.gif "IP Gear")
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,911
It has been asked a million times and I am sure it will be a million more. What is the best way to workout to get bigger muscle. I'm talking about bigger muscles not getting stronger (like a powerlifter) although one does get stronger from resistence exercise. I can't tell you how many times that I have been asked the question, should I lift real heavy and low reps to get big then up my reps to cut up? I get so frustrated, not because of ones ignorance, because people just starting out are in the learning phase, but I still hear this from seasoned guys who should know better. I remember years ago when I first started out, reading an article by Roger Estep (RIP) in Muscle and Fitness. He was a powerlifter, but was built like a bodybuilder. I recall him saying that when he got ready for a photoshoot he lifted more like a bodybuider. He said that come time when he was getting ready for a meet he lost size although he was a lot stronger. He said that you would sacrfice size for strength. This confused the hell out of me since I thought the stronger I got the bigger I got. This coming from one the best ever powerlifters ever, but I still didn't get it. I've seen some pretty damn stronger guys who were not that big, in fact some didn't even look like they lifted. Even so I plugged away at trying to out lift my two training partners while gaining a little size although not near as much as I did when I changed my lifting habits.
A lot of talk lately as to the best way to grow. Should one do low reps, say 4 to 6 reps or even lower? Very heavy weight of course, or should one do high reps say 12 to 15 or in extreme cases much higher say 100 reps, but of course light weight. What is the objective from a workout or better question yet, from a series of sets done for a single body part? I guess the most obvious and simple answer would be to stimulate growth. This sounds so simple, but for some reason it's not and for more than one reason it seems. Let's use two different examples as to how someone would do and exercise say bench press.
In the first example this person would do the 5 sets after doing say 2 warm ups. These sets are done with a decent amount of rest between sets say a couple minutes or more. The reps range starts out at say 10 and gets lower with each set as the weight goes up, last set somewhere around 5 reps or so. This particular group of sets would be considered someone who is lifting "heavy" wanting to get big and strong. Emphasis is on how many reps you can get and or doing more reps than the last workout. I want to emphasize here that there are many many different ways this type of "heavy" workout can be done. There is rest pause, pyramiding, up and down the rack ect. Most of the time you go to faliure on at least a of couple sets or even more. This type of workout puts a lot of stress on ones body and you will often hear about guys taking a resting break from such a workout as it is not something that can be done all the time, question is why? Shouldn't a body part be able to recover from a workout until the next, and if not then why. Some will say that their joints need a break as the constant heavy weight low reps put a strain on their joints. Is it ever a good idea to over stress the joints? So the muscle is recovered, but not the joint? If something is not recovering from week to week and it's not the muscle and after a few weeks you have to quit then somewthing is wrong with your training! Does it really take destroying ones joints to make a muscle adapt to stress? I also hear time and again guys say how tired they are after lifting like this for 4 to 6 weeks. Well, along with this type of lifting comes other types of stress, like stress on the CNS and the adrenal glands. After so many weeks of going to failure you are usually pretty burnt out not only physically, but also mentally as well. Usually these type of workouts start out good, but quickly turn into one starting to back slide and ending with a crash.
How many times I hear, bro I did 350 on bench a personal best and someone leg pressing 1200 pounds and unfortunately I also hear bro I tore my pec or I blew out my knee leg pressing 1500 pounds. I know at least a dozen guys who have either ripped a pec and tore their quads going super heavy and the funny thing is none of them looked as good as some of the pros who trained smart and stimulated the muscle into growing and not trying to destroy it with ego lifting. Some of these guys I knew had pretty good genetics too. So how come you never see anyone who can lift 3 times more weight than some of the best bodybuilders, get nearly as big or developed as some of the guys from years ago or even today. I'm talking about some top guys and there are more than you think who lift with lighter (not light) weights and higher reps with good form, instead of going to failure on each set, stimulate growth thru a series of sets that progressivley get harder and ending with such a burn and pump you are lucky to be able to scratch our head when done. Just because you "fail" to get a weight up doesn't mean that you have stimulated growth. This is the biggest misconception of all!!!!!!
So on to the next example and this time I'll use legs. I'm going to use myself as an example just because it's easier. Even though I'm not into getting as big as possible anymore it's still kinda tuff to not train hard, I still have somewhat of that old mentallity. Depending on how I feel I may start out with leg extentions. I'll put about 90 pounds and do about 30 reps. I will continue to add 20 per sets for about 8 sets. As far as rest periods go I'll hardly rest at all the first few sets maybe 20 seconds. I can usually finish 8 sets in about 6 to 7 minutes. My frontal quads are pretty fried by now and I'm off to legpress. Here I'll do about 5 sets and rest about a min. or slightly more. I keep my reps at around 15 although there are times I go up to 30 depending on how I feel. Lastly I will do about 4 sets of some type of leg curl, again same rules apply and again reps are about 10 to 12. I rest long enough betweeen sets so I get my breath but not so long as to lose my pump in anyway. The thing is you do not want to fail because you are out of breath, this may get some getting used to, but not long. I usually train alone and I don't mess around. I have a job to do and that's to train my muscle hard and fast and to the point of exhaustion. At times I can't move my legs that well the rest of the evening. This type of training in a way is instinctual as far as how long to rest and what weight to use. There are times I go up on one set and then down another and back up. Doesn't matter to me as long as I am fatiguing the muscle. That's enough for now. Hope some of you found my own personal views somewhat useful.
