The longer I am involved in resistance training, the more evident it is that training based on momentary performance interferes with long-term progress. Momentary performance is based on doing the best you can do at the current moment in time. In contrast, progress is based on doing a workout today that will lead to improvement in the future, and then doing that over and over again. The most deceiving part about this is that performing the best you can today often leads to the fastest progress in the short term, but it often leads to a training plateau. At that point, you can strain, struggle, and push yourself to keep trying harder, however, in spite of putting forth your best effort, improvement is elusive.
If you are stuck and you want to start making progress, it may help to focus on three points of emphasis for your training:
1. Focus on lifting form and training technique for each lift, even if it means using lighter weights. The use of correct form will cause your nervous system to fire properly and to distribute the load properly to the various muscle groups involved in the lift. If ideal form is lacking from your workouts, some muscles and joints will tend to get overused and overstressed, while other muscles and joints will remain underused and underdeveloped. This can easily lead to a sticking point.
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2. Build up muscle groups that may be underdeveloped from focusing on the same lifts over and over again. You can build a lot of strength by simply focusing on squats, bench presses and deadlifts, but there may be a point at which you need to include other lifts in order to include muscle groups that don’t get as much stimulation as they need from only practicing the basic powerlifts. You may need to include some overhead presses, hyperextensions or reverse hyperextensions and triceps work. You may also need to vary the width of your squat stance, or to try sitting back farther for more glute activation, or to try pushing your knees farther forward for more quad activation when squatting. Likewise, use different grip widths for bench press and do some bench pressing at different angles of incline or decline.
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3. Train hard enough to gain, but not so hard that you overtrain. When doing the basic powerlifts, try leaving four to five reps in the tank for each set while gradually increasing the load over time. This will allow you to repeat more sets, and it may allow you to work out more often without overtraining. In contrast, if you push too hard on your sets, you will tire out before you get in the amount of quality work that you are capable of, and you may have to decrease your training frequency.
It seems that in the USA, the training philosophy is often focused on intensity. It is common for Americans to think that you are cheating if you don’t push for max reps to failure with max effort sets. These people believe that the slow grinder reps that occur at the end of a set are quality reps. In contrast, there are Russian lifters who think you are cheating when you try to do more reps than you can perform with qualities such as speed, force, power, and ideal form. Those who do the slow strenuous grinder reps are simply cheating themselves in order to satisfy their ego by doing more reps per set, but those reps are robbing them of future progress. Instead, stick with quality reps that are performed with sufficient speed, force, power, and stellar lifting form. This point of view is held by Pavel, a Russian trainer and lifting coach. You learn about this in the following video of Pavel. I suggest that you fast forward the video to the 17-minute mark to learn about this.
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Break Records in Terms of Ease
When striving to make progress, I believe it works better to break records in terms of doing the same thing with greater ease. If it feels like you are working at 75% of your maximum effort to squat with 225 pounds for four sets of five reps, keep repeating squat workouts with four sets of five reps until it feels like it only takes 65% of your maximum effort. If you do this, you aren’t increasing the weight, sets, or reps, but if you are doing the same thing with greater ease, it is obvious that you have improved. In other words, you strive to break records in terms of how easy it is to perform four sets of five reps with 225 pounds. Of course, you will eventually increase the weight by five to ten pounds, but you will once again attempt to lift the heavier poundage with greater ease over time. Many lifters will find that this form of progress will result in more improvement over time than always attempting to outdo their previous best in terms of lifting more weight or doing more reps.
Performance or Progress
It all comes down to whether you are focused on momentary performance or long-term progress when you train. Those who are focused on performance are prone to overtraining and sticking points. Those who are focused on progress will sacrifice the amount of weight or reps they do in a given workout in order to work on lifting form and build up underused muscle groups. They will also work at a level of effort that permits perfect lifting form with sufficient speed, force, and power within each rep.
My final advice is often the same, which is to do what you are currently doing as long as it keeps working. On the other hand, if you are stuck at the same strength level, there is no harm in adjusting your training. If you are at a point in your training where you need adjustments, consider applying the concepts presented in this article, and may God bless you with the best of training.