[quote]slotan wrote:
wannbeBIG,
I’ve skimmed through your posts on PGA’s thread and here, and I’ve seen you repeating some errors that I did in my training. I’ll try to give you some specific advice, which is largely a rehash of all the things I learned from articles and forum here, but in one place.
THIS WILL BE LONG!
Potential problems:
1) Not enough time per program/rep scheme. It is quite possible that you’re expecting too much in relatively small time frame. You could be progressing, but not really seeing it… and you just move to something different. A solution here would be to set up a scheme where you can add a bit each time, so you know you’re progressing, but at the same time, not that much, so the progress is sustainable for longer.
2) Too high intensity and too low volume. In the end, you have to be pushing bigger weights, that is true. But, it is possible you start too close to your PR levels, and burn out after a few weeks. So you end up using too little volume for the amount of food you’re eating (and you did have glandular issues).
3) Too high volume. At the first glance, this may seem contrary to previous point, but what I’m saying is this: maybe your total work capacity is way lower that you think. Even though your previous programs were oriented around less sets and higher intensity, that still can be too much for you to recover from. I hope this makes sense 
4) Lack of aerobic actitity. Some people seem to gain way less fat if they include some aerobic training. It doesn’t have to be nothing fancy, just 20 mins of light/moderate intensity might make a difference.
5) Eating too much. You work hard and eat hard, but the whole effort is too overwhelming for your body. Maybe you’ll do better with eating less, and if the need be, doing less.
Potential solutions:
I would suggest setting up some kind of a cycle, where, generally speaking, you start with weights you can easily handle for prescribed number of reps. From that point, you increase slowly, adding sets or weight or both. When things get tough, you push hard for a week or two, than lay off. Start the cycle again with a bit more than the previous time.
Rep schemes that lend themselves to this kind of set-up include:
1) 5x5 with same weight. Start with your 10RM, maybe even less, and do 5 work sets with 2-2.5min rest. Add 5lbs to Squats and Deads and just 2.5lbs to Bench, Rows and such. Theoretically, you should end up doing 5x5 with your old 5RM. Pracitally, as the weights increase, you’ll feel fatigue building up. There you can do two things:
a) Stop the cycle when you start missing reps in the 4th and 5th work set. Take a week off, and restart the cycle with 5-10lbs more than in the previous run. I recommend this the first time you try it.
b) Keep increasing the weight every week, and drop sets where you can’t do 5 reps. Eg. you did 100x5x5, tried 105 next time and got 5,5,5,4,3. Next week, you try 110 for 3x5. Cycle ends when you end up with just one work set.
2) 5-10x3 to 5-10x5. This is an approach orthogonal to the above. You start with a weight about 6-8RM. Keep doing sets with a fixed rest, say 1.5 or 2 minutes, until 3 reps become hard, near failure. Whatever number sets you did, you will be doing one set less in the following workouts; so you’ll have an idea of your work capacity. Try adding a rep to the beginning sets every time. When you get 4 reps in all sets, you move to 5. When you get all 5, take a week off and then move the weight up.
3) Ladders . This might prove to be quite beneficial in your situation. The idea of ladders is to maximize volume without buring yourself out. You start with about 8RM and do reps 1/2/3/4/5/1/2/3/4/1/2/3… Rest about 20 sec per rep you did in the previous set, so the rest times would go 20/40/60/80/20/40 etc. Don’t do more than 4 reps in a set and never force or strain in any set. If the going gets tough, terminate the set and start again from one rep. You improve by adding sets, in ladder fashion, for 3-4 weeks, than you bump the weight up and do just one “trip” up the ladder.
Nothing of this is revolutionary and has been mentioned on this site and included in articles many times. Keep in mind what you’re trying to accomplish, pick one approach and stick to it!
[/quote]
and I REALLY appreciate your time too mate! nice one and yeah, it does make sense and you could well be right.
“1) Not enough time per program/rep scheme. It is quite possible that you’re expecting too much in relatively small time frame.”
so 12-14 weeks insnt enough time to give a routine to see if it works?
“Too high intensity and too low volume.[/b] In the end, you have to be pushing bigger weights, that is true. But, it is possible you start too close to your PR levels,”
firstly, what exactly are PR levels?
point 3- does make sense
point 4 - I do 20 mins 2 times a week in the morning after a whey shake - only recentley started doing this though.
point 5 - like above ^^ I’ve recentley lowered my calorie intake
“I would suggest setting up some kind of a cycle, where, generally speaking, you start with weights you can easily handle for prescribed number of reps. From that point, you increase slowly, adding sets or weight or both. When things get tough, you push hard for a week or two, than lay off. Start the cycle again with a bit more than the previous time.”
so basically, if I had a 15 rep max of say 100kg on dealift, I’d use that for 5 reps, and increase the weights each week. so Im basically starting off REALLY REALLY easy and making small weight increases weekly and when it gets too difficlt to lift, drop the weight back to say 105kg and go again?
I’ve been thinking about that for a while now - Ive been thinking about how I can progress without things grinding to a halt and that’s one of the things that sprung to mind.
you mentioned 5x5, I did use this a while back and sort of did it the way you mentioned in the fact that I used 5x5 using the same weight and I added weight until I couldnt make 5 sets of 5 reps, so it looked like this:
100kg 5 reps
100kg 5 reps
100kg 5 reps
100kg 4 reps
100kg 3 reps
then the following week I’d go for 5 reps on all 5 sets and once I had got there, Id up the weight again and repeat. I always rested for 2 mins on the smaller lifts and 3 mins on the bigger lifts like deadlifts. My strength did go up- I started off at 80kg (176lbs) but that was probably too light to begin with anyway on deads and got to about 257lbs but that was while I was on a cycle. Im coming off gear for a while now anyway. I wanna be able to gain properly natural.
“You start with about 8RM and do reps 1/2/3/4/5/1/2/3/4/1/2/3… Rest about 20 sec per rep you did in the previous set, so the rest times would go 20/40/60/80/20/40 etc”
could you elaborate a bit more on that, i didnt follow it properly (and Ive never come across this sort of training before WOOHOO lol)(any links?)
“5-10x3 to 5-10x5[/b]. This is an approach orthogonal to the above. You start with a weight about 6-8RM. Keep doing sets with a fixed rest, say 1.5 or 2 minutes, until 3 reps become hard, near failure. Whatever number sets you did, you will be doing one set less in the following workouts; so you’ll have an idea of your work capacity. Try adding a rep to the beginning sets every time. When you get 4 reps in all sets, you move to 5. When you get all 5, take a week off and then move the weight up.”
so, let me get this straight:
6-8 rep max, using the same weight throughout.
set 1, then rest 1.5 mins
set 2, then rest 1.5 mins - maybe this set will be 1 rep short on the last set?
set 3, rest 1.5 mins
set 4, - very near failure on the 3rd rep
then the next time i will be able to do more reps but I won’t do the 4th set? Im a little confused here too.
I’m liking the sound of ‘b’ on the 5x5 though
really appreciate your time mate. will put some of those words into action in a few weeks time- im in PCT, so won’t be making much in the way of gains for a few weeks anyway defitely some food for thought there though
this is why I came to the site and this is the sort of thing Im looking for!
thanks again.
- but I have sent 2 emails over the weekend but not had any replies just yet.