Whenever I’m working out, I feel like Dr. Mike is looking over my shoulder, judging my eccentric speed and if I’m actually getting close to failure. With a stoic look on his face as if I’m never going to do it 100% right. Really gets me hot and bothered.
I'm also from SK and yes, almost every time Regina is mentioned there's either a joke, a funny look, or someone raises their eyebrows in a suggestive way :P
I think this is why I prefer training later in the day.I can just go home.Eat.Rest.And go to sleep.Repeat.The fact that I have nothing more to do after I train?Except recover,replenish and rest?Is actually what helps keep me going and push.💪🏼
I will either go at midnight or 4am (depending on if I can sleep at night or not). This way there's no one at the gym and afterwards I have enough time to eat/decompress before either passing out or doing office work.
If that’s what works best for you then you will get the best results from that as you will train harder and better. But I’m pretty sure scientifically the morning is better, because all the meals you eat after for the rest of the day go into rebuilding you. I’m sure Mike has done a video on this too. But I’m sure if you hate training in the morning then you will not get the benefit from it as you push harder when you’re happy if that’s late at night then that’s the best for you. 💪
I feel like going to technical failure always works. Then, you are at failure for doing the exercise with good technique, even though you could get 1-2 more reps in if you compromised your form a bit. But sometimes you just want to PR and then go for a few more reps with bad form, which is fine every once in a while
For me i just don't want to push it that far coz i workout alone. If you have a gym buddy it's fine but when you workout alone you do not train to failure period like ever. I've been it so many times when people push things so hard while alone and that's where big accidents happen like life changing. Oh and never break form my guy, i know it's a manhood kind of thing but just don't coz it's dumb. Sure you get to feel awesome and elated after a PR and just throwing big weights around but when you get injured what then? Like bicep tendonitis and you have to be careful doing push movements, god forbid spinae erector strain and celebrate coz no leg day for you and some back exercises will be limited, strain you wrist so welcome to the pain train, glute strain yikies training anything that moves your glutes is gonna hurt so on so just dont. Not worth getting injured and get limited function for months.
@@BaconManBruh I (sometimes) go to failure when working out alone, but I also always use safeties. If I don't make the squat then that's the racks problem, and failing on a curl isn't going to do me any damage.
What I would say is that regardless of whether people can gauge accurately or not, 90% of people in the gym (atleast ones I see at mine) are literally no where near failure. They just stop seemingly when they’re bored or done. Telling them “go till you can’t anymore” would just ensure they actually train hard
I started training 3 months ago and this video really confirmed that I have been training hard enough maybe even a little too hard at times. Thanks for the content
Machine weights are underrated for going to failure. Holding the last ecentric on a chest press or leg press after you’ve hit max reps is safe & takes your muscles to complete exhaustion. You simply can’t reach the same level of failure with free weight exercises that end on a lockout at the top of a rep.
I’m a Kiwi who went to AUT for one paper (still counts) - and I can’t believe Dr. Helms hails from our neck of the woods! Love your work Dr. Mike and Dr. Helms, you’ve taken my knowledge and training to many new levels over the years (yes I use the RP Hypertrophy app, and sometimes even the diet app). Team 3DMJ is an awesome channel to follow too. Legends.
Thats very important, specially for major lifts like a bench or a squat, but you shoukd try to slowly push yourself harder in the less risky exercises, like bicep curls or triceps workouts or abs
That's how I roll, usually getting to actual failure when I'm supposed to be at RPE 8+. I'm there at 1AM alone in the gym, learned how to fail a lift properly to stay safe.
Yep I'm with that. Live the deadlift, but will never go under 5-6 reps at a given weight. Same with the other majors, plus loads of high volume, low weight stuff mixed in
@@iron4537Telling that to a 40+ yr old is pretty yikes. I get it, push yourself but that only applies for 20-40 and 30-40 is really pushing it. If you are 40+ yrs old it's time to put injury prevention at the top of the to do list like #1 concern and 40+ yr old and alone is very common coz 40+ yr olds are busy so safety first.
I tend to focus on a definition of failure which means failure to maintain form, not failure to cheat through sloppy reps, and I push myself to failure instead of RIR numbers, which means that each time I could do more but poorly. So I go to failure but do not push into sloppiness, overfatigue, or potential injury.
As a non-professional lifter its not that easy to estimate RIR. Like someone in the comments said, it works well in that 10-15 range, since you considerably slow down, get muscle burn, joints still feel good and you can keep control over the weight long enough to do "just 1 more". In higher rep ranges its hard to discern joint stress and muscle burn, in lower rep ranges its super technique depentend. Breathing in or out at the wrong time can decide if you get 1-2 more reps out or if you are done. For me personally, I only feel confident in my estimations when training with machines
Depends on the exercise and person. Like for me on bar dips, I judge very wrong how much more I can do. Like I feel tired at 5 or 10 weighted dips but I can easily do another 5 or 10 more that day.
Mike is such an great interviewer. Comforting the guy who is being interviewt, asking very good and deep question, challenges in a positive way, its amazing how charismatic he is in these kinds of situations.
Yeah, what Eric said makes complete sense, and it's also in a way the same thing the rp app does , which is just pushing a set to failure in every exercise, to know for sure 'okay, this is failure' (i think 0 rir alot of the time is enough , if the last rep took you 5 mins of struggle, not much point in doing the final 'to failure rep'). And then just incremental overload from there. Great video!
Isn't the point of doing that last rep that takes a long time is the fact its the most muscle growth promoting rep you'll do? Isn't that the whole point of hypertrophy training?
When I went into the Marines we were told when you feel like quitting, you are only 40% done. After years of body hardening I know when I have only 1-2 reps remaining. But it’s confirmation listening to this. I watch the velocity more than I listen to the discomfort. I always assume my body is lying. The way I feel is subjective. How fast the weight is moving is objective.
Nice discussion. Cool to hear the methodology of the studies that he’s taken part in/ analyzed and it’s cool to hear that on average most people aren’t completely RIR-tarded.
Judging RiR is easy, unless you are doing like 15+ reps. Especially if you lift a lot, you should know the weight and number of reps you can do within 1-2 reps. On a new exercise, go to failure and see what you can do. I go to failure on every set, have for 3 decades now. I don't do many sets and I rest 2 days between workouts. Been working great. Overtraining is real, be careful.
Same, I just go to failure on all my exercises outside of leg stuff. Way simpler. Legs I still give it my best but I stop when I think 1 more rep would collapse me
This is one thing I struggle with. I workout alone at home. Makes it really tough to gauge how many reps I can truly do when I am afraid I am going to hurt myself. Also, I am working within the equipment I own so I have to adjust moves and weights when I find exercises I want to do.
i've pretty much done what mike explained about progressing on your workout for the last 5 years, and the results are insane, youll get alot stronger. Dont have the APP but if the app applies the same principles then i'd highly recommend either applying what he said to your workouts or gettin the app.
