I was doing really low-rep sets (4) in all the major lifts for awhile till I heard a pop in the back of my neck near the base of my skull, followed by exertion headaches shortly into my workout for nearly a month afterward.

Now I just do 8 or 10rep sets with a slow-drop on the eccentric side of the lift, while bursting on the concentric.

You get more gains from accentuating the eccentric half of the lift than anything else, and bursting the concentric side of the lift invokes twitch fibers.

The same thing happened to me, man. One of the worst pains I’ve felt in my life. Couldn’t turn my head for 2 weeks without extreme pain. So now I do mid weight with lots of reps until burn out and I’m still getting pretty good gains.

For squats I start with 1 plate for a set of 5. Then add a plate for a set of 5. Then add 25lbs for a set of 5. Then I take the 25's off and put another plate (so three 45lb plates on each side, 315 total) for a set of around 3-4. Then another set of 315lbs for 3-4 reps. Then I take a 45lb plate off and do a slower set of 5, focusing on slowing down the downward descent movement of the rep. I'm one of the only people at the gym who have ever tried doing a slow (on the descent) squat, they're pretty brutal, but I believe they do a lot for strength building. Then I take a 45lb off (so just 1 45lb on each side) and do 3 sets of front squats

I picture like a pyramid, I'm slowly increasing the weight to the top of the pyramid, then slowly coming down

I transition to deadlifts from there and just do 5-6 sets of 8-10 reps of two 45's on each side. I could easily do 3-4 plates on each side but my grip is fucked from having past wrist/elbow injuries so I'd need straps at that point. And one time I hurt my back trying to do heavy deads so lately I just don't bother as much. I am still ironing out the kinks on my deadlift form, and I need to have a mirror on my side to make sure my back is flattened, because I have a natural kind of arch

For bench I start with a 45 on each side for a set of 5, then add 25lbs for another set of 5, then two 45's for another set of 5. Then I add a 10lb, which lately has felt like dense collapsing star amount of weight for some reason, I only do a set of 2ish and then I'm taxed

For most other lifts, the sweet spot for me is about 6-8 reps. The only time I do high reps is cable work

gain: i didnt post for 3 or 4 weeks or something and didnt miss it at all.

date my current gainz by this post.