There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
Forced Repetitions: The Science Behind Training to Failure
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name there is a Method to the Madness.
Speaker 1:Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412 what is going on everybody? 886-451-2412. What is going on everybody?
Speaker 1:This is Rob here getting ready to talk to you about health and fitness, and today I'm going to specifically get into some fun strength training research. You know, within my logo it says where training is science. I think I've stressed quite often how I think that we need to understand the science pretty well and then we need to take the science and get to work, and I like looking at different research studies. I think that's one of the really cool scientific parts of health and fitness, as I've talked about and ranted about. You know some of the studies can be absolutely ridiculous what they're looking at. But when you look at some of the studies that seem to matter, you know, when you look at like different kinds of training styles compared against one another, even though there aren't too many new things, there aren't too many new things under the sun, so to say it's still really interesting to look at the results. I should say probably even more interesting to share the results, because you know I get on this rant quite a bit, but so many people in my industry flat out don't know what they're talking about and it can be very, very annoying, to say the least.
Speaker 1:I do think a lot of people mean well. I think a lot of you know quasi trainers mean well. I think they are absolutely demonstrating a passion for health and fitness most of the time. I mean, you know there's always those anomalies out there, but I do think, like the people that are sharing their views and wisdom really do love it and they mean well. They just don't necessarily have all of the information. I've also found that when you know them, when you know some of these folks and sit down and talk with them, they learn and they want to learn and at least the ones I've experienced, like they express gratitude for learning new things. They just don't know it is changing but unfortunately so much of it still comes back from the old Muscle Beach mentality of the 1970s. It is changing, but a lot of it is still kind of falls back into that.
Speaker 1:So one of the studies I want to talk about today this isn't new, but I was going through some of my old books because I'm, you know, working on another book and I like to use different kind of quotes and studies and things like that and I found this one to be a pretty cool bit of research done by Wayne Westcott, who I think is great. He's a PhD guy and he's always done like very in your face, simple, easy to follow studies where he'll look at two different groups his experimental group and then his control group and he'll just show the data. And I think, like a lot of people don't look at the data, like there's a lot of arguments all the time on social media regarding so many things in health and fitness Like you know, one of the ones that I stay out of because it's just a never ending war but basically different kind of dietary techniques, like keto folks versus vegan folks, kind of two polar opposite views, and they'll argue back and forth. And I'm going to keep this just like within weight loss, because they both kind of talk about different positives to their eating styles for other things, but just in weight loss alone they don't talk about that. They just kind of argue back and forth and I'll think to myself and you know well, why don't they just go look at the studies? I mean, it's pretty clear what kind of diets and it's always comes down to caloric restriction to a point, and then different kinds of hormonal changes. And then, of course, some of the new drugs the weight loss drugs, the diabetes drugs have shown really good success with weight loss. So they're looking at those types of things. But the studies are there like they'll show a 12 pound decrease in eight weeks or whatever. So the studies are there.
Speaker 1:In strength training, again, you'll hear different arguments back and forth and I like looking at different types of numbers on that. Now it's funny when I was a young gym rat in my 20s working out, we always did different versions of forced reps or assisted reps. I mean not always because we necessarily wanted to, but if you are working out with one of the bigger guys in the gym and you're bench pressing and you're about halfway up or three quarters of the way up and you fail. Thank God your bigger strength training buddy is right there to help you and grab the weight so you don't crash and break your sternum. But oftentimes, if he was a motivated gym rat which they were, most of them make you do a couple, two or three more, where you're pushing with all your might and they're pulling on the bar slightly. We would call that assisted training and we did a lot of it. When I say we, I mean me and my fellow gym buddies at the gym did it. I had no idea what the research would say about that back then. I'm sure it existed back then. I know what it says now and that's what I'm going to talk about today. But that's what we call assisted training and that's like one of the real good benefits of having a accountability buddy or a trainer or a workout partner you know whatever you want to call it. And, by the way, let me just say here quickly that we shouldn't do assisted reps all the time, but here or there they are extremely beneficial.
Speaker 1:So in this particular study, wescott looked at where a person did standard training. That just means that however many sets they were doing and I think in this case they did just a minimal amount of sets, like one set per exercise so that was considered standard set training and every repetition, every set was taken to volitional fatigue, which means to the point where a person could not do another repetition. So there was standard training where they went to failure or volitional fatigue on all their exercises. And then in the other group there was the assisted training group where they did. I should back up and say that each group did eight to 10 reps. So the standard group did eight to 10 reps at roughly 75% of their maximal load, which is pretty standard for eight to 10 reps of their maximal load, which is pretty standard for 8 to 10 reps than the other group did 8 to 10 reps at 75%. But after the assisted group failed or hit volitional fatigue, the spotter then helped them do roughly 2 to 3 to 4 more repetitions 4 sounds pretty brutal, but 2 to three to four was the control. And they looked at that over a course of eight weeks and what they found was for beginners. Now I think that's kind of crazy to look at the beginners and do kind of a forced assistant reps with them. But they were looking to see. You know the difference. If somebody just started working out, I mean I guess you know they're looking at it like take them right from the frying pan and throw them into the fire, because that's what you're doing when you do forced assisted reps. They're pretty darn hard. But anyway, that group showed a 45% improvement over the group who did standard training. That's significant. That is a lot more. All right, I'm going to break this down for you Now in the advanced group.