Progressive overload is really the answer, especially when you're new. You'll probably undershoot your RIR target, but if you add some weight/reps each week like you're supposed to, you'll eventually hit the RIR you were shooting for, and then you'll keep going and hit true failure. Within a few mesocycles, now you're calibrated about 0 RIR and 3 RIR, and you'll have a more appropriate starting number.
My obscure progression model: Let's say 3 sets with 10 reps each is the target. Obviously the first set is easier than the last one. Over time when I am making progress my RIR increase for the first set. This always bothered me therefore I turned things around. I go to -1/+1 technical failure in the first and second set, but no matter how many reps I count I increase my weight only when I reach 10 reps in the last set. Depending on the exercise it can end with something like 14-12-10 reps or with higher rep9 rangeslike 3x15 something like 21-18-15. Of course that doesn't work with every exercise, but with 95% of what I use. The advantage for me is that I neither have estimate RIR, nor do I save energy in the first sets to reach my goal in the last set. Second advantage, I need to increase weight much less often.
Dr. Mike is the real killdozer. Sorry, i was just watching something about the rampage of a man in a small town over a few, reasonably small disagreements. Anyway, Dr. Mike and the team have been with me for about a year i guess. I started losing weight 1 year ago exactly. I lost 154lbs in total. Probably gained some muscle.. i tried to anyway. Thanks for making this stuff easy to understand, and being realistic when you talk about " that bullsht" everyone slips ... that simple phrase helped me to stay consistent, even if I cheated on my diet.. whereas in te past, if i messed up... well might as well eat whatever the rest of the day.. i cheated all day yesterday, might as well have a good weekend... but i didn't do that thus time... also i think i have enough loose skin to aid in flight.. like a flying squirrel.
2 questions about reps in reserve.... 1. Does this mean that every set won't end up being the same number of reps? So set 1 at your working weight might be 10 reps, set 2 might be 8, set 3 might be 7 (as your muscles tire more and more)? Do you only progress linearly once you hit 10+ on all 3 sets (maybe 13, 12, 10)? 2. Failure vs. weird, janky stuff happening. Like on bench press, if it's my shoulders feeling off; on curls, if its my forearms getting tired). How do you guys manage this and push through?
1 - yes, and you can add just one rep to one set at the time or even match your performance if thats it, its still progress 2 - if something feels weird, just take it easy...you can try matching your reps next time and start over, but its not worth getting hurt...slow progress is far better than slightly faster progress with injury that will set you back
Answer to #2 is to adjust things until it feels right. In my experience you will never get a good stimulus if the exercise doesn't feel right, no matter your reps format. For shoulders, try different grips on bench press. If it's not enough try dumbells bench press and put elbows slightly closer to your body. For curls use tightly wrapped straps to relieve forearms. If it's not enough try EZ bar curls, EZ bar cable curls, or bayesian cable curls instead of dumbells. My biggest personal struggle have been with rows. I'm doing dumbells bent-over rows and it feels amazing. Every over rowing I tried felt terrible to me. Find what's right for you at the moment.
Personally the mastery of RIR is the key to hypertrophy for me. Understanding what 3 RIR is, keeps consistent training going. And occasionally going to failure to keep that assessment honest. I agree failure at 6 reps much easier to estimate vs at 25 reps.
Not having a spotter makes it hard for me to get to 0-1 RIR on compound lifts, because I get nervous about being "that guy" who ends up having to drop the weights. Learned the hard way that using clips with bench press makes bailing out impossible (had bruises all the way down my stomach after that).
If you can, try benching in a power rack so that you hit your chest first when you arch but can easily lay the bar on the safety bars if you fail. You can put plates under the bench to fine-tune the height but I don't usually need to. It also serves as a useful feedback if the bar isn't coming down perfectly level as I can feel it tap the rack on one side.
There might be few people in the world that Dr. Mike has more respect for than Eric Helms. And, once I listened to Iron Culture, I found out that Helms is hilarious in his own right, only a very different flavour of funny than Dr. Mike. I'm glad that they worked out whatever personal stuff you there used to be there, and I'm glad that even during that time, they were both thorough professionals about it. What they really have in common, is being extremely intelligent and having very high integrity. That will breed mutual respect eventually.
I have never heard Dr. Eric Helms say such controversial things compared to his normal repertoire. Train to failure? All block? "Only thing that matters in life: how close to failure can you go?" Well, talking anecdotally, I think I reached my peak when my parents told me I'm more than a failure.
Born and raised in Regina. The jokes never get old. Was hoping dr. Mike would drag the joke out longer like everyone else whos never heard of saskatchewan cities.
Hardest part about pushing to the limit, in my opinion, is maintaining good form. This could be related to why he recommends machines when really going hard. It's very mentally challenging to really push yourself that hard, but it's even MORE mentally challenging to push yourself as hard as possible without sacrificing the form of those last couple reps. I know what it feels like to "cheat" that last rep and expose myself to danger/injury. And how I want to avoid ever doing that again. Definitely learned a lot from training briefly with a wrestler friend of mine like 12 years ago. He said he never counted reps, for anything, just went until it was "really hard to continue." Talking about an RIR approach without using those terms or reading any of the science. Dude would do "normal" reps on heavy certain lifts, but then do things like push-ups, body weight squats, standard crunches, for like 50-100-150+ reps
Most of my clients are at RIR 8 when I ask them to go RIR 3 until they get to experience failure in multiple exercises and have about 4-6 month of experience. So.. the athletes of those studies must have some experience. No way you pick 100 first time lifters (normal people from all ages and conditions) and they all go 1 off to the target RIR.
The people I know who talk about the danger of RIR are talking to new lifters and make that point clear. I'm guessing these guys are talking about a different group hating on RIR no matter what?
@@iCaTPSA yeah, I worded that poorly! Danger as in bad lifting practices / reasons against using RIR in training. I was a poster child for stopping at discomfort thinking that was failure only to find out when I actually pushed to failure how many more I could do!
Internal vs. External Validity. A tale as old as time. Also, did I hear a Mike Zourdos shoutout? We did our Masters together at Salisbury. Guy was an animal in the weight room!
Excellent video, as always. I really love your measured takes, they have helped me tremendously in the gym. A video I would really enjoy, as a crossfit athlete trying to build a physique, is something for hybrid athletes. You have a video for people with little available time, but what about people with little available energy? like you wanna run fast but also look big ? or you do basketball but still wanna look jacked in the locker room for... reasons
I do a kinda blend of failure and rir. Each set I rep till I can't no more. But I don't do as many sets as I could. I had a shoulder injury that took me out for a year so that generally tends to be my flag. Soon as I start to feel a twinge I'm done but more often than not it's before that happens
Im 35 and workout alone and i learned injury prevention the hard way. Like this year alone i had 1 injury per month the firs 6-7 months of starting but now i don't get injured as much. Getting injured at 35+ sucks like it heals so long its nuts.
