Anyone ever tried his 30 sets of 1 rep routine?
I always made great gains using about 8 singles and then 5 sets of 5. Think about trying this to gain both strength and mass.
I have Rock, Iron and Steel.
For a while I thought that book was a whole lot of BS.
I found a froum a short time ago a bunch of serious strength enthusiasts were basically calling him a fool along with talking about that book like it was a bad joke.
Know I’m pretty convinced most of his stuff is BS.
Back to the 30 singles… if it’s heavy enough to warrant performing singles with it, 30 would be overkill.
I think 30 single reps would have to be so light that it wouldn’t be heavy enough to “work”.
[quote]Back to the 30 singles… if it’s heavy enough to warrant performing singles with it, 30 would be overkill.
I think 30 single reps would have to be so light that it wouldn’t be heavy enough to “work”.[/quote]
What %s would you consider overkill? What %s would you consider so light not to be “work”?
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you, but if you took the “grease the groove” approach and performed the sets over a longer period of time (say 2 hours or more), it would really so crazy.
I have Rock Iron Steel and it is a good book with some good stuff in it.
Don’t mess around with his routines trying to gain strength AND mass you are missing the point. Especially what you said… 8 singles then 5 reps … 8 singles, not enough to fatigue muscles but just enough to make your 5 reps really crappy. What you describe is a waste of time, inefficient.
Although I think the book is good it is probably not what most people are looking for. Also it is not necessarily the most efficient way to advance. There have been some good “breakthroughs” since it was written.
The shovelling is a good idea in my opinion, had great success with that, and with his workout singles EVERY day, doing more reps each day. Unfortunately like a moron I used 95% of max instead of 70% max as he suggested and sufferred from it, mostly because technique wanders and I got one of those repetitive HEAVY strain injuries.
Justa singles from Rock Iron Steel
Routine: 70% max. workout every day
week 1
mon: 3 singles
tue: 5 singles
wed: 7 singles
thu: 9 singles
fri: 11 singles
sat: 13 singles
sun: 15 singles
week 2 - add 10 pounds
repeat week 1 with the extra 10 pounds
Every month test your max and adjust to 70% of whatever it is. Note that if it goes down (possible, you will be pretty fatigued) then adjust it down).
Note that at 70% max moving fast you will recruit all fibers. If you repeat that movement often enough e.g 15 times, you will fatigue the fibers enough. The days of 3 or 5 singles, they are like rest days, although usually the midweek is easiest because on 3 reps you are usually adding weight.
This routine builds REAL muscle and strength that doesn’t go away even after a multi-month layoff.
This routine makes your body think “holy crap life is hard I better make myself a hard ass permanently coz this is a normal day, NOT an emergency”.
My only advice is, for your own sake get the 70% correct, don’t use 80%, don’t use 90%, 95% is right out. If anything go a bit below.
Note for all its effectiveness we are back to the question of efficiency - it is time consuming. There are other ways to make great progress with less time and effort and potential for overuse. Westside comes to mind. It is however a good way to shake things up, and the book Rock Iron Steel has many good ways to do that.