What explanation could there be for simultaneous regression/stagnation on lower rep(4-6) and progression on higher rep(7-12) ranges?

cheapphenonline

New member
This is in the context of just one single session after a bad night of sleep, which i assume is related. So not a trend.

I guess im just trying to understand how its possible that only the 'top set' is affected.
Everything higher rep-ish progressed as expected.
Shouldnt this be an all or nothing kinda situation?

Are the mechanics(??not a native speaker, have mercy) behind rep ranges really that different?

Is there any scientific explanation for this?
 
@lilethmagdelene Yes necessarily.

I see what you are saying, it is quicker to gain strength by increasing weight, however the gap between reps at low weight is bigger than reps at high weight. If you can bench 10kg for 1000 reps, doing 1001 reps next session isn’t going to be hard at all.

If your one rep max bench is 250kg and you just did that, next session it’s gonna be difficult to do 2 reps of 250kg.
 
@cheapphenonline You said it yourself- it’s not a trend. You can’t simplify everything; lifting is not a spreadsheet. Personally I experience the same as you. The all out balls to the wall heavy stuff is more affected by sleep, food etc whereas 8-12 reps you can kinda squeeze out anyway.

It might be mental, might be about muscle fiber distribution might be a million different things.
 
@cheapphenonline The sleep excuse is utter nonsense.

Why would it affect some lifts and not others?

Why would it affect some motor units and not others????

What amount of sleep did he need for 100% recovery? What for 95? It seems so tenuous. Almost complete nonsense.

As someone who's logbooked for over half a decade and drinks ALCOHOL at times, vastly compromising my sleep, I think you're on the verge of a plateau, why?

You said yourself, it only affect some movements, and on the top set. SLEEP DOESN"T ONLY AFFECT SOME MOVEMENTS and some motor unit recruitment.

If you're going to plateau, I've had this happen to me.

Because, you plateau into regress the topset, and the backoff CAN go UP because you didn't have full motor unit output on it.

Soon, both will plateau into regression.

So I would vehemently recommend a movement order juggle, or rotate it/them out. Very simple adaptive responses to FEEDBACK.
 
@spreading_the_gospel
So I would vehemently recommend a movement order juggle, or rotate it/them out. Very simple adaptive responses to FEEDBACK.

Yes programming is such an under-rated factor in bodybuilding. Whereas sleep and nutrition is often over-rated. "Oh I plateaued on Leg Press because I didn't eat enough or sleep enough. Didn't eat enough protein, didn't eat enough micros, too much processed food." "Then why are you progressing on Lateral Raises then? Why aren't you plateaued on all your lifts if it's really sleep, nutrition, protein, micros" lol. A lot of people also ego lift or have otherwise bad form on certain exercises and this kills gains. Or they give up too early in a set because it's uncomfortable rather than actually going to failure (I'm not sure how common this issue is among the type of person who posts on bodybuilding forums though. That appears to be more of a gen pop issue).
 
@asperd I mean, I agree 100%.

I've drank so many times on sundays nights during NFL season, came in on Monday and full board PRs in my logbook over 5+ years before WORK at 5am.

Your brain can't just randomly heal certain motor units from sleep and not others, that's peak bro science nonsense. This guy is just plateauing. I'm also betting money it's his chest too because he has utter dogshit form and lifts with more greed than scrooge mcduck so now he's plateauing.

I hope he doesn't plateau.

Because eating 50 more grams of protein, sleeping 1-2more hours or luffaing your arse aren't real solutions to having dogshit training protocols that cause one muscle group's lifts to plateau then inevitably regress if you don't catch it and adapt.
 
@cheapphenonline Low reps require high motor-unit recruitment right from the start. Feeling tired and generally fatigued is going to reduce your ability to achieve that. Higher rep sets function a little differently, where effort is required gradually to recruit more high threshold fibers throughout the set rather than all of them initially.
 
@cheapphenonline I agree with most of the other feedback, but one thing I didn't see mentioned was proper warmup. Even when I'm doing, for example, 4 sets at the same weight, the first set is often harder than the 2nd and 3rd set because my body was still getting primed and ready to lift heavy during that first set. If I do a better warmup routine, that mostly goes away, but I don't always bother because of time constraints. If you are trying to do your heaviest set first and using that as your baseline for profession, be sure to warmup enough that you're not hampering your output.
 
@cheapphenonline Lower reps (higher weights) are more taxing on your central nervous system than the same gross load over more sets and reps.

3 x 3 @ 200 is gonna be more taxing than 6 x 6 @ 50 even though they both have you moving 600 pounds total
 
@cheapphenonline Maybe your warmup is different or time between sets.

Others have said that it's easier to go from 10 to 11 than for. 4 to 5. This is totally true.
If your stuck you
can try to increase your 4 rep set first.
205lb for 4 reps is way easier than 200lb for 5 sets. But it should help you get there.
 
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