Comments on: When To Increase Weight For Maximum Muscle Building

By: channy

channy — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:51:01 +0000

mark .i hv started following this concept.as theory always differs from practical approach,there arised questions while training.

1) should i consider SAME set for progressive overload with my previous workout of a particular exercise? eg. if i want to increase load in second set of an exercise, i shall look over load in same set of my previous workout.

2) i dont really need to succesively reduce weight in succesive sets. sometimes i need. sometime dont. and sometimes i INCREASE.

3) lastly, shud i increase weight only on reaching 12 reps or can i increase weight even when below 12 but above 8.
………i guess i shud increase only on reaching 12 and i guess it may b the answer to my second question.

pls…clarify me.as m completely following u
and m very much dedicated nd desperate for quick results
good luck to u again mark for this marvelous job of helping people.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:57:48 +0000

@Channy. Thanks. No, don’t have a spotter take the weight for you on any rep. Use lighter weights that you can handle.
You may have a spotter help you complete the final rep if you are having trouble.
Cheers,
Mark

By: channy

channy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:47:31 +0000

hi mark.u r doing a wonderful job.keep it up. god bless u.tell me ,should we go for assistance in reps? i dont mean assistance to prevent injury like in bench press or squats,where obviously v shud have some supporter. i mean assistance to fall in 8-12 rep range so that v can carry heavy weights. or should we totally condemn it,and carry lighter weight?

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:05:11 +0000

Channy – every exercise. Only decrease if necessary to reach failure in the 8-12 rep range.

By: channy

channy — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:24:52 +0000

itz totally new idea to me.but it also raised certain confusions.do this concept works for every exercise ,i mean even large muscle groups? we should always decrease weight in consecutive sets of same exercise? plz clear them up

By: TonyStark

TonyStark — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:06:14 +0000

Hey Mark it’s been awhile since I’ve commented but I’ve still been reading. You wouldn’t believe how much your site has helped. I’ve posted a link from my blog to this site. Again thanks a lot & keep up the good work buddy!!

By: SupplementPricing.com

SupplementPricing.com — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:02:51 +0000

That definitely cleared it up for me. I’ve been following your workout approach and seeing good results with it, but this is one part that I’ve apparently been doing wrong. Thanks for clearing that up!

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:59:09 +0000

Thanks JC

By: JC

JC — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:10:40 +0000

Mark is showing us how to MAXIMIZE results so we don’t waste time and effort. We want to grow from EVERY set, not just the last one. We want to force adaptation. Mark has shown us how. Try it. You’ll see it works IF you give it your best effort EVERY rep EVERY set EVERY workout. This concept takes advantage of the way the body works. It’s natural. Makes perfect sense.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:13:16 +0000

exactly Yavor. If you can get 12 reps on the third set, then you would have gotten more on your first. Furthermore, if you only get 8 reps on the first set, you won’t get 8 on the third unless you weren’t giving it 100% from the beginning. Each set is a separate unit in which you must give it your all. Most of the time this is going to mean dropping weight between sets.

By: Yavor - Relative Strength Advantage

Yavor - Relative Strength Advantage — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:57:15 +0000

@Elliot

Yeah, but this would mean that on the first set you could do 14-16 reps, which is way too light.

By: Elliot Wilson

Elliot Wilson — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:02:47 +0000

Interesting idea. I would also simply wait until I could do 3×12 on a certain weight rather than increasing the weight on just one of the sets…

By: Tosin

Tosin — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:06:17 +0000

Hey Mark, i understand the concept now and i will change what i was doing….Now my problem/question is what do i do if i have been increasing my increments to fast(i was increasing the weight by 5 lbs each week i reached 12 reps on any particular set, instead of increasing it by 1 or 2 lbs). right now im ok and i can reach atleast 8 sets with work out im doing now but i know soon i wont be able to because its getting kind of heavy. Should i just start over and lower the weight? i know you said this is the worst thing to do, but soon i wont have a choice because the weight will be too heavy.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 11:11:30 +0000

Thanks Mark this is a very useful post!

Will implement correctly from today.

By: Yavor Marichkov

Yavor Marichkov — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:58:10 +0000

This was very helpful. Really. I will from now one treat each set separately.

Yavor.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:37:33 +0000

Brilliant! Glad this clears it up for you guys.

By: WHO AM I

WHO AM I — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:31:41 +0000

You really helped me to understand it with a post yesterday but this futher clarifies it. Thanks again.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:46:38 +0000

great to see the clarification in one concise post- i think what a lot of people were missing (including myself) was the concept of altering the weight of a single set, as opposed to doing multiple sets with the same weight. what you say makes complete sense though- by allowing for a variation in weight, you are maximizing the rep range for each and every set.