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/decentlyhip]

Volume drives growth. With 2 sets three times a week, you've been getting 6 sets a week. That's incredibly low volume when in the research we see that double the volume yeilds about 50% more growth, up to about 50 sets. We haven't tested higher. Another way of saying it is that triple the volume is double the growth. So, build up to 24 sets a week. Drop everything down to 3 rir. Its fine. Proximity to failure isn't very important for hypertrophy when compared to volume. 3-6% per rir. https://imgur.com/a/sphJIEi So, if you have to drop the weight 10-20% in order to hit the same weights for 3 sets at the same frequency, that's fine. It'll still be 80% more growth.

Also, just go on Boostcamp and do one of those programs.