The most popular and common training protocol for lifters of all levels is to perform their weight lifting sessions with straight sets. What this means is that for a particular exercise you will perform a specific number of sets using the same weight.
As an example, if you are doing a barbell back squat then you might do this with 225lbs for 3 sets of 8-12 reps. This is most likely the format that you are most familiar with if you have been looking up training advice and example programs online.
Even very basic programs like Starting Strength and Stronglifts 5×5 both use a straight set approach; even though the goal over time is to drastically increase your strength.
Besides straight sets you might also be familiar with terms like drop sets, pyramid sets and rest pause sets and if you ask a handful of people which one is best then you will get a handful of different opinions.
Should you increase the weight each set? You should only look to increase the weight each set when you have been training for an extended period of time and have started to plateau with a straight set approach. This is because increasing the weight each set is much more demanding on your muscles and central nervous system.
One other approach people take, but one that is less popular in the mainstreams gyms or community, is increasing the weight that you lift with each set which is known as ramping.
Ramping is a very effective approach when it comes to progressive overload and ultimately strength and muscle growth however it’s important to know when the best time to use it is.
Should You Increase the Weight Each Set
Increasing the weight each set (ramping) is a very popular approach among powerlifters and natural bodybuilders.
If you are an average gym goer and following the advice of professional bodybuilders or worse and actually copying their routines then it’s like you will see slow to no progress in your physique as a result.
The reason for this of course is that professional bodybuilders are taking performance enhancing substances that allow them to build muscle with techniques that do not work for the average gym goer like you and I.
If however you follow advice or routines from professional ‘natural’ bodybuilders then chances are you can see drastic improvements in your physique over a 6-12 month period.
The reason natural bodybuilders perform ramping sets is because they look to stimulate the anabolic (muscle growth) response of protein synthesis while also managing their recovery capabilities.
Progressive overload is one of the keys to muscle growth, however over time it will of course get harder to keep progressing on a regular basis, especially if you are performing multiple sets with a heavy weight.
Therefore, ramping sets are used to warm up to a max lift set. This will cause the necessary response in terms of muscle fibre fatigue and hypertrophy, but will also be less taxing on your nervous system which is essential for recovery between training sessions.
This seems like a good approach, you can perform one max effort set for an exercise helping you to get stronger each session, if it’s so good then why is everyone not doing it? Well as with most things, there are both benefits and drawbacks to ramping.
Benefits of Adding Weight Each Set
Just to be clear a successful ramping set means that you warm up with a few sets at a lighter weight (often a percentage of your top set) before attempting your top set.
The warm up sets are crucial for not only getting blood into your working muscle, but also to prime your central nervous system for a heavy lift which will involve a high level of motor unit recruitment.
The main benefit of a ramping set is that you are relatively fresh for your top set. With straight sets (and I’m talking from experience) it can be quite challenging both mentally and physically once you start to lift heavier weights relative to your level of strength.
The deadlift is the best example of this, working up to a heavy deadlift is draining in terms of the number of muscle groups involved, the heavier weight lifted and also the nervous system requirements.
As soon as you hit a top set deadlift then you know you are not performing any more (you could include a backoff set but I’ll cover that shortly).
Therefore the use of straight sets would heavily restrict the amount of weight that you can lift for a given exercise and plateaus therefore come much quicker with a straight set approach.
The more weight you can lift, the more muscle fibres you can recruit and fatigue and the more you can grow (theoretically speaking). There are a range of other factors but it’s important to note that we are not talking about a 1 rep max either. This heavy set will be in the hypertrophy inducing range of 8-12 reps.
A ramping set might sound familiar to a HIIT style of training popularized by Mike Mentzer and later on Dorian Yates (two famous bodybuilders), I’ve actually studied this approach in depth and to be honest ramping sets are a form of HIIT style training when done correctly.
Therefore ramping sets are not a training fad or a particularly advanced technique but rather a tried and tested method that has been used over the last 30-40 years.
Another popular advocate of this approach is Dante Trudel and the Doggcrapp training program which was popular in a sort of underground bodybuilding circle. If you read anything from T-Nation then it was a case of if you know, you know.
