The official gym & weightlifting thread! rep #2

[bassman03]

Fair play, go by what he says. But the convention & science behind it all is that the lower rep range is where you want to be for strength.

:

I know is sounds crazy since i'm only a sophomore, but all this technical stuff w/ lifting is kinda what i'm wanting to go into for college. I did a career paper for english on athletic trainers and that's definitely something that'd be high on my list of jobs - something that's able to keep me around sports since my chances of actually playing a lot after high school aren't too high. But anywho, back to the numbers, for lifting, one of my goals is to also become the first 500 lb squater in my schools history. (prolly woulda happened sooner but we've only had varsity football for three years now... o yeah, we also made to the quarterfinals in state )

 

[Asa Samuel]

Tbh, if I was going for pure strength, I'd stay in the lower reps too if I was going for strength, higher reps build up muscle mass and muscle endurance, most bodybuilders stay in the 8-12 rep range, and thats also why most bodybuilders are weak compared to powerlifters who stay in the 1-5 rep range, usually 3-5.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

I know is sounds crazy since i'm only a sophomore, but all this technical stuff w/ lifting is kinda what i'm wanting to go into for college. I did a career paper for english on athletic trainers and that's definitely something that'd be high on my list of jobs - something that's able to keep me around sports since my chances of actually playing a lot after high school aren't too high. But anywho, back to the numbers, for lifting, one of my goals is to also become the first 500 lb squater in my schools history. (prolly woulda happened sooner but we've only had varsity football for three years now... o yeah, we also made to the quarterfinals in state )

One thing I'll say, and this is because I don't know you at all and have seen other guys your age doing "big lifts" and being all proud about it. I hope your technique is sound. I have seen some pretty horrid technique, which will get the bar up, but has a great chance of causing some serious damage. (was trying to find a video that was on youtube of some kid in "weightlifting class" doing a pretty hefty clean. With no technique what-so-ever (heck, it wouldnt even class as a real lift). But he was proud of himself . (this is in no way meant to be condescending, it's just I have seen too many times where people seem to think lifting the heaviest you can is more important than lifting heavy with proper technique).

If you are interested in going into coaching, then I suggest you also do a lot of research into how the body works, how the muscles work and respond to different stresses, and apply that research to yourself

You guys are lucky getting weightlifting in school, that just doesnt happen over here .

And I should have said that I don't have a clue how american football works, rugby is more my kinda sport

 

[dj150888]

One thing I'll say, and this is because I don't know you at all and have seen other guys your age doing "big lifts" and being all proud about it. I hope your technique is sound. I have seen some pretty horrid technique, which will get the bar up, but has a great chance of causing some serious damage. (was trying to find a video that was on youtube of some kid in "weightlifting class" doing a pretty hefty clean. With no technique what-so-ever (heck, it wouldnt even class as a real lift). But he was proud of himself . (this is in no way meant to be condescending, it's just I have seen too many times where people seem to think lifting the heaviest you can is more important than lifting heavy with proper technique).

If you are interested in going into coaching, then I suggest you also do a lot of research into how the body works, how the muscles work and respond to different stresses, and apply that research to yourself

You guys are lucky getting weightlifting in school, that just doesnt happen over here .

And I should have said that I don't have a clue how american football works, rugby is more my kinda sport

Its the same idea except we don't wear all that padding

To back you up, I'd suggest Bassman does a little bit of research into Aerobic and Anaerobic muscle and their formation. Theres a lot of really simple biology that explains why the low rep-high weight builds strength. Anaerobic exercise doesn't use oxygen, it builds anaerobic muscle which is good for short bursts of high power, aerobic exercise does the opposite, it is "endurance" muscle essentially. If you train with low reps,high weight, your body breaks will be working anaerobically, and vice versa for high reps, low weights.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

First day at the gym in about two weeks

And it's painfully clear how slow my recovery time is now. But, the two weeks off havent cost me any strength . Actually upped the snatch by 10Kg (22lbs)! Cleans up 5Kg (11lbs). Pretty sure there was room for more in both, but, the toll of having two weeks sans-gym, my left side was responding much slower (damned tendons), just need to keep ontop of streching my legs

Still not started the new routine. Did my mon/wed/fri routine today, as it's more intensive and this was the first day back.