Always reach technical failure when it's safe to do so, do extra reps with worse form/half reps if you can still get a stretch 🤷 You can give up early and you're still doing good work or you can go to full failure sometimes if you want to push yourself. If you don't feel great you can leave some reps in reserve and if you feel pain where you shouldn't then move on to the next one
For me it is much easier to max out to true failure on machines. In my private gym I have mostly free weights and I find it more difficult. Without spotter I need to keep something in reserve doing the benchpress and that is also true for some other execises. I got good results with that biceps curl variation with the insane stretch that Dr.Mike and his friend showed yesterday. Such a sweet burn while not moving very much weight - felt productive! But in any case I train hard and try to hunt for pain. A working set needs to hurt somewhat to be good.
The thing I learned pushing myself to failure repeatedly is that I used to think failure was a lot closer than it actually was. The best example for me is… funny enough… bicep curls. It is a lot harder than we think to get to actual failure for bicep curls. What usually happens is that you slow down a lot but you can still finish the curl with a lot of effort. And even if you hit a stopping point you can usually give it a second or six and eventually power through it. You just have to repeat that exploration for all of your muscles and get a sense of how they’re different or the same. Then once that’s mapped out you just scale based on progressive overload.
Don't forget that failure is form breakdown. So once you have to start leaning back a lot, or you can't reach peak contraction, or you can't fully extend at the bottom you've reached failure. Failure on curls is actually really easy
@@mustang8206 For me, I find stopping as soon as my form breaks down just isn't good enough. My best biceps workouts (or really any muscle) involve some "sloppy" reps at the end.
@@freedivemd9366 A few cheat reps or a little body English is fine. That's why I said leaning back a lot, obviously you don't want to be some rigid form nerd who only curls 25 lbs
@@mustang8206 I need to see your arms because as a natural my arms would not grow from treating failure as such. I have to no longer be able to even get to the lengthening for even more growth. If you cheat and skip the bottom but still achieve lengthening, then you're still able to extort some energy for muscle breakdown, not doing that simply is detrimental for your arm growth unless your arms are under like 16 inches most likely
The question to me is "how much failure is enough failure"? If you "fail" at a rep, then take 5 seconds to breathe in and try again, does that still count as a rep that you were taking out of RIR? 10s? Or if you can't push the wait anymore it's game over?
It's a really good question. In practical terms, this is a compromise you have to make: there's a trade-off between the time efficiency of getting another high-stimulus rep within a single set, albeit at the cost exponentially greater mental and muscular fatigue, vs just resting for a couple of minutes and doing another full set, which takes more time but is less mentally taxing and allows more total volume at slightly less stimulus-per-rep.
Having just started back at the gym, I have been using 30 rep sets. This is because I am over 50 and constantly get injured training in lower rep ranges. To be honest, with the weights so low at 30 reps, I have no idea how close to failure I'm going, but obviously increasing weights over time will get me to 2-3RIR at some point. I would say that on the whole for someone with experience, they should know to within one or two reps exactly what they will be capable of doing before the set starts, so there shouldn't be too much guesswork, other than when starting a new mesocycle and the mesocycle itself should eliminate the guesswork fairly quickly.
Honestly, an easy way to quickly film yourself in your home gym is probably one of the best investments over all the fancy extra equipment. Nothing will help your training more than thinking you've got great form or that the bar is flying off the ground and realising its just not so.
I usually do 2-3 seconds negative on my lifts and the moment it goes like a 1 second negative, that next rep would be technically the last rep before failure. I also train very close to failure in my mesocycles except for the first week(2-3 reps shy of RIR) and last week(deload, 2 sets max, 5 reps across all lifts) and my rep scheme goes on these weeks are like 15,12,9. It will be in a descent if you are training like this.
This is sort of why, despite knowing it's not necessarily always optimum to go to absolute failure in terms of recovery and injury risk, I pretty much always go for full failure, 0 RIR. Because that way I know that I was training hard enough and wasn't kidding myself about how many reps I had left
Over-shooting crowd checking in! I'm consistently "underperforming" during the weeks when I take sets to failure when compared to my leadup weeks (2, 1 RIR sequentially). I came to bodybuilding from powerlifting/powerbuilding, so I'm used to calling an RPE 9.5 an easy set @7 lol.
i like to do failure on all my lifts on the last week before a deload, then i can get a concrete idea of my rir. if i fail doing 12 reps of 40 on incline curl, then i know 10 reps of 40 is 2 rir roughly. also helps tell me what that rir really feels like
You can, at least with machines or Smith machines and cables. Sure, don't try to take a Barbell Back Squat to failure by yourself. But there's plenty of stuff you can get there if you want. :)
I just base until I can’t push/pull the weight from a fully stretched position. If I’m straining too hard or it hurts to do then I stop. But only from a fully stretched position.
I always go to 0-1 RIR or failure on my last set exercises so I know for sure I'm actually close to failure. It wouldn't be the first time I do e.g. 8 reps for my working sets and feel like it's getting hard only to rep out 11 or 12 on my last set
In my experience, people who are just mucking around, not going so hard aren't using RIR anyway. They're just doing stuff. People who use RIR tend to be people who TRAIN, not just exercise, and those people have a certain approach, and they're by default going to be more aware and more accurate. This doesn't surprise me at all.
exactly, I use RIR and RPE's and my deadlift increased by 70 lbs and i havent finished my program yet. I started at 265 orm to ending up at 335 orm in a few months.
As a intermediate body builder getting some slow paced steady muscle and aesthetic gains, It would be greatly helpful for all the bodybuilding folks if you could do a specific video about muscles to train for V-taper and a non-conventional perspective(yours) about how to build that based on different body types and what muscle to target with any change in the regular workout splits or exercises?! Thanks Dr. Mike for your valuable unconventional wisdom!!!!!!!!!!!
@@kodymcgrath7148 well yeah :) but there are things such as developing arms, not too big of legs, obliques, etc. which are critical to think of while developing a training plan.
I feel like I'm close enough with RIR, but with my trainer, he counts down to like 3 reps left, 2 reps left, 1 rep left and I'm ready to quit. Then he's like nah 10 MORE and I get through those 10 with decent form even though they're incredibly hard. I think its also related to machines - wish they had talked about that. The concept of RIR *really* changes on a machine to me, because there is 0 risk so you can get through 10 more even though it hurts like hell, you slow down or get the form a little wrong. On DB/BB lifts you can't go too close to failure and risk badly hurting yourself.
