the new weight for weeks on end which often makes me think “should I have increased it in the first place?”[/quote]
I get that we all get trapped in our own heads sometimes, but you’ve been lifting for 10 years and are still stumped by this?

[quote]BrickHead wrote:
You might have better results if you “ramp up” over your sets as nearly all advanced and intermediate lifters do and to use a rep range as well and increase weight when the upper limit of the range is reached.

For example, if you use the range of 8 to 10 reps, increase weight when you can reach 10 reps and you’ll likely be back down to 8 reps next time around with the heavier weight.

To ramp up, rather than do 225 for 3 sets of 8, after warmups, you’d do 185 for 10, 205 for 10, and then do a nice, difficult set for 8 to 10 reps, but NOT a grinding death set.[/quote]
Yep. Working within a rep range, and adjusting the weight from set-to-set based on your performance of the previous set, is a very solid way to go.

Using the original example:

Let’s say we’re shooting for 3x6-8. I’d probably go 220x8, 220x8, 225x6; Next week, 220x8, 225x7ish, 225x6ish; Next week, 220x8, 225x8, 225x7ish; etc.