To stop a set or to finish it...

Hi, 

I wasn't sure if this belonged in the sticky or not; if so, I can repost there and delete this one. 

I am on a 4 day split, working each movement twice. Today I was ending with hinge rows 5x15 (week 3).

My question is, on set three I failed at correct form, around 8 reps. Should I end it there, start mobility, and then move onto the fourth set.

Or

Should I take a break (10 seconds/20/ what ever is needed etc) and try to rep out the remaining 7 reps with good form. This way you are still hitting the required number of reps per set, but taking breaks to get there.

Now, I did read the thread concerning mental vs physical stops, but this is more concerning - you can't do another one with good form and how to proceed.

Sorry if I rambled.

Thanks.

Taking a break, then finishing rest of sets is something that hasn't worked for me the past year

Interesting, but makes sense, because you are always going to lacking form I guess, trying to hit that '15'; vs working on mobility and let your body slowly adapt to the workload.

alan tseng said:

Taking a break, then finishing rest of sets is something that hasn't worked for me the past year

But is has worked well for me (RC/PE1 in particular).  If you search the forums, you'll find lots of different strategies for breaking through plateaus.  But bottom line is you'll have to work hard, try different things, and see what works for your body for a particular exercise.  And it might be a different approach for different exercises, different body parts, different strength levels, etc.

What you are referring to is called "rest-pause", and is an intensive method of performing a set that can be very draining on the recovery systems.

Personally, I would only consider using it on the last set of an exercise, and only on the 3rd week of a microcycle (since you've got the deload to let your body recover the next week). If you do it on the 3rd set, then you're definitely going to have to do it on the 4th and 5th sets, and you may even need several "rest/pauses" to finish those sets; that is a lot of stress on the body.

Not saying that some people couldn't do this and still make progress or that you couldn't use it sparingly, but I would suggest just going to technical failure (if you couldn't reach the goal number of reps) on your sets for a few microcycles until you are sure you have hit a plateau/aren't making progress, then try using "intensity" techniques like "rest-pause" only on your last set during week 3's, then if that still doesn't work you could try adding more.

Another thing to consider is your recovery; making sure you are eating sufficient nutritious food to give your body the raw materials it needs to adapt to the demands you are asking of it and getting enough sleep and time between workouts (you may even need to drop back to the 3 day a week schedule) would be a good idea before adding in all sorts of intensity increasing methods. Remember that you don't get stronger in the gym, you get stronger when you give your body the time, rest, and nutrients to build itself stronger after you leave the gym.