A lot of talk lately as to the best way to grow. Should one do low reps, say 4 to 6 reps or even lower? Very heavy weight of course, or should one do high reps say 12 to 15 or in extreme cases much higher say 100 reps, but of course light weight. What is the objective from a workout or better question yet, from a series of sets done for a single body part? I guess the most obvious and simple answer would be to stimulate growth. This sounds so simple, but for some reason it's not and for more than one reason it seems. Let's use two different examples as to how someone would do and exercise say bench press.
In the first example this person would do the 5 sets after doing say 2 warm ups. These sets are done with a decent amount of rest between sets say a couple minutes or more. The reps range starts out at say 10 and gets lower with each set as the weight goes up, last set somewhere around 5 reps or so. This particular group of sets would be considered someone who is lifting "heavy" wanting to get big and strong. Emphasis is on how many reps you can get and or doing more reps than the last workout. I want to emphasize here that there are many many different ways this type of "heavy" workout can be done. There is rest pause, pyramiding, up and down the rack ect. Most of the time you go to faliure on at least a of couple sets or even more. This type of workout puts a lot of stress on ones body and you will often hear about guys taking a resting break from such a workout as it is not something that can be done all the time, question is why? Shouldn't a body part be able to recover from a workout until the next, and if not then why. Some will say that their joints need a break as the constant heavy weight low reps put a strain on their joints. Is it ever a good idea to over stress the joints? So the muscle is recovered, but not the joint? If something is not recovering from week to week and it's not the muscle and after a few weeks you have to quit then somewthing is wrong with your training! Does it really take destroying ones joints to make a muscle adapt to stress? I also hear time and again guys say how tired they are after lifting like this for 4 to 6 weeks. Well, along with this type of lifting comes other types of stress, like stress on the CNS and the adrenal glands. After so many weeks of going to failure you are usually pretty burnt out not only physically, but also mentally as well. Usually these type of workouts start out good, but quickly turn into one starting to back slide and ending with a crash.
How many times I hear, bro I did 350 on bench a personal best and someone leg pressing 1200 pounds and unfortunately I also hear bro I tore my pec or I blew out my knee leg pressing 1500 pounds. I know at least a dozen guys who have either ripped a pec and tore their quads going super heavy and the funny thing is none of them looked as good as some of the pros who trained smart and stimulated the muscle into growing and not trying to destroy it with ego lifting. Some of these guys I knew had pretty good genetics too. So how come you never see anyone who can lift 3 times more weight than some of the best bodybuilders, get nearly as big or developed as some of the guys from years ago or even today. I'm talking about some top guys and there are more than you think who lift with lighter (not light) weights and higher reps with good form, instead of going to failure on each set, stimulate growth thru a series of sets that progressivley get harder and ending with such a burn and pump you are lucky to be able to scratch our head when done. Just because you "fail" to get a weight up doesn't mean that you have stimulated growth. This is the biggest misconception of all!!!!!!
So on to the next example and this time I'll use legs. I'm going to use myself as an example just because it's easier. Even though I'm not into getting as big as possible anymore it's still kinda tuff to not train hard, I still have somewhat of that old mentallity. Depending on how I feel I may start out with leg extentions. I'll put about 90 pounds and do about 30 reps. I will continue to add 20 per sets for about 8 sets. As far as rest periods go I'll hardly rest at all the first few sets maybe 20 seconds. I can usually finish 8 sets in about 6 to 7 minutes. My frontal quads are pretty fried by now and I'm off to legpress. Here I'll do about 5 sets and rest about a min. or slightly more. I keep my reps at around 15 although there are times I go up to 30 depending on how I feel. Lastly I will do about 4 sets of some type of leg curl, again same rules apply and again reps are about 10 to 12. I rest long enough betweeen sets so I get my breath but not so long as to lose my pump in anyway. The thing is you do not want to fail because you are out of breath, this may get some getting used to, but not long. I usually train alone and I don't mess around. I have a job to do and that's to train my muscle hard and fast and to the point of exhaustion. At times I can't move my legs that well the rest of the evening. This type of training in a way is instinctual as far as how long to rest and what weight to use. There are times I go up on one set and then down another and back up. Doesn't matter to me as long as I am fatiguing the muscle. That's enough for now. Hope some of you found my own personal views somewhat useful.
