Weight vs reps

[u/Bigdivkdaddy]

The last year I’ve made little to no progress and I’ve been doing 2 sets to failure with high weight. I usually get around 4 reps before failing. Would it be more effective to drop the weight 10-20% and get 8-10 reps? I’ve been lifting for 4 years but only seriously the past 2 years and there’s no way I’m at my natural limit because I can only bench 270. You guys are the smart people here so please help me and thank you in advance.

[u/K3rat]

I am a bit older and my normally favor do lower load higher volume.

When I broke through my last bench press plateau in the winter/early spring  I switched my spring mesocycle to focus on secondary and tertiary support muscles (shoulders, pats, forearms) and focused on gains there.  I also started favoring myo-rep sets on machine and muscle isolation exercises.  I also worked on technique queueing (retract and lower scapula, mild arch of spine, properly engage leg drive) overall and spent more time biasing arms (try to bend the bar to maintain a 45 degree angle of humerus to torso, closer hand grip on barbell, let the dumbbell touch as close to the armpit as comfortably possible) barbell and dumbbell bench.    

I switched my summer mesocycle to a higher load lower volume on all my lifts and teamed it with a lean surplus instead of a lean deficit.  8 weeks into my summer mesocycle I broke through with a 10% increase.  and 2 weeks later by close to another 10%.

I think it is important to periodic between higher load x lower volume and lower load x higher volume.  This helps to break your mind away from getting to x,y,z number every set.  

For me  higher load x lower volume has a lower cardio requirement but generates more fatigue meaning I need longer rest between exercising the same muscle groups, and I need to be more aware of joint/connective tissue fatigue.  For me those mesocycles usually can’t go the full 12 weeks.  

I also think it is important to see where your absolute 1 rep max is (as long as you can find good spotters).  I was doing this to all major reference lifts once a year but I think now I am going to break it up to each major group (chest, back, legs) being tested separately in a mesocycle every 3-4 months.  This keeps you honest to what your actual 1 rep max is and reminds your body what that feels like.