I’ve only been weight training for about 5 months. I’ve put on an estimated 15lbs lbm since beginning. I was using a program shown to me by Charles Staley using all compound exercises, 3xweek frequency and I got results. I’m currently using the same program/rep scheme but have just changed the exercises (seated cable row instead of bent-row, incline bench instead of flat bench, etc.). I don’t if it’s a mental thing or not, but it seems like I’m not making as much progress as before. I’m still getting stronger every week but the hypertrophy has seemed to slow down. Is changing the rep scheme more important than changing the exercises? Or should I perhaps try a different program all toegether? I was thinking about trying ABBH but I can’t yet do 5x10 of dips or pull-ups. What do you guys think I should do? Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
Rim
Is this is a dumb question? If there’s any articles about this I should read before I ask anything else please point them out to me. Thanks.
Rim
[quote]Riminator wrote:
I’ve only been weight training for about 5 months. I’ve put on an estimated 15lbs lbm since beginning. I was using a program shown to me by Charles Staley using all compound exercises, 3xweek frequency and I got results. I’m currently using the same program/rep scheme but have just changed the exercises (seated cable row instead of bent-row, incline bench instead of flat bench, etc.). I don’t if it’s a mental thing or not, but it seems like I’m not making as much progress as before. I’m still getting stronger every week but the hypertrophy has seemed to slow down. Is changing the rep scheme more important than changing the exercises? Or should I perhaps try a different program all toegether? I was thinking about trying ABBH but I can’t yet do 5x10 of dips or pull-ups. What do you guys think I should do? Thanks in advance for any help or advice.
Rim[/quote]
Variety is important. I would go ahead and do a totally different program. Try one of Chad or Christian’s programs. Also remember that no matter what, gains are going to slow down. Newbie gains don’t last forever. So keep at it and be patient.
I would recommend looking at some of the programs Chad Waterbury has put togheter, many of them are 3 days a week and would fit with your scheudle. For me perosnally, I have found that varying the rep range (4-5 vs 8-10, etc) is more important than exercise variation. If you include both and change every 8-12 weeks, you will keep progress coming. I roatate my rep range weekly and my exercises every 10 weeks. On the 5th and 10th week, I reduce volume by half and do full body only twice a week. This has kept my body fresh.
You mentioned gaining weight. The most important factor to check is your diet! Look at the massive eating articles. Diet is critical to putting on weight, and most people ignore this element.
[quote]CRisenhoover wrote:
I would recommend looking at some of the programs Chad Waterbury has put togheter, many of them are 3 days a week and would fit with your scheudle. For me perosnally, I have found that varying the rep range (4-5 vs 8-10, etc) is more important than exercise variation. If you include both and change every 8-12 weeks, you will keep progress coming. I roatate my rep range weekly and my exercises every 10 weeks. On the 5th and 10th week, I reduce volume by half and do full body only twice a week. This has kept my body fresh.
You mentioned gaining weight. The most important factor to check is your diet! Look at the massive eating articles. Diet is critical to putting on weight, and most people ignore this element.[/quote]
Cool. Thanks a lot for your replies. I just read Brawn and came across the part where he mentions varying the intensity (rep range) being more important that changing the exercises as well.
Rim
You can subsitute Pulldowns for Chins on ABBH, and maybe some sort of decline bench press for chins. This has been discussed before, so just look at the end of the article, or do a search for exercise selection.
Also, when picking a new program, try to pick one that is like nothing you have done so far.
Good Luck