I think I did a pretty reasonable job of working out my max lifts for 15, 10 and 5 reps. Certainly now that I'm on the 5 rep part of the cycle, I can barely complete one set and I definitely can't complete two sets if I don't rest for a few minutes in between. I fail at the second set if I rest less than a minute. And that's just at the beginning - I may have overestimated what I'm going to be able to do 5 reps with at the end of this cycle. That's okay, I'm still going to try pretty darn hard, and maybe raise my weights every other time instead of every time.
But still I feel at the end of a workout that I have not worked hard enough. I feel like I could lift more and harder. I feel like I should be doing more sets.
My prior training philosophy was balls to the wall, all out to failure and exhaustion, all the time, no pain no gain. That bought me some injuries and a lot of downtime being sick with the flu or a head cold or just plain overtraining. So I figured that training scientifically was better than just training hard, and started an HST cycle.
The 15's and the 10's, well, I could make those burn. Two sets of slow, precise reps did make me feel like I was doing enough work. But the 5's....well, even though I'm pushing about as much weight as I can possibly push, I still feel like a wimp. Does that mean I'm doing something wrong? Should I be cranking out three or four sets to feel more like I've been doing real work? Or should I just chill out and try to cultivate a less masochistic attitude in the weight room?
But still I feel at the end of a workout that I have not worked hard enough. I feel like I could lift more and harder. I feel like I should be doing more sets.
My prior training philosophy was balls to the wall, all out to failure and exhaustion, all the time, no pain no gain. That bought me some injuries and a lot of downtime being sick with the flu or a head cold or just plain overtraining. So I figured that training scientifically was better than just training hard, and started an HST cycle.
The 15's and the 10's, well, I could make those burn. Two sets of slow, precise reps did make me feel like I was doing enough work. But the 5's....well, even though I'm pushing about as much weight as I can possibly push, I still feel like a wimp. Does that mean I'm doing something wrong? Should I be cranking out three or four sets to feel more like I've been doing real work? Or should I just chill out and try to cultivate a less masochistic attitude in the weight room?