Recently I’ve begun experimenting with heavy singles again. For a long time I felt that singles just didn’t work for me but, recently, I’ve started using them in my training and I’m seeing some really good results.
The trick to making the singles work for me is in how I incorporate them into my training. Here are the major points that have helped me get singles working for me.
Incorporate higher rep “work sets” into the same workout as the singles
This is something I pretty much came up with on my own. What I do is, essentially, two progressions on the same exercise, with different rep ranges, in the same workout. For example, on squats I’ll warm up with sets in the 5-8 rep range, do my higher rep “max” for that workout at 12 reps and then do several sets of progressively heavier singles.
This accomplishes a whole bunch of good things:
1) It allows a very thorough warmup
2) It allows me to get used to having weight on the bar so I don’t get “crushed” when I start the singles
3) It allows me to find the groove of the movement and get confident before I start the singles
My two biggest complaints with singles in the past were not feeling warmed up and in the groove of the movement and feeling like the weight was “crushing” me when I first picked it up – even if it wasn’t that much weight. By essentially doing the exercise as a higher rep exercise and then following with singles or very low reps, I get the best of both worlds.
I’m not even sure I reduce the weight I can move on my singles with this technique. It seems that I’m much stronger and more engaged from the higher reps once I move to the singles.
Practice is a major advantage
The last time I tried training low reps and singles seriously, I noticed something very limiting about the singles. When training an abbreviated basic routine like a favor, I might only get a few reps of an exercise every week or so doing singles. And that really wasn’t enough to learn and perfect a movement. As it is, getting 20 or 30 reps of a movement every week or so probably isn’t enough.
Since I’ve been doing kettlebell training, I’ve started to see the value in very frequent, lighter training for learning movements. Another experiment I’m planning is to try benching or squatting a few times a week at different intensity levels. I’ll let you know how that works out for me as well.
Taking “double rep progression” for a test drive on bench presses
Today was my bench press day. In addition to working some of the stretches and techniques from Pavel’s Strength Stretching DVD, I incorporated this “double rep progression” technique as well. My results were really good! I did my basic sets of 5 reps and then followed with several heavy singles. I was able to train a single at 20lbs above my 5 rep weight. As I’m writing this, I can feel my arms and shoulders getting really sore. I’m sure handling that much more weight in a live set will really stimulate some growth.
One last point on designing a cycle
When I set up my training cycles I find that, in general, I like to “sneak up” on my maxes. What I mean by this is that I’ll do sets that are very near my max before I actually get to the max. This has the advantage I talked about above in helping me get used to the weight and find the groove of the movement before I actually go for the “max” set.
Here’s my bench press progression from today:
8 X 45, 8 X 45, 5 X 91, 5 X 91, 5 X 135, 5 X 135, 5 X 140, 5 X 145, 5 X 155, 1 X 165, 1 X 175
Again, I’m doing lots of sets and – at least in theory – decreasing the max weight I can handle, but my form and comfort in handling the weight more than makes up for any small loss in my max. This is particularly important right now as I’m working my way back in to more intense training and my weights aren’t all that heavy.
ttys
Adam
Adam Farrah is a Personal Trainer and Freelance Writer for Mixed Martial Arts, Kettlebell Training, Weightlifting, Bodybuilding, Power Lifting and Nutrition. He serves Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and the online and internet community.
Adam's blogs are alphanolimits.blogspot.com and adamfarrah.blogspot.com.
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