Heavy-ish Singles before Working Sets

[Timothy Grady]

Joe,

I trained powerlifting style for a few years and a staple was working up to a heavier single (around 90%) before dropping down for multiple lower rep back off sets.

I can’t remember all the fancy science words now (post-activation potentiation?) but it did seem to increase performance on the back off sets while also subjectively making them “feel” lighter.

Any thoughts on doing something similar for hypertrophy purposes? I.e if your top set of 5-8 reps is 275, potentially doing a single with 295 as the last warm-up?

I realize the answer is probably as simple as “try it and see how it works for you”, but was curious if you ever experimented with something like that.

My apologies if you’ve answered this previously but I can’t remember you talking about this.

Thanks.

Tim

[Timothy Grady]

Team,

I asked this question right before the app transition so it may have been lost in the shuffle. Wanted to follow up and see if you had any thoughts.

Just to clarify, I’m only talking about big meat and potatoes exercises, and also not talking about maximal singles. Just something easily doable a bit heavier than the top set weight.

Thanks,
Tim

[BryceBahm]

[Joe]

Timothy Grady wrote:

Team,
I asked this question right before the app transition so it may have been lost in the shuffle. Wanted to follow up and see if you had any thoughts.
Just to clarify, I’m only talking about big meat and potatoes exercises, and also not talking about maximal singles. Just something easily doable a bit heavier than the top set weight.
Thanks,
Tim

[Timothy Grady]

Thanks guys, sounds like I should leave that in my powerlifting past then 🙂

Bryce, I may play around with your suggestion, sounds interesting.

Much appreciate the responses.

[Author]

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