[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
why do you alternate exercises?
what is that accomplishing, specifically? [/quote]
Why don’t you read the article by John Meadows that came out today? There is nothing wrong with alternating tris to bis.[/quote]
Who said there is?
Did you read my posts afterwards?
Why dont you spend more time lifting before running your mouth. DebraD has a better back than you. [/quote]
L O fucking L!!
Bonez strikes again![/quote]
Ha I actually laughed at that one to. Oops if my statement came off as I was talking down to you, as I sure wasn’t.
I attempted to edit the original post after seeing your other posts, but this forum never saves em right.
However, your statement
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
why do you alternate exercises?
what is that accomplishing, specifically? [/quote]
makes it sound like alternating exercises is wrong.[/quote]
I asked because I wanted to know if he was doing it for a reason. His reason is really the only reason I can think of to alternate exercises, and it’s worked for a few peopel I know.
But I also know plenty of people that do all their stuff separately and grow from that. I prefer this approach but if the OP has tried out both ways and prefers one over the other, that’s a perfect reason to choose one or the other.
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
why do you alternate exercises?
what is that accomplishing, specifically? [/quote]
Why don’t you read the article by John Meadows that came out today? There is nothing wrong with alternating tris to bis.[/quote]
Who said there is?
Did you read my posts afterwards?
Why dont you spend more time lifting before running your mouth. DebraD has a better back than you. [/quote]
L O fucking L!!
Bonez strikes again![/quote]
Ha I actually laughed at that one to. Oops if my statement came off as I was talking down to you, as I sure wasn’t.
I attempted to edit the original post after seeing your other posts, but this forum never saves em right.
However, your statement
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
why do you alternate exercises?
what is that accomplishing, specifically? [/quote]
makes it sound like alternating exercises is wrong.[/quote]
I asked because I wanted to know if he was doing it for a reason. His reason is really the only reason I can think of to alternate exercises, and it’s worked for a few peopel I know.
But I also know plenty of people that do all their stuff separately and grow from that. I prefer this approach but if the OP has tried out both ways and prefers one over the other, that’s a perfect reason to choose one or the other. [/quote]
Surprised you didn’t bring up your “flexing” trick. Been working on my left arm using that tightening/flexing technique where you squeeze hard with no weight, for a few months now…and my left arm is responding better and actually getting a better peak.
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
why do you alternate exercises?
what is that accomplishing, specifically? [/quote]
To give the muscle I just hit a little time to rest before I hit it again.
For example, if I just did ez bar curls, my bis are a little fatigued, so if I go straight into another bicep exercise I wouldnt be able to do as much weight or reps. On the other hand, if I do a tricep exercise next, they can rest while I do db skull crushers. Then when I get to db curls my bis will be a little stronger.[/quote]
Smith cgp or HS dips
[/quote]
This.
Smith close grips and HS dips are my main triceps strength/mass exercise. The cool thing about using these pieces of equipment is that you can even try doing it uni-laterally. On the smith sometimes I’ll do single arm “close” grip presses where I grab the bar almost in the middle.
HS dips are great too because of the adjustable seat. You can move it up so you’re in that range of motion where you can leave your chest out of the movement (mostly) and put all the emphasis on your tri’s. Also try squeezing your tri’s and holding the contraction for a second or two at the end of the movement.
Ok I am so confused on this ramping thing…
If you are already warrmed up, what is the point of ramping and why do you only do one set to failure?
lets look at an example from today…
I do a couple sets of light rope pushdowns to warm my tris up, then I go to do pjr’s or skulls whatever you wanna call them:
I put 10 on each side of the EZ bar and rep it 8 times to do a light first set.
then I add a 5 on each side for the next set and do 8…I could have done 12 but I stopped at 8 because peopple on here always say to do the last set at failure.
The next set I keep the weight the same and do 5. I could not have done any more reps with strict form so I “failed” at five…
…as you can see, I feel like I limited myself on the second set by not going all the way and saving for the last failure set… I am so damn confused at this whole ramping thing…
Also, when I do incline db press, I cannot keep my shoulder blades squeezed the whole time, and I feel like a “clicking” thing in my right shoulder, kind of feels like something is rubbing past something else or something…no pain… but I obviously am concerned… It has been like this for months and months.
I started doing “broomstick stretches” lately so maybe that will help?
