Hi there - I was wondering whether anybody had ever run a program based on total tonnage per workout (or whether that would not be a good target to base a program on)?
E.g - having a goal of minimum 2500kg of squats in a work out, and hit that total however you like through your working sets, so you could do:
100kg for 2 sets of 6, followed by 120kg for 2 sets of 5, followed by 140kg for a single = 2540kg moved
or
100kg for 2 sets of 10, followed by 120kg for 5 singles = 2600kg moved
and then look to increase total tonnage week by week.
You would need to limit all work to within a range, say 70-85%, but even within that you’d have to specify the amount of work done at each level. Like, there’s no way you could accumulate much volume at 85% without feeling crushed. It would be very difficult to get any good data from the sessions, and sessions could vary wildly without any real structure.
To use a line from Rip that sounds more like exercise than training. You will burn off some calories and get some exercise in regardless of how you hit the tonnage, but there are ways to hit the tonnage that would not help you increase your 1 rep max or your 5 rep max and ways that would. If you goal is to get stronger, how you hit your tonnage in terms of reps and sets does matter.
I don’t think this is entirely true. If you said hit 2500kg at 75% of e1RM in whatever sets and reps, you might be okay. You could also use/add a time cap, and/or an RPE cap.
It’s probably not ideal but it could work, it might even work well with additional stipulations.
I feel like you are agreeing with me. If you just gave a tonnage amount, there are lots of ways you could do it that would lead to progressive overload, but there are a lot of ways that wouldn’t. Your scenario where you limit the options to 75% of e1RM and have an RPE cap puts limits on intensity and sets/reps that makes my point—how you hit your tonnage in terms of reps and sets (and intensity) does matter.
@philibusters Yeah sort of. I think there is room for some flexibility within the sets and reps used each time. Also, as this whole concept is based on a form of progressive overload, however it’s executed will work to some degree…it’s just probably not very ideal.