"Down With Redundancy!"

Thanks to Mike Hogan for this one.

What does redundancy have to do with strength training?

Plenty. The issue here is retracing your steps when you don’t have to; i.e., multiple sets and exercises for the same muscle groups.

(Note: I’m assuming here that your main goal in going to the gym is looking and feeling better, i.e., bigger and stronger muscles, a flat and trim midsection, etc. If you don’t care about aesthetics and your goal is moving loads better left for bulldozers and tractors, then you need to head over to Louie Simmons’ site.)

Case in point: It’s not uncommon to see an ambitious young lad walk into the power rack (my precious power rack) and perform set after set of barbell biceps curls. After which he’ll head over to the dumbbell rack and bang out a set or two (or, more likely, three) of concentration curls. A good, industrious young lad, but really – what did the concentration curls accomplish that the barbell curls didn’t?

In other words,

if you’ve already thoroughly fatigued a muscle group, why are you endeavoring to fatigue that same muscle group again?

Moreover, if you didn’t do the job the first time around, why not?

Redundancy. It kills me. It wastes the trainee’s time. The extra time he spent curling superfluously could have been better spent working another muscle/joint function that he needed to improve just as badly (like, say, legs!).

Studies show that in terms of strength gains, multiple sets offer no additional benefit over single set protocols, provided that quality effort (read: high level of effort) is used on that single set. Even the flawed “definitive proof” that multiple set training gives superior results to single set training capped the volume mark at four total sets per muscle group for maximum results (Yes, meaning four sets of bench for chest – that’s it; no flyes, no inclines, no dips. Or you could do a set of each).

But you’re not convinced, you say – what those ivory tower pencilnecks preach has no bearing in real world lifting! No problem, we’ll approach this scientifically, then, with an experiment:

Cut down on the volume of your current workout.

Even if you still use that outmoded model of “working body parts”, cut the amount of total work you do in half.

For example, if you do incline presses, bench press, and flyes for chest (say, 9 total sets), cut down to bench press and flyes (for 4 total sets), but don’t loaf! Work them just as hard; better to work them even harder – more weight, more reps if possible. After all, you’ll have more energy left to fight with. Push to the limit, seek to work your muscles to exhaustion – when either your form crumbles or forward movement stops.

I promise you your muscles won’t atrophy. I promise you won’t go from Charles Atlas to Charlie Brown.

The opposite is likely to occur, if your form is good and your recovery is taken care of properly. You’ll end up bigger and stronger, and with more free time on your hands which you can use to learn another language, spend more time with your loved one(s), or invent a cure for restless leg syndrome. Or anything else you care to do.

Spend less time at the gym working out with more quality effort. “Down with redundancy!”