This approach focuses on rest pause sets but also highlights straight sets, these are not actually straight sets though because he specifies 2-3 warm up sets followed by a single straight set though this is basically increasing the weight each set.
Therefore you can see that this style of training is often utilized but under different training names and umbrellas so it’s not a radical approach but rather a natural progression once you start to plateau with standard straight sets.
This is also a further benefit, your training plateaus will be much fewer and further between when following a ramping style approach to training. It’s much easier to focus on one heavy set for an exercise and hit it hard progressively then it is to do the same for 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
Many will argue that one working set is not enough to produce the metabolic stress needed for muscle growth but this is where a back off set comes in.
With a back off set you reduce the weight by 30%-50% and perform a set for maximum repetitions. This approach has been shown to recruit and fatigue a greater number of muscle fibres which of course is a prerequisite for muscle growth.
Drawbacks of Adding Weight Each Set
The main drawback of using a ramping approach to training and increasing the weight each set is that you simply don’t feel as though you are working hard enough for a lot of training sessions.
A top set approach does not offer the same level of fatigue that straight sets do and this has a direct psychological association with not training hard enough. It might sound like a small thing but training too much has a significant impact on your recovery and ultimately muscle growth capabilities.
You might hear phrases from coaches that say train smart and not hard whereas others will have the viewpoint that you need to train to absolute failure over and over again to force muscle growth.
While it’s true that there isn’t a single best approach for muscle growth or strength it is certainly true that you can negatively affect your progress by doing too much in the gym and it’s this approach that sees people fail to see progress on a ramping set approach.
While it’s physically more demanding to do more sets in a straight set approach it’s actually more difficult to show restraint and train enough to stimulate growth on a ramping method without trying to do extra sets on top.
You’ve likely experienced this personally, there’s a certain mentality when it comes to training that if you don’t feel like you’ve left it all in the gym then you class it as a wasted or failed session. The best example of this is the 5/3/1 program.
This is a strength based program where your training sets are spaced out over weeks where you train your 5 rep max, 3 rep max and 1 rep max, hence the name. The key thing with this program though is that the percentages you work from are based on 90% of your 1 rep max and not your actual 1 rep max.
As an example if you bench 305lbs as your 1 reps max your 1 rep max for this program will then be 274.5lbs. You also won’t be lifting this weight for most sessions as this is only for your 1 rep max session. Therefore you always feel like you have something left in the tank and that you should be doing more.
The creator of the program, Jim Wendler says this is the part most people struggle to stick to and always want to do more and push the boundaries. I certainly felt this way but when I followed the program to a tee then you can believe my lifts started going up.
Muscle growth works in a similar way, the aim of the game is not to annihilate a muscle group but to stimulate it, recover and then come back stronger. As long as you are getting stronger over time and placing the muscles under more load and stress then you will grow.
That’s why your psychological state and mindset is the biggest drawback of this approach. Sure a single heavy set will still take it out of you but it takes a lot of restraint to just do the work you need and no more.
The other drawback is that a lot of people actually respond to higher volume training, therefore straight sets followed by drop sets and other advanced techniques will create a high amount of load to stimulate growth.
Therefore this article seems like I’m leaning towards a ramping set approach being better than straight sets but that is simply not the case. Each approach has drawbacks and benefits and it will depend on what you as an individual respond best to.
If you can grow on a lower volume then a ramping method is definitely the way to go but if you need some volume and variety to not only grow but to stick to the program then straight sets are the way to go. Plus there is also the option to do both, it’s better to have multiple tools to get the job done than to stick to one approach and plateau.
Whenever I’ve tried a low volume approach it’s been good for my joints and my strength has gone up but I just got bored of the plan. I like training and if that means doing more volume than is optimal than it’s a sacrifice I’ll make because I can stick to it long term which will eventually reap the best results.
Therefore I won’t go out and say that you should increase the weight each set but try it out on a few exercises (I’d recommend deadlift as the way to go because you can hit it hard and then you are too fatigued to get carried away with other stuff) and see how you respond to it.
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