[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
Hey CTt! Thanks for the detailed answers. I appreciate it a lot.
- CT, Do you recommend progressing workout to workout? or week to week? E.G adding a set for the very next workout?
[/quote]
Progress week to week if possible. Volume progression (adding a set) is the easiest way to do things and the one best suited to a beginner or even an intermediate lifter. It’s much simpler to plan too.
For example:
Week 1: 3 sets/exercise
Week 2: 4 sets/exercise
Week 3: 5 sets/exercise
Week 4: 2 sets/exercise
[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
2) How many total reps should I aim for at the end of the week? Should I follow CW’s Rep/Set bible? Isnt the purpose of bumping the volume for size, and intensity for strength to be on the edge of overtraining?
[/quote]
Not necessarily to be on the verge of overtraining. The objective is to gradually increase the functional demands placed on the body and then give it some extra rest so that delayed progression (i.e. rebound) can occur.
[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
3) For the strength sessions, you stated 1-3, and 3-5 reps. How many sets do you recommend? How about for hypertrophy (10x3?)
[/quote]
For strength you can use either 1 or 2 exercises/session:
Exercise 1
4-6 sets of 1-3 reps
Exercise 2
3-4 sets of 3-5 reps
Or 1 exercise
Exercise 1
2-4 sets of 1-3 reps + 2-4 sets of 3-5 reps…
Some patterns to use in that case:
Pattern 1 (wave loading)
1 x 5, 1 x 3, 1 x 2, 1 x 5, 1 x 3, 1 x 2
Pattern 2 (plateau loading)
1 x 5, 1 x 5, 1 x 3, 1 x 3, 1 x 2, 1 x 2
Pattern 3 (plateau loading 2)
1 x 2, 1 x 2, 1 x 3, 1 x 3, 1 x 5, 1 x 5
Pattern 4 (plateau loading 3)
1 x 5, 1 x 5, 1 x 2, 1 x 2, 1 x 4, 1 x 4
Pattern 5 (ascending)
1 x 5, 1 x 4, 1 x 3, 1 x 2, 1 x 1
Pattern 6 (descending)
1 x 1, 1 x 2, 1 x 3, 1 x 4, 1 x 5
For hypertrophy purposes it’s best to train in the functional hypertrophy zone (6-8 reps) or hypertrophy zone (6-12 reps). Since you already are doing work in the 1-5 zone, performing a lot of sets of 3 reps (10x3) for the hypertrophy part would be redundant.
P.S. The strength portion of the workout will also stimulate hypertrophy gains.
[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
4) What is the difference between strength, and power? Which exercises do you recommend for power? reps and sets for power?
[/quote]
Strength = producing maximum muscle tension leading to a large force output with the objective of lifting heavy loads without regard to speed.
Power = producing maximum muscle tension leading to a large force output with the objective of accelerating a load as much as possible.
The basic power methods are:
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Traditional lifts with max acceleration using loads in the 45 to 55% range (lifted as fast as possible). Perform a low number of reps per set (2-5) to avoid loosing bar speed
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The Olympic lifts performed in the 75-85% range for 1-5 reps
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Ballistic lifts (movements including an actual projection, e.g. med ball throws, jump squats, etc.) Performed with 10 to 30% of your maximum for 5-10 reps
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Plyometrics/jumps performed with only your body as a source of resistance for 5-10 reps
[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
5)You stated that for strength, I will most likely only pick one strength exercise followed by 3 isolation exercises. What do you mean? Are the isolation exercises for strength also, or do they count for the hypertrophy work? I thought you were to do maybe 3x3 for strength on the bench, then something like 4x6 on bench for hypertrophy
[/quote]
No, you stay with only one objective per exercise. For a strength or power unit, you select 1-2 exercises; and for the hypertrophy unit you select 3.
If a certain day calls for 1 strength unit and 1 hypertrophy unit the workout could look like this:
STRENGTH UNIT
A. Bench press
1 x 5, 1 x 5, 1 x 2, 1 x 2, 1 x 4, 1 x 4
B. Barbell rowing
1 x 5, 1 x 5, 1 x 2, 1 x 2, 1 x 4, 1 x 4
HYPERTROPHY UNIT
C. Incline dumbbell press
4 x 6-8 reps
D. Lat pulldown
4 x 6-8 reps
E. Military press
4 x 6-8 reps
[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
6) When training for hypertrophy, would you recommend doing multiple exercises of just 1 and performing more reps? Such as 5x5 or 10x3? Are isolation exercises followed for this too?
[/quote]
For hypertrophy use either 6-8 reps or 8-12 reps. 3-5 sets per exercise are to be performed. You are already doing your low reps stuff earlier in the workout.
[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
7) When training for strength, how does it take 1/2 hour to do this? Wouldnt you just warm up? and perform cluster sets, rest pause?
[/quote]
Warming up takes around 2-3 rapid progressively higher sets with 45-60 sec. of rest (unless you bench press 500lbs and squat 600lbs!) so that’s around 3 min. per exercise. Then you have around 6 sets per exercise with 2 minutes of rest between sets, that’s 12-15 minutes per exercise. For 2 exercises that’s around 30-32 minutes.
[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
8) During the Accum phase, are you suppose to add any weight for the strength days? or just maintain weight?
[/quote]
Always try to add weight. If you can, great (you should be able to) if not, it’ll be for next week. Don’t force progression, but don’t retard it either!
[quote]Xfactor88 wrote:
9) On specialization days, for intensity, You stated one exercise in the 3-5 range, and 1 in the 6-8. Does that mean just 1 set of 3-5, and then 1 set of 6-8? Or is the volume higher?
[/quote]
No that means one exercise in which all the sets are performed in the 3-5 reps range (3-5 sets of 3-5 reps for the exercise) and one exercise with all the sets in the 6-8 reps range (so 3-5 sets of 6-8 reps).