Don't Let The Fear of Overshooting Hold Your Training Back
While restraint is good in the long-term, being too timid about your training may be preventing you from making the jumps necessary to progress.
Recently, I encountered an interesting take from USAPL competitor David Woolson. In a short YouTube video, contrary to popular dogma from the likes of Squat University and others, he suggests that averting overshooting as some kind of unholy fear is counterproductive, and that some lifters could be encouraged to push the gas a little more in some instances, even if it comes at the risk of overshooting.
Admittedly, early on in my own training (perhaps when the consequences and risks were not as severe), I’d often let my ego get the better of me and tend to overshoot quite too often, particularly when it was least responsible (i.e., deep in a cut, on poor sleep, or just generally fatigued). By no means would I advise you to train every set or even every top set to absolute failure, not even close. We know now from mountains of evidence, both through many successful coaches and programs and under the observation of science, that training with submaximal loads as opposed to max weight is more effective in the long-term. However, you can still be calculative, methodical, and relatively conservative about your training while upping the ante on occasion, even if that means the rare overshooting event. Here are some of my own strategies and philosophies about ways to push the envelope while still adhering to a cogent training plan.
Start Your Training Block Conservatively, End Strong
Assuming you’re adhering to some form of periodization that ramps up in intensity over time (i.e., linear or block), you should open your period conservatively so as to give yourself room to escalate. In this sense, it’d not be unwise to undershoot your initial numbers. Depending on your periodization (linear integrated with undulating, for instance), you may have to adjust this strategy to your unique context, but the principle still applies.
Personally, I find that I often become just slightly deacclimatized to training over the course of a deload. This might be placebo, but psychology is still an important variable in training performance. Additionally, if my coach begins to reintroduce a movement or variation I haven’t visited in a while (or even ever), it can take a bit of time to find my groove again. Thus, opening the block conservatively allows me to build confidence before making bigger jumps over the course of the block.
Complementarily to the first point, ending the block a bit stronger than prescribed with the momentum you’ve built (assuming some form of block/linear periodization) is positive in my book. Pushing the envelope slightly is good, even if that comes at the risk of an overshot, as generally, a deload will be right around the corner. If we ascribe ourselves to the arbitrary numbers and metrics in our head forever, we leave no room or opportunity for improvement. The guiding principle of strength training is called progressive overload for a reason.
Granted, context and nuance matters here; it may not be plausible for you depending on the conditions of your training, your current nutrition, and other variables impacting recovery, but assuming that the circumstances are relatively beneficent and you aren’t in the midst of a stress-inducing period (weight loss, high fatigue, etc.), you should generally be striving to end each block stronger.
Use RPE, RIR, and Other Auto-regulation Techniques Correctly
That being said, regardless of the context, we need tools to help gauge our sense of performance on any given day. While extrapolating hard percentage numbers calculated from past training can be useful for guiding general programming, your general state of being is bound to fluctuate, even on a daily basis. That’s where auto-regulatory tools like RPE, RIR, or even bar velocity come into play.
Unfortunately, to their own detriment, some people will become attached to extrapolations even when leveraging an RPE system (i.e., “If I pulled x for 6 @ 8 in March, I should be able to pull x for 6 @ 7 today”). Rather than fixate on some calculated arbitrary number in your head, it’s better to give yourself some wiggle room on that usual/best-case-scenario number when you come into training based on how you are feeling. If you’re feeling groggy or fatigued, or warm-ups aren’t feeling solid, it may be wise to down-regulate; contrary to that, however, is that you may be wise to make a judgement call and bump the weight up a bit when things are going well, rather than dogmatically exercise restraint at every corner.
Auto-regulation has been demonstrated to be generally more effective at producing results than fixed, percentage-based training in the long-term. So, if your programming is based around some regulatory metric, use it appropriately. It takes practice and time to become proficiently accurate at self-regulation, but you need to be willing to practice some level of autonomy as a lifter to hone your judgement, even if you make mistakes along the way. While consistently over-targeting prescribed RPE has become a hot topic in powerlifting meme culture (I’m sure you’ve seen “RPE 8 with a misgroove” before), under-targeting thanks to conversely hesitant lines of thinking is arguably just as bad or worse, as you artificially inhibit your opportunities to take advantage of good training days.
Don’t Sweat It So Much
Honestly, the notion that overshooting will completely derail your training is overblown. Particularly, on high-rep volume work, you can simply disengage the set early if you feel you’ve begun to encroach on the prescribed RPE and adjust the secondary back-off work and volume accordingly. Even overshot singles are not the end of the world; as long as the quality of the rest of the session is solid, it’s not as though the whole session was in vain; it’s the volume and practice that comes after the top set(s) that most contribute to long-term gains.
These rules hold doubly true for novice lifters. Beginners have so much room to grow, both in their motor adaptability and their musculature, that training sessions can be extremely variable; it is not uncommon for newer lifters to add huge sums to their lifts in a matter of weeks. Because they aren’t as well-trained, a “maximal” or “overshot” set will have significantly less impact on recovery.
That being said, even in well-trained individuals, the impact on recovery is a tad overblown. In one study (some data above) with trained participants, researchers tested multiple 8-rep-max sets to failure on bench press and incline bench press and gauged recovery 24, 48, and 72 hours later. The researchers found insignificant differences in load in the 48 and 72 hour recovery period, while there was some performance drop-off when sessions were only 24 hours apart. In other words, the subjects were mostly well-recovered after just 2 days. By no means am I insinuating that this is sustainable, guaranteed, or reproducible across circumstances, nor am I encouraging this as a model you should adhere to on a regular basis. It doesn’t necessarily inform us about potentially more taxing movements like the squat and deadlift or what would happen if you followed this training style for more than a short period, but it demonstrates that the infrequent overshot will likely not absolutely demolish your training momentum.
At the end of the day, while it’s wise to exercise restraint in the long-term, there will be times and opportunities in your training to take it up a notch. If those moments don’t go exactly as planned, I’m of the opinion that, so long as it’s not a consistent, frequent occurrence, you were better off going for the extra mile than tepidly standing still. If you have additional thoughts or strategies, I’d love to hear them; leave a comment or reply via your inbox if you have anything you’d like to add!