THAT REP THING - PART II

Both in keeping with my high-rep theme AND in recognition of the WINTER
GAMES, I thought a picture of Eric Heiden would be in order. The dominant
male in the world of SPEED SKATING during the late 70s and early 80s, Eric
trained his legs with grueling FIFTY-REP sets in the squat with relatively
heavy weights. It worked for him.

As mentioned in PART I, I've always seemed to be able to move up indefinitely
when using reps in the 20 - 40 range, and I've often wondered how high that
form of training could take me. But alas, I don't seem to have the IRON WILL
to stick with it for months at a time. My mind starts playing tricks on me
and planting little seeds of doubt, even while I'm STILL PROGRESSING JUST
FINE. But I do know two thing: First, I'm never forced to abandon this form
of training due to injuries, because there are none. And second, almost ALL
OF MY STRENGTH GAINS realized after the age of 50, even low-rep-heavy-
weight gains (remember, I never do max singles) have been due to higher
rep training. I'm the first to admit, however, that this may be because the
real heavy stuff is always cut short by some sort of strain or inflamation
in one of the involved joints. I actually PROGRESS BETTER with the low rep,
heavy stuff; it's just that it's always aborted prematurely.

One approach to higher rep training that has always worked especially well
for me is the "20-20-18-16" method. This involves picking a weight you are
capable of handling for 28-30 reps and doing, instead, an easy, FAST first
set of twenty. Rest exactly one minute then do a second, KINDA HARD set of
twenty. Rest another minute and do a HARD-FOUGHT set of eighten. Rest one
more minute and do a final, SHAKEY-HARD set of sixteen. There seems to be
slightly MORE CARRY-OVER to commensurate gains with heavier weights
using this method; but for me it's hard to face for very many workouts in a row.

Nevertheless, it does work well -- just remember to ADJUST IT DOWN for
exercises with a longer range of travel such as curls, where the bar traces
an arc and thus travels farther than a straight-line, up-and-down motion,
like a row or a bench press. 16-16-14-12 works better there.

Good luck and keep doing SOMETHING!