If you have spent any time in the weight room, you have probably spent some time thinking about how you want to count your repetitions. Should I count up to five to tell me how many I have done, or down to know how many reps I have left. Some even count halfway up and halfway back (1-5 then 5-1). All this to say, as athletes, we make a concerted effort to make the hard work seem easier any way we can. Do the reps feel easier when you know how many you have done or when you know how many you have to go. I propose another solution.
I came upon this idea in my own training. For context, I typically do sets of five reps for my main exercises, but this technique can be adapted for many different rep schemes. The idea was to tap into my firmly held beliefs and feelings towards the work week. I would count my reps by the days of the week, rather than by number. Rep one became Monday, two – Tuesday, and finishing off with rep 5 – on Friday. What I discovered is that the reps towards the end of the set did not seem as hard, because I was using my inherent excitement about Friday’s to get me through the last rep. Try for yourself – Count through the week, paying special attention to the feelings brought up by each day. If you are like me, there is a general building of excitement as the week goes on. This is what has made my reps and sets easier.
To understand the mechanisms behind this trick, you need to know about schemas. A schema is a mental grouping of ideas around a centralizing concept. If I were to ask you what is on a typical work-desk, you would rely on your ‘workplace’ schema, answering “pencil, pad of paper, calculator, etc.” We have schemas for all sorts of things, including the work week. By counting your exercise repetitions by days of the week, you are effectively hacking into this schema, to override the feelings of fatigue you have with feelings of excitement what the weekend holds.
I mentioned my typical 5-rep scheme because I recognize that not everyone trains in this range. The week counting system can be extended out to a flat 7-count or doubled for a 14 rep set. If you are more interested in sets of 10, you can count the work week twice. All this to say there is a tremendous amount of flexibility in this specific example of schema hacking, but there are other opportunities for creative counting. I used a weight room example but this trick could be applied to anything needing counted!
Leave a comment below if you use any schema hacks!
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