Are you supposed to keep your shoulder blades squeezed when incline db pressing? I do not experience this clicking and rubbing when my shoulders are not squeezed… Is it really that necessary to keep your shoulder blades squeezed during incline db pressing? I mean I know most people say to, but what exactly is the reason…
As you can imagine, these two issues (this and the ramping one) are grinding my gears.
[quote]eyegainweightbig wrote:
Ok I am so confused on this ramping thing…
If you are already warrmed up, what is the point of ramping and why do you only do one set to failure?
lets look at an example from today…
I do a couple sets of light rope pushdowns to warm my tris up, then I go to do pjr’s or skulls whatever you wanna call them:
I put 10 on each side of the EZ bar and rep it 8 times to do a light first set.
then I add a 5 on each side for the next set and do 8…I could have done 12 but I stopped at 8 because peopple on here always say to do the last set at failure.
The next set I keep the weight the same and do 5. I could not have done any more reps with strict form so I “failed” at five…
…as you can see, I feel like I limited myself on the second set by not going all the way and saving for the last failure set… I am so damn confused at this whole ramping thing… [/quote]
ramping is kind of a feel thing and really becomes necessary when you start pushing serious weight. for PJRs i might do a top set of 90 for 8, if i didnt do a couple sets before that id wreck myself! your ramps might need to be smaller. maybe start with 5s on each side, 10s on each side and than 12.5 a side?
[quote]eyegainweightbig wrote:
Also, when I do incline db press, I cannot keep my shoulder blades squeezed the whole time, and I feel like a “clicking” thing in my right shoulder, kind of feels like something is rubbing past something else or something…no pain… but I obviously am concerned… It has been like this for months and months.
I started doing “broomstick stretches” lately so maybe that will help?
Are you supposed to keep your shoulder blades squeezed when incline db pressing? I do not experience this clicking and rubbing when my shoulders are not squeezed… Is it really that necessary to keep your shoulder blades squeezed during incline db pressing? I mean I know most people say to, but what exactly is the reason…
As you can imagine, these two issues (this and the ramping one) are grinding my gears.[/quote]
Bodybuilding requires skill. Incline pressing is just one you have to practice more.
[quote]eyegainweightbig wrote:
Ok I am so confused on this ramping thing…
If you are already warrmed up, what is the point of ramping and why do you only do one set to failure?
lets look at an example from today…
I do a couple sets of light rope pushdowns to warm my tris up, then I go to do pjr’s or skulls whatever you wanna call them:
I put 10 on each side of the EZ bar and rep it 8 times to do a light first set.
then I add a 5 on each side for the next set and do 8…I could have done 12 but I stopped at 8 because peopple on here always say to do the last set at failure.
The next set I keep the weight the same and do 5. I could not have done any more reps with strict form so I “failed” at five…
…as you can see, I feel like I limited myself on the second set by not going all the way and saving for the last failure set… I am so damn confused at this whole ramping thing… [/quote]
I understand your confusion, when I first read about it it didnt make any sense to me either but after doing it for a couple of weeks I “got it”. I have been doing it for two years now and made much better progress.
The reasons I do it are: by not going to failure on the earlier sets you have a LOT more left in the tank for later sets, I can simply get more reps with heavy weight if I dont go to failure until the last set. I have challenged a couple of guys to try it, after two weeks their total poundage was way higher.
The Reps on most sets come up fast, feel great and are done with perfect form. I feel like if I’m going to failure every set than my form is shit for the last two reps on every set and that engrains bad habits.
Its not just the warming up, it also takes me a few heavier sets to get totally mentally switched on, after I’ve done two increasingly heavy sets the third set often feels lighter even though its 10 pounds heavier.
I’m not sure if this is the best method for beginners because the increments have to be so small or the early sets arent heavy enough, for an intermediate lifter like me though I definately recomend it.
ps if you can do 8 reps comfortably on one set and then the next set with the same weight you can only get 5 I would say you need to take a longer rest.
[quote]eyegainweightbig wrote:
Also, when I do incline db press, I cannot keep my shoulder blades squeezed the whole time, and I feel like a “clicking” thing in my right shoulder, kind of feels like something is rubbing past something else or something…no pain… but I obviously am concerned… It has been like this for months and months.
I started doing “broomstick stretches” lately so maybe that will help?
