How do you know when you've done enough in your workout? When to call it quits? "Loss of strength"

[Alzadosghost]

For legs there is only one answer… when you can’t walk.

For others I think it was said best above- when you can no longer engage the muscle through mind/muscle connection. If you’ve lost the pump and can’t engage the muscle in a stabilized manner any longer it’s time to get the hell out of the gym. Lol

I concur lol I am done with quads when I cannot walk correctly. I have actually crawled out to my car when I first started trying with my worlds strongest man friends lol then I sat in my driveway for a long time because I couldn’t get my legs to work

 

[qbkilla]

Exactly what Im thinking.

Look, if you quit on your workout, you're a quitter. Im not done until I finish whats on my plan. For guys who go in and workout intuitively I guess you need to worry about these things but Im not in that boat.

Pretty much this. The method in the first post makes no sense.

The only time this would apply is intuitive or high volume training. A structured plan you just execute. Top set back off set, next part.

For Milos type training though it may be hard to know when to quit. Do another round of the giant set....or call it a day and go home

 

[buck]

I sometimes do straight sets with the same weight and I get the same amount of reps each set. The guy thst showed me that 20 some years ago did the same thing. So it is possible.

I started my real training about 35 years ago with that method. Although the target was to pretty much fail on the last set at the target weight and reps. So these days the earlier sets would be called feeder , pre-exhaust or the such. Once you hit the weight and reps you increased it for the next workout.

In my early years i knew i was done when i did all my sets. Later if i reached my target or if i missed it i knew i was done. Never worried about pump as i always felt more pumped from warm ups then work sets. These days i know i am done is when it feels like i might injure something.

 

[Alzadosghost]

I started my real training about 35 years ago with that method. Although the target was to pretty much fail on the last set at the target weight and reps. So these days the earlier sets would be called feeder , pre-exhaust or the such. Once you hit the weight and reps you increased it for the next workout.

In my early years i knew i was done when i did all my sets. Later if i reached my target or if i missed it i knew i was done. Never worried about pump as i always felt more pumped from warm ups then work sets. These days i know i am done is when it feels like i might injure something.

I feel a pump from whatever I do because the reps are always slow. Slow negative slow positive. I watch everyone train and people think it’s a race or something. Lol blows my mind. Even the way some pros train is super sloppy and fast.

 

[Elvia1023]

Guys overthink things that should be common sense. You either have a fixed workout plan or you have a rough one and go on feel. You complete that workout and that's it. If you realize after a few weeks it's too much volume/frequency you change things so you are able to recover workout to workout. If you follow a rough plan and train instinctively then you should simply know when to stop unless you are a complete newbie to the gym. If you aren't feeling it maybe cut it short and if you feel like doing a little extra go for it.

Just go home when you feel like going home and carry on doing that and if things need to change over the weeks you adjust and go from there. Yes some over train and they need to lower volume/frequency but for the vast majority it's usually because their diets and sleep etc are all over the place. If you have things in place doing an extra 5 sets is nothing major. On the flip side some are addicted to the gym and that skews things and they will always do too much but even for many of those guys it's not the end of the world if everything else is in place and it's not like they still won't be able to look great they will just go through life feeling tired

 

[qbkilla]

Guys overthink things that should be common sense. You either have a fixed workout plan or you have a rough one and go on feel. You complete that workout and that's it. If you realize after a few weeks it's too much volume/frequency you change things so you are able to recover workout to workout. If you follow a rough plan and train instinctively then you should simply know when to stop unless you are a complete newbie to the gym. If you aren't feeling it maybe cut it short and if you feel like doing a little extra go for it.

Just go home when you feel like going home and carry on doing that and if things need to change over the weeks you adjust and go from there. Yes some over train and they need to lower volume/frequency but for the vast majority it's usually because their diets and sleep etc are all over the place. If you have things in place doing an extra 5 sets is nothing major. On the flip side some are addicted to the gym and that skews things and they will always do too much but even for many of those guys it's not the end of the world if everything else is in place and it's not like they still won't be able to look great they will just go through life feeling tired

Great post I've seen you post this before and have applied it.

Today was arms day. Rather than go on saying

Dips 1 set rp
Cable curl 1 set rp

Barbell curl 4x20
Skulls 4x20

That week after week log booking it, doesn't excite me anymore, I walk into the gym dragging. Instead I got off work and drove to the gym sipping my pre thinking "I wanna bust ass today kill my arms get out and eat, what do I wanna do? Heavy followed by some giant sets, try 100:s poliqiin style, do a meadows style workout?"

My energy was good so I did the Milos style. Had I been tired maybe something different. But I was exited to just go in train my arms hard and get out, eat, aim for 8 hours sleep. Great workout.

 

[buck]

I feel a pump from whatever I do because the reps are always slow. Slow negative slow positive. I watch everyone train and people think it’s a race or something. Lol blows my mind. Even the way some pros train is super sloppy and fast.

I hear that. But what works is what works. I used to be faster so i could move the heaviest weight i could for reps i wanted. And grew a lot. Then slowed down and grew some. Can't say i am a fan of slow. Controlled yes but if slow works then great. Course being on gear allows a great deal of things to work.

 

[socialdfan]

When my pump is gone for upper body plus I start to feel as if my arms are heavy. For lower when I begin to experience shaky legs or just a general shakiness while standing. I train conjugate style so it only takes a main lift and a few accessories to get that way.

 

[Alzadosghost]

I hear that. But what works is what works. I used to be faster so i could move the heaviest weight i could for reps i wanted. And grew a lot. Then slowed down and grew some. Can't say i am a fan of slow. Controlled yes but if slow works then great. Course being on gear allows a great deal of things to work.

