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Strength training session tips

This is an excerpt from Building Strength and Muscle After 50 by Chad Landers.

In chapter 2 we covered overall principles of strength training and the specific principles of program design, but it’s also important to consider strategies and techniques to optimize an individual training session.

The first question we must answer is “What are we trying to accomplish in this workout?” The answer should be straightforward, and 99 percent of the time it’s “Provide enough stimulus to make my body bigger and stronger without injuring myself.” But there will be those occasions where you are dealing with an injury or illness, or you are starting to feel run down and sore too often.

In these instances, the goal may be simply to lose as little ground as possible and “get the blood flowing and feel better leaving the gym than when you came in,” and that’s OK! Remember, consistency is key. I’d much rather have you do a light or abbreviated workout than no workout. But most workouts are about getting stronger, the progressive overload I mentioned in chapter 2.

Want to know the biggest secret to my success with both client results and my own training over the last four decades? No, it’s not doing secret exercises or taking exotic supplements. And it’s not “pedal to the metal” intensity during workouts or training every day. Quite simply, it’s keeping a workout log.

I have actual physical logbooks filled with every weight, set, and rep performed in the gym by every client I’ve ever trained for more than 32 years, and I have over 40 years of my own training logs. In addition to the exercise data, I note any joint or muscle pain or discomfort, lack of sleep, a hangover, you name it. We don’t only want to know what you did during the workout, but also indications of why you performed this way. The training data and notes will help inform what weight and how many reps to strive for the next time you do those exercises. For example, if you were getting over a cold the last time you performed an exercise, you may find you can easily push past the reps you did last time and even add weight. Conversely, if you are having a rough day, we may decide to go a bit lighter on the first set (or even all sets) and see how you do.

In the decade I trained clients at commercial gyms before opening my own studio, I noticed that I was often the only person in the gym logging their own workouts and was one of the only trainers keeping a log of their clients’ workouts. (For a sample log sheet, see figure 10.1.) How can you expect to progress if you don’t know what you did in the last workout and try to beat it the next time? That’s the purpose of the journal and how I ensure both my clients and I achieve our goals.

The following items should improve your workout log and help guide your training, no matter what your goal.

The Personal Record

Remember, the goal of each workout is to either lift a heavier weight than the last time you performed an exercise, or at least do more reps with the same weight as last time. Your goal should be to strive for a new personal record (PR) each workout. This gets harder to do the older we get and the longer we’ve been training, but improvement should still be the goal.

Typically, we think of a PR as the most weight you’ve ever lifted on an exercise for one repetition (your “one-repetition max” or 1RM). For example, my PR (1RM) on the bench press is 305 pounds. But I do not try to beat my 1RM each workout or even attempt a max that often.

The kind of PR I’m talking about is a cousin to the traditional 1RM PR. I simply want you to beat your performance from the previous time you performed an exercise. That might mean lifting 5 or 10 pounds heavier than the last workout or doing a rep or two more with the same weight. It might even be doing the same weight, sets, and reps but with better form.

For example, if the last time you did a machine chest press you did 3 sets of 10 reps with 50 pounds, next time try for 3 sets of 12 reps. Even if you “only” get sets of 12, 11, and 10 respectively, you still beat your total work by 3 reps. That’s improvement. Then next time, try to beat the 12, 11, and 10 reps, and so on.

I generally recommend that most older trainees be able to do at least 8 repetitions with a weight but think 10- or 12-rep sets are more prudent because you’ll need to use a slightly lighter weight, which tends to be easier on the joints. If you can’t get at least 8 reps on all work sets, go lighter. Conversely, if you can easily do multiple sets of 15 reps in good form, go heavier next time. The only time I go fewer than 8 reps is when training a competitive powerlifter. Then we’ll perform sets in the 1- to 5-rep range in addition to our regular higher rep work.

First Set Blues

This is something I coined years ago to describe the first heavy set of an exercise. There are times that no matter how thorough the warm-up, the first work set just feels kind of crummy. Still a bit stiff, maybe a little achy. Then the second set feels amazing, and clients often do more reps than their first set. But by set three, all bets are off. Maybe you can match set two, or maybe too much fatigue sets in.

Be aware that just because the first set feels out of sorts doesn’t mean you need to go lighter or skip the exercise. As long as there were no sharp “stop” pains on the first set, see how the second set goes. You’ll likely feel better and maybe get more reps than the first set.

However, if you start the second set and you have increased pain in a joint over the first set, stop immediately and either lighten the weight or skip the exercise and swap in something that doesn’t cause pain. Doing a quick reset and adjusting joint angles might be all that is needed to make one of these “little pains” go away.

