When Do YOU Terminate your sets?

I stop when I feel my form is off.

Yeah, he should’ve stopped on the 7th rep, maybe even 6th, but that’s the way it is when people bench press…I don’t know why they do that…I guess they have to get injured to get the point…I have a guy in the gym who doesn’t allow you to assist him while spotting, rather when the weight crashes down on him only then you are allowed to bring it up…of course, by then you need 2 spotters :)

It depends on whether I have a spot of not… usually not as I work out at home in the garage, but sometimes I get the Missus to help while she is down there perving on me. :-)

I know when I’m going to fail a rep and so if it is bench or squat then I stop before or do a partial rep. Either that or die…

Anything else where the weight can be dropped to the ground at complete failure usually does. Depends on my energy levels whether I do every set to failure. I also “cheat” by rocking, or something, to squeeze and extra rep or 3 in.

Doing EVERY set on EVERY work out to failure has lead me to over training so now I only go to failure when I have the energy, which is every other session or there abouts. Mostly I stick to the 12, 10, 8, 6 reps sets which is very close to failure. If not then I put up the weights.

I never train to failure with weights. It happened by accident once and I am thankful I didn’t get hurt. Bodyweight “stuff” I do sometimes ie. chinups.

I do no more than 2 sets. The first set is the warm up set that is 50% of the weight for set 2. I do both sets in form and at a controlled pace (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down). I do 10 reps for both sets. When I am able to do 12 reps for set 2, it is time to increase the weight. I do not see the point in trying to push reps out if I can’t maintain form.

I terminate reps as soon as form starts to go.

I use a training log – So each time I train a muscle group I try to either get one more rep than last time, for each set (normally 3-5 sets) or if I am at the max reps I have in the log – I will either do negatives (like 6 – 10 i seconds on the negative with 3 – 5 seconds on the positive) or sometimes, if I am really feeling strong that day, do an additional set or ‘go down the rack’).

“There are several reasons why I choose to squat on Mondays (I also squat at least one other time during the week as well)”

May I suggest prunes?

(Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)

I workout at home and workout by myself. I do alot of supersets do to time availibility. I have set rep goals for each exercise, 10 reps at 195 for bench presses for example. I’ll as many as possible maintaining good form aimimg for 10 reps. Once I can do 10 reps for each set for 2 workouts I increase my weight by 5 pounds and start over aiming for 2 workouts with 10 reps. By the way, I always do 3 sets of each exercise in my supersets. As for Mondays being bench press day, most of the workout schedules start the week with bench presses. One last note, I base my overall strength gains on 4 main exercises; bench presses, squats, curls, and deadlift. I just turned a young 60 last June and consider my current stats; 245 bench, 250 squats, 165 curl, and 310 deadlift to be very satisfying. Those weights are based on a 3 rep average. Keep up the good work and keep the great advice and articles coming.
Mighty Ol’Bear

I do reps until I hit a high intensity… but can still finish it. Actually I do 12/10/8/12 and vary the weights through out.

For the bench, I stop after my spotter has to do more than steady the bar and actually has to help me lift the weight. What’s the point in continuing if you can’t lift the weight by yourself?
For squats and deads, I aim to stop once my form starts giving out.

I’m fairly new to weight training, but I follow my trainer’s advice – I go through a circuit and do 10 reps on each, twice through the circuit. I should feel like the last couple of each set are a challenge, when they stop being a challenge I up the weight of that particular exercise. Some days if I’m feeling particularly energetic or if I felt like I wasn’t really pushing myself, I do a third time around the circuit.

Will be interested to hear how different people do things – a couple months ago I was scared of weights, machines, gyms in general… now I really feel like I’m missing out if I don’t get in there every day. I’m a vegetarian and people keep expecting that to get in the way of me being healthy/building muscle, etc etc, but I’m thrilled with the results so far and am really enjoying it.

Its not just in America Joel, Australians bench press on a Monday too!!!!