It gets easier with experience. I usually go to failure on machines like chest press and smith and add a couple of rest pause sets. But obviously more and more people are using machines so when the gyms manic like usual Al do more free weight stuff. I don’t train to failure on the free weight stuff like bench press. So just when my chest starting to cramp and I feel like I could do another rep but I would struggle and risk dropping the bar I stop and take a 2 minute rest and complete another 2 straight sets. I still felt sore the next day and my reps and strength were still going up the next time I did the exercise and I didn’t feel as fatigued. The only problem I have with straight sets which is what you sort of need to do I would say if your leaving reps in the tank is it’s time consuming. You train to failure you shorten the length of time your in the gym but when you have a physical job to complete after the gym for 7-8 hours it can be canni fatiguing so. Straight sets leaving reps in the tank if you have time is probs the smarter way to train but time to the average Joe is precious. So training to failure with less volume and less days is more sustainable in my opinion for the average joe
I just started training again a month ago after like a 10 year break so I had no idea where my 3rir was for any lift. I found my upper body estimates to be far more accurate than my lower body estimates. This also could be me mentally sandbagging as I'm not trying tobe the fat old guy dropping the squat bar on the floor in front of everyone with only half my bodyweight on it.
What opened my eyes to how far off one's personal RIR estimations can be was when I took testosterone for a couple of months. I would find myself reaching the points (controlling for load) that I would normally call failure or 1RIR only to then pump out an extra 2 or 3 repetitions. I wonder if testosterone levels (whether natural or enhanced) influence RIR perceptions. That might be worth researching, if no one has looked into it already.
I gotta admit, it's one thing to be doing an exercise and to feel that you are 3, 2 or 1 RIR, but its a whole different ball game to start with a given weight and just have to guess how many reps will be 3, 2, or 1 RIR before even doing your first rep.
So, work out hard, but not too hard. Then once in a while work out way harder, then go back to working out hard......but not too hard. I feel like most of this stuff is splitting hairs. Probably 1% of the people watching this actually need to optimize their training to squeeze that last 3% out of their training. Most of us just go to the gym three to four times a week and try to work out hard.
For me, I do reps until I can't do any more IN STRICT GOOD FORM, but it never FEELS like I've done enough. So I always cheat a few more reps until I actually feel some strain or burn, and the reps start to just get sloppy. Or rest 10 seconds and squeeze out a couple more. Of course on some exercises like squats or bench press, failure is obvious because you literally can't get it back up.
It always amazes me how depending on what your exercise or sport you are interested in there is always a study that says "I'm doing it right, you're all stupid."
Me just yesterday talking to my kids: I don't know exactly how heavy it is but I can only lift it 5-6 times Proceeds to dead lift it for 10 reps. Did I just get stronger between last time and this time, or did I sand bag it last time? I try to train to failure because I assume I undershoot.
Personally I just go by rep ranges if the range is 4 to 6 or 8 to 10 I increase the weight in the same session if I hit 10 or top of the range, or increase in the next session if I hit the 8 or low end of the range
Basically the gains-to-RIR curve flattens after 2-3RIR, so you're not missing out on much by stopping there. If you go to failure every day it will be harder to progress due to higher fatigue and you'll plateau. But since estimating RIR is difficult the best strategy is to get closer to failure over time in your cycle, then deload.
That was good. I know +/- 1 rep sounds really good, but this is bidirectional. So I guess there is a 2 rep spread for two standard deviations? This means 3 reps IRR could be 2 or it could be 4… that is a range that’s is 2/3 of the target IRR. That seems like a high relative standard deviation compared to what you are trying to do with it. I would say +/- one is about right for me on average, but every once in a while I have 2 more or less in a ~10 rep set. It seems like RPE might accomplish more. But these are absolutely touchy feely when dealing with noobs who have no clue what they can do.
Whenever I’m working out, I feel like Dr. Mike is looking over my shoulder, judging my eccentric speed and if I’m actually getting close to failure. With a stoic look on his face as if I’m never going to do it 100% right. Really gets me hot and bothered.
Amen
I thought it was just me
@@landotuckerwait you say Dr. Mike isn't actually looking over the shoulder of every single lifting person in the universe?
He'd so get off on that. 😂😂😂
The little Dr. Mike in the back of my head makes sure I retain good form once a set becomes hard: "Slow! Slow! As if another!"
As someone from Saskatchewan, I love that when I see someone reference Regina on the internet, there’s a joke or a pause. Makes me smile every time.
The city that rhymes with Fun
ruclips.net/video/74B5kMLNd5Q/видео.html
Its cuz everyone from there are big ol cunts!
Jk I love my rough riders!
I'm also from SK and yes, almost every time Regina is mentioned there's either a joke, a funny look, or someone raises their eyebrows in a suggestive way :P
I think this is why I prefer training later in the day.I can just go home.Eat.Rest.And go to sleep.Repeat.The fact that I have nothing more to do after I train?Except recover,replenish and rest?Is actually what helps keep me going and push.💪🏼
I will either go at midnight or 4am (depending on if I can sleep at night or not). This way there's no one at the gym and afterwards I have enough time to eat/decompress before either passing out or doing office work.
Yeah you and every other person in my gym, IT'S PACKED 😭
@@pricklycats I'm broke so I go to the cheapest gym along with everyone else. Hoping to fix that this year.
If that’s what works best for you then you will get the best results from that as you will train harder and better. But I’m pretty sure scientifically the morning is better, because all the meals you eat after for the rest of the day go into rebuilding you. I’m sure Mike has done a video on this too. But I’m sure if you hate training in the morning then you will not get the benefit from it as you push harder when you’re happy if that’s late at night then that’s the best for you. 💪
Beind self employed has its perks like being able to workout midday when the gym is least packed. I like that time a lot.
Just rep until no reps are left in the tank and you yourself become a rep
And we have come full circle. Namaste.
Tom platz approved
Then start repping steroids and become an absolute beast. Oh wait, l said the quite part out loud.
just go to failure and become a failure
Somewhere Mike Mentzer is crying.
Dad I hit 315lbs on deadlift!! 13 months into starting to work out! Thanks papa ❤
That's nothing. I deadlift 1000 kilos.
Good job mate, keep up the hard work 💪
@@MMACazual oof big lad stats. Ty!
congratulations! keep at it
My lateral raise warmup. We start somewhere.
@@user-he4ef9br7z proof? If you're lying i get to see you do naked goblet squats
I feel like going to technical failure always works. Then, you are at failure for doing the exercise with good technique, even though you could get 1-2 more reps in if you compromised your form a bit.
But sometimes you just want to PR and then go for a few more reps with bad form, which is fine every once in a while
For me i just don't want to push it that far coz i workout alone. If you have a gym buddy it's fine but when you workout alone you do not train to failure period like ever. I've been it so many times when people push things so hard while alone and that's where big accidents happen like life changing.
Oh and never break form my guy, i know it's a manhood kind of thing but just don't coz it's dumb. Sure you get to feel awesome and elated after a PR and just throwing big weights around but when you get injured what then? Like bicep tendonitis and you have to be careful doing push movements, god forbid spinae erector strain and celebrate coz no leg day for you and some back exercises will be limited, strain you wrist so welcome to the pain train, glute strain yikies training anything that moves your glutes is gonna hurt so on so just dont. Not worth getting injured and get limited function for months.
