WHICH EXERCISE IS BEST DEPENDS ON YOUR ABILITY, AWARENESS, & EXPERIENCE
Remember this block because this will be our first foray into a set and rep protocol that is not based on 5s or 10s with our Strength program.
First, I want to break down why we focus on the exercise selection over the set and reps for our Strength Class. There is a reason behind someone being in Strength. That reason is because of some biomechanical issues such as pain, asymmetry, or limited experience with resistance training. Since the premise of why someone is in Strength is biomechanic in nature, we focus on the biomechanical input which is exercise selection.
We still use training principles and foster a hard training environment. But the focal points are always: simplifying the sets and reps and executing each exercise to the fullest. We remove barriers to training hard and pushing past your limits safely. This approach has worked extremely well for us.
But as with anything, we evolve. We have good lifters. Members come in consistently and get after it. Pushing themselves each week and making significant progress year over year. The transformation with our members requires an evolved approach to our programming. Exercise selection is still the keystone piece of Strength but now we are going to take a progressive approach with our sets and reps.
I don't want to put this in the sense that we are going to be overly complicated with our set and rep protocols in Strength. But we are going to take a much more detailed approach with how we prescribed our monthly training blocks. Starting with this month we are going to utilize more intricate methods (leveraging exercise order with specific set and rep combinations) and protocols (leveraging specific set and rep combinations) with Strength Class.
This will require more of a cognitive investment from our members in the Strength class but the payoff is immense:
We can tap into different muscle fiber types, from type 1 slow twitch to type 2 fast twitch.
We can recruit higher threshold motor units (the local circuit board for that muscle fiber to contract) that connect to the more fast-twitch fibers.
We can synchronize those motor units and subsequently, the muscle fiber to make a pattern more efficient.
When a person reaches a certain level with a program, the program needs to evolve to meet that person. We are going to tap into a relatively untapped resource by progressing our methods and protocols.
Block 2 will be a Protocol named Paler Descending. We will go 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4. We will use a moderate to heavy weight for our first three sets of 6 and then a heavier weight for the last three sets of 4. The nervous system will adapt to the load and the demand by recruiting a certain number of muscle fibers and motor units during the first three sets.
When we increase the weight by dropping the reps down to 4, we will increase the demand on the nervous system to recruit more motor units and synchronize those recruited motor units. The result is getting more from the exercise.
The message needs to be reinstated: training hard and being consistent is always the point.
No matter what the exercise is or the set and rep scheme, the plan is to do as much as you can to get as much from the training program as possible.
Just do that and everything will work out!