What Should Your First Priority and Focus Be in Resistance Training?

[RazorCuts]

What Should Your First Priority and Focus Be in Resistance Training?

It’s apparent from emails I receive that many people obsess about different aspects of training.
Yet, many of the things we obsess about with training have very little to do with actual outcomes.

For example, the specific exercises we perform and their order in a routine, whether we perform whole body or split routines, the number of repetitions we do in each exercise, the exact time under load, and even the frequency of training do not have large differential impacts on strength and muscular hypertrophy.

Oddly enough, the one variable that likely does impact outcomes is least mentioned in emails.

It is how you perform each repetition for each exercise.
The performance of each repetition is the absolute building block of resistance training. If repetition performance is far from optimal then you are not maximizing what you can do with each exercise. If you are looking for something to think about and practice to improve your training and gain a sense of mastery, repetition performance is "it".

This is your first priority for effective resistance training.

In fact, you can’t really perform effective progressive resistance training unless you perfect your repetition form. Another article on this site explains exactly why this is the case.

Repetition performance includes your ability to fully focus on each repetition so that there is really nothing else you are thinking about except performing the repetition. I can’t point to any data showing that this kind of extreme concentration will make a difference in actual strength and muscular hypertrophy outcomes. However, when you consider other physical and cognitive tasks, the ability to maximize concentration does appear to make a difference.

For example, try reading a paragraph in a book or newspaper while thinking about something else or letting your concentration wander. How much do you understand and how many details do you remember after a few minutes and a couple of hours?

Now read a similar paragraph and just focus on your reading and picking up details. How much do you understand and how many details do you now remember after a few minutes and a couple of hours?

Next take this experience into the gym. Try performing an exercise in your usual way and with your usual distractions, e.g., people talking around you.

Rest for five minutes and now perform the same exercise and intensely focus on the movement, its exact range of motion and speed, and the fatigue and tension in a specific muscle group, while trying to block out any distractions. If you can, try to focus – cognitively and physically – on the targeted muscle group performing the movement.

The difference in the two ways of performing repetitions can be as pronounced as "going through the motions" and really training.

With great attention to each repetition, you likely will find a few other important points that will improve your training.

Somewhat longer duration repetitions may enhance your ability to correctly focus on each repetition.

You may find ways to improve your form including range of motion and much smoother turnarounds at the completion of the concentric and eccentric part of each repetition.

You then may see that to correctly perform each repetition and progress in your training, you may first have to reduce resistance rather than increase it.

Mastering how to correctly perform every repetition in each exercise in your routine is worth the time and effort involved.

Obsessing about other aspects of training is mostly a waste of time and effort.

The key word is "mastering" or "mastery".

People who have been training for many years often are searching for a new purpose or goal for their training. We realize that we are not going to "increase bench presses by 100 lbs" or "add 30 lbs of muscle in six week".

I propose perfecting repetitions performance and mastery as a prime purpose and major goal of our training.

Perfecting the repetition is a fundamental way to master the science, art, and application of resistance training.

Mastery should not be considered as some end point.

With resistance training or any other activity there are many facets and levels of understanding and application. The idea is to keep striving to master the activity while accepting that "absolute complete mastery" is likely not achievable. It’s the striving that counts.

 

[Conan21]

i don't understand these statements

For example, the specific exercises we perform and their order in a routine, whether we perform whole body or split routines, the number of repetitions we do in each exercise, the exact time under load, and even the frequency of training do not have large differential impacts on strength and muscular hypertrophy.

where do you get this information from?

exercises--you will only progress so far with one untill you need to switch

whole body splits--many people get tired with these and can't apply proper effort to later sets

number of repitions--low reps and high reps can both produce size gains, however low reps are superior for strenght, higher are superior for size.
obvious as their are people who do not weight much but are super strong.

TUT is important for reasons stated above.

frequency of training---higher frequency is more important for strenght gains that for size as higher frequency can cause better Nueral gains.

further more, its important to distinguish whether your talking about training for size or training Strictly for strenght as they are different. Training for absolute Strenght focusses highly on Strenghthening the CNS output as much as possible, where hypertrophy training primarily focuses on training the muscle tissue.