opinions on how to structure my reps for compounds

[StangBanger]

I am curious if you all can give me some good feedback on how I should be doing my reps in regards to how much weight.

What I mean is for ancillary movements (curls, etc), I keep the same weight all sets until I can hit all reps in all sets, once I do that I increase the next week. this has been working well for me.

When it comes to compounds, I wonder if should be doing the same thing but currently I am doing compounds a little differently.

I do 5sets/5reps of the compounds.

So right now this week's Squats were

5x145
5x155
5x165
5x175
5x185

last week I only hit 2 reps on the 185. so next week should I try
5x155
5x165
5x175
5x185
5x195?


or should I be doing a couple of low weight warmup sets and then do 5 working sets all at the same weight?

I appreciate any and all feedback.

 

[Smith402]

Well You want to do more than 5 reps you want to hit around the 4 sets in 8-12 range for 4-6 weeks then switch to heavy 6-8 reps 3-4 sets for 4-6 weeks honestly and also you can do pyramids to confuse your muscles and force them to grow such as sets of 12/10/8/6 also you want to go up only 5-10lbs on each set i usually stick to 5 and increase each week on a bulk during my cut phases i usually stick around the same weight but some times i may increase in strength the main thing to do is constantly forcing your muscles to grow using drop sets, forced reps, negatives, rest pauses.. and the list goes on and on your muscles dont want to grow they want to stay at a size your body is comfortable with you have to punish them and make them grow

 

[EasyEJL]

or should I be doing a couple of low weight warmup sets and then do 5 working sets all at the same weight?

I appreciate any and all feedback.

The answer is... it doesn't really matter, so long as you do change how you do it every 4-12 weeks. Particularly with the high weight low reps, you tend to (if the sets are to failure/near failure) do a lot of central nervous system stress. so rotating to another scheme more frequently helps with that.

 

[Red Dog]

I agree with the above -- just wanted to add a couple of quick comments:

(1) I rarely go higher than 3 reps on any of my "warm up" sets. It feels like I'm detracting from my overall work capacity if I go any higher than that. So if I'm squatting 270 for reps, I would probably go 135 x 3; 185 x 3; 225 x 3; 3-4 sets @ 270. You might be wearing yourself out (to at least some degree) by performing too many "warm-up" sets.

(2) If you did 2 x 185 last week, try and do 3 x 185 this week. If you can't, then you should try switching up at least one variable (reps, weight, movement, etc). You could do extra reps at 175, do singles at 180, switch over to heavy leg presses for a week, and so on -- any/all of which are designed to improve your work capacity so that you can return to the 185 squat the following session and kick its ass.

 

[StangBanger]

Thank you... I think I have my answer.. what ive been doing has been working just wonderin if there was a better way... I did 185 x 5reps this week and only 2 reps last week, so I think Ill use 185 as my work set and then see if I can rep out some 195's...

appreciate the responses!!!