As we all know, this sport/hobby, like many others, is often very psychological.
This is just one tid-bit in a couple scenario's to help in the area of counting repetitions...
1) You've been stuck at a particular weight/rep scheme for awhile
2) You are using a particular weight/rep amount that it's a bit intimidating ("I need to do 15 rep's with THIS weight? 1...2... 13 more?! Crap!", "Oh, man... 5 reps? I dunno, maybe 3, but 5?", etc)
ONE trick: divide your reps in half or thirds.
I was on a program for awhile where my top rep goal was 15 reps before moving onto heavier weight. I HATE high reps! So, particularly with the squat, I would divide the reps into thirds... it's "easier" to count to 5 as your goal, then 5 again, etc.
OR- You've been stuck at 9 reps, but your goal is 10... divide it in half... 5... 5
And so on.
Again- this is just ONE trick... for some, they may need that "goal number" to stay focused on, and that's fine. That's part of the psychology and challenge of weight training... everyone will have their own "thing" that works for them and they need to "discover" that for themselves.
Addendum: after reading some of the replies, I just want to make sure that I'm not saying to NOT go to failure with this type of approach... I go to failure on each set. I keep a log book and bring it with me to my workout, so then I can try to "beat" at least one set from my previous workout... that's where this kind of psychology/approach can be useful.
This is just one tid-bit in a couple scenario's to help in the area of counting repetitions...
1) You've been stuck at a particular weight/rep scheme for awhile
2) You are using a particular weight/rep amount that it's a bit intimidating ("I need to do 15 rep's with THIS weight? 1...2... 13 more?! Crap!", "Oh, man... 5 reps? I dunno, maybe 3, but 5?", etc)
ONE trick: divide your reps in half or thirds.
I was on a program for awhile where my top rep goal was 15 reps before moving onto heavier weight. I HATE high reps! So, particularly with the squat, I would divide the reps into thirds... it's "easier" to count to 5 as your goal, then 5 again, etc.
OR- You've been stuck at 9 reps, but your goal is 10... divide it in half... 5... 5
And so on.
Again- this is just ONE trick... for some, they may need that "goal number" to stay focused on, and that's fine. That's part of the psychology and challenge of weight training... everyone will have their own "thing" that works for them and they need to "discover" that for themselves.
Addendum: after reading some of the replies, I just want to make sure that I'm not saying to NOT go to failure with this type of approach... I go to failure on each set. I keep a log book and bring it with me to my workout, so then I can try to "beat" at least one set from my previous workout... that's where this kind of psychology/approach can be useful.
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