 

[Tsal]

I think I'm going back to single-day split, and am starting to do more jogging as the snow is starting to melt from the roads. Also, my friend asked me if I'd like to go back to kickboxing.. It's great cardio, so I'm considering doing that once or twice per week, too.

 

[Asa Samuel]

Stupid overhead press... I'm really hating it at the moment.

I'm doing the routine slightly differently mohawk, squats, OH press, deadlift one day, squats, bench pressm bent-over row the other and alternate. It will be slightly more complicated keeping up with what weights everythings on but it's a little less knackering, doing all four in one day by the end of last week I really didn't want to do it all so I switched to the simpler version.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Wuss

I found that you really need to give a routine a couple weeks so you let your body adapt to it.

But fair enough.

Overhead press is a fun one tho. But I must admit, was stuck at the 40-50kg stage for a long time with that one when I did it before (obviously aint going anywhere right now).

Just make sure to keep your body rigid and not to cheat by jerking your legs to get a bit of momentum. Like with every other lift, it's all about the breathing.

Start with the bar at resting on the manubrium (part at the top of ther sternum).
Hands holding the bar 5-6 inchs away from your shoulders.
Deep breath in.
Slow controlled press of the bar up.
Release breath between the final third or quarter of the movement to lock out.
Slowly lower bar back down to manubrium while taking a breath in.
Repeat.


And it shouldn't too hard to keep track of the weights. Do you keep a journal? I've always got a small A5 notebook in my gym bag to scribble down my lifts in between sets.

 

[vene-nemesis]

I found that you really need to give a routine a couple weeks so you let your body adapt to it.

+1

Every time i change my routines it takes me a couple sessions to get my muscles to lift my proper weight and in proper stance.

Weird thing happened to me, ive been having some right shoulder pains after my chest/biceps routines, but 3 weeks ago i started doing a shoulder/back routine 2 times per week that inmediatly solved my right sholder pains!

 

[Asa Samuel]

Wuss

I found that you really need to give a routine a couple weeks so you let your body adapt to it.

But fair enough.

Overhead press is a fun one tho. But I must admit, was stuck at the 40-50kg stage for a long time with that one when I did it before (obviously aint going anywhere right now).

Just make sure to keep your body rigid and not to cheat by jerking your legs to get a bit of momentum. Like with every other lift, it's all about the breathing.

Start with the bar at resting on the manubrium (part at the top of ther sternum).
Hands holding the bar 5-6 inchs away from your shoulders.
Deep breath in.
Slow controlled press of the bar up.
Release breath between the final third or quarter of the movement to lock out.
Slowly lower bar back down to manubrium while taking a breath in.
Repeat.


And it shouldn't too hard to keep track of the weights. Do you keep a journal? I've always got a small A5 notebook in my gym bag to scribble down my lifts in between sets.

Just because we don't all do olympic lifts and lower-back bashing exercises every day does not make me a wuss

I can't cheat with my legs, I'm sat down.

I use a spreadsheet on my computer, it's just annoying having to put it all in.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

I'm calling you a wuss because you didnt even try sticking at it

I never found sitting and doing them to be that great, always felt akward. Just didn't feel right. But could just be me.

Fair game on the spreadsheet.

 

[Asa Samuel]

I Just know that it wouldn't have worked for me keeping it going.

Hmm, it's a lot less hassle for me to do it sitting, but I'll just keep going at it.

 

[lowendmafia]

+1

Every time i change my routines it takes me a couple sessions to get my muscles to lift my proper weight and in proper stance.

Weird thing happened to me, ive been having some right shoulder pains after my chest/biceps routines, but 3 weeks ago i started doing a shoulder/back routine 2 times per week that inmediatly solved my right sholder pains!

Why on earth would you want you body to "adapt" to your workout? Maybe we have different goals. but muscle confusion is very important to overall physique development. If you do the same lifts every week, you will never see any gains and boredom is bound to set in. I have trained some people that literally did the same workout everyday for years and never made any significant gains, a few little tweaks and they were able to meet their goals.

