I love it and genuinely incorporate some form of that. Usually on my first exercise I’ll do 6-9 sets of ~3-4 reps for a total of 30 reps.
It’s been a savior for my joints which is the opposite of what people think and it’s because form is key. When I do it with squats I’m doing paused squats. Same with incline barbell...a full blown, 1 second pause on my chest. Literally every ache and pain is gone. Plus, that is PLENTY of volume for hypertrophy. It does take longer though and no way around that.
Also, remember, it will be heavy bit it’s not like doing 1-3 sets of a 3 rep max. You are doing three reps for 10 sets at a weight you can pause and completely control.
Time is the biggest issue with this style, IMO.
When doing the 5x5, sometimes I would fail on the 5th set and only get 4 reps.
Im going to guess then that it is a weight you can handle for 3 reps on your 10th set, where you are going to true failure? You keep the weight the same for each set,right? When I was doing 5x5, that how I did it. I would think then that the weight you are using here for 10x3 would be a similar weight to a 5x5, since you are having to do two times the number of sets? When doing the 5x5, sometimes I would fail on the 5th set and only get 4 reps.
In principle, you should not get to the fault with this type of systems.
He actully had me on that program when i was working with him back in the day.Made very good gains overall .Sadly he passed away.Iron addict Wesley silvera has some interesting takes on this program
Great point! I work the 10x3 so I never go to failure. It would crush recovery. Don’t get me wrong it’s VERY hard at the end but I pick a weight I can for sure get 7x3 and if I can’t get the 3 I’m done. I don’t grind them or go to failure.
This week I did 495 for 7 sets of a good 3 rep. On set 8 the 2nd rep was a little “eh” so that’s it. I stopped and game over.
You also have to be careful what exercise you pick. For instance, I would not do front squats and deadlifts. That would be brutal for lower back. Right now I do deadlifta one day and back squats the other. Then after so many weeks I’ll do front squats and no dead’s but pendlay rows instead.
It can be a great system if you have time but it can also crush recovery if you are not careful.
You know how to use this system and also know how to listen to your body.
Definitely the lower back suffers with so much squat, front squat, deadlift, rack pull ...