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Brian Carroll
The book describes some baseline set/reps schemes for assistance work. I was just wondering if for the odd lift (in the case; paused front squats) it’s ok to take a ramping top set to 8-12 reps at a 7-8 RPE.
reasons are pretty selfish
1) leaves out some guess work as to what will feel good for 4 straight across sets
2) allows me to actually push a bit harder knowing I just gotta crank out one solid 8RPE set.
curious on your thoughts
Thanks,
The book outlines one top set at the desired RPE and not 1 RPE across all sets.
In order to ramp up accessory work, you would simply add more top sets at the desired RPE. We don’t push accessories to 8 simply because it isn’t typically required. We want to refine technique and train a weak point. You don’t need to push a top set at 8 to do this. Also, in your example, a set of 12 paused front squats would not be ideal and would most certainly not be enjoyable. Stick to the sets and reps in the book and simply swap out ramping sets for working sets at the prescribed RPE. Sets of 8-12 on barbell lifts is difficult to maintain posture and brace.
You should be working up to 1 top set at the given RPE anyways, so I think that’s already what you were looking for.
A set of 8-12 probably isn’t going to transfer over well considering you would be using a fraction of the weight you would if the number of reps was lower…. the only reason I could see doing so many paused front squats is maybe if your core is super weak and you’ve noticed front squats work it really hard. If you wanted to get a little funky and try it and if it worked for you, party on Wayne, but I don’t think it’ll be a long term solution for bringing up your squats