As to why, who knows maybe its just our primal instinct to pump up the chest!
I terminate my sets when I can’t get another rep with proper form. if I feel I could have gone for more I just drop some weight and keep going.

I stop at my first failed rep, i believe in the two finger rule (no this isn’t some sexual innuendo :P) a spotter is a spotter, he/she isn’t there to lift the weight for you. if your doing 100kg and the “spotter” is lifting 20kg, then your not stimulating muscle growth are you?

I terminate my sets either when I reach the time or number mark I have set, or if working till fail…..till I cannot make another move

I stop my sets when rep performance decreases. The 1st rep looks just like the last, most pros train the same way. The slow grinding reps are great for nervous system fatigue and longer recovery process.

Whether lifting heavy or doing bodyweight circuits, i train until failure–failure being the inability to finish a rep with proper form. then i rest, and start a new set. i used to train until muscle fatigue or until i hit my goal number of reps and sets, and that worked okay with lighter weights. but now i’m squatting 1.5x my body weight, and if i’m not doing them with proper form, i could suffer some serious knee or back issues, which could lay me up for a month or more.

beyond weights, i wonder when i should call it quits with cardio exercise. on the last set of tabata burpees, i can hardly stand let alone jump…do i keep going? a couple of days ago i needed to clear my head so i hopped on a treadmill for a five mile run…at about four miles i noticed that my feet were barely coming off the belt and i was leaning forward slightly. i’m training for a triathlon…what do i do when that happens in open water?

Well, ones mine is a very powerful thing, and as i read almost everywhere one needs to to 10 reps, i try to stop my sets when i reach 10 reps, if i cant make it, rest 2 secs and continue until the 10th rep

I been using a 5×5 full body routine so I will usually stop once required sets/reps are achieved. If I do not reach the target reps I usually stop on my first failed rep. Don’t see the point of continuing with bad form and more than likely injuring myself. If I feel good with doing the last set I will add a set and next workout I’ll add more weigth

I’m 68 and have done hard labor most of my working life. So all the heavy lifting has done it’s share of ruining my body. I have spent a lot of time in physical rehab and I have learned that to push yourself to the point of PAIN is not good. I stop the exersize when I begin to feel the muscles burn. I’ve been told that if I go to the point of pain, I am just causing more damage to that muscle.

For me, the last rep done is either my complete set rep, or whichever one comes last with perfect control of the weight and form of my body

I’m stuck in the 3 sets of 12, 4 sets of 8 or whatever rut so I use a weight that allows me to just make that last rep. Then when I feel I can do more reps on the last set, I up the weight. I probably should vary the rep range more so I’m going to give TT2K10 a try starting on Monday. Thanks for that great deal BTW. As far as working chest on Monday goes, I think it was Will Brink who wrote once that “First things first” is the rule to follow and most guys want to increase their pecs. I know, ‘cuz I’m one of them!

I have my “rep range”, whether it be for negatives (4-7) or strength training (12-15), so I try to shoot for those ranges. I’ll continue to do reps until my form breaks down. For negatives i’ll cheat my way up because i’m not focused on the concentric motion, focusing on the eccentric motion. I’m focusing on certain muscles when I do each set, once my form breaks down the movement will start to switch to other muscles to back up the primary muscles, which isn’t what i’m looking for.

As for the Monday bench press craze. My point of view is Monday is the “restart” day or the “new year” of the week. People say, “ok, the weekend was bad so now i need to get back in the gym and try to work out again this week . . . what does everyone do and measure success against? oh i always hear people ask what they bench so i should focus on that plus i’m looking for a big chest and big arms.” I’m guessing the majority are uneducated lifters who don’t have much consistency.

I terminate my sets when my form is suffering. If the exercise is not being performed properly you are not going to get the benifits from it and you are at increased risk of injury.

I quit when I can’t do another rep without assistance. My training philosophy is that if I don’t get it on my own then it doesn’t count.