Stagnation

Hello!

I'm just curios about what you should do if you know you won't be able to complete the next week's amount of repetitions/sets. Should you just continue doing the last week's amount?

What if you may be able to complete some exercises easy but will fail at others?

At last, what if you may complete an exercise, but it will require max effort (10RPE)? As far as I know, max effort should be avoided most of the time, but is beneficial every now and then.

Answers are much appreciated as I fear this will happen to me soon and it's great to be prepared!

The answer, of course, is that it depends!

As you grow more experienced with the system you will develop different strategies to use at different times.

For example:

- if you know you are not going to make reps because you are repeating the microcycle and the jumps are too big, then cut the rep increases down to smaller increments between weeks (on a 60r protocol, 6r rather than 12)

- if you are not going to make the next weeks reps because you have stalled out on the current week, then you could simply repeat that week

Each exercise will progress differently as you find strengths and weaknesses. This is normal (see my signature)

Finally, the 4 week microcycles are a natural 3 week peaking pattern followed by a deload. If you are going to be working near your maximum, week 3 is the best time. As long as your form and tempo are good then you are golden. If you are working maximally earlier, then you could stall out on the microcycle - however you could also suprise yourself with what you can achieve so keep pushing!

Thanks! That sounds like a good way to move forward