Personally, I constantly change my workouts, but I am only doing crossfit and kettlebells at the moment. I am always sore as my body is constantly rebuilding. This rebuilding is what builds your muscles bigger, stronger and more resilient. I am not here to tell anyone how to lift, I am just a little confused with what I am seeing written in the thread.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Why on earth would you want you body to "adapt" to your workout? Maybe we have different goals. but muscle confusion is very important to overall physique development. If you do the same lifts every week, you will never see any gains and boredom is bound to set in. I have trained some people that literally did the same workout everyday for years and never made any significant gains, a few little tweaks and they were able to meet their goals.

Personally, I constantly change my workouts, but I am only doing crossfit and kettlebells at the moment. I am always sore as my body is constantly rebuilding. This rebuilding is what builds your muscles bigger, stronger and more resilient. I am not here to tell anyone how to lift, I am just a little confused with what I am seeing written in the thread.

I find it's best to change routines when you hit plateaus.

I've stuck to constant training and made gains of 2.5Kg per week in nearly all lifts. Granted not happening now, but it wouldnt when running 1000 cals a day.

We are meaning more of the "I couldnt manage it, so I gave up", if you keep at it your body gets used to the energy use.

If you were to change the work out you did every day or week, then you wouldnt get anywhere either. It is all about moderation.

Either way, you can't judge how well a workout is doing for you when you have only done it once.

 

[lowendmafia]

I find it's best to change routines when you hit plateaus.

I've stuck to constant training and made gains of 2.5Kg per week in nearly all lifts. Granted not happening now, but it wouldnt when running 1000 cals a day.

We are meaning more of the "I couldnt manage it, so I gave up", if you keep at it your body gets used to the energy use.

If you were to change the work out you did every day or week, then you wouldnt get anywhere either. It is all about moderation.

Either way, you can't judge how well a workout is doing for you when you have only done it once.

It depends on what you mean by plateau. If I go to the gym and do 3x12 bench press with 275lbs every Monday for 8 weeks, I will never increase my 1RM nor will I increase my muscular endurance because my body has adapted. However, If I do a weekly change like 3x12, 4x8, 5x5, etc and change the weight accordingly I will make gains. I was under the impression we were talking about the former.

I am not sure how much you know about crossfit, but changing routines is what it is all about. My goal is to look good with my shirt off, as I really have no reason to be able to deadlift 700lbs anymore and I am never going to win a powerlifting contest or make the Olympic team. Doing crossfit and kettlebells I have been able to increase my weight from 190 to 208 and drop my body fat % from 13% to 7% in about 5 months. I am in much better (looking) shape than I was when I played football and even when I was in the military, it is all about goals.

1000 Calories per day? Man, I almost eat that at breakfast. I do not see any way that will help you with strength gains and recovery. I have had a lot of female clients tell me that they eat really low calorie diets and can't lose weight. This is because when you starve your body it will store calories rather than burn them. If you are truly doing all the ballistics you talk about, I would recommend a much higher calorie diet. I guess if it works for you, do whatever you want, but I am just saying that it could pose serious health risks.

 

[MCBTunes]

Well I cut 3lbs this week. I am pretty sure my diet is over 1000 cals. however I am definitely in a deficit.

Gym time has suffered. I have been missing workouts, if it isn't one thing it is another, but it is usually school or a pulled muscle in my leg.

I am keeping up my cardio relatively well, but still not 6 days/week 2 times/day like I would like it to be. I have a lot of problems doing cardio Fri/Sat/Sun/(sometimes Mon) because I do my leg workout Friday morning and after than I can't move too well .

Hoping to get rid of another 2-3 lbs this coming week. Cardio Ideas for when my legs don't want to co-operate?

Edit:

I have some questions about changing routine. Is this all about changing the number of sets/reps you do for each exercise or is it about finding different exercises to hit the same muscle?

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

It depends on what you mean by plateau. If I go to the gym and do 3x12 bench press with 275lbs every Monday for 8 weeks, I will never increase my 1RM nor will I increase my muscular endurance because my body has adapted. However, If I do a weekly change like 3x12, 4x8, 5x5, etc and change the weight accordingly I will make gains. I was under the impression we were talking about the former.

