Are you training hard enough to see results?

I once had someone ask me for some advice as they weren’t seeing any results.

After showing them some different exercises, I asked them to show me a few things they’re currently doing.

They chose the leg press, set the seat position and put it on a weight they told me they do for their 10 rep sets.

The following actually happened; see if you can spot where they might be going wrong:

Set 1: Person does 10 reps with the weight then takes a rest.

Set 2: Person does 10 reps with the same weight. As soon as they hit 10 reps, I tell them to do another 5 reps. There was a bit of hesitation before completing another 5 reps. Then took a rest

Set 3: Person does 10 reps with the same weight. As soon as they hit 10 reps, I tell them to do another 5 reps which they do. I then tell them to do ANOTHER 5 reps as soon as they hit 15 reps which they easily do. That’s 20 total reps.

Did you spot the issue?

If you’re able to do 20 easy reps with a weight you’re supposedly doing for 3 sets of 10 reps then you’re hardly challenging your body.

If you’re aiming for 3 sets of 10, you need to make them a tough 3 sets. i.e. you wouldn’t be able to do 12 / 13 reps with the weight.

Next time you’re in the gym, see if you can do another 5 reps on some exercises. It might just be you need to increase the weight too.