I’ve only been lifting again for just over month now so still very much beginning.
I’m doing 3 sets per muscle twice a week so 6 in total. I thought it makes sense to start with less volume and add it as needed rather than start high.
So my aim is to add 1 rep per set per workout until I get to 14 then i add weight to bring the reps down to 8 and start again. So far I’ve been able to do that week on week for everything.
However the last couple of workouts my biceps and triceps feel pretty much recovered and feel like I could work them again the next day. The bigger muscles, back and chest etc. feel sore for 2-3 days.
I work them to failure, the last couple of reps are painful and I fail mid rep.
The main question is should I not worry about whether I feel sore or to what degree they feel worked if I’m able to consistently add a rep and then weight or would I benefit from adding a set?
Hard to answer without seeing more detail on the program you are currently following. Can you lay out what exercises you are doing for each ‘muscle’ and how often. In my experience general muscle soreness is not a good indication of whether it is recovered and can be trained again. But seeing a decline in progress definitely can be. If your are still progressing work out to workout and you are enjoying the way you are training then just keep at it. After a couple more months you could look to change things up a little, but no need to yet of what you are doing is working.
Soreness is something that you both should and shouldn’t worry about.
You’re only a month in so chances are you’ll be a little less sore in general fairly soon. I think a lot of people needlessly talk themselves out of lifting while sore, so don’t do that.
Whenever I followed a sensible progression structure I was sore nearly all of the time to some degree at least. That’s when I made big gains. I always found that warming up with the movement and working up in weight always resulted in me performing fine and continuing to add strength over several years.
I lift like an old fart now, which is a different approach than trying to get stronger and more muscular. I’m just trying to hang on to it with the least amount of suck at this point, which isn’t ideal for most or probably even me.
So it’s basically push pull legs twice a week. I’ve notice the lack of soreness most with push so I’ll lay that out. I do it on Wednesday and Sunday, sometimes Saturday.
I do overhead press first, then bench press then skull crushers. Only 3 sets of each until I stop progressing then I’ll add a set as I need it.
I do overhead press first because I prefer it to bench and I found that doing bench first made me weaker in the press but not the other way around.
I basically picked a weight that I could do 7-8reps with, aimed to add 1 rep per set per workout until I hit 14 reps then add weight to bring me back down.
Yesterday however I thought I’d do a lot more volume with my triceps just to see the added volume caused more soreness. So I did 3 sets of skullcrushers for 12 reps then 3 sets of single arm pull downs with a rope. Huge pump, last few reps were painful on each set but today apart from feeling a tiny bit like I’ve used them they aren’t sore at all. If I hadn’t known I’d lifted yesterday I’d think I was fine to go again
That’s what I assumed. In my mind the best measure is if the weight is going up/I can do more reps for the same weight. It just felt strange to go from being pretty sore for a few days after to barely anything. But I guess if the weight/reps are moving in the right direction it doesn’t matter too much
It sounds like you’re figuring it out. You’ll come to know what normal soreness is, which can help you spot excessive or unexpected soreness that should give you pause down the line.
OH press
Bench
Skull crushers
3 sets of each movement
What does you pull and legs workouts look like ??
This is an easy path to go down, we often feel like we need to do more and that more is better. Certainly adding an isolation movement like pull downs to the end of the session is going to increase the pump, but the question you need to ask yourself is whether that will help you progress on the other movements next week or hinder your progress as you need more recovery. Unfortunately the only way to tell is to add something and see how you go. If you keep progressing great, if you don’t then it may be too much volume.
Pull is deadlift, pull down with a V bar (feels better on my wrists) and then barbell curls. Sets is the same as my pull days as is the method behind the weight and reps.
The difference will the pull day regarding soreness is my biceps don’t feel sore in the same way as my triceps but my traps and lower back feel worked.
Legs is honestly lacking due to my job. I’m a walking postman. Whilst I only deliver once or twice a week and the rest of my time is spent inside I can’t afford to have any soreness (ironic due to the post!) when I’m delivering as I have to walk between 6-7 miles.
In 2 weeks I am off work for 2 weeks so I plan to do some squats and see how long it takes for my legs to feel good again and then do them accordingly in the week.
Regarding the volume your probably right, it was more of a one off experiment to see if adding more did anything different. I did find that I much prefer 1 arm rope pull downs to skull crushers. One arm always feels like it’s doing more work than the other
This might be out of your wheel house but I was given a 50kg sandbag by a friend that didn’t use it. I’ve filled it and do a few reps using it as an atlas stone. I know it’s more strength than size but if I wanted to incorporate it where would I do it? It’s very similar to a deadlift so maybe deadlift on one pull day and use the bag on the second? G
I would keep the sand bag work as separate and use it more for strength / conditioning. You could use your leg day to do conditioning, as you mentioned you weren’t training legs. Or If you don’t want to have a separate day, then I would add some sandbag work to the end of your pull day, as a conditioning / finisher.
I am not sure how easy or hard that weight of sandbag is for you to lift. Can you lift the bag ? Can you carry it ? Can you shoulder it ? Can you throw it over your shoulder ?
Yea at the moment I’m not doing legs. My aim is to do on Mondays after I’ve done the walking at work so I have a full week.
I have Thursday mornings free so I could do it then. It wouldn’t negatively impact deadlifting on Tuesday and Friday would it?
I can shoulder it without too much difficulty, I wouldn’t say it’s easy though, maybe 7/10. I have literally nothing to go off but it feels like I could maybe do 55-60kg. Ive just messed around with it a little, done maybe 3-5 in a row but that was a few months ago.
I did get a 32kg kettlebell for cheap before I had a garage that I could put a rack in. I got up to being able to do 10 swings but then I moved to where I am now which has a garage, got bored with it, sold it and put the money towards a rack. Before that I had done the 10x10 in 5min thing (swings only) with a 20kg
OK so if you can get it to your shoulder, I am going to assume you can do the basic movements:
1 “pick it” , this means up to chest (off the floor into your lap, then arms round it and stand up kinda like putting an atlas stone on something)
2. shoulder it
3. over the shoulder
4. pick it and carry bear hug style
I would simply build some strength / conditioning sessions using these four movements. Your free Thursday morning would be perfect.
The pick - A simple EMOM session, this means Every Minute on the Minute. At the start of every minute pick the bag up then drop it, then rest for the remainder of the minute. Do this for 10 minutes - so total 10 picks.
If after a few weeks this gets too easy you can just increase to 2 or 3 picks every minute, or increase the time to a max of 20 mins.
Sandbag to shoulder - For this one I would suggest you set a time limit and just get as many reps as you can.
Maybe start with 10 mins and increase to 20 as it gets easier. These are pretty hard so the rest needed to catch your breath between reps will limit the amount you can do.
Sandbag over shoulder - Do the same as with to the shoulder, I think these are a little easier as it doesn’t require you to balance on the shoulder and you can be more explosive. These can also be done EMOM style 1, 2 or 3 reps every minute. Start slow and build up. Again keep session to max 20 mins.
Pick and Carry - I would do these as an EMOM session, but as these are pretty hard I would go every third minute. At the start of every third minute pick the bag up, and carry it 20m (60ft) turn round and carry it back, then rest for the remainder of the 3 minutes. Do this for 10 rounds. You could start with doing only 5 rounds and add a round as they get easier. If you cant walk up and down the road because you don’t have space, you can also march on the spot, just count 40 steps.
I’ll give it a go this week