Tonight was quite bad in terms of weight lifted which means I should be moaning and upset. Totally the opposite has happened though and this is why. I pushed as damn hard as I could, I did what I had to do and felt focused whilst remaining positive. Just because the weight wasn’t on the bar doesn’t mean push as hard as I could.

I used to go to the gym with a weight set in my mind, If I hit that weight I would be happy, if I failed I would be disheartened. Now I go to the gym and look at the weights and use what I feel will give me the best results for how I feel. I don’t count the numbers, I go by feel. I will do a tester weight to see how I’m feeling and then add or subtract plates as need be. It helps mentally and it certainly makes me push harder whilst maintaining good form through out.

If I cheat I can lift much more, I can also create and unwanted injury too! I do the weight which I can perform 6-8 reps on the muscles above the waist and 12-15 reps below the waist. For me it works. There is no set path to follow, we all have the same anatomy, but some exercises create faster, bigger or safer ways of building muscle. Working around an injury could also be another reason to experiment when performing the lift.

Some people find 15-20 reps on the upper body works better than 6-8 reps. That is something you have to figure out for yourself though.