Your First Rep Should Look the Same Technically As Your Last

Your first rep should look the same technically as your last rep is something I learned from Charles Poliquin many years ago. Strength is a skill. You want to learn a movement pattern and become very good at it. The more perfect reps you perform in your training, the more productive it will be. By focusing on perfect reps, there is also less chance of injury.

Some of the common errors you see once the weight starts getting heavy, or you start getting fatigued during a set, are bouncing / using momentum, cutting the range of motion shorter, or changing your movement pattern, like worming around under the bar on the bench press trying to wiggle it up, type of thing.

Bar speed may slow down on the concentric range but your technique should remain the same.

You call an end to a set when you reach technical failure, not absolute muscular failure. So, once you have to start deviating from the optimal technique, you call an end to the set there.

When you increase load, your technique should remain. Don't increase the load at the expense of your technique. This is something I see far too often. I would much rather you stay at a lighter load and use perfect technique then to increase the load and have to cheat the weight up. There are many ways to increase the overload during a training session, then to simply add more weight.

This tip is simple but it takes discipline to stick to. The rewards for doing so have paid off for myself and clients over the years so I think it is good for you to focus on. You may have to leave your ego at the door and back off on some of your current lifts for a few weeks, but it is like regressing to progress further later on. Two steps back to take 4 forward.

For more information on the perfect rep, see the article written by Charles where he explains other tips on top of this one for completing a perfect rep.

Quality Over Quantity

December 2, 2019

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Nathan Waters - Total Health Performance

This morning in the gym we got talking about the quality of training session's and ways in which to ensure you are maintaining the quality over the quantity.

I explained what Charles Poliquin had taught me many years ago about the critical drop off point. Basically, for a given training goal, you have a certain percentage of decrease that is acceptable before you call that exercise for the day and move on. 

For example, if in a workout you were to perform 6 sets of 3-5 reps on the bench press and began the workout with 100kg for 5 reps, you would stop the workout if you had to drop the weight to under 93kg or if you couldn’t perform at least 3 reps with the 100kg. 

It won’t do you any good to lower the weight more than this and proceed for extra sets. It will just tap into your recovery and make the next session a struggle as well. 

Another time to consider the quality over quantity of a workout is in a de-load week. Charles always advocated dropping the volume and not the intensity. I have used this with great success over the years.

An example of this is to cut the amount of sets you are doing and not the load. So if you were performing 5 sets of an exercise, on your de-load week, you drop it down to 3 sets. You still lift as best you can for that day but the volume is lower.

In the past I have had coaches tell us to lower our lifts to 50% of the load we used in the previous week but we would still perform all the sets and reps. I didn't find this to be as effective as it is still mentally draining to get through the entire session, especially if the reps are a bit higher, and you can still accumulate a fair amount of fatigue. Also, why train to be weak. I would much rather get in, stimulate myself, and get out then to just drag a session out for the sake of it. 

So, there are two quick ways to ensure you keep the quality of your workouts and not just increase the quantity. It will help you recover from workout to workout and decrease your risk of things like over-training, stagnation, and injuries. 

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program design

programming

quality

strength

Recovery

Injury prevention

Hypertrophy Bootcamp with Charles Poliquin

November 18, 2018

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Nathan Waters - Total Health Performance

This photo is of Charles Poliquin and myself after the 2013 hypertrophy bootcamp he held in Sydney in 2013. At the beginning of this class Charles told us all that whoever he thought was the best trainer of the 5 days would win an internship with him. I was already keen to learn and train with Charles but this took it to another level for me, which I needed.

At the time I had just finished another rugby league season and was recovering from a fair few injuries I had suffered throughout that year. I broke my back in round 1 that year and played two weeks later. I then broke my wrist and collar bone on the right side and played every game with them throughout the season. In the first semi final of that season I tore my right pec of the ribs, done my AC, tore my delt, and tore my infraspinatus all on that right side again. That happened about 5 minutes into the semi final and I played through it as I knew that was me done for the year and my teammates needed me. 

This was only about one month after the season finished so at this point I had seen the surgeon for my wrist and was wearing one of those casts they mould but you can strap on and off. So leading up to camp I would just take it off and train then put it back on. In class I would rock up, take it off to train, then put it on in between the sessions.

Now for those of you who don't know the hypertrophy bootcamp is 5 days of 3 x a day training with Charles giving a lecture on the system and things you can do nutritionally in between each workout. Charles teaches you how to gain the most size in the shortest amount of time and the lessons I learned from Charles during the week have been invaluable. 

Day 1 was arms, day 2 legs, day 3 torso, day 4 legs, day 5 remedials. By the end of day two I was buckled. The upper body workouts were very hard for me to get through but I didn't care I had that goal of winning the internship with Charles in the back of my mind so I just kept pushing through the pain and lifting as hard as I could. Dips were a nightmare, I remember that clearly. 

During the camp Charles said that myself and Michael (a fellow student) had the best squats on the day. This was a huge confidence booster for me as Charles rarely says things like this and for me I could not break 90 degree in the squat at the beginning of that year due to so many issues with my hips and upper back. Meeting Gem early that year and doing the corrective based exercises she prescribed had allow me to full squat and now with good enough technique for Charles to mention. Not a huge deal in any case but to me it was.

I started the week at 84-85kg and after I finished the refuel over the weekend I was up to 92-93kg. So it was a 7-8kg gain. After a week I was back to about 89-90kg and have stayed that weight ever since, unless focusing of dropping weight for jiu-jitsu for example. I remember the boys at footy thought I was looking too light at the beginning of pre-season that year and were geeing me up about it and I said don't worry have a look at me next week. Then I came back that much heavier and they were all rattled asking what I had done. The surgeon also put me in a solid cast after the camp so I spent the next 12 weeks in that training with the boys on the field still doing skills and conditioning. 

At the end of the camp Charles wrapped up and someone asked who had won the internship. Charles said "Oh Nate you win the internship". I was so happy but tried not to show it too much. That is when I got the above photo with Charles. The next year I spent about 3-4 weeks with Charles (spread throughout the beginning and end) and I learnt the most I have ever learnt in my life in that time period. 

That one picture sparked so many memories for me. It was a time in my life where I knew 100% where I was going and one of the biggest reasons I am where I am today. All because of this great man. I am forever grateful.

All the best to those doing the bootcamp starting today with Carlos Castro. You will work hard but you will learn a lot and it will be well worth your investment. 

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Charles Poliquin

Hypertrophy

bootcamp

Nathan Waters

muscle mass

strength training

Injury