CHANGING UP THE REPS

A really important part of weight training that sometimes people forget is to change the number of reps that you do in any given workout. This simple method of tweaking your training can bring very good results and also stop you getting stale and bored. A high percentage of people in most gyms lift 10-12 reps on their weights exercises and do so for years. Time to change it up!

It means that you will be varying the weight that you are lifting too. For example if you always squat 12 reps for around 80kg take the rep range down to 5's and you would probably be capable of lifting near to 100kg. This will spur your body into new adaptations (muscle growth/ strength gains) so when you switch back to 12 reps a few weeks later you will find you should be able to lift more.

An example of this periodisation (the proper name for changing your workouts over a set time period) can be seen below:

Weeks 1-4
4 sets of 12 reps

Weeks 5-8
5 sets of 5 reps

Weeks 9-12
6 sets of 3 reps

As you can see as the reps go down the number of sets go up to ensure maximum recruitment of your muscles. You would then begin at the beginning again on Week 13. Upon returning to 12 reps in week 13 you should find a nice difference in how much you can lift.

This kind of training plan works best with the big lifts such as the squat, deadlift, cleans, bench etc. The powerful lifts (that you should all be doing!) that will really make a difference to your physique.

This is just one example of a scheduled training plan and there are lots of variations to be found on this within the strength and conditioning world.

The first picture above is a good table to help you plan what % of your max weight (your 1 rep max) to use for each desired rep range. For example if you were lifting 5 reps you would use 0.857 of your 1 rep max or 85% etc

The second image or graph abpove shows a different type of periodisation that focusses on muscle growth in Week 1, strength in Week 2 and power in week 3. Rest is then given in week 4. As a monthly schedule this would also work well.

A quick google search and you will find a lot of information about periodisation if you want to read up on it further.