Dear Dr. Baraki and Dr. Feigenbaum,
I recently moved into a commercial gym that does not have microplates. Their smallest plate is 1.25kg (~2.5lbs).
I recently finished my first run at the General Strength & Conditioning template and plan on running it for a second cycle because I enjoyed the program.
I have been relying on 0.25, 0.5, and 1kg in my previous gym. My new gym doesn’t have these, so I’m going to have to save up some money for it (still a college student, haha).
Until then, however, my biggest increment is going to be 2.5kg, or roughly 5lbs.
If I can’t meet my target weight, say 108kg for 5 reps@8, should I scale it down to 105kg for 7~8 reps to shoot for a similar RPE?
I recognize that altering the rep ranges at a lower weight for higher reps while keeping the same RPE is going to yield different training results (I’m guessing it’ll help with hypertrophy and endurance?), but I’m not interested in preparing for a meet of any sort (yet), and just want to look and feel better.
What do? To what extent is purchasing microplates necessary?
Sincerely Yours,
Eddie Mun