🙋♂️ Same for the compounds! Occasionally I’ll go ~5 % below the working set weight and do a cluster set (2 reps>15-20 sec rest>2-3reps) with a focus on explosive concentric. It helps gauge RPE for that day if I’m not feeling quite as recovered.
Curious, did you start this intuitively? It’s been so long I don’t recall why I do it but I know it just feels right.
Hi, David. That’s an interesting point about gauging RPE. I didn’t mention this in the post, but I also use these heavier sets to gauge what weight I want to use for my working sets—similar idea to your RPE comment.
I don’t remember exactly when I first started doing this, but I think I used to do it simply because I liked doing heavy sets of 1 rep each time I benched—the stereotypical high school or college lifter ideology I had haha. More recently, I started doing this with the intent I described above after I think I first heard Dr. Mike Israetel and others talk about it. If you haven’t heard of Dr. Israetel and Renaissance Periodization, I recommend checking him and them out on YouTube—great research- AND experience-based exercise science content, in my opinion.
🙋♂️ Same for the compounds! Occasionally I’ll go ~5 % below the working set weight and do a cluster set (2 reps>15-20 sec rest>2-3reps) with a focus on explosive concentric. It helps gauge RPE for that day if I’m not feeling quite as recovered.
Curious, did you start this intuitively? It’s been so long I don’t recall why I do it but I know it just feels right.
Hi, David. That’s an interesting point about gauging RPE. I didn’t mention this in the post, but I also use these heavier sets to gauge what weight I want to use for my working sets—similar idea to your RPE comment.
I don’t remember exactly when I first started doing this, but I think I used to do it simply because I liked doing heavy sets of 1 rep each time I benched—the stereotypical high school or college lifter ideology I had haha. More recently, I started doing this with the intent I described above after I think I first heard Dr. Mike Israetel and others talk about it. If you haven’t heard of Dr. Israetel and Renaissance Periodization, I recommend checking him and them out on YouTube—great research- AND experience-based exercise science content, in my opinion.
Thanks for the comment, David.