When to end your workout..

[bickill]

Hey everyone,

I was doing my 3rd campus workout and working on my max ladders, I was trying to go 1-4-8 (with about 2 mins rest between go's). For 3 or 4 sets I was touching the 8th rung, but not latching it. Then after that I did 2 more sets where I didn't even touch the rung, obviously my power was decreasing, and the book says to stop the routine when you notice that you're feeling weaker. However I was only in the 27th minute of the 35 minute workout so I decided to just do double throws for the remainder of the time. So my question was, should I have just stopped at the 27th minute and said forget the last 8 minutes? Or did I do the correct thing and just switch the workout? Also, for what it's worth I didn't feel necessarily weaker doing the double throws, just the max ladders. 

[joev9]

I plan my campus workout to have 3 to 5 "easier" sets at the end on bigger rungs and it seems to work well. I can still get some work in but try my hardest in that sweet spot in the middle of the workout.

[MarkAnderson]

I think what you did is a good way to go. You could have also just stopped a the 27th minute. Neither answer is wrong.

[jessebruni]

Personally I've struggled with the whole "2 minutes rest thing". I try to keep to it as a generalization, but I find that I usually have lingering fatigue after 2 minutes and I won't be able to complete a difficult max ladder. If I wait for longer (3 or 4 minutes) then I can usually complete the ladder and that's usually my goal. I did 1-3-5 on the small rungs on Tuesday and was able to get it first go leading with the left hand (right hand pushing) but leading with the right I had to use the long rest method to do it. I've extrapolated from Mark's responses on various posts and from the book that since neuromuscular recruitment is the goal in this phase strict resting times don't matter as much. Anyway, all that to say I usually end it after a given number of sets or if I'm starting to experience a lot of pain in my finger extensors (which I've struggled with), usually that's a better indicator of how much my power is decreasing rather than if I can't do a certain ladder which is usually a function of how long I've rested since my last one.