@@BaconManBruh I (sometimes) go to failure when working out alone, but I also always use safeties. If I don't make the squat then that's the racks problem, and failing on a curl isn't going to do me any damage.
I just can't get enough of these Eric and Mike discussions.
And Menno. My favourite series on the channel. Would love to see Greg Nuckols too
This stuff is free, but you still choose to pay for it.
@@KingRobbStark what?
@@KingRobbStark you seem upset about it
Because the members get other videos too, not only these
i will ego lift forever, your videos encourage me to ego lift even harder. so just know, because of you, i am ego lifting even harder.
🤗🤗🤗
You sound like an Indian.
Dr Mike blinking to failure.
I hope he stays in rir in this one
Bruh 😂
I like to think that he always had two more blinks in him
Hard to tell where failure is when his reps are this high
6:10 - LMAO I had the exact same reaction as Dr. Mike. “Re-GINA” 🤨
Helms' Pause was wonderful 😂
I was like “university of WHAT???”
As a current resident of said city - I'm with Jim Gaffigan on his observation... Why cant it be Rah-gee-na? We are perverts I guess 🤣
6:13 the most Michael Scott moment to ever happen on this channel
100%!!
On god 😭
What I would say is that regardless of whether people can gauge accurately or not, 90% of people in the gym (atleast ones I see at mine) are literally no where near failure. They just stop seemingly when they’re bored or done. Telling them “go till you can’t anymore” would just ensure they actually train hard
Not everyone goes to the gym to get optimal muscle growth. Some people just want to do some exercise and have fun.
Hearing Dr Mike talk about Regina how we talk about it in SK was great.
I started training 3 months ago and this video really confirmed that I have been training hard enough maybe even a little too hard at times. Thanks for the content
Machine weights are underrated for going to failure.
Holding the last ecentric on a chest press or leg press after you’ve hit max reps is safe & takes your muscles to complete exhaustion.
You simply can’t reach the same level of failure with free weight exercises that end on a lockout at the top of a rep.
High volume, low reps. I will never bench on a Smith machine
Bro said decentric lol
Always a pleasure listening to Eric! Great stuff!
dr mike can you please do a video on the mechanisms of stretch-mediated hypertrophy and your current opinions on the subject?
I’m a Kiwi who went to AUT for one paper (still counts) - and I can’t believe Dr. Helms hails from our neck of the woods! Love your work Dr. Mike and Dr. Helms, you’ve taken my knowledge and training to many new levels over the years (yes I use the RP Hypertrophy app, and sometimes even the diet app). Team 3DMJ is an awesome channel to follow too. Legends.
Since I tend to train entirely by myself and I'm 40+ I go only as far is I believe I can safely go without injuring myself.
Thats very important, specially for major lifts like a bench or a squat, but you shoukd try to slowly push yourself harder in the less risky exercises, like bicep curls or triceps workouts or abs
That's how I roll, usually getting to actual failure when I'm supposed to be at RPE 8+. I'm there at 1AM alone in the gym, learned how to fail a lift properly to stay safe.
Yep I'm with that. Live the deadlift, but will never go under 5-6 reps at a given weight.
Same with the other majors, plus loads of high volume, low weight stuff mixed in
@@iron4537Telling that to a 40+ yr old is pretty yikes. I get it, push yourself but that only applies for 20-40 and 30-40 is really pushing it. If you are 40+ yrs old it's time to put injury prevention at the top of the to do list like #1 concern and 40+ yr old and alone is very common coz 40+ yr olds are busy so safety first.
Well that's close enough I would say
I tend to focus on a definition of failure which means failure to maintain form, not failure to cheat through sloppy reps, and I push myself to failure instead of RIR numbers, which means that each time I could do more but poorly. So I go to failure but do not push into sloppiness, overfatigue, or potential injury.
Yep, I go to technical failure too and it works well for me.
Technical failure is the standard
As a non-professional lifter its not that easy to estimate RIR. Like someone in the comments said, it works well in that 10-15 range, since you considerably slow down, get muscle burn, joints still feel good and you can keep control over the weight long enough to do "just 1 more". In higher rep ranges its hard to discern joint stress and muscle burn, in lower rep ranges its super technique depentend. Breathing in or out at the wrong time can decide if you get 1-2 more reps out or if you are done. For me personally, I only feel confident in my estimations when training with machines
Depends on the exercise and person. Like for me on bar dips, I judge very wrong how much more I can do.
Like I feel tired at 5 or 10 weighted dips but I can easily do another 5 or 10 more that day.
I'm from Argentina, love your videos, I learned a lot thanks to you sharing knowledge.
I’m pronouncing Argentina like Regina.
Mike is such an great interviewer. Comforting the guy who is being interviewt, asking very good and deep question, challenges in a positive way, its amazing how charismatic he is in these kinds of situations.
You should ask him out
@@getsuckedd5685 I am first
Mike is good at verbal communication in general and also quick on his feet-hardly any dead air in his content.
Yeah, what Eric said makes complete sense, and it's also in a way the same thing the rp app does , which is just pushing a set to failure in every exercise, to know for sure 'okay, this is failure' (i think 0 rir alot of the time is enough , if the last rep took you 5 mins of struggle, not much point in doing the final 'to failure rep'). And then just incremental overload from there.
Great video!
Isn't the point of doing that last rep that takes a long time is the fact its the most muscle growth promoting rep you'll do? Isn't that the whole point of hypertrophy training?
When I went into the Marines we were told when you feel like quitting, you are only 40% done. After years of body hardening I know when I have only 1-2 reps remaining. But it’s confirmation listening to this. I watch the velocity more than I listen to the discomfort. I always assume my body is lying. The way I feel is subjective. How fast the weight is moving is objective.
Oh shit, I just picked up his muscle and strength pyramid books recently. It's him! 😲
He’s fantastic. Both of them!
Love Dr. Helms! Patiently waiting for the leg day workout with him 👀
Nice discussion. Cool to hear the methodology of the studies that he’s taken part in/ analyzed and it’s cool to hear that on average most people aren’t completely RIR-tarded.
Judging RiR is easy, unless you are doing like 15+ reps. Especially if you lift a lot, you should know the weight and number of reps you can do within 1-2 reps. On a new exercise, go to failure and see what you can do. I go to failure on every set, have for 3 decades now. I don't do many sets and I rest 2 days between workouts. Been working great. Overtraining is real, be careful.
Same, I just go to failure on all my exercises outside of leg stuff. Way simpler. Legs I still give it my best but I stop when I think 1 more rep would collapse me
This is one thing I struggle with. I workout alone at home. Makes it really tough to gauge how many reps I can truly do when I am afraid I am going to hurt myself. Also, I am working within the equipment I own so I have to adjust moves and weights when I find exercises I want to do.
Always work within the parameters of safety, one or two reps aren't as important as your life... stay safe
@@winstonbarker7936 Definitely agree with you.
