Weekly Recap 9/1 - 9/7
The article of the week is Autoregulation & RPE which dives into what autoregulation is, why it is used, and why it can be helpful in long term training goals. The video of the week is a new video on “Clean Eating”, while the title is very deliberately like click bait, is a critical look into the clean eating movement, its effect on the fitness and wellness industry and the confusing semantics that surround it.
Our first social media post of the week is Claire Zai’s post about not just following the latest trends or influencers - and reminding influencers that they have a responsibility to do no harm. To conclude, we have a post from Bryce from Calgary Barbell about how some emotional investment in lifting is a normal part of the process and simply needs to be addressed, not repressed, if it begins to cross over into life enjoyment and fulfillment.
Article of the Week
Autoregulation & RPE
t is late afternoon on a Monday and you’ve just arrived at the gym for Day 1 of this week’s training after a tough day at work. You pull out your training log. Today’s workout prescription:
Back Squat: 125 kg x 4 reps x 4 sets.
125 kg is 2.5 kg heavier than last week’s squats, and you’re excited to be making incremental progress on this lift. You finish your last bit of pre-workout drink and get to work.
The first few warm-up sets feel routine, but as the weights climb you notice they aren’t moving as easily as you remember from the previous week. In fact, by the time you’ve reached your final warm-up set, you’re not even sure how you managed to finish the last rep. But the program says today’s load is 125 kg — so you load the bar, take a rest, then give it a go.
You perform your first rep (which feels heavy and slow), second rep (feels heavier and slower still), and third rep (feels very heavy and the bar almost grinds to a halt). Since the program says 4 reps, you go for your fourth and final rep, getting a third of the way back up only to ride it down to rest on the spotter pins. You crawl out from under the bar feeling frustrated and defeated. You’ve failed the last rep of your first programmed set. “Am I getting weaker? How am I supposed to do three more sets of this?” You skip to the next exercise in an effort to salvage your workout, feeling guilty that you have not completed the program for the day.
