How often have you finished your last set in an exercise and realized that you could have gone up in weight? Often times it can be hard to properly gauge how strong we feel or how hard we should go on a given day. It’s easy to show up to the gym, do 4 sets of 10, and leave. But if you walk out without struggling on that last rep did you really give it your all? Did you push yourself as hard as you could have? Did you do everything you could to grow stronger that day? Implementing just one new technique in your workout can lead to a huge difference. Using open ended sets can close the gap between what your workout says you should do and what you are really capable of.
I’ve thrown in open ended sets on the last set of all my accessory work and I have seen pretty significant changes in only a few months. When you perform an open ended set you are pushing yourself to failure or near failure on the last set of each exercise. So instead of 4 sets of 10 on dumbbell incline press you perform 3 sets of 10 with whatever weight you are using and then the 4th set you go until you almost reach failure (or reach failure if you have a spotter.) If you are pretty good at gauging how strong you feel that day it may be 10 reps, but often times it can be 12, 15, or even more.
By adding this open ended set to only the last sets of each exercise you aren’t tiring yourself out needlessly, but all these extra few reps add up over time to make a big difference. It is easy to read a sheet of paper or a workout online that says 3 sets of 8 and stop after that 8th rep. I am constantly surprised that even on the days that I don’t feel 100 percent I can still do one or two more reps on my last set than I thought I could.
Doing these sets to failure increase the amount of damage you place on your body through your workout. A greater amount of damage means there is a potential for a greater amount of growth after you are done training (given proper recovery and nutrition).
Open ended sets can be used on the larger compound lifts, but I think they are the most effective when used on the accessory work that comes after. They pair well with both dumbbell and machine work. They can be used for almost any rep range. If your workout says 6 try to hit 8, if it says 10 try to hit 12. Some days it will be easy to finish with a set of 16 reps and other days on that same exercise with that same weight it may be a struggle just to get 11. The numbers themselves don’t matter as much as how hard you pushed yourself and the level of effort that you gave.
The biggest benefit from doing these open ended sets besides the physical gains is the mental strength that you build through pushing yourself. This is true for any type of drop set or heavy sets that are near max effort or at max effort. Your body is incredibly efficient at adapting to stress. If you aren’t constantly putting it through a level of stress that is greater than the level of stress from the last workout then you will stop growing and getting stronger. There is a distinct line between the people who put themselves under that good stress when they go to the gym and the people who stay in their comfort zone. The people who push themselves grow, and the people who don’t always question why they aren’t seeing results after going to the gym for a month straight.
Even if you aren’t ready to incorporate open ended sets all throughout your program, just try it for one exercise for a few weeks. It’s one small change, just a few extra reps a workout, but those reps will compound to make a big difference.
