Wrapping up the series on heavy singles in training, I wanted to discuss some caveats and make sure there are no misinterpretations of what we’ve been saying in our posts. It seems that when you highlight a particular topic, people tend to think that all logic and critical thinking is lost and that you’re not considering other factors, but I digress.
We’ve spoken extensively about the SAID principle, the specificity of heavy singles, and their importance in a comprehensive powerlifting program. But, just because you’re a powerlifter, or have recently started powerlifting, doesn’t mean that you should immediately start doing singles at high intensities every week. There are a few other things to take into consideration like, previous exposure to training and sport, current physical and mental preparedness, and the potential performance detriments of high psychological stress and acute mental fatigue. Heavy singles require higher levels of arousal which can be mentally taxing. Frequent bouts of high psychological stress coupled with the non-linear nature of training and day to day fluctuations may lead to unrealistic expectations of daily performance, subsequently chasing numbers, overshooting RPE, and missing reps, increasing risk of both burnout and injury.
This is obviously not conducive to any sort of forward progress. However, powerlifting isn’t the only sport that exposes individuals to high degrees of psychological stress. In fact, most field sports are much more mentally and physically demanding than lifting weights. Someone coming from a sports background, such as football or even sprinting, who has competed and trained in the weight room, may be more mentally and physically prepared for the demands of heavy singles. Does that mean they should hit 1 @ 8 RPE or greater on their first day of powerlifting training? Probably not. But it might be appropriate after a few weeks of training. Same with experienced lifters that may be transitioning from a linear progression like Starting Strength, gradually progressing over a few weeks into lower reps at higher intensities may be better suited for that individual. However, if you’ve had exposure to weekly or biweekly singles over months or years, then I have no reason to assume you are not prepared for singles. On the other hand, complete beginners need to develop a base of fundamental training skills, which takes more than four weeks.
When we talk about skill acquisition, it’s not just about improving technique or coordinated efforts under maximal weight. While that’s certainly a part of it, skills come in many forms. Gaining foundational competency in the lifts, learning how to make appropriate weight jumps, and accurately gauging perceived efforts are among many basic skills lifters should acquire before worrying about what their “max” is. Displaying maximal strength is a skill that takes years to develop. Years of making decisions in the gym that, whether right or wrong, affords further refinement and greater aptitude. Any Joe Schmo can walk into a gym and max out a squat, bench, or deadlift. We live in the age of the internet, we’ve all seen some idiot on Gym Fails grinding through an egregious deadlift single. Yes, we need exposure to intensities close to 1RM to elicit those specific adaptations, but adopting a Jefferson Curl as your preferred deadlift technique is probably not best for long term development and success.
As someone who regularly practices singles at RPE 9 or greater, and has been doing so on a regular basis for almost two years, I can absolutely attest to this. I’ve been injured twice in this time, not from heavy singles, but from making poor training decisions. I would set unrealistic expectations, chase numbers, and miss reps. Even if I felt in my gut that my decision was poor, I would ignore my instincts and throw caution to the wind, which led to as many failures as successes. On top of that, missing led me to skip back downs and accessory work more often than I care to admit. For this reason my strength, work capacity, stress tolerance, and overall progress suffered. I was extremely frustrated, but still continued on this self destructive path. High stress outside of the gym, not listening to my body, and training like an idiot is why I was injured, twice. You think I would’ve grasped this the first time, however, the second time around has been a much more impactful learning experience.
I have learned to respect internal load and perceived effort, but also that we can’t always let subjectivity outweigh objectivity. I have truly learned the difference between mental and physical preparedness, as well as the importance of both and what it actually means to develop. Hint: more than a top single @ 8 RPE with a back down set or two and calling it a day. This is how I learned to fall in love with the process all over again, failing and proving myself ignorant, feeling foolish and humbled, then realizing that is the beauty of it all. I love learning, especially subjects I’m passionate about, powerlifting being at the forefront. This is how I find meaning in both training and life which, shameless plug, I recently wrote an article about.
My point is, we learn more from our failures than our successes. We can read textbooks, and research papers, and discuss theories, but that’ll never teach us as much as the experience of practical application, both on ourselves and our athletes.
To sum up this article and the series on heavy singles, we should always meet the individual where they’re at. Singles make up the sport of powerlifting, and if you want to excel at the sport, you need to practice it, but be aware of potential diminishing returns from inappropriate implementation. Just because max singles are specific to the sport of powerlifting, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t train in other ways. Football players don’t practice their sport in the gym but on the field, and display their best performance on game day. They train in the gym to get stronger, increase endurance, improve power output, ect. We need to think about powerlifting the same way. Build the work capacity, stress tolerance, and muscle mass to support our practice with singles, but display our best performances for the platform.
In short, learn to make good decisions and play the long game, because that’s what ultimately drives success and leads to the expression of true strength. While heavy singles might be the bread and butter, they aren’t the meat and potatoes, however, we are going to eat both.
