go into gym and just lift? dont follow plans, just follow how your body is feeling on the day? if your quads are still shot from squats a couple of days ago instead do deads?
i seem to make the best strength progress when i just follow this method opposed too a set plan
does anyone else here do this or does everyone just follow a specific plan??
too show this works my squat has gone from 100kg at the start of the year too 117.5kg and by the end of the week ill probably go for atleast 125kg
Most people start out doing what your doing. Most people never put on appreciable muscle. Most people waste alot of time in the gym with very little progress. Most people never learn about how much muscle compound lifts will put on you. Most people never get anywhere with their physique in any kind of timely manner if ever.
See my point?
I believe in instinctive/intuitive training, but that isn’t the same as having NO plan at all.
xXcelticXx (or whatever) used that with awesome results.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
I believe in instinctive/intuitive training, but that isn’t the same as having NO plan at all.[/quote]
hmm i guess i do preplan each workout the night before, but its not strict,
then i guess not following a strict workout wont be effective if your naive of certain aspects of weight lifting
Well, if you know what you’re doing (ie having a certain amount of experience) I don’t see the problem - AS LONG as you’re in fact making progress. Tho you need to find out, could you be making much more progress in a shorter time-span if you stuck to a fixed plan?
There is a saying that goes “if it works, don’t fuck with it.”
[quote]GetSwole wrote:
Most people start out doing what your doing. Most people never put on appreciable muscle. Most people waste alot of time in the gym with very little progress. Most people never learn about how much muscle compound lifts will put on you. Most people never get anywhere with their physique in any kind of timely manner if ever.
See my point?[/quote]
That’s funny because I haven’t made appreciable progress in 4 months and I’m at a loss as to why. (periodization didn’t work, eliminating extraneous isolation exercises didn’t work, varying rep/set ranges didn’t work, eating more didn’t work, increasing volume didn’t work, decreasing volume didn’t work, etc…)
Fuck.
Well, if you’re relatively new to it you’ll make some progress for a while, and you might even avoid developing imbalances without a plan.
But you’re still squatting a max of 117.5kg, soon 125kg…When you get stuck at 200kg you’re probably gonna need a plan.
I was directing that towards people who are new and really don’t know what their doing. I said it out of experience, most guys my age and a little younger than me just start going to the gym cuz their gonna get “jacked” so the sorority girls will like this (yes, I have actually been told this reason). They wander around the gym with no plan, no clue, and never get anywhere.
If you’re stuck on somethng, or your workout has become dull, it’s sometimes fun to just go in the gym and do whatever you feel like for that day, but I wouldnt make a habit of it.
I too make the best gains when I go in to the gym and say “I feel like doing this today” and just do it. When I over think my program, I find I get sub par results and just become bored knowing what workout I have to do that day.
I have been on strict workout plans of all kinds (bodybuilding, powerlifting, sports specific). I played football in college and had programs designed by very qualified professionals. When I just go in the gym, do new, challenging, unique lifts I make much better progress, and it stays fun.
If that is working for you, do it.
I know what body parts I’m going to work and have a general idea of what I’m going to do, but I make some pretty significant decisions depending on how the workout progresses.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=521351
I bolded the key points. If you’re a beginner, then flopping around the gym would not be beneficial. How do you actually know you’re progressing? If you’re keeping track, then to me you are following a program and not just roaming around.
Lesson #7: It’s Sometimes All Right To Not Have Training Goals
After lesson #6 you might be all “goaled” out. That’s good because the next lesson I want to share with you is the following �?? it’s sometimes okay to have no training goals. Blaspheme? I think not!
Train for long enough and you’ll come to realize that sometimes in life you need to consciously slip one set of goals onto the backburner of your priority stove and place another set of goals on the front where it’s hot.
For some, that means slipping their custom birdhouse construction hobby on their personal back burner so that they can focus on their health, physique and muscle strength. For some, they need to go in the opposite direction. Since it’s impossible to put all the important things in our life on the hottest burners, it’s important to give ourselves permission to juggle which things go where.
But make no mistake �?? putting something on the back burner doesn’t mean rank neglect. When I say that it’s sometimes okay to have no training goals, I’m not saying it’s okay to stop training and morph into a pudgy, hypercholesterolemic slob. Rather, I’m saying that it’s acceptable to simply maintain your physique while focusing on something else for a while.
For me, I’ve spent this year with training on the back burner. Again, I’m not neglecting my physique (as you’ll see in the pic below), but instead I’m simply maintaining what I’ve built while focusing on other things.
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
<<< If you’re a beginner, then flopping around the gym would not be beneficial. >>>[/quote]
I would say flopping around in the gym wouldn’t be beneficial for anybody and may end with you wrestling with the nice men in white coats =]
Beginners need some structure until they have an idea of what they’re doing and structure isn’t a BAD thing in any case. I just don’t see the point in fighting what your body is telling you in the name of adhering to a strict plan.
A plan is necessary simply because a newbie probably doesn’t exactly know just enough…why he shouldn’t do pulldowns instead of chins…they’re both for the back, right?
I usually have a plan, but if I don’t feel like I can finish 6 sets of 4 in the squat(lack of sleep, girlfriend issues, work problems, incomplete thesis, etc), I can adjust the plan. Maybe even pack it up and go home.
[quote]ddinante wrote:
A plan is necessary simply because a newbie probably doesn’t exactly know just enough…why he shouldn’t do pulldowns instead of chins…they’re both for the back, right?
I usually have a plan, but if I don’t feel like I can finish 6 sets of 4 in the squat(lack of sleep, girlfriend issues, work problems, incomplete thesis, etc), I can adjust the plan. Maybe even pack it up and go home.[/quote]
While I agree that beginners need structure, your post fell the fuck off the moment you mentioned that people shouldn’t do pulldowns. Where are you all getting these rules from? While many bodybuilders do chin ups, many also quit doing them when at their heaviest body weights. I do the pull down and several other exercises that hit my lats. All that has happened is that my lats grew bigger.
That means:
chin ups = good
pull downs = good
having a plan = good
AND
learning enough about yourself so that you don’t need a written plan ahead of time to know what is best for you also = good
[quote]LiftSmart wrote:
That’s funny because I haven’t made appreciable progress in 4 months and I’m at a loss as to why. (periodization didn’t work, eliminating extraneous isolation exercises didn’t work, varying rep/set ranges didn’t work, eating more didn’t work, increasing volume didn’t work, decreasing volume didn’t work, etc…)
Fuck.[/quote]
If you tried all those in a 4 month period that is the reason none of them worked.
I dissagree with the original poster. One of the bigest mistakes I’ve made in my 20 years of lifting is doing exactly what he is talking about. Just doing what I felt like. I see much better gains with a structured program that progressively increases the weight each workout.
I also now keep a constant log of all my workouts now. I know what I did last week, I know what I’m shooting for next week, and I can always months back to see my progress. It eleminates the need to guess at my numbers.
You must have misunderstood me…a newbie is likely to pick exercises without knowing pros and cons…he’s likely to copy the 240lb dude without knowing why…Congratulations on your lats:)
I need a plan simply because if I don’t have one, I am too easily distracted by the cd’s piled up in front of the stereo, or start trying to kill the damn fly that keeps landing on my forehead.
I like training alone in my own place, but I was also one of those kids that had problems staying focused. They have drugs to treat that now - the only thing they had back in the 70’s was a paddle.
[quote]rainjack wrote:
They have drugs to treat that now - the only thing they had back in the 70’s was a paddle.
[/quote]
Speechless:)