I am not sure how much you know about crossfit, but changing routines is what it is all about. My goal is to look good with my shirt off, as I really have no reason to be able to deadlift 700lbs anymore and I am never going to win a powerlifting contest or make the Olympic team. Doing crossfit and kettlebells I have been able to increase my weight from 190 to 208 and drop my body fat % from 13% to 7% in about 5 months. I am in much better (looking) shape than I was when I played football and even when I was in the military, it is all about goals.

1000 Calories per day? Man, I almost eat that at breakfast. I do not see any way that will help you with strength gains and recovery. I have had a lot of female clients tell me that they eat really low calorie diets and can't lose weight. This is because when you starve your body it will store calories rather than burn them. If you are truly doing all the ballistics you talk about, I would recommend a much higher calorie diet. I guess if it works for you, do whatever you want, but I am just saying that it could pose serious health risks.

I am talking about a plateau as in not being able to increase weight. However, if you were to keep going at 3x12, you would probably gain some size and granted not much strength. What I do is keep the routine going til I hit a wall like that, then either change the rep range or substitute it with a different excersise.

I've never tried it but I'm kinda familiar with cross fit. High rep, high intensity with plenty of explosive lifts and circuit-like training. Which is good for shape, fitness (resistance training in crossfit is great CV too) and decent size. But we are in for different goals, I'm in primarily for strength. Wanting to get into competative weightlifting. Not to mention wanting to get back into rugby next year.

1000 cals is getting close to the threshold but it's fine. The only risk and main problem is it really slows up recovery. And my body is going to have trouble storing calories if it is burning more than it uses each day. The difference is I'm hitting the weights regularly instead of just dieting. That upregulates my bodies requirement for the muscle that is there. I'm not going to gain strength or muscle mass right now, but, it'll drastically reduce the speed that my body is trying to get rid of the muscle. As you know, the more muscle mass you have, the higher your calorific requirements are. When you go into a calorific deficite, you're body tries to become more efficient, by burning off excess muscle. If the muscle is being used, it isn't excess.

Considering my lifts have actually gone up a bit, but granted slowly, and i've dropped from 270lbs to 241lbs since february. It's working fine . Aiming to get down to the 200lbs range, tho will obviously start going by eye.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Well I cut 3lbs this week. I am pretty sure my diet is over 1000 cals. however I am definitely in a deficit.

Gym time has suffered. I have been missing workouts, if it isn't one thing it is another, but it is usually school or a pulled muscle in my leg.

I am keeping up my cardio relatively well, but still not 6 days/week 2 times/day like I would like it to be. I have a lot of problems doing cardio Fri/Sat/Sun/(sometimes Mon) because I do my leg workout Friday morning and after than I can't move too well .

Hoping to get rid of another 2-3 lbs this coming week. Cardio Ideas for when my legs don't want to co-operate?

Edit:

I have some questions about changing routine. Is this all about changing the number of sets/reps you do for each exercise or is it about finding different exercises to hit the same muscle?

Go hopping on the treadmill?

Changing reps and sets works, but you can also change excersise (granted not always possible) or even change the excersises you are doing on a particular day, just basically mix things around a bit.

 

[Otso]

I'm ready to go all incredible Hulk bonkers if I don't get better soon. Flu... I want to go jogging and hit the gym. I've noticed that if I don't do any physical exercise it gets really hard to concentrate on anything.

 

[vene-nemesis]

Why on earth would you want you body to "adapt" to your workout? Maybe we have different goals. but muscle confusion is very important to overall physique development. If you do the same lifts every week, you will never see any gains and boredom is bound to set in. I have trained some people that literally did the same workout everyday for years and never made any significant gains, a few little tweaks and they were able to meet their goals.

Personally, I constantly change my workouts, but I am only doing crossfit and kettlebells at the moment. I am always sore as my body is constantly rebuilding. This rebuilding is what builds your muscles bigger, stronger and more resilient. I am not here to tell anyone how to lift, I am just a little confused with what I am seeing written in the thread.

No, its not that i want my body to adapt my routine, its just that for me when i start a new routine it takes me a couple session to be able to lift the amount of weight that its actually challenging for my muscles

For example in my new shoulder routine when i started doing shoulder press the first time it was hard for me to be able to mantain proper and steady stance with just 12.5Kg dumbbells on each hand, the second session i was lifting 20kg per hand.