# Doing heavy singles before main work



## Milo (Jan 4, 2017)

A little backstory... lately for squats I've been doing high bar somewhere around 6x6 to bust my quads up. Most weight Ive done for them was 335 for the 6 sets of 6. Couple days later I'll do high bar paused, with the weight obviously lower. This last Monday I just felt like doing a heavy comp squat. I hit a 500 in sleeves then moved into high bar paused to get some volume in. After the heavy squats, the high bar paused felt so light I was doing more weight than I would before without the pause. Something like 405*6 with a 3 second pause. This is way way wayyy more than I thought I could do and it felt easy as shit. If I were to just work up to the high bar as my main lift that shit wouldn't have happened. Obviously the heavy single worked like some kind of primer making the working sets more manageable and performing a truck load more work. Has anyone experienced this? I wonder if doing this every time would yield any negative aspects?


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## ECKSRATED (Jan 4, 2017)

I've experienced that before Yes. BUT I will say that most of the time back off sets usually feel heavy as shit. Lol. When pillar had me working up to a heavy triple or whatever and then dropping some weight to hit volume, those sets would always feel heavier than they should. I don't know if its mental or what but most of the time its that way.


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## snake (Jan 4, 2017)

This may sting a little but only you can tell. Any chance you were sandbaggin' the 335? Even with sleeves, I don't see high or low bar adding 100 lbs to your squats with or without the heavy single.


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## PillarofBalance (Jan 4, 2017)

There is something to be said for being acclimated.  Try doing a heavy single on deadlift and then go bench heavy after. When you pick up 600lbs off the ground and then bench 300 something after it can feel much lighter in your hands.

However doing heavy singles and then back offs even to a conjugate will over time wear you out.

Which gets into what ecks mentions. The back offs and the way my whole program works leaves you with a high level of fatigue from one session to the next.  

So using my method if you are hitting rep prs while at 70% fatigue then you know when you peak you will have a massive new 1rm in the tank.

Using your method a peak would show a good pr but not quite as much as what you would get out of maintaining a steady level of manageable fatigue thru the training cycle.


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## Milo (Jan 4, 2017)

ECKSRATED said:


> I've experienced that before Yes. BUT I will say that most of the time back off sets usually feel heavy as shit. Lol. When pillar had me working up to a heavy triple or whatever and then dropping some weight to hit volume, those sets would always feel heavier than they should. I don't know if its mental or what but most of the time its that way.



This is usually how I feel as well but typically not after a SINGLE. I guess because I never do singles lol. 



snake said:


> This may sting a little but only you can tell. Any chance you were sandbaggin' the 335? Even with sleeves, I don't see high or low bar adding 100 lbs to your squats with or without the heavy single.



There are other factors that could be considered. It was a different gym and I was squatting in front of a mirror next to a sexy ass woman. That gave me some motivation lol and for some reason the mirror always helps me but I don't use it if I can because there aren't any at any meets lol. Sand bagging it is something I also thought about but the weight just felt SO different. My body literally felt like it was primed to move weight like it was now hyper responsive for the working sets. It could be entirely mental.



PillarofBalance said:


> There is something to be said for being acclimated.  Try doing a heavy single on deadlift and then go bench heavy after. When you pick up 600lbs off the ground and then bench 300 something after it can feel much lighter in your hands.
> 
> However doing heavy singles and then back offs even to a conjugate will over time wear you out.
> 
> ...



Is there a way to utilize the acclimatized/primer method for every workout without hitting heavy singles? Like a really good warm up? Usually I'll do a warm up, then start working up to my working sets and honestly my legs feel like lazy, unresponsive mush. How can I get them hyper sensitive and ready to move weight without hitting a heavy single like before? I feel there is untapped potential here.


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## ECKSRATED (Jan 4, 2017)

How far off is that 500 from your max do u think? I can see a heavy single in the 80-90 percent range being a good warm up before some volume. Anything higher probably not a good idea to frequently hit


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## ECKSRATED (Jan 4, 2017)

Try some explosive box jumps to get primed up milo. They really get things firing.


