Do You Really Train Hard? (Research Insights)

Published: Wed, 05/15/19

Hello ,

Are you good at predicting how many reps you can do with a given load? Maybe, but the research would probably lead me to say you don’t.

The good news is that one’s ability to predict performance increases with resistance training experience, as shown by Steele et al. (2017) in their paper investigating trainees’ competence in predicting repetitions to momentary muscular failure.

The subjects were categorised as follows based on training experience:

orientation (<1.5 months)
beginner (1.5-6 months)
experienced (6-12 months)
advanced (12-36 months)
expert (>36 months)

The subjects then carried out a resistance training programme, inclusive of exercises that they had to have previously been performing as part of their training. They were asked to predict how many reps they could perform until failure and then followed it up by testing that. In short, the more experienced the lifter, the better their predictions were. Here is an isolated example extracted from the results:

On the chest press orientation level lifters predicted 15.40 ± 2.77 reps, but performed 20.47 ± 6.36 reps, which would be a 5 RIR if they normally perceived 15.40 ± 2.77 to be their max. However, expert level lifters predicted 10.48 ± 2.86 reps and performed 10.93 ± 3.17 reps, which is bang on. This trend was consistent through all categories, with a 4.93 rep discrepancy at orientation level, 3.9 at beginner, 1.86 at experienced, 1.03 at advanced and 0.45 at expert.

With these pieces of evidence considered, it’s important to consider the individual before recommending relative intensity guidelines. If someone is told to leave 3 reps in reserve (RIR), when they already fall shy of what they can do anyway, then they are going to be pretty far from failure and really missing out on the hypertrophy benefits of approaching failure. Therefore, if you are a coach, then showing clients where they can take their sets to may be a means of speeding up this learning process. However, it’s likely to come with time anyway, so it may just be a case of encouraging the performance of as many reps as possible every now and then to ensure they really are pushing themselves in training, as opposed to instilling a mindset of being over-conservative.

Read the full study here, or read the full 7,000-word article on the topic of relative intensity, rate of perceived exertion, etc. in the Triage Militia.

References:

Steele, J., Endres, A., Fisher, J., Gentil, P., & Giessing, J. (2017). Ability to predict repetitions to momentary failure is not perfectly accurate, though improves with resistance training experience. PeerJ, 5, e4105. doi:10.7717/peerj.4105