Grinding Reps

Hi All,

Wondered if anyone could expand a little further on something Coach discussed at the London Seminar regards not performing 'grinding reps'. I had planned to ask when the opportunity presented itself, but my brain was soon filled with so much other stuff.

It was clear that once your form or tempo starts to degrade, irrespective of perceived effort, you should stop the set. Ideally before starting the bad rep, once you get to know your abilities better. I presume that you would then continue with any additional scheduled sets, should this happen before your last set, again applying the same criteria.

My question is; Would you try and keep the scheduled volume by adding additional sets?

For example:

• Planned exercise: 4x9r = 36r
• Actual exercise: 9, 9, 8, 6 = 32r = 4 reps 'short'

Would you then collate the 'lost' four reps into an additional set to keep your volume on track (within reason, and without grinding reps). I can see that this could get silly, and if left to my own devices I would guess at maybe limiting it to one additional set to make up volume?

NB: Obviously this would mean that you have failed that microcycle.

Many thanks,

George.

Hey George!

The most important part to concider is actual form, if you use push ups as an example, a grinding rep in my book would be once the elbows start to massivly flare out, body sags, chest comes up first with arching etc all because of fatigue. Going through reps of that quality is counter intuitive and its also very close to training to failure on every set (which is extremly physically demanding in terms of recovery).

What ive done in some cases to be strict is to stop 1 rep before form fails, take a 5-8 sec breather and complete the set with good form (however this can be very challenging on some moves and its very important that you know well enough when bad form hits)

I use the same approach with my clients, people who are new to a way of training are especially prone to have form breakdown on grinding reps becuase they lack the ability to correct themselves mid-set when fatigue hits in. This gets better with time .

Hope any of this made sense.

This was talked about on Saturday afternoon George and yeah there was a shed load of other information to take on board.

The one major thing I took home with me was to not to be on the edge of your ability all the time. I recall Coach talking about Allan's training and how he's not been working him really hard quite so often and despite this he's made great gains this last year.

I interpret this as following the mastery templates as writ. ie. 4x9, 5x9, 4x12 etc. There's no way I can get to 4x15 with MN/PE1 yet so I'll keep plugging away at that microcycle rather than keep going with 4x12 as I have been. I know adding a rep here or there or a couple of seconds a session for statics works for some people but I have a feeling I'll do better with more patience and spending time in a more comfortable range than pushing for reps/time every week. As has been discussed elsewhere it can help reduce the boredom of doing the same reps and CNS fatigue.

I guess you could make up the volume with the extra set but as Coach said... maybe it's just not your day. I certainly notice differences in strength and proprioception from session to session... good and bad!

Also bear in mind the total lack of mobility a lot of us have and the fact that the new ROM has to be strengthened. I can't see me busting out 5x15 of anything with new ROM straight away. Just got to keep going back and rebuilding until you can do it I think.

The slowing down is a sign that you are reaching your limit. As a conditioning not strength session the extra reps will serve to harm your recovery. You want to be recovered for your next session and also you want all your reps to be quality.

Work capacity takes time to build.

In the course of your normal training there is no need to add the reps they will do more harm then good.

There is a time and place for grinding but foundation is not designed that way.

Thanks for your help guys!

Mads Smedberg said:

Hey George!

The most important part to concider is actual form,

Coach was actually quite specific at the seminar and said that a grinding rep is one that breaks tempo. If you start to slow down, even if your form is good you should stop the set.

With that in mind, I've made a few adjustments since the seminar. For example I now train with a metronome to maintain tempo through all of my exercises.

I've also applied different mastery templates to some exercises that I couldn't complete without breaking tempo. With HBP PE/2 (ground push ups) I'm using the last micro cycle of the 10 rep mastery template instead of 15. I found that the second cycle of the 15 rep mastery template was too easy, and while I can do the last 4 week 15x5 rep cycle with pretty good form, I can't do it with good tempo. Obviously I'll work up to 15 rep mastery, but right now 10 rep mastery cycles keep me in a sweet spot with just the right volume. (swapping mastery templates is another thing that Coach specifically mentioned at the seminar)

Hi Colin,

I (now) remember Coach saying that about swapping templates, and I think realistically I should be doing that for at least a couple of my exercises.

Thanks,

George.

i did it for all the planche leans movements of foundation 1 and for tuck planche of F2. the normally template of 12 weeks for tuck planche for me switched to 16 weeks...

You can also create your own custom templates suiting your progress  by dividing the weeks reps/seconds by the mastery reps/seconds and then multiply it again by the new mastery amount and round the number if necessary. So if for example on the 60s template the jump from 5x36s to 4x48s and 4(5)x60s is to much you could create a 45s template, which gives you from week 9-12 4x36, 4x45, 5x45s and 5x22s. A 50s Mastery Template would be 4x40,4x50,5x50 and 4x25 etc. I think its a nice way of staying within the template structure of the book but fine-tuning it to suit ones own needs and progress.

Cheers,

Michael