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EricT · 05-12-2008, 12:41 PM

OK, one problem with your singles is your build up. You are doing between 30 to 50 "reps" if not more before you get to your max for that day. It's a bit much. Also, are you rushing throught this? You have to rest and then rest more than you think you need between atttempts. There is no medal for speedy.

You start out with 30 reps on the empty bar as opposed to the one set of 10 from last time. No surprize if things didn't go as planned. You want to avoid a big buildup of waster products. Lactic acid, blood pump all that. A little can help you lift more efficiently. A lot will shut you down.

One set of 8 to 10 with the empty bar should be sufficient. All you need to do is grease up the joints a bit.

After that, with the 95 I would avoid going over 5 reps. It would be better, imo, to do a couple of sets of lower reps if you really think you need so many...which you probably don't.

But here you do a set of 10 with 95 and then a set of 8 with around 50 percent of your projected max. Again....much more repping than needed. One set of 3 should do it. (Remember your body should be WARM already before you even start lifting)

Then after that you can start adding about 10 pounds at a time for SINGLES until you get to your max for that day. If you are feeling really good and you know that you can hit your max you can skip ahead as long as things feel nice and tight.

So for this last workout say something like this:

You guestimate that your max is somewhere between 260 and 270 (not really necessary to guess at all though)...

BarX8-10
95 5
155 X3
185X1
195X1
205X1

Then you could keep building up 10 pounds at a time or move up a bit. Either way it's a LOT less than what your were doing. But say...

220x1
245X1
255X1
270X1

You want to rest at least a minute between the earlier sets and then as you move into the heavier sets and once you get past the 220 range you need to recognize that you are already probably upwards of 85% of your max so you don't want to be rushing through that. Good rest periods as long as needed. Anything above 90% will COUNT afterall.

So in this example, once you hit 270 you already have 3 singles. Then all you have to do is accumulate however many more is in the plan. For me that would usually be something like a three week period with 7 to 8, then, 5, then 9 to 10 then backoff with some easy triples or something (so 4 week cycle). No, that is not a lot. But I'm good at high intensity work.

If you think that you cannot do more than, say 5 singles (that is the max PLUS whatever singles you do above 90% before or after the max) then do less. Say 3 or 4. Then next time do 2. Then next time after that try for 6 or so. But I bet you can do more than that you just need to take your time and net fatigue yourself with the warmup sets at the beginning.

You will probably be find it goes a lot better if you use a better buildup but the one I gave is just an example for reference...you got to figure you what works for you but definitely what you were doing is TOO much. You should use as many singles in the buildup as YOU need. But don't put so many triples or doubles in. I think 0311 mentioned that before. Volume doesn't count for anything here.

Remember that your relative max for the day and all your single attempts should be good form. You are not going for an all out PR like you are in a powerlifting comp.

My suggestion would be that you backoff with something easier for a week or two and then go at the singles again with a more moderate approach. And you can't do singles all the time. You gotta mix it up. You may be a person who needs to build up so that the singles cycle is more of a "peak" or you may be able to do it more by feel just making sure that the intensity cycles down and up so you don't end up losing ability through too much CNS intensive stuff.