Most Trainees Lift Too Far Away From Failure (discussion)

[mandypandy]

@shag28 unless that gym is empty, the one or two squat racks are for squatting.

 

[shag28]

@mandypandy Sure, if you are at that small of a gym then just use no clips.

 

[mandypandy]

@shag28 What gyms have enough squat racks that people aren’t generally using them?

 

[shag28]

@mandypandy The gym used to go to, you could only bench in the squat racks. Even if that wasn’t the case, I would bench in a squat rack. To your point about squat racks being for squatting, that is ridiculous. There are countless exercises you can do with a squat rack.

 

[dawn16]

@d1cker1 I agree w/ the dumbbell but the roll of shame is an absolute terrible idea. Why on earth would you want to put yourself in that position.

 

[danicahover578]

@dawn16 highly embarrassing but better than death.

 

[dawn16]

@danicahover578 why would you put yourself in that position? what if you screw up the roll and trap your neck between the bar and bench?

 

[d1cker1]

@dawn16 Are you benching directly over your face? If you have good form, the bar should never go near your neck

 

[peaceofapuzzle]

@dawn16 Why don’t you bench in the squat rack? You’ll quickly become the most popular person at the gym.

 

[heal_the_sick]

@dawn16 I can safely go to failure when no one is around by using the safety arms. Just lower it higher on my chest and I'll land on em. I always make sure before a set that I'm set up properly to do it.

With that being said, missing the rerack does spook me, my arms are short and I have to protract my shoulders to get it in there, or set the rack lower but then the unrack feels like shit. I keep a hold of the bar until I see it's racked though, I missed it only once on one side, all I had to do was lower it to the safeties again.

If the bar actually slips from your hands, no spotter can save you, best thing you can do is bench in a power rack if it worries you.

But yeah that's all just if you actually care about benching, obviously you don't need to and can build everything a bench would build using dumbbells or something else.

 

[thebelovedofgod]

@dawn16 That's like 1 set I need to ask a spotter for. I don't think that's a particular hardship.

 

[ben982743]

@dawn16 No you don’t, but by all means if it makes you perform better with one.

 

[sheetiron]

@dawn16 So is the take away if you can't do bench at a 8-10rpe, you shouldn't do it? That sounds ridiculous to me. You may not get 100% hypertrophy gains, but you will still gain. And on top of that, I'd guess a lot of people probably who train at a 7rpe and don't like pushing into the 9-10rpe range are nursing some type of injury or are worried about getting injured.

I have a number of friends who swore off bench entirely after getting a shoulder injury (is there anyone that has gone through weightlifting and not injured a shoulder doing something stupid?), but imho, most injuries come when you are pushing to 9-10rpe.

It's tough to find the balance. I think isolation exercises are easier to go to a higher rpe, (like your cable press, which I love), but I think doing compound exercises at a 6-7rpe would still be immensely beneficial to most people, would it not? Or is it that at that point, there are better alternatives (like you mention).

My only thing with progressive overload is I think it slowly outpaces the speed your tendons and ligaments can strengthen at, so it can be tough to judge sometimes.

 

[brianna12]

@dawn16 Stop making excuses for not Benching. You can Bench completely fine and safely without a spotter as there's no REAL need to go to failure or even 1 rep from failure. In years of Benching, I have failed once without a spotter and someone around came to help. The benefits of Benching have been worth it 100%

 

[usernameless]

@dawn16 just ask someone to spot you ?

 

[cattat]

@brock The vast majority of this sub has an irrational fear of overtraining and being sub optimal, which leads to sandbagging year over year.

Paralysis by analysis holds people back. Just eat more, lift more.

An easy way to gauge is to AMRAP your last set. If you were truly working hard, if you were doing 3x10 and your AMRAP is 10-12 on the 4th, congrats you’ve done the proper dose.

If your AMRAP is 13+ in this example, add more weight next time.

 

[gworden]

@cattat I was so surprised when I posted my upper days looking for advice and people told me to slash my volume because they assumed there was no way I could be getting any intensity with the volume I had. Meanwhile I've been taking almost every set I do to failure lol.

 

[holyrood]

@gworden Everyone has different work capacity. I always wonder how you guys can do more than 4-5 heavy sets to failure per muscle group per workout. For me it's impossible, I'd have to drop the weight significantly to the point where it just makes no sense. I'm a low volume high intensity kinda guy

 

[cattat]

@holyrood For sure, we all respond somewhat different to different stimuli. The approach to effort relative to capacity remains the same.

The best hypertrophy response I’ve ever had was working 8x8 only taking rest days when I needed to.

It’s what I do on top of powerlifting training, which is the only other style my body responds to.

 

[cattat]

@holyrood For sure, we all respond somewhat different to different stimuli. The approach to effort relative to capacity remains the same.

The best hypertrophy response I’ve ever had was working 8x8 only taking rest days when I needed to.

It’s what I do on top of powerlifting training, which is the only other style my body responds to.