My Favorite Set and Repetition Schemes
There are certainly many different programming methods available to the strength coach today. Some are clearly of higher quality and more practical to use than others. Simply because somebody famous has used a certain program does not guarantee that it will yield good results. Also, things such as fatigue level and muscle soreness are not always good indicators of good strength training. These things are a side effect of training and not the primary objective.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when designing strength training programs for your players. There is no such thing as a perfect program...the Holy Grail of strength training. There will always be new ideas and there are different ways to train so be open minded. Some variety will likely be welcomed by your athletes. Remember, the number or repetitions performed in a set is the thing lifters will adapt to the fastest. Therefore, this the variable that should be changed the most. Things that you liked in the past will go out of favor and things you once disliked may find their way back into your workouts. Any one method can work great for a while. However, your athletes will eventually reach a plateau without variety. Also, many good athletes have made gains with inferior training by using anabolic steroids. This has created a lot of confusion and is not relevant to non-drug using athletes. When you learn new ideas consider the source and take them in with a grain of salt.
I have used the following schemes when designing strength training programs for the National Team Development Program with great success. The players have experienced great increases in power output as well as signifigant increases in lean mass using these workouts. For instance, in their first season here our team of 1993's averaged a 4 inch increase in vertical jump, a 7 inch increase in standing long jump, and a 16 pound increase in lean mass. Again, these are not the only methods out there. I have used others in the past and will continue trying new ideas in the future. They are just a few that I like.
#1 STRAIGHT SETS: Simply using straight sets can be highly effective. An example of this style of training would be to perform an exercise for 2 sets of 10 reps or 3 sets of 4 reps. In other words you are doing the same number of reps on every set. This is certainly the way to go for new lifters. Also, this is great for more experienced lifters when their competition and travel schedules are rigorous because it is simple and straight forward.
#2 WAVE LOADS: Using waves simply implies that the number of reps will go up and down from set to set. For example you could perform four sets of chin ups as follows:
x7
x4
x7
x4
Wave loading can be very demanding so it is reserved for more experienced lifters only! It allows for great gains because low rep, high neural demand sets and higher rep, high metabolic demand sets are performed in the same workouts. Use this method sparingly.
#3 DESCENDING REPS METHOD: With this method all I am doing is decreasing the number of reps on each set. An example of this would be as follows:
x10
x6
x4
This is similar to the wave loading in that it allows for the use of highly neural sets and highly metabolic sets to be performed on the same exercise in the same workout. It seems to be a bit less taxing than the wave loads so I use it more often.
#4 CLUSTERS: When using clusters the lifter will take a :10 to :30 second rest between each rep. This will cause the lifter to recruit more motor units while lifting because stored elastic energy will dissipate during the intermittent rests. This method is more practical with barbell lifts such as Olympic lifts, pressing, and squatting exercises. An example would be to perform a three rep set of bench press as follows:
1. rep #1
2. 15 second rest
3. rep #2
4. 15 second rest
5. rep #3
