Like you said, both. I was breathing hard and was light headed, so I clearly had an oxygen debt, and after the set I felt incredibly dizzy for a few seconds.
But I was most likely close to muscle failure too. As you can see, my form broke down a bit towards the end of the set, despite me trying my hardest to just push, which is a clear sign that my legs didn’t have much left in the tank. Had I attempted another rep I’m pretty positive I would’ve injured my upper back.
I agree that my reps weren’t particularly explosive, but that was my third set and I can tell you that despite having rested for three minutes between sets I was already fatigued.
I don’t know if I pushed “too hard,” but I can tell you I got to the gym thinking, “I’m going to hit 92 kgs x 3 sets of 12 no matter what” and I was determined to do it at all costs.
That makes two! But if you recall, this summer I did a program based around heavy high rep squats so I learned to like it. No, not really, I still hate it but I’ve gotten accustomed.
I like this approach, I will take note of it. Currently Paul has me doing only 3x12 on the squats. He really likes higher rep training, especially for legs.
He has also me doing 2x20 on the leg press on a separate day, and he instructed me not to go to failure on either of these two exercises. Together with the rows and rack pulls, those are the only exercises that I’m not currently training to failure.
Also since 5/3/1 has been mentioned, I’ll tell you what my goals for the next year are. I have three more weeks to work with Paul. I’d love to continue but it’s getting expensive at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll get back to him when I can afford it again.
However I’ve taken a decision: I’m weak as fuck and I want to do 5/3/1 for a year. I tended to jump from program to program before working with Paul, and I never focused on increasing my strength significantly on the big lifts, and I’m not a patient person by nature.
So I think doing 5/3/1 for a year is the fix to all the aforementioned issues. What’s your take? I plan on buying the book on Christmas day and start with BBB. I’ll have to be patient and think long term. A year sounds like forever but I wanna do this. I want to be big and muscular but I also want to have numbers that resemble those of a man, and I believe that although not strictly “hypertrophy training,” adhering to 5/3/1 for a long time can take care of both.
(And reading Paul’s blog I found out that he used 5/3/1 for a while too.)