Wednesday 2 April 2014

Getting 100 reps of a difficult exercise (periodisation method)

Everyone that has been doing calisthenics for a while has at least heard of a program that gets you 100 push ups or 200 sit ups. And these programs are fantastic. But what if you want to get super high reps of an 'advanced' exercise (e.g dips or handstand push ups)?
when it comes to doing difficult exercises for high reps, you will plateau quickly, so multiple methods will have to be used, this one is called the periodisation method.  I will be using push ups as an example, when your target reps is 100.

  1. Start a routine where you are doing 100% - 200% of your target reps a day. Example: make sure you are doing 100-200 push ups a day
  2. find your max, during the day, just go for max efforts when you feel like it, only go for a max effort 2 or 3 times a week. Example: you currently have 32 push ups.
  3. add some kind of small resistance, for example: resistance bands, pause reps, a different variation. and work up to your current max without the resistance.Example: change to diamond/ close grip push ups and work back up to 32 push ups (While keeping your total volume daily at 100-200 push ups)
  4. Test your max, it should have increased 
  5. Take a week of just doing your regular variation, getting 100% - 200% of your target reps daily. Example: go back to doing 100-200 push ups daily, making an effort to increase the reps in your sets. 
  6. Repeat steps 1-4
 Now obviously the harder the resistance, the longer it will take you to get back to your max, but the rep increases will be much better, so have a think about how much resistance you will use. Also change it every cycle, keeping up variation is another way of keeping from hitting plateaus.

Enjoy your strength gains.
Alex