Being a Rancho Bernardo personal trainer, I witnessed that when most people lift weights, they may have an incorrect notion of what exactly their immediate objective needs to be. Walk into any regular gym (like 24 Hour Fitness, Gold's Gym, LA Fitness, etc.), and you'll see people tossing the weights up and down; holding their breath while the exercise gets tough; and lurching, lunging & jabbing at the weight to get additional repetitions. These are the signs of trying to achieve what Ken Hutchins described in his SuperSlow Technical Manual being the "Assumed Objective" in exercise. The "Assumed Objective" is a tendency that the majority of people need to guard against ourselves, even people who are practicing the best resistance training method like slow-motion strength training.
The "Assumed Objective" is really what many assume is a goal when performing strength training exercise: to enjoy as much repetitions as possible with as many pounds as possible. This is actually a secondary objective, not the main objective. Monitoring the number of reps you need to do can help you record progress. On the other hand, the "Real Objective" that you would like to achieve when doing a strength training workout is to fatigue the targeted muscles as deeply as it can be. It is the primary, immediate goal that's most important to achieve on each workout.
Deep muscular fatigue is the "Real Objective" because (along with having the weight being heavy enough) it is precisely what appears to be the big factor in stimulating all the physical benefits that strength training can produce in the body like more strength, greater endurance, more calorie-burning lean muscle mass to the body, reversed age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia), increased metabolic process and how many calories you burn even when you're relaxing, greater fat loss, stronger bones, reversed aging of muscle cells (expresses younger DNA in the nuclei), improved cardiovascular fitness, improved cholesterol levels, lowered blood pressure, improved lower back pain, much better control of glucose levels, improved body's immune system and a number of other benefits.
Also, notice that the "Real Objective" and "Assumed Objective" are in disagreement with one another. Fatiguing the muscles (the "Real Objective") hampers your ability to perform more repetitions (the "Assumed Objective"). Resting between repetitions, using momentum to throw weights upwards, and other form discrepancies help you to perform more repetitions (the "Assumed Objective"), but thwarts efficient fatiguing on the muscles (the "Real Objective"). On the other hand, slow, smooth, continuous loading with ideal type on every repetition provides earlier fatiguing on the muscles (the "Real Objective"), which can make it much harder to try and do lots of repetitions (the "Assumed Objective").
Therefore if the "Real and Assumed Objectives" are in conflict, which do you want to choose? You have to choose the "Real Objective". If you are trying to encourage adjustments in your body from a workout, the number of repetitions you accomplish is not extremely important. Instead, what matters is being able to fatigue the muscles greatly enough to result in the stimulus for change in your muscles. And when that stimulus is activated, from the hours and days following a training your muscle mass will get stronger, firmer, more toned, and that will also enhance your metabolic process.
So as a Rancho Bernardo personal trainer, do your best to maintain the "Real Objective" in the forefront of the mind when you're performing an exercise, especially given that the repetitions become difficult. Avoid breaking form as your muscles fatigue. Your main goal is not to do as many reps as you can it's to fatigue your muscles deeply. You want to try to do as many reps as possible, but the reason for that isn't just to have more reps - rather, it's because the effort to do additional reps (in good form) is what fatigues the muscles deeper. Don't break form only to have more reps. So when your muscles fatigue to the situation the weight won't budge even with your greatest effort, continue maximally pushing or pulling for some more seconds to fatigue even deeper. The real objective is to fatigue the muscles deeply on the exercise, and that also stimulates the body to change and improve.
The "Assumed Objective" is really what many assume is a goal when performing strength training exercise: to enjoy as much repetitions as possible with as many pounds as possible. This is actually a secondary objective, not the main objective. Monitoring the number of reps you need to do can help you record progress. On the other hand, the "Real Objective" that you would like to achieve when doing a strength training workout is to fatigue the targeted muscles as deeply as it can be. It is the primary, immediate goal that's most important to achieve on each workout.
Deep muscular fatigue is the "Real Objective" because (along with having the weight being heavy enough) it is precisely what appears to be the big factor in stimulating all the physical benefits that strength training can produce in the body like more strength, greater endurance, more calorie-burning lean muscle mass to the body, reversed age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia), increased metabolic process and how many calories you burn even when you're relaxing, greater fat loss, stronger bones, reversed aging of muscle cells (expresses younger DNA in the nuclei), improved cardiovascular fitness, improved cholesterol levels, lowered blood pressure, improved lower back pain, much better control of glucose levels, improved body's immune system and a number of other benefits.
Also, notice that the "Real Objective" and "Assumed Objective" are in disagreement with one another. Fatiguing the muscles (the "Real Objective") hampers your ability to perform more repetitions (the "Assumed Objective"). Resting between repetitions, using momentum to throw weights upwards, and other form discrepancies help you to perform more repetitions (the "Assumed Objective"), but thwarts efficient fatiguing on the muscles (the "Real Objective"). On the other hand, slow, smooth, continuous loading with ideal type on every repetition provides earlier fatiguing on the muscles (the "Real Objective"), which can make it much harder to try and do lots of repetitions (the "Assumed Objective").
Therefore if the "Real and Assumed Objectives" are in conflict, which do you want to choose? You have to choose the "Real Objective". If you are trying to encourage adjustments in your body from a workout, the number of repetitions you accomplish is not extremely important. Instead, what matters is being able to fatigue the muscles greatly enough to result in the stimulus for change in your muscles. And when that stimulus is activated, from the hours and days following a training your muscle mass will get stronger, firmer, more toned, and that will also enhance your metabolic process.
So as a Rancho Bernardo personal trainer, do your best to maintain the "Real Objective" in the forefront of the mind when you're performing an exercise, especially given that the repetitions become difficult. Avoid breaking form as your muscles fatigue. Your main goal is not to do as many reps as you can it's to fatigue your muscles deeply. You want to try to do as many reps as possible, but the reason for that isn't just to have more reps - rather, it's because the effort to do additional reps (in good form) is what fatigues the muscles deeper. Don't break form only to have more reps. So when your muscles fatigue to the situation the weight won't budge even with your greatest effort, continue maximally pushing or pulling for some more seconds to fatigue even deeper. The real objective is to fatigue the muscles deeply on the exercise, and that also stimulates the body to change and improve.
About the Author:
Getting back in top shape with the aid of personal trainer Rancho Bernardo not only enhances your body but also your health as well. The huge benefits which a person can get from San Diego County personal trainer are limitless.
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