Mapped out routines slow your progress?

MrSmall said:Slow your progress compared to what, some mythical skyrocket progress from "training harder" than the program entails? Some people are greedy and look for a magical exercise/routine/philosophy to somehow trump the next guy's steady work ethic.

richn said:I was watching a video of Elliott Hulse on youtube last night and in his video he was saying he believes a set routine with percentages can actually slow your progress, he believes that you should go all out and not stick to the percentage set as that could be below what you actually could do on that given day which slows your progress. So if on that day your feeling good go for more if your feeling tired cut back a little etc.

whats your opinions on this?

do you think its best to have a routine set with percentages? or have the principles of lets say a 5/3/1 routine but go on how you feel?

JC said:
5/3/1 you dont stop at, for example, a set of 5 at 70% do you?
You can do 10 on your last set at 70% if its in the tank
What you're talking about doesnt really apply to 5/3/1 as you can work as hard as you choose to on that fixed percentage program

richn said:
Its not my opinion as I dont agree with it as I believe in having a plan set. I was just seeing what you guys thought about it? If you rep out 10 instead of 5 on 70% on your last set how would that effect the next workout would you recalculate your percentages and increase the weight or go back to what you should have lifted in the first place?
Thanks for the replies

JackRevans said:531 is for carpetbaggers

JC said:
I'm no 531 expert, but I'm sure your weight increases each 4 week cycle
so when in 4 weeks time its 5s week again, the weight will have gone u (say 2.5kg) anyway

IrishMarc said:http://delhi4cats.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/carpetbagger.jpg...

this guy gets it

IrishMarc said:5/3/1 isn't really a percentage programme it just gives out guidelines but encurages you to go as hard as you can every session (outside of deloads obviously).

Something like Smolov / RSR / RSM is more appropriate as an example. Both approaches work but I would heavily favour a good percentage based programme over a rep out programme any day of the week.

At the end of the day what makes the biggest diffrence to your strength level is the amount of quality volume you can get in and percentage programmes ensure you get enough of it to progress well and for a long period.

The trick in keeping it going is manipulation of what you do and knowing when to push and when to coast.

I think PED use clouds the waters on this massively when talking about which is superior.

If you enter a peroid of 12 weeks where you are guaranteed to make fast progress then of course pushing as hard as you can each session with out injuring yourself is the best solution.

This isn't really the case for the natural though as you have to think of your progress on a much longer time frame (as smart PED users will also realise) and such pushing 100% every session will eventually lead to too much degradation and fatigue that it will almost certainly lead to imjury or stalled or backwards progress when applied for long periods.

I think the only training frame work where going as hard as you want or backing off when you want works well, is when you are training with great frequency.

If you are squatting 7 days a week a missed session isn't really an issue.

If you deadlift every 10 days a missed or unproductive session is a big issue.