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The Importance of Perfect Reps - Part One
by Chuck Halbakken | November 27, 2007
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“Practice makes perfect”, it’s a common expression that’s WRONG. A much more accurate expression would be “Perfect practice makes perfect” think I’m splitting hairs? Why are you practicing? To get better, stronger, or faster at your chosen sport.
In the study of human physiology there is something called the SAID principle.
The acronym SAID means Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. In simple terms you will get good at whatever you practice, sounds great doesn’t it? Unfortunately this also means that if you practice something poorly, you will get really good at the poor movement. To more accurately understand the SAID principle you need to insert the words always, and exactly. A better definition of SAID is the body always specifically adapts exactly to the imposed demand. To make matters better/worse it takes about ten good reps to correct one bad rep.
To fully understand the importance of “perfect” reps you need to have a basic understanding of motor learning. There are three “stages” of motor learning, cognitive, associative, and autonomous. The cognitive (beginner, mechanical) stage of learning is approximately the first thousand reps you perform. The associative (intermediate, more neural connections) stage is reps one thousand to ten thousand. The autonomous (elite) stage takes between one hundred thousand and three hundred thousand reps, or roughly three hours a day for ten years of quality reps.
Another problem with performing reps incorrectly, is you are violating one or more of the four elements of efficiency, when these elements are combined you have the perfect rep, when you violate one you are on the path of inefficiency, the four elements of efficiency are:
1) Perfect Form – Remember the SAID principle; it doesn’t matter if you tear cards or run marathons, you will get very good at exactly the way you practice.
2) Dynamic Postural Alignment – Proper posture enables you to transfer power from your trunk to your limbs; the challenge is to maintain correct posture during movement.
3) Synchronized Breathing – Breathing is an integral part of movement and life; the more relaxed the better – appropriate to the movement. I don’t expect a distance runner to breathe identically to someone bending a red nail.
4) Balanced Tension and Relaxation – Determining the optimum level of tension required for the task and eliminating unnecessary tension. Example: Running with clenched fists.
All of the elements of efficiency are subject to the SAID principle……EVERYTHING you do is subject to the SAID principle! So now that I’ve told you what most athletes are doing wrong you have to be asking, how do I perform perfect reps?
The way to the perfect rep is to do the exact opposite of what I said was wrong - too simple of an explanation? Look for part two next week.
train hard
stay safe
Chuck Halbakken
Level Four Z-Health Professional
www.F2STRENGTH.com
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Comments
There is a guy in my gym who works out at the exact same time as me. Everyday I see him do about 1/10th of a rep (usually the top part of the motion) with lots of weight. I don’t know where he thinks he is going. He is moving too much to be doing static contractions, he is moving too fast to be engaged in negative training. I am quite puzzled by it.
But I guess according to the SAID principal, he is really strong in that 1/10th of his range of motion eh? In all seriousness, what do you think of partial reps? Static contraction training? Just curious.
Posted by: John | November 27, 2007 2:21 PM
I’m puzzled as well, I worked at Gold’s gym for a year and saw a fair amount of this activity - a fair amount of bodybuilders perform “partials” but usually not at the end ROM - usually they are trying to keep muscles under tension for sixty seconds or so without the “rest” of joint lock-out. I think partial reps are great when performed for a specific reason, and combined with full ROM reps. An example would be performing partial reps to “smooth-out” a “sticking point” followed by a full ROM reps to reinforce the improvement in the problem area.
hope this helped
thanks for the questions
Chuck
Posted by: Chuck Halbakken | November 27, 2007 4:10 PM