There’s Magic in Repetition

Sara is a Mezzo Client that has been consistently crushing it in the gym the last few months and she recently set a Sumo Deadlift PR. She sent us this message after her workout:

“Before today I had only ever used 95 pounds on the sumo deadlift, but today I did 135 pounds for 8 reps! I can’t believe I did that!”

A 40lb PR is a big deal, but Sara didn’t lift 40 more pounds because she gained a bunch of muscle. She hit this PR because she was on week 7 of an 8 week deadlift cycle and she had gotten better at deadlifting from doing it week after week.

Initial strength gains happen mostly from neurological adaptation, meaning that a person gets “better” at a certain movement from practice.

As a person gets better at a movement they are able to lift more weight.

When they are able to lift more weight they place more mechanical tension on the muscles.

More mechanical tension on the muscles equals muscle growth (and more strength gains!).

Sara is now pretty good at sumo deadlifting and in the future anytime that lift is programmed she is going to be confident in her abilities and she will challenge herself more. That is going to result in some serious strength and muscle growth for her.

I encourage you to try this same approach in your training.

Pick a few big lifts to focus on (some variation of squatting, pressing, or deadlifting) and repeat those lifts for 2-3 months at a time. You’ll see more progress and results from this method than you will from constantly switching up your movements and workouts!