How Effective is Your Failure? (Part 4)

You’re nearly at the finish line.

For a while now you might have been training to failure. You also might have not been training to failure.

Either way, I’ve helped you come to terms with what causes growth.

So far I’ve made you do a few things across three emails:

• You have chosen volume that isn’t too fatiguing, but maximises stimulus

• You have picked great exercises that offer stability and target your muscles

• You have journaled about the difference between the failure rep, and the reps before

• You’ve realised training at 1 Rep in Reserve is going to be the best for growth

• You’ve started to think about the ways you can stay at 1 RIR.

But you’re still met with a problem.

Coming up with a plan to learn 1 RIR isn’t easy, said, and done.

This is the one thing you’re lacking to build this skill. The problem is, you don’t want to undershoot your intensity, and have slower growth because there’s less stimulus.

The pain of younger you spending months far from failure only to make next to no gains is haunting you.

It took me a while to build a plan to learn the skill of detecting 1 RIR.

I’ve polished this and turned it into my Acclimation Phase. This bridges the gap between knowing a skill exists, and having it. Most guys won’t even understand why this exists, they haven’t read email 1, 2, and 3 yet.

Although there’s no guaranteed completion time, running an Acclimation Phase will let you build this skill.

Full disclosure, my exact Acclimation Phase Framework costs $30.

I’m not the type of guy to gatekeep value.

I’ll only ever gatekeep application, your boy’s got to get paid 🙄

Before I tell you what you need to do, I have to warn you. This isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Even with my framework learning this skill remains one of the hardest things you’ll ever do in the gym.

To remind you why it’s worth it:

• You’ll grow better

• You’ll feel less fatigued during the week

• You’ll have a lower chance of random aches and pains

• You’ll be able to listen to your muscles and follow progress at the pace it wants

• As soon as the acclimation phase is finished your strength and muscle will skyrocket for a few months.

Before starting your own acclimation phase make sure you have good programming.

Go check out my lessons on exercise selection, volume, rep ranges, etc. Really just learn all you can. Poor workout programming will ruin an acclimation phase.

Now, into the Acclimation Phase.

The skill of detecting 1 RIR has to be applied to every single exercise you do.

Although some exercises can feel quite similar, others can feel completely different when it comes to intensity. If you’ve tried guessing where 1 RIR is on a few leg exercises, you’ll already know that 4 reps out feels like failure.

1. Perform an exercise with extreme observation.

2. Guess whether or not you’re reached 1 RIR, and test it by going to failure.

Over time you’ll notice you start to get better at this. The accuracy improves and you’re able to better judge whether or not you’re a rep from failure. When you feel like you’ve mastered this ability on an exercise, you can start training at 1 RIR.

That’s really all there is to it.

I wish you the best of luck, hopefully your acclimation phase doesn’t last too long…

Oh and before I forget. I literally almost closed this email again before reminding you 😭

If you want a framework that is easier to follow, something you can plug and play without worrying if you’re doing it correctly. Click me to check out my Acclimation Phase Framework. 

Until next time.

Your Hypertrophy Hero,
Fletcher

P.S. The best thing about the acclimation phase is that it forces you to improve your program, you can’t judge 1 RIR if pain, fatigue, and weird stability are getting in the way of effective failure.