Q: I’m getting some of my best results with [STX rest/pause training]. Seeing both muscle and strength gains. What’s your opinion on when I should add weight to an exercise? On Phase, 1 I start with 15 reps. Should I wait until I reach 20 reps to move up in weight?
A: For the uninitiated, Phase 1, or your very first “set,” of a 2-phase STX sequence, is your “money set”…
No warmup sets, no work sets—it is BOTH.
Because your first set is the ultimate hypertrophic stimulator, you want to be completely fresh to go all out. Warmups diminish that first set’s effectiveness….
You use 15 reps so that the first 10 provide you with a muscle-fiber array cascade and blood flow to warm the target….
That sets the stage so that you get major mechanical tension and fast-twitch fibers innervation on the last 5 reps. Go to failure or very close on that first 15-rep phase…
If you get 17 or even 16, up the poundage a small amount at your next workout. You don’t have to wait until 20…
Also, don’t be fooled into complacency. Often you’ll perceive failure at 15 because it’s how you’re programmed. If you’re stuck, you may have force the issue and add some resistance, even though you haven’t added any reps….
Keep your form the same—no heaving or jerking. At your next workout you may only get 14— just keep at it, striving for 15 to 16 again…
That rep range will get you a fiber-array cascade and metabolic stress (lactate, etc.) from time under tension…
All the hoopla on the Internet about metabolic stress not causing hypertrophy appears to be correct; however, it does AMPLIFY, or supercharge, the mechanical-tension growth effect.
It’s extra gasoline for the hypertrophic fire.