Hey Fellas!
74 more days…tick tock.
I want to start refreshing your minds on some of the basics, what we are going to be doing and why we do them. Today I will start with what I believe to be the single most important principle in the WB Fitness workouts…..we don’t measure by weight or even reps….in the end the most important measure of our lifts is RPE.
As a reminder: RPE stands for Rate of Perceived Exertion. The first thing you will notice here is the
This simple chart is at the heart of WB Fitness
“perceived” element. We need to get our brains in it. A 50 pound weight is a 50 pound weight is a 50 pound weight. We are bringing the metrics in to a subjective level where we have to be honest with ourselves and keep our minds focused on your muscles.
I can’t emphasize this enough: you cannot get the benefits of this program if you do not lock your muscle mind connection in 100%.
So what is the RPE scale. It is a scale from 1-10 with 10 meaning you have hit the point of failure. You cannot do another lift. No matter how hard you tried you would not be able to do a single more rep without a rest. You have not hit 10 RPE until failure. 9.5 RPE is where you think you have one more lift but you honestly cannot be sure you won’t fail that rep. 9 RPE is where you are sure you can rep one more. 8.5 RPE is where you think you can hit two more reps but think it is possible you will fail the second and so on and so forth.
Any damn fool can come in and grab a 50 pound weight and lift it. That is not the point of the work out. Pay very close attention to this next sentence: We are not in the gym in order to lift heavier weights — our focus is on our muscles not the weights.
This is what RPE 10 looks like.
People focus in the wrong place and then are surprised when they don’t get the results they want. If you focus on lifting heavier and heavier weights you will lift heavier and heavier weights. If you focus on more and more reps you will get more and more reps. Neither of those thing will lead to peak muscle growth and strength. Stop focusing outward on the iron. The iron is there and is a good benchmark, but you aren’t in the iron moving business you are in the muscle building business. So instead of focus on the iron and number or reps or how heavy the weights, focus on the exertion of your muscles.
I am a strong believer in the benefit of high and massive volume rep workouts and as such you will see 12, 16 and 20 rep sets but the rep sets are pegged to an RPE usually at 9.5. This doesn’t mean if you fail at 16 reps you need to rest and get those last 4 on a 20 rep set. What it means is to slightly lower the weight so you hit that failure point the same way at 20 for your next set.
I almost never give a number to the weight I lift on this site unless it is particularly relevant. This is because the weight doesn’t matter. You lift 200 pounds for 20 reps with perfect form and fail on the 20th and I life 50 pounds for 20 reps with perfect form and fail on the 20th we have both done the same amount of work. In time the weight will go up as a result of getting stronger and, I won’t lie, it is good for the ego…but that is not the workout. The workout is getting your muscle to failure in a high rep range with enough weight to fail at the prescribed number of lifts and no more.
Team WB Fitness Salutes George Bush 41. RIP. I am not sure if he is wearing a beater under his shirt as he lifts with Arnold and Fairfax Hackley, but I am going to say yes.
There are lots of different tricks to this. I will have an upcoming article to remind you guys of the importance of pre-exhaustion of the muscles with targeted lifts prior to compound movements, but for now I want you to remember, memorize and internalize the fact that our bodies will go where we aim them. If you aim them at higher numbers either in reps or weight you will get there, but you will not be optimizing the growth of your muscle. Yes your muscle will grow, just as my numbers will rise while I focus on muscle growth, but your primary focus will determine you main benefits. Focus on those muscles….and never, ever, ever day dream while lifting. Be present. Be focused. Be intentional and keep grinding!
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