Supplemental Excercises; How many Sets/Reps

[lookseasyfromhere]

Hey Everyone, 

I'm curious how most people are structuring their supplemental exercises with regards to number of sets / reps.  My initial assumption is that these should all be trained for strength endurance (2-4 sets of 12-20 reps), assuming route climbing is the goal. I'd love to hear what folks are doing and there reasoning. The books guidance is "consider the desired adaptation." 


Great book Anderson Bros. The forum will soon be a good resource, too.


 

[Otis .]

I primarily utilize heavy (for me) multijoint lifts at low reps (less than 6) to build strength. This has made me stronger without adding significant bulk. I will occassionally do interval workouts where I will pick 6-8 different exercises, do as many reps of each in 30 seconds with maybe a 10 second rest between lifts. This is great for metabolic conditioning. From what I have read and what I have experienced, lifting in the 12-20 range tends to burn a lot of calories, but doesn't make you stronger and isn't at a high enough time under tension for significant improvements in metabolic conditioning or endurance.

[jdgilberg]

Here is one of their blog posts about supplemental exercises that goes more in depth about the set/rep goals for each phase:

rockclimberstrainingmanual.com/2013/09/16/whole-body-strength-training/

[MarkAnderson]

I try to do around 3 sets, and I increase the resistance as necessary to keep the rep total in the 6-8 range. Sometimes I will vary the exact exercise of the "3 sets" but have them target the same movement. For example, I may start with a set of explosive pull-ups, then a set of 1-arm pull-ups (1 set for each arm, assisted if necessary), then finish with a set of 1-arm inverted rows. In this example the rep number will vary with the relative difficulty of the exercise.