When Do YOU Terminate your sets?

When I work out I terminate my sets when my form starts to suck or if i just cant push ,pull any more and As for monday chest work-out i try to switch mine up every other week

Whwn benching, I can tell when the last rep isn’t going to be completed so with a spotter I will grind out that last rep, then immediately start one reverse rep, lowering it part way, then keeping it there for a standing 10 count. I don’t sacrifice form

At each workout, I go into the gym with a goal to either increase weight, or increase the number of reps. I don’t think it matters on the numbers of reps as long as the weight is increasing. So depending on the weight I am using, I decide on the number of reps I want to get, based on what I did the last time. If necessary, I might cheat to get the last one or two. As long as you aren’t cheating in a way that could cause injury, I think cheating is needed, so that you can move up. If you use picture perfect form every single time and never push yourself, you aren’t going to be able to move up in weight.

Also, the reason everyone does bench on Monday is because everyone puts way too much emphasis on how much they can bench. Noone ever asks “How much you squat?” or “How much you curl?” its always how much do you bench. So ppl put the most emphasis on this one exercise and do it at the beginning of the week. Personally, I feel that the flat barbell bench press is the most overated exericise of all times. You will get much faster and better results from using dumbells and doing incline or decline presses.

Hi Joel,
Thanks for your post!

I stop the set when I can’t, by myself, complete a rep (I often squirm to complete a last rep of the last set). When doing shoulder presses, I sometimes need help for the lift off on the last set.

I rarely have a partner/spotter during a workout. This being said, I do not lift heavy weights or push myself to failure during a set. I match the amount of weight I am lifting to the number of reps I intend to reach in the set and stop before my form is compromised.

I terminate the set when I cannot complete the movement and/or I can’t keep the form. Case in point: I was doing concentration curls and, as they were getting harder, I could tell I was using more of my shoulder than my bicep. When I’m not working the proper muscle and trying to compensate, it’s time to either end it or move to a lower weight to finish it.

Depends:
For exercises that are the principal movement for the day: squat, bench, pull-up, deadlift. I’ll work up to a max single, double, or triple, back off 10-20% then do sets of singles, triples, or 5’s until form break.
for accessory movements I’ll do sets to the first form break.

From all the research I have read, Joel is right on by asking this question. The truth is that what we want to feel, and how the body actually responds, are sometimes totally differnet ideas. I personally terminate the set as soon as the speed and quality of the movement decreases. In this method, every rep of every set is quality, and rarely forced. This can even done to blast through plateaus as well. Focus on nontraditional set and rep methods versus traditional ones.

I generally follow the “Party line” of Pavel and the RKC:
“Train for success, not to failure.”
“Strength is a skill.”
“Perfect practice makes perfect.”
In other words, treat a workout as practice and practice perfect reps every time. Stop on a perfect rep before your form deteriorates and keep the next one or two reps “in the bank” for the next set.

1. I tend to alternate. Either 1 rep short of failure (don’t have a spotter), or when my form starts to break down.
2. Monday is bench day because chest is a priority and therefore gets put in as first thing to train in the week. That’s why there are so many bar-bodies around. (looks ok, as long as he doesn’t wear shorts).

To me it sounds like most of the responses are talking about reps, not sets.

I push myself to failure on my non-warmup sets. If I’m doing a pyramid workout, I warm up with 12 reps of a light weight just to get the blood pumping then I push to failure with the following sets.

I don’t cheat and being I work out at home don’t have a spotter. I use a bowflex as well.

I usually perform 15 reps without a proble. However, once a week I will
lift more weight. When I lift more weight i can’t complete 15 reps, so I’ll
stop the minute I strain. I will do the same number of reps and weight on
bench press and lat pulldown.

I think that it makes little sense to continue when form goes. After this point you are doing a different excercise… The options here are recover or quit.
For rep numbers of 10 or more, recovery and complete the planned number of sets should be safe.
With heavier training and sets of only a few reps, it is likely wiser to stop. If this persists over a few workouts then the training plan probably needs some rethinking.

Personally I like to stop when my legs or arms start shaking. Thats as far as I go. My body gives me a definite NO! when I should stop :)

When do I terminate my reps in a set? Depends on the exercise. I never go to failure on squats or dead lifts. I do higher reps for legs about 12-25 reps and when I end the set I always have 3-4 reps let in me. For upper body I might go to failure once for every 4-5 workouts. But normally I end upper body sets with 1 or 2 reps left in the tank. Why? Because I seem to recover faster and get stronger faster. Did you know most power lifters don’t train to failure until they compete because its counter-productive. When I was younger (20 yrs old) I could train to failure often but today at 40 I must be very not to over do it, otherwise NO PROGRESS!!

I generally stop the set when I either hit my rep goal for that set or when I know I can’t complete the next rep with good form. Generally that means the rep I just did had a little bit of form break down in it.

I read once about “the Golden Reps” and I try to aim to push past my reps and extra 1 or 2

Generally I end the set when positive failure is reached, but I have tried before going until I reach negative failure.

Without thinking of sets and reps, think about muscle fibers. Our largest muscle fibers are our fast twitch fibers and they have the outstanding capability of growing to produce and promote explosiveness. In a heavy or slow set, the set generally decreases in quality, and thus slow twitch fibers get recruited to get the job done. So lets say to take 200 pounds and want to do it by the old 3×10 standard. You may (or may not) get 10 quality reps in each set. However, if you use 10×3, and explode the weight, you have just done 30 reps (the same as 3×10) but in a much more efficient way, generally recruiting fast twitch muscle fibers AND using good bar speed and quality form. Its not the whole toolbox, but a very effective tool to have.