Train Like You Mean It
by Ash Deadman
Most programs will have you following a prescribed set x rep scheme, and when you hit that final rep, you rack the bar and call it a day. But what happens when you don't feel like you're finished?
As an example, a set of 5 reps at 60kg for a 200kg squatter isn't going to provide much of a training stimulus. But a set of 35, or 45, or more? Now you're talking.
Taking the last set of an exercise almost to failure is a great way for beginner and more advanced lifters to get more intensity into their workouts, without really making any changes to the programming. The only change is that the fun really begins when the set would normally end. The main advantage to this way of thinking is that you'll always be getting the best possible stimulus from your sets, regardless of the weight. This of course is going to give the best strength gains, and as a secondary boost, increase hypertrophy (and who doesn't want to be swole?).
Another area in which a max rep top set is useful is for motivation. Standard strength program practice is to take a reset when you miss reps and progress inevitibly stalls. This is where the ego kicks in in some lifters, and they refuse to take weight off the bar, and stubbonly struggle on at the same weight until they get it, be it by luck or otherwise. By going all out on the last set, you give yourself a target to destroy next time you're at that weight. And guess what, if you can bench 75 for 6 the first time you try, and 8 the next, you've gotten stronger.
This approach to training is suggested by the mighty Jim Wendler in 5/3/1 and by Greyskull's incomparable Johnny Pain in the Greyskull Linear Progression, and these guys know their shit. So next time you train, don't just get all your rep, get some bonus one too.
-Ash Deadman
