06/30/2021
Be realistic with your progress. You can’t expect to improve linearly 📈forever 🤓
Some major increases in my strength this week 💪🏼 & based on how my body feels after training, definitely a need for some volume increases!
I used to deal with a lot of stress & frustration not seeing improvements every week… however, after some reading, I quickly realized this was all part of transitioning from being a ‘novice’ to an advanced athlete.
Nowadays, if I don’t have a week where I’m adding weight to the bar, or maybe quite the contrary, & I have to drop the weight in order to meet the intended RPE, it doesn’t phase me as much.
Let’s chat about the phenomenon known as the “Repeated Bout Effect” or RBE for short.
RBE occurs when an exercise is performed within six months of the previous performance, which essentially means that if I squat today, then again next week, the RBE is beginning to occur.
This phenomenon will take place with greater intensity when the exercise is performed more often, meaning that your body will adapt to squatting or whatever the exercise, the more often you do it 👍🏽 😉
I.e. if you train lower body 2x per week, over time you will adapt to that volume & be able to perform those 2 workouts with minimal difficulty. Plus you’ll continue to make increases to your volume, appropriately of course (that’s assuming you started with an appropriate amount of volume to begin with). Our bodies are amazing machines & sometimes we doubt its capabilities but, trust me, the human body is able to withstand an enormous amount of stimulus & adapt to it over time.
The reality of RBE however, is that it’s not always realistic to continue adding & adapting at the same speed you did as a novice. Time constraints alone make it harder to add volume. So we need to be smart with how we increase! 🏋️♀️
Nowadays, if I’m able to make small 1-2% increases over 4-8 weeks, I’m stoked! It’s normal, the closer you get to your genetic potential, the slower the advances! 😑
I’m a big fan of ‘Autoregulation’- I use my performance on lifts from week 1 to determine the RPE or weight for week 2.
How do you gauge progressions? Comment below! 👇🏽