Rest Periods

Rest between sets is an important factor to consider and has been hotly debated. In general, we see better results (more reps with more weight, thus better strength and muscle gains) with longer rather than shorter rest periods.

Far too many trainees don’t rest long enough between sets. This is a mistake. They are under the erroneous assumption that they should take as little rest as possible both between sets and between exercises during their strength sessions, because they mistakenly believe that the mark of an effective strength session is how out of breath and sweaty they are.

Traditionally, rest period recommendations have been 30 to 60 seconds if the goal is muscular endurance, 60 to 90 seconds if the goal is hypertrophy (size), and three to five minutes if the goal is strength. But many trainees desiring strength and hypertrophy end up using rest periods more applicable to endurance training. These short periods don’t allow the muscular and nervous systems to rest long enough to perform optimally and promote size and strength gains.

Remember, the biggest reason we are doing resistance training in our 50s is to add as much muscle and strength as possible before we hit our 60s, when it gets even harder to fight Father Time. We need to use rest periods long enough to achieve these goals.

A study by Schoenfeld et al. (2016) showed that a longer rest period (three minutes) versus a shorter rest (60 seconds) was optimal for not only strength gains but also hypertrophy. Across various muscles studied, hypertrophy was about 7 percent greater with the longer rest period. Maximal strength increases on both the squat and bench press were similarly about 7 percent better when using a longer rest.

The authors speculate, based on their study and others referenced therein, that trainees should “at least” rest two minutes between sets. My experience over the last 30-plus years agrees with the research.

I know many of you who time your rest periods just won’t be able to wait a full two minutes between sets, but please rest at least 90 seconds and preferably two to three minutes. Also, you don’t have to use the same length rest period for each body part or exercise.

I do time my rests in my own training and note them in my workout journal. On smaller muscles like triceps, biceps, shoulders, and calves, I find I’m recovered and ready after a two-minute rest. For the bigger muscles like the back, chest, and thighs, I take a two-minute rest after warm-up sets and three minutes after work sets. For my super-heavy, low-rep (1 to 5) bench press sets, I find I need at least four minutes between sets.

However, if it feels too tedious to time your rest periods and is an impediment to training, you don’t have to do it. In that instance, I recommend resting as long as you need in order to work hard again on the next set. The worst thing that will happen if you don’t rest long enough is you’ll get far fewer reps on the next set. Just don’t rest so long that you cool down or make your workouts any longer than they need to be.

If you are fairly in tune with your body, you’ll probably know when you’re ready to perform another set. Just be aware that if you have a significant drop-off in number of reps from set to set, you likely aren’t resting long enough. For example, if you complete 12 reps on the first set but can only do 6 or 7 on the second set, you didn’t rest long enough. Aim for no more than a drop-off of 1 to 3 reps between sets.

Rep Speed or “Tempo”

How fast should you perform each repetition? First, I think it’s overkill to try to time each rep in your head. You’ll often find programs with a recommended tempo of something like 2/0/2 to 4/2/2 or similar. These numbers denote the number of seconds to lower the weight (the eccentric phase), how long to pause between phases, and how quickly to lift the weight (the concentric phase).

I find most people have a hard enough time concentrating on what rep they are on while also concentrating on proper form. Imagine counting in your head “One, two, three, four (negative), one, two (pause), one, two (concentric) and one” (rep). Now keep doing that for each rep of each set! Tedious and confusing.

That does not mean to mimic a “gym fails” video online and perform reps as fast as possible with no control. Nor does it mean you should go “super slow.” I’ve seen recommendations to take as long as 45 seconds to complete one repetition! While hard to do, this is not at all necessary and is actually not optimal for building muscle (Schoenfeld, Ogborn, and Krieger 2015).

My advice is to keep it simple. You should be able to lower a weight under control and then lift it as quickly as possible while still controlling the weight. I always say, “Control the weight, don’t let the weight control you.” I don’t typically have clients pause between the eccentric and concentric phases, but a short pause of one or two seconds will dissipate any momentum and the “stretch reflex.”

You will be able to lift heavier if you use this stretch reflex to your advantage by not pausing. But I find a short pause to eliminate this is good for people who have poor control and tend to “bounce” out of the bottom. And for older lifters, I think the slight pause lessens the chance of injury by the need to use a bit lighter weight and lessens the chance of overstretching the joint in the negative.

But again, don’t overthink this. Controlled eccentric, quick pause (if any), fast but controlled concentric.

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