10-Rep Exercise Strategy
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A discussion about a fitness challenge called "My First Muscle" where participants had to complete 100 burpees, 100 push-ups, and 100 squats as fast as possible. The key insight was breaking exercises into smaller sets.
Challenge Overview
- 100 reps each of:
- Burpees
- Push-ups
- Squats
- Goal: Complete all exercises as quickly as possible
- Only rule: Must touch chest to ground on push-ups/burpees
Performance Strategy
- Breaking exercises into 10-rep increments proved most effective
- Less effective approach: Doing 33-rep increments
- Top performers consistently used 10-rep strategy
- Enabled faster completion times compared to larger sets
Results Evidence
- Winner completed in 8 minutes 6 seconds using 10-rep strategy
- Second place: 9 minutes 52 seconds
- Host Sam Parr did 33-rep increments: 20 minutes 15 seconds
- Host Shaan Puri did larger sets: 34 minutes 40 seconds
Key Takeaway
- Breaking exercises into smaller 10-rep sets was the optimal approach for:
- Better pacing
- Faster recovery between sets
- Maintaining form
- Achieving faster overall completion times
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.