“Thinking outside the box” is a cliche these days. We hear it so often you’d think regular people are doing it as a matter of habit.

Of course, the boxes keep evolving. Yesterday’s creative way to solve a problem is today’s “box.”

In the world of strength training innovation is almost nonexistent.

Why Even Lift a Weight?

The whole point of lifting a weight is to create an unnatural load on your muscles.

A load it just doesn’t normally experience.

A load that basically causes your brain to say, “Holy crap! This is ridiculous. We need to build bigger muscles to cope with this much load.”

So it’s pretty obvious that a heavier weight will work better than a lighter weight.

WHAT’S THE HEAVIEST WEIGHT YOU CAN LIFT?

Some people always believe what they are told. They’re in the box.

They believe the heaviest weight they can lift is their “1-Rep Max” which is always performed using a full range of motion, including their weakest possible range.

So a better term might be your “Weak-Range Max.”

“Hey, Joe, what’s your weak-range max on the bench press?”

“Oh, I can weak-range bench about 185 lbs these days.”

But if Joe would just limit his range to 50% he could likely do 6 reps with 185 lbs.

And if he just did strong-range quarter reps he could likely do a dozen or more reps with 185 lbs.

And if he completely avoided his weak range it’s very likely he could do few reps with 275 lbs, which is more than 150% of his so-called 1-Rep Max.

Guess what signal 150% of your “max” sends to the brain?? 150% more than you’ve EVER lifted! Do you think it’s a very special, once-in-a-lifetime message?

It is. Every law of biology and adaptation says it has to be.

Don’t believe me? Try 10 workouts doing it my way.

Do all 10 in one month here.

Take as long as you want to do them here.