Three Fifteen

Thu, 30 Jan 2014 08:00:02 +0000

Three fifteen isn’t a magic number.

Wait, let me back up.

When I was younger, I really enjoyed weightlifting. I was reasonably good at it and it was a great way to get exercise, but after high school I could never get back into it. Oh I tried. I would spend hours in the gym performing the standard three sets of eight to twelve reps. And I would get nowhere. Months of going to the gym and no progress. Every couple years I would try this. Same routine and the same results.

But, everyone has heard the quote:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Often misattributed to Einstein or Benjamin Franklin.

In November I decided to try something different. I’d read about another routine. It was progressive and used less reps. Deep down I remembered the dogma– ostensibly science– I had retained from somewhere: that the eight to twelve reps to failure over five sets is the ideal weight lifting routine.

Patterns on mugsy.io

Three Fifteen