I train the same way on gear as I did before I started it. And Iv never had any injuries training. Not one. So I’ll keep it going that way as long as I can because I believe the way I train has helped me stay injury free. Yanking, jerking and swinging weights is hell on connective tissue. I forgot I did herniate a disk in my lower back deadlifting near 800lbs when I was young. Trying to impress a guy I wanted to train with. And it worked. I started training with him the next morning lol chewing mouthfuls of ibuprofen in the process

 

[buck]

I train the same way on gear as I did before I started it. And Iv never had any injuries training. Not one. So I’ll keep it going that way as long as I can because I believe the way I train has helped me stay injury free. Yanking, jerking and swinging weights is hell on connective tissue. I forgot I did herniate a disk in my lower back deadlifting near 800lbs when I was young. Trying to impress a guy I wanted to train with. And it worked. I started training with him the next morning lol chewing mouthfuls of ibuprofen in the process

Just to clarify. Accelerating as quickly as possible does not require jerking or yanking. Just as lowering a weight does not have to mean dropping it and can be done in a controlled manner other then going as slowly as possible. When i am pulling a car out of a ditch i don't floor the gas with a lot of slack chain. I take out all the slack before accelerating to the required speed which usually doesn't require pushing th pedal to the floor. Accelerating tends to take some time as the mass accelerates. Accelerating a heavy weight as quickly as possible is usually not very fast and any video from powerlifting meets will show for example .

 

[qbkilla]

I read somewhere I think here, nubret would take a weight, relatively light, then do sets of x number with short rest. Once he couldn't do that number, move to another exercise.

So say 30lb DB bicep curls, 15 seconds rest between
30x10
30x10
30x10
30x10
30x10
30x10
30x10
30x9

Last set failed before 10, so move into a new exercise for arms. Similar to Vince gironoda 8x8.

Paul Carter and Chris Beardsley would call this a waste of time not Eno mechanical tension or effective reps close to failure, but if you like volume and bro science over studies on untrained college kids, could be effective lol

 

[aHarness]

I hear that. But what works is what works. I used to be faster so i could move the heaviest weight i could for reps i wanted. And grew a lot. Then slowed down and grew some. Can't say i am a fan of slow. Controlled yes but if slow works then great. Course being on gear allows a great deal of things to work.

I mean they’ll both work, your body doesn’t “know” the weight on the bar, just the tension it’s under/for how long and proximity to failure. Of course if you go faster you’ll get more reps, but that doesn’t = more growth than slower and more controlled. If anything I’d argue slower and controlled will allow you to ensure even more you’re hitting the target muscle well. Plus will less likely less to injury.

 

[Strongarm]

I follow my programming and work until the different lifts are complete. If I'm dealing with an injury or issue I might work around that body part and skip agitating exercises until I've recovered.

 

[Mitchlowkey]

Training to failure or just short of, be it muscular failure,losing form and or tempo.
For me, if I complete a set and feel like I could do more then the set wasn’t enough so I’d increase volume and or weight.
A log book is a very helpful tool in helping to maintain progression.
However I feel it does depend on one’s goals and level of development.

 

[KillerStack]

I remember when Dorian's video came out he said that his training style was unexplosive. Then I saw the training, I think he tried to move as fast as possible but due to the loads it just looked like regular training.
As said before, heavy weights = necessarily slow.

A bicep set that gets faster as it goes along means the guy started using the rest of his body. You can see this many times on pros as well, the elbow is never let the arm straigth, push back your as ass you get to the bottor and bend forward. Then take your whole body to swing it back up. It's the "weightlifter curl."

 

[buck]

I mean they’ll both work, your body doesn’t “know” the weight on the bar, just the tension it’s under/for how long and proximity to failure. Of course if you go faster you’ll get more reps, but that doesn’t = more growth than slower and more controlled. If anything I’d argue slower and controlled will allow you to ensure even more you’re hitting the target muscle well. Plus will less likely less to injury.

And i understand what you are saying. But i think it is more then just tension that makes muscles grow. If it was a lighter weight moved at a very slow pace could exhaust a muscle enough over a time frame to grow. I could just slow the movement down even more to get the same effect as time goes by to just keep getting bigger. and not increase the weight I figure it is about having as much fibers engaged at the same time with enough load for long enough that tells my body to build more muscle. Pretty much every big guy spent their main growing years lifting big weights and they were not doing it real slow. I see guys in the gym all the time when they are starting out and moving the weights slowly and feeling that muscle work and they don't get much bigger.

 

[Brocksamson2.0]

as soon as I progress in my logbook from the previous week I'm done and move on to the next exercise.
This is usually 1 set
Recovery is a finite resource

 

[juggy38]

If you move a weight slower purposefully on the concentric, you are not generating maximal tension in that rep. So rep for rep, a fast concentric….or just the “attempt” of a fast concentric with slow bar speed creates maximal tension. A slow bar speed because your trying to go slow is not the same thing.

Not saying it’s not effective, just comparing apples and oranges on a rep for rep basis

 

[Sacario]

I sometimes do straight sets with the same weight and I get the same amount of reps each set. The guy thst showed me that 20 some years ago did the same thing. So it is possible.

Agree. I can do the same reps for every body part but chest. If I hit 12 reps with the 130s no matter how long I wait the next set I may get 6 or 7. Flye exercises I can do the same amount of reps. Idk weird shit with presses.

 

[Mitchlowkey]

Paul Carter of T Nation fame is well worth a follow regarding this type of topic. Liftrunbang1 is his IG he debunks a lot of hyped methods and backs everything up well.
Well worth a looksee.