Definitely try filming yourself. It can be a great way to check your form as well as intensity cues like bar speed.
The way they explained progression eliminates this problem. It's covered in the video already.
@@Vincent_Beers I commented this in the beginning of the video.
I really love these deep dive science vids!!!
Thank you for teaming up with a 3dmj coach!
This is probably my favorite RP video so far
i've pretty much done what mike explained about progressing on your workout for the last 5 years, and the results are insane, youll get alot stronger. Dont have the APP but if the app applies the same principles then i'd highly recommend either applying what he said to your workouts or gettin the app.
Progressive overload is really the answer, especially when you're new. You'll probably undershoot your RIR target, but if you add some weight/reps each week like you're supposed to, you'll eventually hit the RIR you were shooting for, and then you'll keep going and hit true failure. Within a few mesocycles, now you're calibrated about 0 RIR and 3 RIR, and you'll have a more appropriate starting number.
My obscure progression model:
Let's say 3 sets with 10 reps each is the target. Obviously the first set is easier than the last one. Over time when I am making progress my RIR increase for the first set. This always bothered me therefore I turned things around.
I go to -1/+1 technical failure in the first and second set, but no matter how many reps I count I increase my weight only when I reach 10 reps in the last set. Depending on the exercise it can end with something like 14-12-10 reps or with higher rep9 rangeslike 3x15 something like 21-18-15.
Of course that doesn't work with every exercise, but with 95% of what I use. The advantage for me is that I neither have estimate RIR, nor do I save energy in the first sets to reach my goal in the last set. Second advantage, I need to increase weight much less often.
Dr. Mike is the real killdozer. Sorry, i was just watching something about the rampage of a man in a small town over a few, reasonably small disagreements. Anyway, Dr. Mike and the team have been with me for about a year i guess. I started losing weight 1 year ago exactly. I lost 154lbs in total. Probably gained some muscle.. i tried to anyway. Thanks for making this stuff easy to understand, and being realistic when you talk about " that bullsht" everyone slips ... that simple phrase helped me to stay consistent, even if I cheated on my diet.. whereas in te past, if i messed up... well might as well eat whatever the rest of the day.. i cheated all day yesterday, might as well have a good weekend... but i didn't do that thus time... also i think i have enough loose skin to aid in flight.. like a flying squirrel.
2 questions about reps in reserve....
1. Does this mean that every set won't end up being the same number of reps? So set 1 at your working weight might be 10 reps, set 2 might be 8, set 3 might be 7 (as your muscles tire more and more)? Do you only progress linearly once you hit 10+ on all 3 sets (maybe 13, 12, 10)?
2. Failure vs. weird, janky stuff happening. Like on bench press, if it's my shoulders feeling off; on curls, if its my forearms getting tired). How do you guys manage this and push through?
1 - yes, and you can add just one rep to one set at the time or even match your performance if thats it, its still progress
2 - if something feels weird, just take it easy...you can try matching your reps next time and start over, but its not worth getting hurt...slow progress is far better than slightly faster progress with injury that will set you back
Answer to #2 is to adjust things until it feels right. In my experience you will never get a good stimulus if the exercise doesn't feel right, no matter your reps format.
For shoulders, try different grips on bench press. If it's not enough try dumbells bench press and put elbows slightly closer to your body.
For curls use tightly wrapped straps to relieve forearms. If it's not enough try EZ bar curls, EZ bar cable curls, or bayesian cable curls instead of dumbells.
My biggest personal struggle have been with rows. I'm doing dumbells bent-over rows and it feels amazing. Every over rowing I tried felt terrible to me. Find what's right for you at the moment.
6:14 I literally knew he was going to break jut had to wait a bit 🤣
That thumbnail is literally the meme 'what she sees' 😂😂😂
I see what you did there
idk, with Dr. Mike it might be a "he"
Personally the mastery of RIR is the key to hypertrophy for me. Understanding what 3 RIR is, keeps consistent training going. And occasionally going to failure to keep that assessment honest. I agree failure at 6 reps much easier to estimate vs at 25 reps.
I’ve always had a problem with RIR. I train to failure every time and it’s been working.
Not having a spotter makes it hard for me to get to 0-1 RIR on compound lifts, because I get nervous about being "that guy" who ends up having to drop the weights. Learned the hard way that using clips with bench press makes bailing out impossible (had bruises all the way down my stomach after that).
Ya clips are a bad idea for anyone working out alone
u can always use safety racks for the squat, and depending on the gym for bench too.
If you can, try benching in a power rack so that you hit your chest first when you arch but can easily lay the bar on the safety bars if you fail. You can put plates under the bench to fine-tune the height but I don't usually need to. It also serves as a useful feedback if the bar isn't coming down perfectly level as I can feel it tap the rack on one side.
There might be few people in the world that Dr. Mike has more respect for than Eric Helms. And, once I listened to Iron Culture, I found out that Helms is hilarious in his own right, only a very different flavour of funny than Dr. Mike. I'm glad that they worked out whatever personal stuff you there used to be there, and I'm glad that even during that time, they were both thorough professionals about it. What they really have in common, is being extremely intelligent and having very high integrity. That will breed mutual respect eventually.
I have never heard Dr. Eric Helms say such controversial things compared to his normal repertoire. Train to failure? All block?
"Only thing that matters in life: how close to failure can you go?" Well, talking anecdotally, I think I reached my peak when my parents told me I'm more than a failure.
😅 Sailed past "failure" so far and for so long, I can see the glimmer of success way up ahead
Born and raised in Regina. The jokes never get old. Was hoping dr. Mike would drag the joke out longer like everyone else whos never heard of saskatchewan cities.
Hardest part about pushing to the limit, in my opinion, is maintaining good form. This could be related to why he recommends machines when really going hard. It's very mentally challenging to really push yourself that hard, but it's even MORE mentally challenging to push yourself as hard as possible without sacrificing the form of those last couple reps. I know what it feels like to "cheat" that last rep and expose myself to danger/injury. And how I want to avoid ever doing that again.
Definitely learned a lot from training briefly with a wrestler friend of mine like 12 years ago. He said he never counted reps, for anything, just went until it was "really hard to continue." Talking about an RIR approach without using those terms or reading any of the science. Dude would do "normal" reps on heavy certain lifts, but then do things like push-ups, body weight squats, standard crunches, for like 50-100-150+ reps
Most of my clients are at RIR 8 when I ask them to go RIR 3 until they get to experience failure in multiple exercises and have about 4-6 month of experience. So.. the athletes of those studies must have some experience. No way you pick 100 first time lifters (normal people from all ages and conditions) and they all go 1 off to the target RIR.
The people I know who talk about the danger of RIR are talking to new lifters and make that point clear. I'm guessing these guys are talking about a different group hating on RIR no matter what?
@@southy3667 which danger are we talking about? Never heard of RIR generating any danger.