Speaker 1:And that makes a lot more sense for advanced trainees to be doing what we like to call post-fatigue repetitions, trainees to be doing what we like to call post-fatigue repetitions, which could be anything from breakdown training to assisted training, like we're talking about here, to pre-exhaust training, to negative training. So post-fatigue repetitions for advanced people is more common. Same study, same group 8 to 10 reps, 75% of the 1RM, roughly two to four repetitions post fatigue. They showed a 40% increase. Now, that's significant because, remember, these are advanced folks who have already shown great results. So they've been working out a while. Typically advanced trainees are considered about two years of consistent working out. Intermediate is usually a year or more and then under a year is typically beginner. So that's how most of these strength studies are broken down. But they showed a 40% improvement just by doing assisted reps on all of the sets that they did. Both groups did the same exercises Again. Both groups did eight to 10 reps. Both groups did one set, except for the assisted at the end. Both used roughly 75% of their one rep max, which was determined, and they both did twice per week full body workouts. So that is significant.
Speaker 1:So I've always been a quality over quantity guy for sure. Like you know, the number one reason people give for not working out is not having enough time. So if we are able to help them with that by teaching people techniques that you don't have to be in the gym for a really long time, you can practice quality moves, quality training to get just as good, if not better, results with less time. So I've always believed that. I've been around the folks that believe it. I've seen the research. Again, I look at the research. What works, what doesn't? Show me the data. If you can measure it, you can manage it, type of thing. Don't give me your opinion. Let's look at the science on this and let's figure out what really works. When I mean science, that's what I mean. Let's look at the studies, let's see the data, let's see the results. I let's see the data, let's see the results. I've always leaned more towards quality over quantity. For sure, and the data is there. The data supports that 100 percent as well. So this is just a technique that works really well.
Speaker 1:I'll do it with some of the clients once we hit fatigue, going to help them do a few more repetitions sometimes. I just sent a picture of a person spotting a person on a leg press to one of my clients because he uses as much weight on that leg press as anybody in my gym 280 pounds, which is really heavy, and he is north of 60, so that is really impressive. Not that 60 is old, but I sent it to him going does this look familiar? Because I will sit there and spot and push out on that. It's not easy to spot on a leg press, by the way, but it just shows that on certain exercises it's really good to get some assistance and do what we call forced reps here or there. Not every exercise is ideal for it. There are exercises that are better than others, but the key is that it works.
Speaker 1:If you're looking to try to get a little bit more out of your workout, instead of thinking you're going to add all these exercises or add sets, add quality to your sets. This is one way to add quality. Now, everything in strength and fitness and everything in endurance and fitness so both sides whether we're talking cardio or strength comes down to how much you can recover. When we do post-fatigue reps like this, you're absolutely going to cut into your recovery system more. So if you're already struggling with recovery not sleeping very well, stressed out in your life you're not going to want to do advanced techniques like this and you don't want to do it on every exercise and you don't want to do it every time.
Speaker 1:I wish I could give you well. I know what the science says on it. The science says that you can't overtrain when you're already fatigued. We know that. Unfortunately, there is no way for the science to tell me how overtrained you are, and it's very hard for you even to figure it out if your system can handle more intensity, because intensity is going to drain you more, but so is a lot of high volume. Again, I wish I could tell you the exact point when you should do these and not do them. The only thing I can tell you is look for clues. If you're not sleeping, you may need to not push intensity techniques or more volume techniques. If you feel jittery or moody, that's also a sign you may not be recovering very well. If you're constantly sore and unmotivated to train, not wanting to push, that also might be a sign that you're not recovering very well. But other than those signs and symptoms, it's very hard to know for sure. I will say this follow and track it.
Speaker 1:Keep an exercise journal. I love to do that. I keep an exercise journal, I write these things down, and if you're feeling like you got the juice and you're feeling like you're pretty motivated and you're feeling like you're getting enough recovery, absolutely use some assisted reps in there, because you will get benefit from it. If you're a beginner, you're going to get like 45%. I don't personally recommend doing techniques like this when you're a beginner. Most people listening to this are not, though, but if you're intermediate to advanced, check it out, because you'll get at least a 40% greater rate on your return. That, my friends, is pretty darn good. Hope. This helps Get to the gym.
Speaker 1:Some of my favorite exercises to do these kind of reps on are chest press, because it's easy to get a spotter for that. Bicep curls it's easy to get a spotter on that. Lap. Pull downs, where your trainer or your spotter can grab the bar. Help you pull down a little bit more. Shoulder presses, exercises like that. I don't recommend doing it on things like leg extensions and definitely not Well, I shouldn't say definitely not, but most likely not barbell squats, because it could get a little bit dangerous when you're squatting a lot of weight and your workout partner is trying to help you. But on applicable exercises, by all means jump in and see if it helps you. Until next time, hit the gym, have some fun, try some new things.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's show. I ask you to please follow this show on wherever you get your podcasts and also please hit automatic downloads. It really helps me and it helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the premier garage door company in Volusia County, with the best product with the best service. I can vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people. If you need any help with your garage doors, give them a shout 386-222-3165.
