[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
dday wrote:
Hey guys, I’m trying DC for the first time, just started a few weeks ago and LOVE IT! It’s everything that’s been missing from my training for years, one problem I’m a home gym guy. While reading up on DC training over at IM I found a thread that said home gym guys shouldn’t use DC because you’ll run out of exercises but I can’t find anything that says when or why to change them?
I searched their site for hours last night looking for something that says when or why to change but cannot find a clear answer.
I don’t want to fight the system or anything but due to funds and a newborn I can’t afford a gym membership. Any idea how long I can train at home before I’m forced to give up DC or get a membership.
FYI I have a cage, smith, OLY platform, 800lbs of weight, lat pull, leg extension/curl attachment 1in & 2in adjustable DB handles and assorted misc items.
Thanks in advance for you help.
You didn’t do a very thorough search, that exercise-changing is a core part of the philosophy (not to be confused with the triple rotation).
Whenever an exercise stalls, you replace it with a similar one.
General rule of thumb is to at least get +2 reps and/or a weight-increase every time you do the same exercise (i.e. every 2 weeks per exercise). If you stall or regress, or progress just slows down too much (like a rep every 2 weeks), then you switch to a different exercise…
However, if you do stall, you generally give the exercise another chance 2 weeks later before switching it out, as the reason for your lack of progress may have been a bad day or lack of food or whatever. If you don’t manage to make appreciable progress twice in a row on the same exercise, switch it out.
Example: Low Incline BB Presses, rep-range is 12-20RP
session 1 - 29520RP
session 2(2 weeks later) - 30521RP
session 3 - 31519RP
session 4 - 32517RP
session 5 - 33513RP (uh-oh, reps almost at the bottom of the range)
session 6 - 33514RP (essentially counts as stalling, only +1 rep… We only hit every exercise every 2 weeks, so that’s not good enough)
session 7 - 33517RP (second chance and it worked… Probably had some food or rest trouble or whatever previously)
session 8 - 34515RP
session 9 - 35012RP (bah)
session 10 - 35013RP
session 11 - 350*14RP (that’s it, progress has slowed down way too much… we’re replacing this exercise with, say, hammer-strength wide-incline or so)
All numbers are fictional, of course. You may be able to add 20 lbs and still get 3 more reps than last time, or you may have to work up in reps more often and you may be able to keep an exercise in the rotation for much longer or not… I just chose to make it look simple above.
[/quote]
Well I wasn’t going to take up any more space in here but wanted to say thanks but since C_C’s PM function isn’t working one last post from me in the DC thread.
Thanks C_C and Sento for your advice.
I was basically confused as to when to switch, read to much into what they were saying about switching exercises. From your suggestion I think I’ll run through a few more weeks on this blast and move along to something more suited to a home gym, one day I’ll go back to a commercial gym and pick up DC training. Thanks again everyone.
