Major drop off in performance between sets?

[snintel]

I just started working out a week ago, but I've realized that my performance drops off between sets. What I mean is that say I'm doing incline bench press, 70lbs.. the first set I can do 12+ reps. But on the 2nd set I fail at 7. The third I fail at ~5, sometimes as low as 3. I am resting between the sets. Should I use less weight initially, or reduce weight for each set? I want to do around 8 reps failure. Is this problem normal?

 

[EFFORT]

Your muscles are becoming fatigue and your performance will def decrease each set, this is normal.

 

[morry]

Yeah its normal, relax.

Different people are made up of different types of muscle fibres. Some are better for endurance, others are made for strength.

Maybe for something different, drop the weight on your first set, so that you are struggling to finish off your last set.

 

[DonJuanMonk]

Reduce weight? no. Try doing the same exercise again when you workout and see what happens I the same thing happens, you might want to lower the weights.

 

[RaWBLooD]

uh wait more than 30 seconds between sets
i wait up to 3 on small exercises and up to 5 sometimes 6 on my last sets for large exercises.

 

[mrRuckus]

When i do pullups i can do 6 or 7 my first set then i can barely do 2 the next set... or maybe 4 or 5 with 50lbs or so of assistance on the machine.


A bit different but the same with my close grip bench. I'm not getting better at it... but my flat DB bench and incline bench are improving and i do those before closegrips. I've just been assuming that my triceps have been doing progressively more work each workout as a result of the chest exercises so by the time i do closegrips my triceps are too tired to do more than they normally do (and sometimes less).

 

[spider_007]

I rest couple of minutes between the sets, and I also take Ginseng/electrolite mix. It get's me very energized............

 

[snintel]

Well the problem is that by that 3rrd set I'm only doing 3 reps, and I'm not getting enough volume to tear the muscles. I'm barely sore today (day after lifting).

 

[spider_007]

Originally posted by snintel
Well the problem is that by that 3rrd set I'm only doing 3 reps, and I'm not getting enough volume to tear the muscles. I'm barely sore today (day after lifting).

seamns like the problem is psychological, more then physical.....

the only reason your performance should drop is because your muscles are so beat/riped/tired, that you can't lift anymore.....

 

[check_mate_kid_uk]

Originally posted by spider_007
I rest couple of minutes between the sets, and I also take Ginseng/electrolite mix. It get's me very energized............

i just thought i would inform you that you are wasting your money! You dont need it ofr working out, its just for long periods of excersize e.g. 3 hours where you need to replace salts in your body and depending on other qualitys of the drink can give you energy and also increase the rate of water absorbtion by the body.

 

[RedPill]

Do whatever YOU need to do to keep the reps in the appropriate range for each set, otherwise the sets you do will be ineffective at providing the desired stimulus.

When I first started lifting, I used to start off with max weight and lower the weight each set, trying to keep the reps the same. Then I tried starting with a lower weight and doing the "pyramid" pattern, lowering reps and raising weight.

Now, I try to use the same weight for all my sets. This seems to be the most effective for me. I will lower it however if it is apparent that on the next set I won't make the rep range I want. A fringe benefit to this is that it makes the workouts a whole lot simpler as there isn't all this shuffling of different plates and dumbells.