Bodytribe Fitness

Max Effort

The goal of max effort lifting is simple. But, since ‘simple’ isn’t synonymous with ‘easy,’ this is actually a brutal party for the central nervous system and, well heck, the body in general.

So the simple part is this: we’re going to slowly work up to a weight that we’ll call our one rep max, which is the maximum amount of weight we can lift one time.

Now it may seem fun to just hop right up to a fully weighted bar, lift it, and be done with it. But a long history of a lot of strong folks has shown that there might be a safer, more productive way.

Wasting time with high reps is… well…time wasting. So we welcome the weight to our body by progressively adding it, a set at a time. This might take 6 sets, it might take 10, but the reps will never be over 3.

Warm up set (something so light as to be barely noticeable): 6 reps.

Then pick a weight that we call ‘insultingly light’ and we’ll start our climb up to our max. You’ll learn to be intuitive on the weight jumps. Take some really big rests between sets. Feel ready and powerful when approaching the bar for the next set.

3 reps (insultingly light)
3 reps (something with a little meat to it)
3 reps (this bar is starting to feel a little heavy)
3 reps (this set is pretty scary, with the third rep making you curse a little. We’ll call this our 3-rep max)
1 rep (heavy-but-doable)
1 rep (heavier, now we start questioning our existence)
1 rep (a full battle! Keep the spotters close and your will closer)

Is this exact science? No. Although going over 3 reps may be of little benefit, changing the set scheme or doing sets of 2 rather than 3, or even starting singles much earlier, are all viable options.

Our goal? Teach our body to fire as many motor units (i.e. MUSCLES!) at once, making us a more efficient force developer. For strength sports, this is essential, but the crossover to ANY other athletic endeavor is extremely important, yet hugely overlooked.

Dynamic Effort

The goal is similar to Max effort lifting, but instead of developing force through load, we’ll focus on speed.

After a couple of higher rep warmup sets, load the bar with about 55-65% of your one rep max. Instead of steadily increasing the bar, plan on keeping the weight the same.

10-12 sets of 2 reps, with short rests between sets.

Yes, singles (1 rep sets) or triples (3 reps sets) are allowed, but 2 seems to be a gold standard.

The goal: Bar speed. Lets move quickly. If this movement isn’t quick, then the load is too heavy. Worry about increasing the weight later. For now move it FAST.

Concepts in Supplemental Work

Now what needs improvement? If we’re early into a program, with a competition being far down the line, we need to improve our workload capacity, which is simply our ability to DO MORE, which makes recovery easier and preps our bodies for the workload demands of heavier training as we get closer to a meet. And since all movement is a series of muscles working together as chains, sometimes we need to bring up parts of the chain.

Repetition Work

What is traditionally seen in most weight rooms, moderate reps for moderate weight, and a handful of sets, since it is an effective way of making pretty muscles without having to work as hard as most athletic pursuits demand. For an athlete, this method is supplemental, with the focus being to feed certain muscle chains with a little extra volume so they can develop into better participants in the more demanding tasks of our program.

The set/rep scheme can be pretty wide, so let’s work within an average. Say 3 sets of 6-10 reps. But let this not be gospel. 5 sets of 5 is a common strategy, or 4 sets of 6, or 2 sets of 10-15. It may depend on your level of fatigue, your exercise of choice, or if you’ll be combining an exercise with another for a super set. Be intuitive, be creative, but be diligent.

General Physical Preparedness

The term GPP has been used for years, and although convenient, it is also sounds very boring. But GPP training is both extremely important and often ignored, so avoiding it creates specialty athletes who have bodies that are very limited in ability. GPP has been shown repeatedly, without contention, to improve all levels of athletes, and it also builds some seriously conditioned muscles. Even bodybuilders could learn a thing or two from GPP training.

GPP training has the biggest possibility for artistic freedom. Take any malleable factor (distance, time, reps, sets, load, or exercise selection) and build something challenging. The exercises don’t all have to directly relate to the main exercise of the day, so feel free to chose from any movement group.

Let’s play with the malleable factors of exercise:

Load (weight)
Volume (sets and reps)
Speed
Time (a preset time in which you will be performing the workout)
Duration (seeing how long it takes to do a given task)
Distance
Exercise Selection

Take some exercises, create a set/rep scheme (or use distance, as may be the case for certain exercises) and have some fun. Some of our favorites are documented on this page.