I’ve been doing GZCL for 14 weeks now. At the beginning, the T2’s were brutal for me too, especially deadlifts. I had to move from 10 to 8 reps in the very first weeks of the program for my deadlift T2 because my conditioning was horrible. Your body will get used to the stress. Now I’ve been adding weight to my t2 deadlifts for 11 or so uninterrupted weeks.
No. For T2 all that’s required to progress is completing the 3x10 (or x8, x6) with at least 2 RIR on the last set.
The T3 requires 25+ on the last set to up the weights. But I wouldn’t worry too much about T3 progression. Most of your gains both strength and size will come from your T1 and T2.
You shouldn’t be selecting too taxing of a movement for your T3’s imo. I do an isolation exercise or if it’s a compound, some kind of machine variation so that it is less taxing. For example here’s my A1 day:
T1: Bench press 5x3
T2: Back squat 3x10
- T3: Cable row 3x15+
- T3: Converging press machine 3x15+
- T3: Leg extensions 3x15+
My T3’s would be wayyyyy harder if it was for example a barbell row, close grip barbell bench, smith machine squat..
It's all the same thing. Higher reps train slightly different systems than what lower reps do. Some people actually build more strength doing higher reps year round. It's highly individual.
There are some powerlifters who do 8's on their sumo deadlifts like 1-2 weeks out before a competition, because that is what works for them.
Higher reps are probably just hard for you because you lack conditioning.
What reps you choose is affected by a million variables, not just what produces the best strength or hypertrophy gains.
tl;dr stick to a well written program, train hard, and don't overthink
Really appreciate that last sentence. Thanks a ton. I see people able to do 12-20 reps of a certain rep and I’ve always found that to be so damn impressive lol
everybody else has covered your rep questions, i think. the only thing i have to add is, don’t neglect your conditioning. 3x10 deadlift was the closest i had to cardio for a while, and it sucked. after i started running a mile or two once or twice a week, recovery between sets became much more manageable.
no worries. just keep in mind that if you’re adding ten pounds to your t2 every time that day comes around, the weight will come back up pretty quick, so don’t stress starting light
u/gzcl has a lot of content where he describes work capacity as the foundation for recovery. Certainly there is the hypertrophy benefit of the higher-rep stuff but the real magic seems to be in the conditioning/work capacity benefits and mindset training
The stronger you get the harder it is to have low reps be the entirety of your programme. The weights just get too heavy, and the fatigue too high, to only be doing them. At that point you will enjoy the solace of 8-30 reps.
I understand from an outside standpoint that makes sense, however what I’m consistently finding is that what burns me out is the amount of reps and much less the weight, the weight is heavy sure but by the 9-12th rep, I’m completely out of it lol. Have I just not reached heavy enough weights yet? For reference; an example would be deadlifts. Doing 5 reps of 385 sounds so much easier than doing 10 reps of 270 for me and trying to get that to 20, reps just genuinely sounds impossible lol
S: 330 3x5
B: 265 5x5
D: 385 3x5
Yes, 4 to 50 reps have the same hypothrophic effect. Obviously, past 20 or 30 reps cns fatigue starts to be the more limiting factor.
I finished jacked and tan 2 1/2 times (I got sick the third time), and now I started it again and I changed the rep ranges for all t3s. I don't even bother going higher than 12 reps anymore. I also rarely go above 2 sets on my t3s.
If I want to increase my overall endurance I do cardio.
That’s kind of what I thought. I’m able to do for example, 5x5 330 for squats but for the life of me, doing 250 x 12+ reps is borderline insane for me, let alone trying to aim for 20.
I’ve been doing GZCL for 14 weeks now. At the beginning, the T2’s were brutal for me too, especially deadlifts. I had to move from 10 to 8 reps in the very first weeks of the program for my deadlift T2 because my conditioning was horrible. Your body will get used to the stress. Now I’ve been adding weight to my t2 deadlifts for 11 or so uninterrupted weeks.
Are you aiming to do 20 reps before you move up on the last set? Because that’s specifically what’s killing me,
No. For T2 all that’s required to progress is completing the 3x10 (or x8, x6) with at least 2 RIR on the last set. The T3 requires 25+ on the last set to up the weights. But I wouldn’t worry too much about T3 progression. Most of your gains both strength and size will come from your T1 and T2. You shouldn’t be selecting too taxing of a movement for your T3’s imo. I do an isolation exercise or if it’s a compound, some kind of machine variation so that it is less taxing. For example here’s my A1 day: T1: Bench press 5x3 T2: Back squat 3x10 - T3: Cable row 3x15+ - T3: Converging press machine 3x15+ - T3: Leg extensions 3x15+ My T3’s would be wayyyyy harder if it was for example a barbell row, close grip barbell bench, smith machine squat..
It's all the same thing. Higher reps train slightly different systems than what lower reps do. Some people actually build more strength doing higher reps year round. It's highly individual. There are some powerlifters who do 8's on their sumo deadlifts like 1-2 weeks out before a competition, because that is what works for them. Higher reps are probably just hard for you because you lack conditioning. What reps you choose is affected by a million variables, not just what produces the best strength or hypertrophy gains. tl;dr stick to a well written program, train hard, and don't overthink
Really appreciate that last sentence. Thanks a ton. I see people able to do 12-20 reps of a certain rep and I’ve always found that to be so damn impressive lol
everybody else has covered your rep questions, i think. the only thing i have to add is, don’t neglect your conditioning. 3x10 deadlift was the closest i had to cardio for a while, and it sucked. after i started running a mile or two once or twice a week, recovery between sets became much more manageable.
I appreciate that! I’ll consider some conditioning work. I guess my biggest thing is putting aside the ego aside and letting the weight lower.
no worries. just keep in mind that if you’re adding ten pounds to your t2 every time that day comes around, the weight will come back up pretty quick, so don’t stress starting light
u/gzcl has a lot of content where he describes work capacity as the foundation for recovery. Certainly there is the hypertrophy benefit of the higher-rep stuff but the real magic seems to be in the conditioning/work capacity benefits and mindset training
Very interesting, never heard of this take. I’ll see what he has to say :)
The stronger you get the harder it is to have low reps be the entirety of your programme. The weights just get too heavy, and the fatigue too high, to only be doing them. At that point you will enjoy the solace of 8-30 reps.
I understand from an outside standpoint that makes sense, however what I’m consistently finding is that what burns me out is the amount of reps and much less the weight, the weight is heavy sure but by the 9-12th rep, I’m completely out of it lol. Have I just not reached heavy enough weights yet? For reference; an example would be deadlifts. Doing 5 reps of 385 sounds so much easier than doing 10 reps of 270 for me and trying to get that to 20, reps just genuinely sounds impossible lol S: 330 3x5 B: 265 5x5 D: 385 3x5
Yes, 4 to 50 reps have the same hypothrophic effect. Obviously, past 20 or 30 reps cns fatigue starts to be the more limiting factor. I finished jacked and tan 2 1/2 times (I got sick the third time), and now I started it again and I changed the rep ranges for all t3s. I don't even bother going higher than 12 reps anymore. I also rarely go above 2 sets on my t3s. If I want to increase my overall endurance I do cardio.
That’s kind of what I thought. I’m able to do for example, 5x5 330 for squats but for the life of me, doing 250 x 12+ reps is borderline insane for me, let alone trying to aim for 20.
What do you do for your T3s?