Have you ever played 50?

As a follow-up to my last post about numbers, I'm now going to help you to actually set something up.  This is obviously only a suggestion, like always.  But over the years, I have found this to work.  It's quantitative, will increase your single rep max (1RM), will be fun, and crush you at the same time.

But understand, this is only to be done as a barometer, unless of course, you enjoy training this way, and want to implement it a bit more frequently.

Let's call it 50. 

The first thing that you must do is take a day to get a true idea of your 1RM.  If you really don't want to, make sure that you are truly in the area of it, so that you can accurately estimate it.

But 1RM of what right?  Deadlift, squat, and bench press.  YES, deadlift, squat, and bench press.  But don't worry, you may never need to go there again, just please try to follow this.

Now that you have your 1RM determined, (and have something quantitative) you need to decide what weight that you will use, and rest periods.  I usually train in the 85% range on my deadlift, but about 75%ish on the bench and squat.  But this is about you, not me.  The key is trying to find something workable.  Why?  Because your rest periods are only allowed to be 2-2:30 mins. long.  70%ish will usually get your first set in the area of 12-16 reps.  Anything under 12 on the first set, usually doesn't work.  It's too aggressive.  Anything much more than 16 reps on the first set will be too soft. 

But this is where you have to decide where you are at, because now the fun starts. 

Try to get out 50 reps in total.  But stay strict on your rest periods.  That is a key.  Stop when your sets drop below 4.  That's just the rules of the game.  When you get your 50, it's time to change something.  You will, no doubt become more anaerobically fit, and may want to drop a few seconds off your rest periods.  Or you may want to bump the weights slightly. 

This is a very scientific way to train.  The good thing is, you will have some numbers, without lifting brutally heavy.  Over my 3 decades of training myself and others, I truly believe that if you are training to failure, that's right, failure, with 70%-85% of your 1RM, you will get stronger.  By trying the 50 game though, because of the rest period that must be adhered to, you will quickly find your sets falling through the floor.

I just went through this with one of my students.  I am not going to tell you his numbers, because everyone has to find their own way. 

His bench press was, set 1, 16 reps, set 2, 10 reps, set 3, 7 reps, set 4, 5 reps, set 5, 2 reps.  DONE
His squat was 11, 7, 5, 4.  DONE
Rest periods on the bench press were 2 minutes.
Rest periods on the squat were 2:30 minutes.

That, by the way, was his workout.  we'll revisit this in 3 weeks time.
Guess what?  He felt awful, but asked me if we can do deadlifts next.  He also had a smile on his face, and can't wait to get going on all the other innovative chain, band, and board exercises that we will now get back to doing. 
We have now entered a new phase of training.  He can now start to enjoy the fruits of his non-quantitative training labours.

I know this may be confusing.  If you need help, just ask. 

Hope this works.  Stay strong.