I find I was never quite able to pick what seemed the right weight for muscle rounds. I think that’s why I tended to sway towards rest pause as it’s just fail 3 times then done
RP sets are amazing (I LOVE THEM!) - nothing wrong with doing them, but....
It's normal to need a workout or two to find the right weight when staring with muscle round, but if you're logging what your'e doing it should be fairly easy to hone in on the right load:
E.g., if your...
Load was TOO HEAVY
100lb x 4/4/2 fail/ then drop to 70 for 4/4/4 (no failure after first failure point),
...you might drop to
80lb and go 4/4/4/4/2 (fail) and go to 65lb for the last set of 4 (no fail)... and then then proceed.
Of if you do this (
for another exercise):
YOUR LOAD WASTOO LIGHT
150lb x 4/4/4/4/4/8 (too light, but you take the last set to failure if you've not failed before)
....you could drop to
130lb and probably end up going 4/4/4/4/4/3 and then shoot for getting more than 4 reps in the last set before moving up to 140lb.
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Remember, too, there's a wide range for what's consider "OK" (it's not a super secret formula of course - just a rule for guiding progression) for a FT Muscle Round:
Simply fail (safely!) in the 4th, 5th OR in the 6th set of the MR. (Just one failure point in MR's before dropping down for the remaining sets of MR to a load you can eek out the rest of those reps with, in "perfect" form).
So, you could do MR's with heavier load and that look like this:
You want to train a bit heavier (suits you a/o the exercise):
4/4/4/2 (drop ~20% - will depend on you and the exercise ) and go 4/4 (no failure). So here you'd just progress the load so you're regularly reaching failure in the 4th set of the MR.
Or
You want to train a bit lighter
4/4/4/4/4/Fail with <~4 reps. Here, you'd just regularly fail in the 6th / last set of the MR and keep progression so that stays the case.
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Other options:
Keep the same weight and
allow REPS to progress, such that you initially fail in the 4th and eventually in the 6th set of the MR
Start heavy 4/4/4/2 (fail)... 4/4
Same weight and progress to 4/4/4/4/4/ (fail)
THEN PROGRESS THE WEIGHT
-OR- (if this suits your mentality - you REALLY like moving the weights up) and/or the exercise is one you're able to do this an keep execution in line with a strong mind-muscle connection)
Focus strongly on
progressing the LOAD:
Start with a Load where you fail in the
6th set of the MR and aggressively increase the load so your failure point moves towards the failing in the 4th set of the MR. It could look like this over time:
100lb x 4/4/4/4/4/3(f)
110 x 4/4/4/4/4/2(f)
120 x 4/4/4/4/3(f)/ 100x4
130 x 4/4/4/4/2(f)/110x4
140 x 4/4/4/3(f) / 110 x4/4
150 x 4/4/4/2(f) / 110/4/4
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Then you might start over but with 120lb (vs. the 100lb from 6 weeks previously) and go:
120 x 4/4/4/4/4/3... And onward.
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ALSO note that the regularity / pattern of how you use the same exercises for MR's is up to you. You can:
--- Do the same exercise week in and week out, and try to progress in this fashion per the above examples. (LOADING sets are where the progressive overload is a do or die thing with FT, and MR's can be as well, but this is an individual thing).
--- Pick the MR exercises in an auto regulated fashion and use (as I recommend in the book) a "Pool" of exercises: You STILL try to progress each time you come back to an exercise, but needn't do them every single week in a strict pattern as is how the Loading sets are carried out.
--- Any of various hybrids of the above: Some exercises for MR's are religiously carried out in a progressive overload fashion (performed regularly per a strict pattern), but the reaming exercises for Muscle Rounds fora given muscle group (per the Volume Tier you're using) would be chosen according to your recovery state, etc. as you do with Pump sets (but still typically performed with an eye on beating the previous performance, be that form 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 two year previously).
-Scott
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