Hell of an article. Much, much clearer than anything I've seen elsewhere, and really a lot tougher than just taking the predetermined X pounds and keeping at that weight until you reach X number of singles. The idea of setting up a max weight for each session depending on the individual day - that's excellent.

I would like to know if you'd allow me to post a link to this site on my blog.
Either way, great stuff here.

Thanks, Dee! yes, the max for each day we call a "relative max." The term relative refers to its being relative to your ability, or preparedness, for that day. If you noticed the recent discussion about working within a weight range you'll find that using the relative max sort of defines the difference between this and how most people tend to train, using percentage based routines, etc.

really a lot tougher than just taking the predetermined X pounds and keeping at that weight until you reach X number of singles.

It's not really necessarily tougher. It's a big challenge but at the same time when you are freed up to work within your greatest ability and you have to think on your feet a bit, causing you to actually experience your training, the psychological edge that gives you makes it a lot more fun and satisfying, so that it does not seem so tough. Most lifters spend a lot of time with monotonous work, for weeks on end, well below their real ability. Here, you are working at your best and you are doing that in a sustainable way. That, in some ways, is a lot easier than monotonous pounding away at predetermined weights.

I would like to know if you'd allow me to post a link to this site on my blog.

Of course. Please do. PM me if you want to talk about links and putting in links here. I don't put links to sites in the sidebar or do blogrolls or any of that. But good active users are welcome to drop relevant links to their own sites in posts, when appropriate and as long as it's not abused (which is up to mine and the other admins discretion, of course). Let us know where your blog is. We're always curious to see.

It's a big challenge but at the same time when you are freed up to work within your greatest ability and you have to think on your feet a bit, causing you to actually experience your training.

Good stuff! Being there, right in it as much as possible, is one of my main goals.

And thanks for letting me use the link once or twice.
My blog -
http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/
I think a lot of people who get ideas from that blog would really appreciate the Singles Scene article. And much of the other info here.

Have a good one!

I know your blog! I've seen it many many times.

Eric, just a quick thanks for this approach to singles training. I've had a few weeks, barely enough to scratch the surface, but my training enthusiasm is definitely at a new high. After years of single and low rep training, and a bit of aging under my belt, I really thought seriously of giving up on this kind of work. Well not no more! It's the combination of working with THAT DAY'S max, and hovering around the 90-plus area that makes this fun again.

Much Appreciated!

Your welcome and thanks for the kind words.

We'd love to hear what type of approaches, in general, you've utilized in the past. I did try to discuss, as you probably saw, the basic approaches that most people use but I did not get very specific as that would have been information overkill and of course the article is quite long enough already. But if you wanted to talk about other types of low rep training in another thread we'd all like to discuss that as well, I'm sure.

From what I've encountered, besides something based on WSB, a Dinosaurish type approach is how most go about training with singles, which really comes down to about the same thing as rep maximum training of any kind, only with one rep instead of 5, 6, or whatever.

I agree that the relative max is the key to what separates this approach to everything else and it is what underpins most of the near maximal stuff I do in some fashion or another. Although there of course is not a "GUS way" of training or a GUS routine (despite some people claiming to do GUS training) the other key concept here is the idea of work tolerance, which I discuss in It's All About Time: Ideas for Manipulating Rest Periods in Strength Training for Force Potential

Eric--I've just re-read this, since my first day of applying it is tomorrow. I have lifted in this range, so the idea of heavy singles doesn't worry me, but 7-8 makes me a little nervous. How will I know if I'm not really ready for this? When will I know--during my workout, or tomorrow night when I'm in too much pain and too exhausted to talk to my dinner guests?

How long do most people who use this stay with it at a time? 4 weeks? 8 weeks? I can imagine that I'll want to shift my emphasis after 4, but I'll see how I feel.

I love the idea of this kind of training, and Ashiem's allusion to in over on ExRx was one thing that helped to pique my curiosity about GUS (I argued with him that I didn't think it was a good idea, but later I saw several mentions of it here, read this article, and decided to see for myself). I've wondered to myself (but I'm not an independent thinker, and tend to believe what I'm told by authority figures) how 5 reps at 65 or 75% of my 1RM was making me stronger. 85% I could believe, but 5/3/1 only gives you 1 set that high in either of the first 2 microcycles of the routine, and 2 in the third. So tomorrow I give it a try on DL.

I edited your post to fix those strikeouts for you.

How will I know if I'm not really ready for this? When will I know—during my workout, or tomorrow night when I'm in too much pain and too exhausted to talk to my dinner guests?

It is very unlikely that you will be sore and exhausted the night after. However, you will know during your workout. 7 to 8 is just the guideline. If you can't do 7 and can only do 5, for instance, that's okay. You can just adjust the other days as needed. You'll get better at doing more of them as you gain experience using the method. Much of it has to do with how well you handle the warmup and acclimation.

Now, it is very important to realize that your choice of weight for the singles falls all the way down to 90% of your relative max. A lot of people seem to think they have to keep all the singles on the high end. You can skip around within that ten percent as needed and even if all of them are on the low end that is perfectly fine. When you can't skip back down to the lowest intensity allowed and do a good rep, you'll know you're probably done ("probably" because this is related also to how early in the session this happens. If it happens very early, it can just be a problem with acclimation).

How long do most people who use this stay with it at a time? 4 weeks? 8 weeks? I can imagine that I'll want to shift my emphasis after 4, but I'll see how I feel.

It is certainly possible to run it back to back but you should definitely see how you feel.

I know that it can be a bit daunting, given the message that has been shoved down most trainees throats for so long by those authority figures that this range of intensity is so very advanced and you shouldn't use it very often, etc. and so on. But you'll see once you do it.

The trick is to really be aware of the quality. You are not supposed to bull through a singles scene session when you see you performance going completely downhill. As I have said before, we are not looking for perfect reps, as this is near maximal training, but we are also not going for an all out PR. You have to use your best judgement. I do not want you are anyone to get hurt, especially using my advice. But there is nothing in this that is dangerous. In fact, it's going to tend to have less potential for being injury producing in it's own right than higher volume "heavyish" training like 5X5's or, yes, 5/3/1. Do this at your own risk, sure, but risk is always a part of strength training. Here, the risk is quite manageable.

It may be that your first few sessions with this are not exactly up to your expectations because there is a bit of learning and experience involved in dialing this in. But doing that has it's own rewards since what you learn here will follow you into other types of training. This is a very 'experiential' way of training and the trainee absolutely MUST pay attention to their performance and what is going on with their body. There is nothing rote about this. Even if this first session doesn't go perfectly, you'll probably still have loads of fun with it.

Thanks, Eric! This is pretty much what I was hoping you'd say. I don't mind a bit of risk.

I think that in the past I've erred on the side of too much acclimation, and end up tired before I get to my work sets. I've done this in DL, but even more on Squat, where I've done workouts of nearly 100 reps. I find now that I do better with fewer reps at each step, maybe with slightly more reps than I used to do.

I just don't want to keep doing the cycle of building up, dropping down and building up to the same point, or maybe only slightly more, then starting over again. It's exciting to break a 2 or 3 year old PR, but I don't want to wait 2 or 3 years for every PR. I'm already 58, and who knows, I may have to stop DLing when I'm 80 or 90! That doesn't leave time for many PRs! So now I don't really care how fast or slow I progress, as long as I'm actually progressing. At 58 I'm also much more patient than most 28 year-olds!