Not Every Set Is a PR Set

If you're on one of my programs, you've seen two kinds of sets on the page: PR sets and pump sets. A question I get often is how differently they should be run. The short answer is that they are two different jobs, and most of the mistakes I see come from doing one set's job in the other set.

This doesn't necessarily mean that we are always focused on setting PRs in every exercise. There is some aspect to training that is unrelated to muscular strength but increases the size of a muscle.

This lecture explains what each set is for and how to keep one from getting in the way of the other.

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1. Two sets, two jobs

A PR set has one purpose: to make the muscle stronger than it was the last time you did that exact set. Everything else stays the same so that the only thing that can change is the strength of the muscle.

Your primary focus in these sets is hitting a PR without any change to form, rest time, or any other variable other than muscular strength.

A pump set has a different purpose. It is there to drive blood into the muscle, and the weight on the bar is secondary.

The goal in these sets isn't necessarily to get stronger, but rather to bring blood flow to the tissues and get as good of a 'pump' as possible. Strength increases in these sets will be happily accepted, but that is not the primary goal of the sets.