@@iCaTPSA yeah, I worded that poorly! Danger as in bad lifting practices / reasons against using RIR in training.
I was a poster child for stopping at discomfort thinking that was failure only to find out when I actually pushed to failure how many more I could do!
Internal vs. External Validity. A tale as old as time. Also, did I hear a Mike Zourdos shoutout? We did our Masters together at Salisbury. Guy was an animal in the weight room!
Excellent video, as always. I really love your measured takes, they have helped me tremendously in the gym.
A video I would really enjoy, as a crossfit athlete trying to build a physique, is something for hybrid athletes. You have a video for people with little available time, but what about people with little available energy? like you wanna run fast but also look big ? or you do basketball but still wanna look jacked in the locker room for... reasons
Sometimes, I go find failure. It gives me a good knowledge of where that is for a given exercise
I do a kinda blend of failure and rir. Each set I rep till I can't no more. But I don't do as many sets as I could. I had a shoulder injury that took me out for a year so that generally tends to be my flag. Soon as I start to feel a twinge I'm done but more often than not it's before that happens
That was very very useful. The content on this channel honestly is amazing. If only I’d had it as a kid, 35 years ago 😂
Im 35 and workout alone and i learned injury prevention the hard way. Like this year alone i had 1 injury per month the firs 6-7 months of starting but now i don't get injured as much. Getting injured at 35+ sucks like it heals so long its nuts.
I always start the meso with trying every exercise to failure on the first set then subtract 3.
Always reach technical failure when it's safe to do so, do extra reps with worse form/half reps if you can still get a stretch 🤷
You can give up early and you're still doing good work or you can go to full failure sometimes if you want to push yourself. If you don't feel great you can leave some reps in reserve and if you feel pain where you shouldn't then move on to the next one
For me it is much easier to max out to true failure on machines. In my private gym I have mostly free weights and I find it more difficult. Without spotter I need to keep something in reserve doing the benchpress and that is also true for some other execises. I got good results with that biceps curl variation with the insane stretch that Dr.Mike and his friend showed yesterday. Such a sweet burn while not moving very much weight - felt productive! But in any case I train hard and try to hunt for pain. A working set needs to hurt somewhat to be good.
The thing I learned pushing myself to failure repeatedly is that I used to think failure was a lot closer than it actually was. The best example for me is… funny enough… bicep curls. It is a lot harder than we think to get to actual failure for bicep curls. What usually happens is that you slow down a lot but you can still finish the curl with a lot of effort. And even if you hit a stopping point you can usually give it a second or six and eventually power through it. You just have to repeat that exploration for all of your muscles and get a sense of how they’re different or the same. Then once that’s mapped out you just scale based on progressive overload.
Don't forget that failure is form breakdown. So once you have to start leaning back a lot, or you can't reach peak contraction, or you can't fully extend at the bottom you've reached failure. Failure on curls is actually really easy
@@mustang8206 For me, I find stopping as soon as my form breaks down just isn't good enough. My best biceps workouts (or really any muscle) involve some "sloppy" reps at the end.
@@freedivemd9366 A few cheat reps or a little body English is fine. That's why I said leaning back a lot, obviously you don't want to be some rigid form nerd who only curls 25 lbs
@@mustang8206 I need to see your arms because as a natural my arms would not grow from treating failure as such. I have to no longer be able to even get to the lengthening for even more growth. If you cheat and skip the bottom but still achieve lengthening, then you're still able to extort some energy for muscle breakdown, not doing that simply is detrimental for your arm growth unless your arms are under like 16 inches most likely
@@Peraliq Or... you could just stop ego lifting and lower the weight
Did not expect to see a Kiwi on here, Nice bonus but Dr Mike is always MORE than enough
Those videos with guests are the best.
The question to me is "how much failure is enough failure"? If you "fail" at a rep, then take 5 seconds to breathe in and try again, does that still count as a rep that you were taking out of RIR? 10s? Or if you can't push the wait anymore it's game over?
If you have to rest more than ~2 seconds to complete another rep, the set is over
It's a really good question. In practical terms, this is a compromise you have to make: there's a trade-off between the time efficiency of getting another high-stimulus rep within a single set, albeit at the cost exponentially greater mental and muscular fatigue, vs just resting for a couple of minutes and doing another full set, which takes more time but is less mentally taxing and allows more total volume at slightly less stimulus-per-rep.
@@yoloswegmaster1532 lol no
Bar in hands is a set. Bar out of hands is a set complete. 20 rep squats are something your one reply needs to experience.
Having just started back at the gym, I have been using 30 rep sets. This is because I am over 50 and constantly get injured training in lower rep ranges. To be honest, with the weights so low at 30 reps, I have no idea how close to failure I'm going, but obviously increasing weights over time will get me to 2-3RIR at some point.
I would say that on the whole for someone with experience, they should know to within one or two reps exactly what they will be capable of doing before the set starts, so there shouldn't be too much guesswork, other than when starting a new mesocycle and the mesocycle itself should eliminate the guesswork fairly quickly.
Honestly, an easy way to quickly film yourself in your home gym is probably one of the best investments over all the fancy extra equipment. Nothing will help your training more than thinking you've got great form or that the bar is flying off the ground and realising its just not so.
1-2 RIR on anything I can drop on myself, then failure on machine/cable
Yes does not matter, most individuals do not train consistently, hard enough to even worry about this. Life happens.
I usually do 2-3 seconds negative on my lifts and the moment it goes like a 1 second negative, that next rep would be technically the last rep before failure. I also train very close to failure in my mesocycles except for the first week(2-3 reps shy of RIR) and last week(deload, 2 sets max, 5 reps across all lifts) and my rep scheme goes on these weeks are like 15,12,9. It will be in a descent if you are training like this.
This is sort of why, despite knowing it's not necessarily always optimum to go to absolute failure in terms of recovery and injury risk, I pretty much always go for full failure, 0 RIR. Because that way I know that I was training hard enough and wasn't kidding myself about how many reps I had left
Great information. Thank you 🙏
Dr Mike is my hero
Could you please do superhero workout plan videos for Captain America, Spider-Man, Aquaman, and Deadpool or Wolverine.
Over-shooting crowd checking in! I'm consistently "underperforming" during the weeks when I take sets to failure when compared to my leadup weeks (2, 1 RIR sequentially). I came to bodybuilding from powerlifting/powerbuilding, so I'm used to calling an RPE 9.5 an easy set @7 lol.
i like to do failure on all my lifts on the last week before a deload, then i can get a concrete idea of my rir. if i fail doing 12 reps of 40 on incline curl, then i know 10 reps of 40 is 2 rir roughly. also helps tell me what that rir really feels like
I stoppped training to failure and i feel better than ever and the gains are just as good
Plus less injury risk
I train by myself, and I understand that I can't really know my real RIR. But I still do plenty of work.
