George Locke
Level 2 Valued Member
I've just started RoP, and I'm wondering about the rationale for ladder sets - in particular, I'm wondering about the training effect of rungs with few reps vis a vis "effective reps". The idea of "effective reps," as I understand it, is that you only get a muscular adaptation from reps that when you're ~3-5 reps from failure. Given that only some of the reps in a set are "effective", the term "junk volume" is used to describe those reps leading up to the "effective" ones. (I'm sure many are familiar with this stuff, I just like to define my terms for clarity.) I've been reading articles about the benefits of ladder sets, and many of them mention the fact that you're accumulating volume, but if a naive effective reps model holds, then rungs of 1-2 reps using a weight that's your 8RM are junk volume - creating some small fatigue but no training benefit.
So, I don't believe that this "naive model" is the whole story, but neither do I really understand why I'm including singles and doubles of a weight I can lift 5-8 times. So, I'm asking for your thoughts!
My own hunch at why the low rep rungs are effective is skill/nervous system: including singles at 5-8RM within your ladder sets helps establish the motor pattern and build the skill of the lift. If this guess is correct, than these early rungs are opportunities to really focus on quality movement. In other words, even if "effective reps" described how muscular adaptations occur, muscular adaptations are not the only adaptations that lead to increased strength.
Thanks for your input.
So, I don't believe that this "naive model" is the whole story, but neither do I really understand why I'm including singles and doubles of a weight I can lift 5-8 times. So, I'm asking for your thoughts!
My own hunch at why the low rep rungs are effective is skill/nervous system: including singles at 5-8RM within your ladder sets helps establish the motor pattern and build the skill of the lift. If this guess is correct, than these early rungs are opportunities to really focus on quality movement. In other words, even if "effective reps" described how muscular adaptations occur, muscular adaptations are not the only adaptations that lead to increased strength.
Thanks for your input.