When You Don't Feel It's Enough

I have in the past tried the one lift a day programme having found with its simplicity and the ability to focus purely on a single movement its a great system! However the way I tend to progress in my lifts is via the increasing of the density by way of cutting the rest periods in each successive workout and this brings me to my point.

I aim to rattle off say twenty to twenty five reps in a given period and by reducing my rest periods by ten seconds or so each session I eventually come down to rattling off twenty five reps in only three minutes! I know I have done more work over the last time I trained that body part but should I be aiming to progress by another method?

maybe upping the reps in the time frame rather than just cut the rest periods? It took me three minutes to complete my shoulders today ( one lift a day remember ) and although it felt very hard I still felt I should have done more.

Why not up the weight?

[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
Why not up the weight?[/quote]

I am following an EDT type programme. I do up the weight when I can complete the given reps in a set time

So you’re combining one lift a day, and EDT? In my opinion, if you’re going to do a program designed by someone else, you should do it as written. If you combine two completely different programs you will probably end up with the worst of both worlds, not the best.

I’m with Uncle Gabby on this one, if you are going to do a program do it as it’s laid out, or call it something else. Steven’s 3 minute shoulder extravaganza maybe.

What you are doing is half-assing the Tabata method.

20 seconds: do as many reps as you can
10 seconds: rest

Repeat for 4 minutes.

You should be in the realm of 80-100 reps in 4 minutes with this system. Keep a graduated puke bucket, to measure your “progress”.

This is one of the few systems that can stimulate the aerobic and anaerobic pathways simultaneously (i.e. the Holy Grail).

-Sab