Hi all, I would appreciate your comments on how to calculate the workload, or tonnage, of a workout.
Lets say your 1RM for a given lift is 110 kg. It is clear that doing 1 rep with 100 kg is a lot more effort than doing 2 reps with 50 kg, so the idea of multiplying reps x weight doesnt seem very useful to me.
So how would you estimate the workload, or how hard or easy has a given practice been?
I've been thinking about this and cannot come up with a formula that can even represent a simple example:
10 reps @70% RM vs 5 reps @ 90%RM.
I'd say for sure the 5 reps would be more challenging, but what to use as a multiplier?
Another strategy might be to assign a value to a given set based on RPE x %RM.
So if you take a set of 8 reps to tech failure at 70% and a set of 6 reps and hold one or two in the tank at 80%, the number of reps don't even get counted. The first set has a (somewhat arbitrary) value of 9, the second set perhaps a 7. Multiply by the %RM of the set.
Relative values of 63 and 56.
The problem with this is the relative values eliminate reference to load and intensity. It might roughly correspond to amount of work done but not to the expected adaptations.
While I use a bunch of different strategies, most often I use a three set approach, all done to tech failure, where the first set is done at approx 70%, the second at approx 80, and the last at 90, roughly corresponding to %rep max count 10, 7, 4. The last set normally includes a drop set that will increase TUL and add 4-6 reps to the last set.
If I get much more than those numbers on
any set, I advance the load incrementally for all three.
If its a static load, I'll try to begin with a weight I can hit for 8-10, no more. First set I leave one in the tank, second set to tech failure, third set to tech failure gets followed by a pair of Rest/Pause sets spaced out at 15 seconds each.
Once I get to 10 reps on the second set I've hit the limit, following which if my numbers for the second or third set (excluding the R/P) go up any higher, I increase the load.