Are you supposed to keep your shoulder blades squeezed when incline db pressing? I do not experience this clicking and rubbing when my shoulders are not squeezed… Is it really that necessary to keep your shoulder blades squeezed during incline db pressing? I mean I know most people say to, but what exactly is the reason…
As you can imagine, these two issues (this and the ramping one) are grinding my gears.[/quote]
It is entirely possible that you are rounding your shoulders instead or messing up in some other way (shrugging your shoulders more than you are retracting/squeezing your shoulder blades etc).
It’s more difficult to set up properly on DB exercises if you have to fall back with the weights in hand at the beginning…
Also consider your elbow position, tucking them a little may help… Depends.
[quote]eyegainweightbig wrote:
Ok I am so confused on this ramping thing…
If you are already warrmed up, what is the point of ramping and why do you only do one set to failure?
lets look at an example from today…
I do a couple sets of light rope pushdowns to warm my tris up, then I go to do pjr’s or skulls whatever you wanna call them:
I put 10 on each side of the EZ bar and rep it 8 times to do a light first set.
then I add a 5 on each side for the next set and do 8…I could have done 12 but I stopped at 8 because peopple on here always say to do the last set at failure.
The next set I keep the weight the same and do 5. I could not have done any more reps with strict form so I “failed” at five…
…as you can see, I feel like I limited myself on the second set by not going all the way and saving for the last failure set… I am so damn confused at this whole ramping thing… [/quote]
PJR’s and skulls are totally different movements. There is no movement at the upper arm (or very little) during a skullcrusher, and the bar comes down on your forehead or nose area… PJR’s are a pullover+extension hybrid.
What you are doing as far as ramping makes no sense to me…
You did:
EZ Bar + 20 x 8
EZ Bar + 30 x 8
EZ Bar + 30 AGAIN x 5
How does that make sense? You should either have done the +30 set for as many as you can (if it’s PJR’s, I’d stick with plenty of reps… It’s not a power movement… You can tear your long head here after all… If you do them with less range of motion and make them more of a regular EZ behind head extension then you could go heavier)…
Or you could have gone EZ Bar + 40 or whatever to failure…
Also, if you hit 30x8 and then 30x5 the first set must have either been close to failure or the second set wasn’t… Or you only took a few seconds rest or something… The rep numbers make no sense.
Regular ramping/flat pyramid: You increase the weight each set. You don’t have to do the same number of reps on all warm-ups… You can do 8, 5, 3, work set (8-12 for example, or whatever) to conserve energy for your last set… Or as you did, all 8’s or something (but then it makes no sense to do a set of 8 way short of failure and then use the same weight again for 5).
this realy helped alot and cleared up some confusion. I really like that doing this as oppsed to 3 sets of 8 reps…
I did this today on every exercise, for example bb rows:
95: 8 reps
115: 5 reps
135: 3 reps
155: 10 times (couldnt get any more with good form and squeezing shoulder blades)
…I definately felt better doing this as oppsed to 8 reps on every set leading up to the last one…
Good. That’s how I trained for the majority of my training “career”, although I still spaced things out a little more.
If you have trouble getting stronger, go heavy (3-5 or whatever, the better your technique and setup and the more comfortable you are with the movement, the heavier you can safely go) on a main exercise before your higher rep stuff… Then maybe another progression exercise for moderate reps. Then the higher rep stuff…
If you don’t feel it that day, i.e. weights you normally get easy feel way too heavy or bad on the tendons… Then go very light and for high reps instead…
If you ever want to do higher reps on all sets again… Consider the following:
If it’s some movement like one-arm overhead DB extensions where you don’t want to go too heavy, or whatever, or you want to get more blood flowing in the area… Then sets of 10+ with not-too-great weight jumps can work well. Just not for your main progression -focused exercises.
If it’s a main movement, then if you want to do 8 or 10 or whatever on every set, go with bigger weight jumps.
Obviously doing, say, 135x8 if your heaviest set would be with 145 or 155 would tire you needlessly. This is fairly individual though…
yeah I definately would not be able to get as many reps with 165 if the set before it I do 135X8, which is why 135X3 worked better.
So are you saying the first exercise for a bodypart should be low reps (3-5) last set, then the second different exercise 8-10 on the last set, and the last exercise 10+ on the last set?