You can, at least with machines or Smith machines and cables. Sure, don't try to take a Barbell Back Squat to failure by yourself. But there's plenty of stuff you can get there if you want. :)
@@smirbelbirbelWhy not dumbells.
learn how to dump the weight on a squat if you have the space. Its worth knowing how because you never know if you'll need it
I'd like to see a video on what you think of George Hackenschmidt's training and or what we've learned since then that could improve it
I just base until I can’t push/pull the weight from a fully stretched position. If I’m straining too hard or it hurts to do then I stop. But only from a fully stretched position.
I often underestimate my RIR. i know this because after 2-3 weeks using the RP Hypertrophy app, I fail my sets.
Those of us from Saskatchewan grew out of the "Regina" joke by 12. But It's fun to watch people first experience it again.
I just do the lift until the first or second rep when the form starts to break down. Once the form starts going I know I'm close to failure.
I always go to 0-1 RIR or failure on my last set exercises so I know for sure I'm actually close to failure. It wouldn't be the first time I do e.g. 8 reps for my working sets and feel like it's getting hard only to rep out 11 or 12 on my last set
In my experience, people who are just mucking around, not going so hard aren't using RIR anyway. They're just doing stuff. People who use RIR tend to be people who TRAIN, not just exercise, and those people have a certain approach, and they're by default going to be more aware and more accurate.
This doesn't surprise me at all.
exactly, I use RIR and RPE's and my deadlift increased by 70 lbs and i havent finished my program yet. I started at 265 orm to ending up at 335 orm in a few months.
As a intermediate body builder getting some slow paced steady muscle and aesthetic gains, It would be greatly helpful for all the bodybuilding folks if you could do a specific video about muscles to train for V-taper and a non-conventional perspective(yours) about how to build that based on different body types and what muscle to target with any change in the regular workout splits or exercises?!
Thanks Dr. Mike for your valuable unconventional wisdom!!!!!!!!!!!
Lats and shoulders, for every body type. That's your answer lol
@@kodymcgrath7148 well yeah :) but there are things such as developing arms, not too big of legs, obliques, etc. which are critical to think of while developing a training plan.
I feel like I'm close enough with RIR, but with my trainer, he counts down to like 3 reps left, 2 reps left, 1 rep left and I'm ready to quit. Then he's like nah 10 MORE and I get through those 10 with decent form even though they're incredibly hard. I think its also related to machines - wish they had talked about that. The concept of RIR *really* changes on a machine to me, because there is 0 risk so you can get through 10 more even though it hurts like hell, you slow down or get the form a little wrong. On DB/BB lifts you can't go too close to failure and risk badly hurting yourself.
Average estimate for RIR is 1 under the predicted point of failure. Bigger deviations were measured when reps exceeded 12.
It gets easier with experience. I usually go to failure on machines like chest press and smith and add a couple of rest pause sets. But obviously more and more people are using machines so when the gyms manic like usual Al do more free weight stuff. I don’t train to failure on the free weight stuff like bench press. So just when my chest starting to cramp and I feel like I could do another rep but I would struggle and risk dropping the bar I stop and take a 2 minute rest and complete another 2 straight sets. I still felt sore the next day and my reps and strength were still going up the next time I did the exercise and I didn’t feel as fatigued. The only problem I have with straight sets which is what you sort of need to do I would say if your leaving reps in the tank is it’s time consuming. You train to failure you shorten the length of time your in the gym but when you have a physical job to complete after the gym for 7-8 hours it can be canni fatiguing so. Straight sets leaving reps in the tank if you have time is probs the smarter way to train but time to the average Joe is precious. So training to failure with less volume and less days is more sustainable in my opinion for the average joe
I just started training again a month ago after like a 10 year break so I had no idea where my 3rir was for any lift. I found my upper body estimates to be far more accurate than my lower body estimates. This also could be me mentally sandbagging as I'm not trying tobe the fat old guy dropping the squat bar on the floor in front of everyone with only half my bodyweight on it.
What opened my eyes to how far off one's personal RIR estimations can be was when I took testosterone for a couple of months. I would find myself reaching the points (controlling for load) that I would normally call failure or 1RIR only to then pump out an extra 2 or 3 repetitions. I wonder if testosterone levels (whether natural or enhanced) influence RIR perceptions. That might be worth researching, if no one has looked into it already.
I found your videos. Now I am hurting 😂 feel like I’ve never been working out
I gotta admit, it's one thing to be doing an exercise and to feel that you are 3, 2 or 1 RIR, but its a whole different ball game to start with a given weight and just have to guess how many reps will be 3, 2, or 1 RIR before even doing your first rep.
So, work out hard, but not too hard. Then once in a while work out way harder, then go back to working out hard......but not too hard.
I feel like most of this stuff is splitting hairs. Probably 1% of the people watching this actually need to optimize their training to squeeze that last 3% out of their training. Most of us just go to the gym three to four times a week and try to work out hard.
Awesome. Eric is great.
For me, I do reps until I can't do any more IN STRICT GOOD FORM, but it never FEELS like I've done enough. So I always cheat a few more reps until I actually feel some strain or burn, and the reps start to just get sloppy. Or rest 10 seconds and squeeze out a couple more. Of course on some exercises like squats or bench press, failure is obvious because you literally can't get it back up.
It always amazes me how depending on what your exercise or sport you are interested in there is always a study that says "I'm doing it right, you're all stupid."
Me just yesterday talking to my kids: I don't know exactly how heavy it is but I can only lift it 5-6 times
Proceeds to dead lift it for 10 reps.
Did I just get stronger between last time and this time, or did I sand bag it last time?
I try to train to failure because I assume I undershoot.
6:12 is a goated moment
This is why I really like body weight, or weighted calisthenics... either you can do the last rep or you can't. The bar isn't coming to you!
Personally I just go by rep ranges if the range is 4 to 6 or 8 to 10 I increase the weight in the same session if I hit 10 or top of the range, or increase in the next session if I hit the 8 or low end of the range
Love the video just one question - aren't the last couple of reps before failure the most important for muscle building?
Basically the gains-to-RIR curve flattens after 2-3RIR, so you're not missing out on much by stopping there. If you go to failure every day it will be harder to progress due to higher fatigue and you'll plateau. But since estimating RIR is difficult the best strategy is to get closer to failure over time in your cycle, then deload.
With most calisthenics exercises, it's perfectly fine to go to failure every time. Just make sure to warm up, grease the joints so to speak.
That was good. I know +/- 1 rep sounds really good, but this is bidirectional. So I guess there is a 2 rep spread for two standard deviations?
This means 3 reps IRR could be 2 or it could be 4… that is a range that’s is 2/3 of the target IRR. That seems like a high relative standard deviation compared to what you are trying to do with it.
I would say +/- one is about right for me on average, but every once in a while I have 2 more or less in a ~10 rep set.
It seems like RPE might accomplish more. But these are absolutely touchy feely when dealing with noobs who have no clue what they can do.