Are you able to recover? Are you injuring yourself? If no to both, likely fine. I will say that I’m not a fan of your program or 7 sets of any single exercise, but if it works for you then that’s what matters. People are unique individuals and no program fits all. Some people can handle an abundance of exercise and others can barely go a day or two.
So with a goal of building strength, leaving no reps on the table is absolutely working against you.
Strength is a matter of practice, and specifically practicing GOOD reps. If you are going until absolute failure, those last few reps are going to be crappy/grindy reps. You’re going to spend more time grooving poor technique.
Think about any athlete you see in the world. Let’s take tennis for example. You don’t see a tennis pro out on the court smashing balls until their arm is about to fall off and they can barely get it over the net. They’ll serve until they start to slow down and then that will be it. You didn’t see Usain Bolt run sprints until his legs were like lead weights and he was plodding down the field: he’d make sure he was maintaining his speed.
So now the question is: what specific movements are you trying to get stronger on?
Oh no, if I can’t do the rep with good form I count it as failure and leave the bar on the spotter arms. I have watched too many gory gym accidents to go beyond that lol
I want to build strength on my bench mostly because it’s really light right now (120 lbs. 1 RM). But lately my squat has been lagging behind as well, so I’m trying to focus on that too.
Oh no, if I can’t do the rep with good form I count it as failure and leave the bar on the spotter arms.
This is so very different from what you wrote in the first post…
You have a goal to increase your bench, but I don’t see you doing any barbell flat benching. You will lose proficiency in the movement without practice.
Your goal is to squat more, but the majority of your assistance work is hamstring focused. Is there a reason for that?
This is so very different from what you wrote in the first post…
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Sorry, should have clarified. I go to failure, but if my form needs to be crazy in order to squeeze in another rep (or finish the one I’m on), I don’t do it. That’s what I meant by “no reps left on the table”.
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Your goal is to squat more, but the majority of your assistance work is hamstring focused. Is there a reason for that?
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I’ve learned that the limiting factor in my squats isn’t my quads. It’s usually my back, glutes, and hams. I dedicated more focus to those areas to increase their strength so they don’t limit my squat so much. That’s also why I do RDLs instead of normal deadlifts.
As far as my bench goes, I read this study that said incline bench still stimulated the entire pec, but gave better gains in the upper and mid pec. I’ll still try my hand at the flat bench occasionally just to see if that’s true – every time I have tried it, my flat bench has been at least 10-15 lbs. heavier than my incline, even though I don’t hit my flat very often.
In your opinion, am I doing too much volume, or too little (considering my work schedule)? Before I started this job, it was easier to be confident about how much volume I am doing, but now I’m not sure if I’m doing too much – and it’s hard to tell if I’m fatigued or overworked because I have dysautonomia (meaning I’m pretty much ALWAYS fatigued, and I’m not as sensitive to interoceptive sensations).
I sure wasn’t expecting to see your bench press that light. How much do you weigh?
I believe that your most likely problem (that you can correct) is that you are insufficiently recovered before you re-stimulate the muscle.
It is difficult for adaptation (muscle growth) to occur until recovery is complete from the stimulus (weight lifting). This is much more important with hard gainers. Training to failure takes longer recovery time.
I am 5’9" and 160 lbs. way too big and heavy to be benching 120, I know
About how long should I wait between lifting sessions to ensure that my muscles are fully recovered? Right now I’m going 48 hrs between sessions, longer over the weekends.
It has to do with which muscles fail first during squats. When I get close to failure, I usually end up just extending my legs to get up instead of pulling my hips forward. That’s when I know to put the weight down lol
Not really (my back doesn’t even get close to being parallel with the floor and my legs don’t straighten 100% until I finish the movement). This is more something that happens on accident because my muscles are fatigued, not something I do on purpose. But because that’s how failure on a squat looks for me, that’s how I can tell my back/butt/hams is/are weaker than my quads.
IMO, what you describe is more a form problem than it is a muscle area weakness problem.
When I competed in powerlifting I used a normal stance to place the quads is the best movement to increase their size (I was powerlifting to improve a better foundation to build my physique.)
My squat consisted of three different phases (as opposed to a single efficient movement.) Out of the hole my hips rose before and vertically more than my shoulders. The next movement was more like a good morning to get my power back under the bar. The final movement was a lockout. I was not weak in the rear chain as I had a very strong deadlift.
In my early 40’s I widened my stance which made my squat form like a single movement and very much more efficient. I could do 2 sets of 10 reps with more weight than my best competition squat (1 rep max)
