New to this Primal community. Question about reps and sets page

[Bobv]

Hi Everyone,

I am excited to be part of this forum! I am a 55 year young guy who has stayed fit all his life, and am about a month into Marks Efitness Book excercise plan. I am following it pretty darn close and have a question about the reps and sets he advocates. What is the science or thinking behind the high reps/low sets? Just wondering as it is different than anything I have done before. Sorry in advance if this was covered in a previous post.

[jfreaksho]

I don't see it as being all the much for reps- it's bodyweight, and those aren't high numbers at all. A lot of bodyweight workouts crank up the volume, so that it takes more endurance than strength to finish.

Mark seems to be trying to get a full-body strength workout scheduled in two days per week, keeping it short enough that people will actually do it. Making it impossibly long, complex, convoluted, or confusing is just going to discourage people. The best workout plan for a beginner is the one that he or she can actually stick to. If done at a sufficient intensity (not to be confused with speed of motion) You can get great benefits out of this program.

Personally, I use Mark's template for sprinting and moving slowly, but use Convict Conditioning for my lifting of heavy things. It's a similar program, but with more levels and more details about how it works for strengthening.

[tfarny]

I hate to bag on it, but I think Mark's plan is geared for beginners and the not-yet-fit. It's a pretty conservative approach to ramping up exercise - for example, you are supposed to get to 50 consecutive knee pushups before trying regular pushups. That approach doesn't work for me. Most of the guys on here who do more intense exercise do either a barbell based routine or a more demanding BW routine like Convict Conditioning, You Are Your Own Gym, Sandbag Fitness, or Al Kavadlo. The last two are regular forum contributors and very good blokes.