Plateau Breakers: Romancing The Rep Range

The final installment of my plateau breakers series shows you how to use a different rep range to make progress where there is progress no more.

“Do 6 To 12 Reps”

It’s the basic commandment of most of the workout plans you find on ec.com: you pick a weight you can do at least six reps per set with, and once you are able to do 3 x 12, you up it slightly and start over at six.

But when you fail to make progress that way, you can deviate from this rule and do what’s called “heavy sets”:

Be Strict And Use Lightly

As I said in the video, going heavy requires strict control and shouldn’t be done too often. The stress on the musculoskeletal system is more taxing and, as with all plateau-breaking techniques, if you use it too often it loses its effectiveness.

Picture courtesy of Oleg Klementiev.