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## Milo (Jan 4, 2017)

ECKSRATED said:


> How far off is that 500 from your max do u think? I can see a heavy single in the 80-90 percent range being a good warm up before some volume. Anything higher probably not a good idea to frequently hit



Hmm I'd say I had another 10 pounds in me or so. So maybe something not quite that drastic but like you said, something 80-90%?


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## snake (Jan 5, 2017)

Milo said:


> There are other factors that could be considered. It was a different gym and I was squatting in front of a mirror next to a sexy ass woman. That gave me some motivation lol and for some reason the mirror always helps me but I don't use it if I can because there aren't any at any meets lol. Sand bagging it is something I also thought about but the weight just felt SO different. My body literally felt like it was primed to move weight like it was now hyper responsive for the working sets. It could be entirely mental.



I actually thought twice about posting what I did; glad you took it the right way. It was meant to be constructive. 

As for a mirror, I have squatted in front of one every week for easily the last 17 years. The only time I didn't have a mirror in front of me was when there was a head judge sitting there.


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## Milo (Jan 5, 2017)

snake said:


> I actually thought twice about posting what I did; glad you took it the right way. It was meant to be constructive.
> 
> As for a mirror, I have squatted in front of one every week for easily the last 17 years. The only time I didn't have a mirror in front of me was when there was a head judge sitting there.



Shit Snake I'm the first person to call someone on being a pussy so I have to be able to take the criticism too.
I will say that squatting in front of a mirror is extremely helpful. You can use it to get a perfect stance, and know exactly when to you've hit depth. Not to mention I am damn good looking even when my face looks like a plum from squatting. I just would prefer to be gauging these things by feel rather than sight to hopefully make it second nature.


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## ECKSRATED (Jan 5, 2017)

I actually find a mirror helpful too when I squat. Doesn't affect me when I don't have a mirror in a meet either.


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## 1stplace (Jan 5, 2017)

Our bodys are pretty awesome but they also can do some tricky stuff my opinion this is more of a mental thing than anything else. You said the mirror and lifting next to the hot chick and that kinda backs up what I think. The only real way to know is dont change anything and try it the next couple times you lift and see if the results are the same. BTW what snake said would have turned this thread into a 3 day pissing match on the other forum I'm on thats awesome you took it for what it was worth and didn't get all butt hurt!!!


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## Milo (Jan 5, 2017)

1stplace said:


> Our bodys are pretty awesome but they also can do some tricky stuff my opinion this is more of a mental thing than anything else. You said the mirror and lifting next to the hot chick and that kinda backs up what I think. The only real way to know is dont change anything and try it the next couple times you lift and see if the results are the same. BTW what snake said would have turned this thread into a 3 day pissing match on the other forum I'm on thats awesome you took it for what it was worth and didn't get all butt hurt!!!


Sounds like it's full of a bunch of pussies. Maybe I just like calling people pussies. I dno.


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## 1stplace (Jan 6, 2017)

Milo said:


> Sounds like it's full of a bunch of pussies. Maybe I just like calling people pussies. I dno.


I hear that it's one of the words that's always right on the tip of the tongue


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## ReconMarine (Jun 22, 2017)

You have got me curious.  I'm going to try this and see what happens.  I'm not sqautting in your league.  3 plates is about as heavy as I go for working sets and that is only 3 reps usually.  but I'm going to check this out.  Leg day tomorrow.


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## Big Worm (Jun 22, 2017)

Probably just had a good day. If youve only done it once, try again..See how it goes a second or third time around.  Or you have a lot more in you than a 500lb single. Most the time if a guy hits a single for his max or close to it, hes not dropping to 80% of his max and hitting it for sets of 6.  By the time youve worked up and warmed up you should be spent after a real max effort, the weights moving or somethings breaking single.


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## widehips71 (Jun 22, 2017)

I generally like to hit a single at about 90% before working sets in at 75-80% range.  I've found, through trial and error, that 90 is heavy enough to make them feel lighter and help me warm up, but not enough to take everything out of me.


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