How to know when to stop a set.

Something I ran into in my workout was failure on the sPL/PE2>iM Running man. I forgot if we're supposed to stop or keep going in regards to mobility. But I stopped on my 4th set when I couldn't contract my glutes hard enough anymore and my back took over. I didn't want to train a bad habit. I did a pike stretch to relax my back then finished my last mobility set. It was a struggle, but I did it. Was this the proper action to take?

On 3.2.2014 at 3:52 PM, Coach Sommer said:

Most people tend to confuse the onset of mental discomfort with actual physical failure.  Most of the time, the reality is that there is quite a large margin available to increase the amount of work being done before they are even remotely close to physical failure.

What I find difficult - especially in the beginning stages of a new exercise / movement - is to push towards physical failure while maintaining correct form and pace. The closer I get to physical failure, the more difficult it becomes to hold good form.

Within the first weeks of pseudo-planche pushups, for example, it was impossible to come close to real physical failure as even before that point I couldn't keep my shoulders protracted and depressed anymore.

Now, one could argue that THIS was the point of physical failure. But having a good feeling for my physical energy, I believe I was just not yet able to distribute the energy correctly. The body seems to first learn "the importance of holding the form", and accepting it as a definite boundary, without me being able to get very close and even to the point of REAL physical failure.

This is just my observation of course. I'm curious to read other perspectives on this.

Team-

I have a question regarding pain. I have a sharp pain in the center of my chest/middle/between the pec muscle when I do scapular shrugs or flex the muscles together. A few years ago I torn my pec and bicep tendon. I was able to get the bicep tendon repaired however the pec was not able to be repaired. 

Since the surgery, about 2 years ago, I continued to do lots of push ups, dips, pull ups. But not until the past month did I learn about GST so I've been doing that full time and have completed fundamentals and am 3 weeks into foundation.

i really don't feel like I'm pushing hard so I didn't know if the pain was just working an area that hadn't been touched in a long time. My mobility is pretty limited so I figured it was a result of working through that but wanted to get the thoughts of some more experienced members!

thank you!

David

To do scapula shrugs well you need a good serratus anterior muscle. You also need good thoracic spine and rib mobility and stability. What step are you on? If you are having sharp pain then you need to go back to a step that is pain free.

I'm on week 3 of PE1. 

I'm really not sure if it's muscular or not. Since I've been doing all of the daily limber/animal moves and the foundation programming the soreness that I've had hasn't been like soreness from past workouts. I don't really feel tired from the work but I'm sore deeper than the muscle all over the body, especially in the knees, low back, and shoulders.

Is this the connective tissue being worked?

thanks for your response!

david

Hi David,

what you're feeling is perfectly normal. you are on the right track. keep up the good work.

Sounds like the connective tissue. Go back to week 1 and only progress when you do not have these symptoms. 

Thanks Leo and Mark! 

On 1/15/2014 at 3:11 PM, Joshua Slocum said:

hard work, and the pain of a developing injury. When you work hard, your muscles become fatigued. Most people will experience this as a dull 'burning' sensation in the muscle belly. This is the kind of pain that

Hey guys 

can I just ask a question regarding " stopping the set "  that having read through this topic didn't appear to be answered .

for example im currently doing ground rows 4x9reps

on my last set towards rep 5/6 my range of motion isn't complete , yet my form remains solid . It's literally the fact that my hands don't  touch my chest anymore due to fatigue . However I still complete the set with this decreased rom.

Is this something that is "fighting through the set" and should be encouraged  or should I stop the set as soon as my hands no longer touch my chest even though I feel I can keep fighting 

My plan was to stay on this progression until I do manage full rom on every rep even if for now my last few  reps are not full rom . Is this a smart thing to do ? 

Interested to hear your thoughts 

thank you 

Leigh 

I have the same question and thoughts, Leigh. I'm on the same RC PE2 and was doing 4 x 9 and could do a full three sets, faltering on the last 3 or 4 reps of the last set. I marked it too hard and was 'demoted' to 4 x 6, which I completed quite easily. For this coming Sunday, I have jumped back up to 4 x 9 and will stay there, even if I can do the full ROM on the last few reps of the last set, until I can mark all 36 reps 'Easy'. My two cents worth (or pence for you).

Thanks bill am very interested to hear thoughts on this .

im like you in that the step that precedes this one I can complete fully so it makes sense for us to just keep working on the current step until rom achieved on all reps. It's all this talk of stopping if form drops etc that confuses me cos I feel I'd never progress if I stopped as soon as my rom wasn't full