Small Sets

For the past month I’ve been obsessed with ring dips. They’re a difficult move that require tremendous shoulder stability, mobility and strength. In fact, I started doing some just to get a nice shoulder stretch when I was feeling stiff one day.

I was drawn to them partly because there’s a lot of variations I can play with. I could do them frequently and limit the amount of stress. Long pauses, slow tempos, band assisted, eccentric only... There are a lot of possibilities. Last night, for the first time, 3 reps felt easy.

Over the past month, I’ve only done more than 3 reps once. Small, frequent does of high-quality-only reps were exactly what I needed to improve. If this sounds familiar, it’s probably how you built up the capacity to do push ups, because I used the same method.

High reps are often poorly executed with the primary focus on completing the set, not moving with sound mechanics. If you’ve got push ups on pull ups on your mind and they feel really far off, remember, quality is of the up most importance if you want to improve without injury. It’s practice. Keeping practicing and you’ll improve, it might take awhile, but once you get there, the improvements will be there to stay.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach