Heavy or light first

[qbkilla]

Wondering what people prefer if your someone that does heavy, lower reps, try and increase weight... combined with higher rep pump work in the same session.

Seems like heavy followed by light is the most common approach and what I always did. But after reading up on alot of John Meadows techniques and how he sequences exercises I switched up and get a better pump by doing higher reps then a heavy finisher.

What approach do you prefer?

 

[Dens228]

Heavy followed by light. I'm not a big believer in a pump really mattering that much. Fatigued, yes, pump no.
Out of curiosity, how long do you follow a given routine or theory before you change things?
Not a criticism of your approach, just curious as you seem to change things up quite a bit.

 

[luki7788]

 

[Doitagain]

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[Oldwhitedude]

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[275bills]

Thought you took up cardio boxing?

 

[Eguz22]

I go heavy, at least as much as I can between 8 and 10 reps on most exercises, sometimes it can be 12 or 15 reps, and I will definitely do these exercises at the end of the routine.

 

[M@NU]

how do you define "heavy" and "light"?
i usually use pre-exhaustion sets prior to chest and legs.for chest a fly, for legs atleast 1 leg curl variant and 1 leg extension variant.
But i dont go light, i go to failure in rep ranges 20-10 for those. sometimes the last set follow by a drop.

 

[qbkilla]

Heavy followed by light. I'm not a big believer in a pump really mattering that much. Fatigued, yes, pump no.
Out of curiosity, how long do you follow a given routine or theory before you change things?
Not a criticism of your approach, just curious as you seem to change things up quite a bit.

Not really following a set routine now, just looking to stay lean and healthy mix things up to keep it interesting. Try different approaches enjoy working out again

 

[qbkilla]

how do you define "heavy" and "light"?
i usually use pre-exhaustion sets prior to chest and legs.for chest a fly, for legs atleast 1 leg curl variant and 1 leg extension variant.
But i dont go light, i go to failure in rep ranges 20-10 for those. sometimes the last set follow by a drop.

I'd say rep ranges.

Traditional may be something like
1 heavy rest pause set on dip machine (15-30 total)
1 heavy rest pause set barbell curl
4 super sets to "pump" say cable curls and cable extension 20+ reps

Then light/heavy would just be the suoersets to pump them with blood then hit the rest pause set.

John would do activate, load, pump, stretch

So probably something like cable press down, heavy top/back off set for dip machine, then some sort of drop sets/myo reps/ high rep pump work, then a dumbbell overhead extension with a good stretch at the end .

 

[M@NU]

well, i would say what you advise is already quite popular and many guys use it.
instead of starting with the heavy compound movement that may tax your joints etc you start with some kind of activation/pre exhaust
i can not tell you the last time ive went straight to the squat rack or the deadlift platform without some kind of pre exhaust first.

 

[Gunsmith]

But after reading up on alot of John Meadows techniques and how he sequences exercises I switched up and get a better pump by doing higher reps then a heavy finisher.

What approach do you prefer?

I really like the "Mountaindog" programs as well as fortitude.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

i don’t mean to destroy this thread, well, yes I do. But how you are interpreting light and heavy AND what JM recommended is completely wrong.

JM never said light then heavy, he just believed that before doing a heavy compound movement where load is a bit higher, that we need to good blood flow and an “activation phase” as a way to loosen and warm everything up. This is pretty basic stuff and I’m not sure how you’ve interpreted this. Please go reread anything you’ve gotten this info from and refresh yourself.

 

[qbkilla]

Thought you took up cardio boxing?

I'm 180 , the gloves were too heavy, maybe the girls will let me join hot yoga

 

[qbkilla]

i don’t mean to destroy this thread, well, yes I do. But how you are interpreting light and heavy AND what JM recommended is completely wrong.

JM never said light then heavy, he just believed that before doing a heavy compound movement where load is a bit higher, that we need to good blood flow and an “activation phase” as a way to loosen and warm everything up. This is pretty basic stuff and I’m not sure how you’ve interpreted this. Please go reread anything you’ve gotten this info from and refresh yourself.

Appreciate the real response this time..always value your input. I was more using John's type training as an example.. maybe not light followed by heavy or high reps followed by low...more so saving the heavy compound movement for latert after the isolation/metabolic/activation/blood pumping... whatever terminology people use.

Fortitude/phat.. basically has heavy compound days then "hypertrophy work" on separate days

Then many powerbuilding, you typically do the compound/heavy/progressive overload exercise first then a "finisher"

Then an approach more similar to meadows where we don't do the main compound first. Like In this video Chris does the cables, then the heavy press, then he does a pump type exercise after.

 

[Dens228]

Heavy compound is hypertrophy work. In Fortitude training your aim is to promote it via different approaches within the program.
You don’t think heavy compounds promote hypertrophy? I’m using it right now and used it years ago for quite awhile. Very good program.

 

[TheOtherOne55]

Appreciate the real response this time..always value your input. I was more using John's type training as an example.. maybe not light followed by heavy or high reps followed by low...more so saving the heavy compound movement for latert after the isolation/metabolic/activation/blood pumping... whatever terminology people use.

Fortitude/phat.. basically has heavy compound days then "hypertrophy work" on separate days

Then many powerbuilding, you typically do the compound/heavy/progressive overload exercise first then a "finisher"

Then an approach more similar to meadows where we don't do the main compound first. Like In this video Chris does the cables, then the heavy press, then he does a pump type exercise after.

Not that one is better than the other, but the bigger stronger guys I know end up moving toward this "activation" type work FIRST as a way to avoid injury. A good few sets of flies BEFORE you do your heaviest pressing will basically guarantee you are fully warmed up and ready to roll. When i was young and dumb, i would go right into the heavy shit. Now i make sure the blood is flowing and I feel very warm. YES, the load might decrease a bit because of this but i'm saving myself from stupid injuries for sure.

 

[aHarness]

Thought you took up cardio boxing?

I thought it was calisthenics? Or did he switch to “higher volume”? I forget

 

[buck]

If i do higher reps especially for sets with a weight till the failure range. My heavy lifts drop drastically in weight.

 

[need4tren]

Nothing should be light. You should be using a weight appropriate for the rep range. I do sets of 20 for back but they are still heavy as I can go where I fail between 17-18 reps and can still get a few more out

Never focus on a pump, use the weight to stress the muscle but you can use higher rep ranges but your goal isn’t the pump