Back off sets - Allegiate Team

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of life?

Me neither, let’s talk about Back Off Sets. 

From a high level Back Off Sets are a way of saying ‘not so fast’. You are cruising through this workout, feeling good the first 4 sets with a lowered rep scheme. You are thinking you got it all figured out. But then, BAM, fuck, the reps double and that feeling you once had is gone. You instantly feel absolute misery. Maybe that could be the meaning of life. That for every good feeling there is an awful feeling waiting in the lurk. In a lot of ways, Back Off Sets represent the dualist nature of the universe. The battle between good and evil, darkness and light, or less reps and higher reps. They say that the emergent properties of atoms are what give their structure and, therefore, meaning. What is an atom if it is not attached to other atoms? Same thing with a rep of squats, what is the meaning without feeling awful during and after? 

They say that there is unaccounted space in a quantum world. One could argue that unaccounted space in a quantum world is proof of god. That some divine entity left a subtle reminder at the smallest scale that not everything can be explained or accounted for. Who knows. I'll tell you what you will know is that when you get to your 5th set and we increase volume by 40% and your lungs, your lats, your quads, your hamstrings, or your pecs are just getting annihilated, you won’t be thinking of things like quarks or neutrons. Your only thought will be, why?

The why of Back Off Sets is simple. To leverage the potentiation of higher threshold motor units and recruit more muscle fibers. This in turn will lead to greater muscle damage and increased muscle growth. Is this infinite? No, but infinity is another thought of what life’s meaning is centered around. The reality that numbers or time will go infinitely is daunting. That there is an endless amount of time and space within the universe; like what the fuck. The pure magnitude of something like infinity can make the notion of the human construct of purpose seem infinitely small and pointless. I don’t know about all that, but I do know that your quads will be sore for what feels like an infinite amount of time. That will not be insignificant. It will become your purpose for living, and surviving the pain you are intentionally subjecting yourself to. Not when do time and space end, but when will I be able to walk downstairs without falling?

Maybe meaning is the connection to others. Sharing experiences of love and joy or pain as well as pain and anguish. If the meaning of life, you will get a crash course on that every 48 hours with Back off Sets at Allegiate. Maybe Allegiate’s purpose is to remind people that the bliss one could feel during the first 4 sets followed by the misery of the last sets is all that matters. The reminder that all sensations are fleeting, but the memories created from those feelings are infinite. The memories are all we can take after something is over. The memories are reinforced and made permanent by a memento of DOMs and being so sore you cannot stand for more than one minute. 

Look I am not a philosopher, I'm just a strength coach with a mission. A mission to destroy quads, hamstrings, lats, and pecs one hour at a time, every other day, 52 weeks a year, for as long as the universe will let me. The meaning of something is whatever you want it to be. To this simple strength coach, the meaning behind Back Off Sets is based on the mission of supporting people I care about through the destruction of a muscle group. 

Hey Socrates how's that for philosophy? How about this for the Socratic Method “Hey Socrates what do you bench?” I bet Socrates would say something like ‘What is the meaning of bench press’ or ‘What is the purpose of bench pres?s’ or something like that. ‘What are you trying to accomplish with this?’ All of these questions mean he couldn't even bench 135 lbs and is essentially just trying to change the subject. Plus, I heard Plato was out squatting him by 13 from hanging out with this Milo guy who owned a town farm. 

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