As a part of my weekly microcycle I am focusing on building the muscular endurance in my legs and core muscles in certain workouts on the days I focus on neuromuscular strength. An example of this is an exercise for the hip abductor muscles where the leg is raised against light or no resistance. As Mr Kurz suggests in Science of Sports Training this is an excellent way to build on your strength training if you are unable to perform the more heavier strength training forms such as squats with weights.
What I am wondering is how does one build up repetitions in order to increase them in the long term? For example:
If one was aiming for a set of 100 in an exercise and could only reach say 40 in one set should you:
a. Do as many repetitions as you can in 1 set until failure (so do 40) and then add on a few more repetitions each workout or week (say 5 or 10) till you reach 100
b. Break the 100 into sets so 4 sets of 25, leading onto 2 sets of 50 and then 1 of 100?
I know the obvious answer to my question is to try both methods and find out myself but I am curious about this especially in terms of the core muscles such as the abdomen. Many articles I have read have conflicting views on this and I just want to know if anyone has experiences, knowledge or evidence on which is best?
Dragon, mmeloon, and everyone your comments are always greatly appreciated and of course those of Mr Kurz (U must feel I am harrasing you by now!)
All the best and keep training hard!
Koryodan
Building up repetitions
Re: Building up repetitions
When you say "unable to perform squats" does that mean you're using the high rep work for connective tissue conditioning?koryodan wrote: An example of this is an exercise for the hip abductor muscles where the leg is raised against light or no resistance. As Mr Kurz suggests in Science of Sports Training this is an excellent way to build on your strength training if you are unable to perform the more heavier strength training forms such as squats with weights.
I haven't got the book(SOST) in front of me to check but i assume if you want to condition yourself for squats then you would be better performing high rep squats,not front,back,or side leg raises.
To answer your question though,you don't have to aim for high reps in one hit.You can perform either 3 sets of 30 reps or 1 set of 100-200 reps.
If you do want to perform 1 high rep set i would imagine the quickest way is multiple sets(4 sets of 25,2 sets of 50,etc) rather than adding a few reps each week.
Dragon.
I can give you an advice from my experience - I was aiming for two sets (at the begining). In first set I did more repetitions (but not to failure) and in second set less repetitions. With time as I progressed I've added more repetitions to first set and less to second set, and gradually reached 1 set of 100 repetitions.
I used this in adductor flys and it worked.
I used this in adductor flys and it worked.