Sets, Warm Up: Newb Questions.

Training Over 35 Lifter
1

I’ll be 35 this month, so I thought I would just start posting here…

I have been lifting for 3 months, and all has been going well. I have been on the furniture diet (whats in my drawers going to my chest) and have lost maybe 4 pounds. Weight wasn’t my goal, but my pants are loose and my shirts are tight, and that feels way better.

Anyway, I may have kind of stalled. Lately I have been getting a little more sore. Not a muscle ach but maybe a bone or tendon kind of thing, a dull, notice it lying in bed, or right when I stretch for the first movement of the exercise. I have been just jumping on the bench or machine and doing my exercise. My target was to stay between 5 and 12 reps for all sets, done to failure, waiting 1.5 minutes between sets. If I break through 12, I added more weight and started again (all sets the same weight).

Now, instead of being within 5 or so reps the first and last set are getting further apart, and in some instances I will get 20 reps in the first set, then do only 6 in the third set. It seems I should be doing a warm up of low weight, and I thin that this would benefit me.

How do you do a warm up (from someone who has only done exercise to failure or near failure)? Is there an accepted rule of thumb for this or do I just need to figure out what I need?

It seems like every system has their own theory about the weight for each set, number of reps, time between sets, anyway huge variations. Does anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking of dropping the max reps to 8 or 10, then in the 3rd set go until failure/near failure. Or maybe now with the warm up, just do 2 more sets.

I am going to build a power rack after the holidays. I have acquired an olympic style set and am figuring out exactly how I want it done so I will be making changes to my routine when the home gym is up and running, and will stick with what I am doing now for another month (any probably posting something just as stupid then), just change to a warm up and some other minor things. When this gets established, I was thinking about going to a more HIT method to keep my time a little more under control. I don’t have the drive to stay and sacrifice for 5 sets.

Thanks.

2

[quote]Section 8 wrote:
I’ll be 35 this month, so I thought I would just start posting here…

I have been lifting for 3 months, and all has been going well. I have been on the furniture diet (whats in my drawers going to my chest) and have lost maybe 4 pounds. Weight wasn’t my goal, but my pants are loose and my shirts are tight, and that feels way better.

Anyway, I may have kind of stalled. Lately I have been getting a little more sore. Not a muscle ach but maybe a bone or tendon kind of thing, a dull, notice it lying in bed, or right when I stretch for the first movement of the exercise. I have been just jumping on the bench or machine and doing my exercise. My target was to stay between 5 and 12 reps for all sets, done to failure, waiting 1.5 minutes between sets. If I break through 12, I added more weight and started again (all sets the same weight).

Now, instead of being within 5 or so reps the first and last set are getting further apart, and in some instances I will get 20 reps in the first set, then do only 6 in the third set. It seems I should be doing a warm up of low weight, and I thin that this would benefit me.

How do you do a warm up (from someone who has only done exercise to failure or near failure)? Is there an accepted rule of thumb for this or do I just need to figure out what I need?

It seems like every system has their own theory about the weight for each set, number of reps, time between sets, anyway huge variations. Does anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking of dropping the max reps to 8 or 10, then in the 3rd set go until failure/near failure. Or maybe now with the warm up, just do 2 more sets.

I am going to build a power rack after the holidays. I have acquired an olympic style set and am figuring out exactly how I want it done so I will be making changes to my routine when the home gym is up and running, and will stick with what I am doing now for another month (any probably posting something just as stupid then), just change to a warm up and some other minor things. When this gets established, I was thinking about going to a more HIT method to keep my time a little more under control. I don’t have the drive to stay and sacrifice for 5 sets.

Thanks.[/quote]
Welcome . Your in the right place. there are plenty here who will help you out.

3

section 8,

hello and welcome to the board. I am not an expert but I will give you this advice regarding warm-ups, you can never start too light, I learned from reading some other posts on here that I was probably starting to heavy with warm ups. When you say you just jump on the bench and start with your target weight, unless it is just the bar, you are starting too heavy. I’m not sure what weights you use but I usually do something like this for bench
Barx10,95x10,135x5,185x5,225x5,275x5,315x3-5 then work sets, whatever they may be. It may seem like a lot of warm-ups but it helps my joints get ready in small increments for each increase in weight, I have found it to be helpful for me handling more weight more comfortably.

As far as reps,sets and rest it really does all depend on your goal and what works for you as far as recovery speed. I take a long time between work sets, but a short rest on warm-ups, most of my work sets are in the 2-5 rep range but my goal and yours may be much different. If I were you I would find a program that fits my available time and goal, something like 5/3/1 or another tried and true program with an easy to follow template. I hope this helps, there are a lot more knowledgeable people than me that will reply, I just wanted to get the ball rolling.

4

I’m not able to give you much, I’m doing single sets, once a week. My body responds to it. What is most important is to give your body time to respond. If you’ve only been lifting three months, keep giving yourself time.

Look really hard at the 5-3-1 method a lot of people on this board use.

5

Thanks for the replys.

My goal is to build some muscle mass (I started with essentially none, so far, that plan has worked). RIght now I am 183 pounds, 3 months ago I was 187 (I was up to 220 a couple of years ago) and am 6 feet 3/4 of an inch tall. My weights are low, I am well below average in strength. I have neuroapathy in my legs and have been doing exercises only with my body weight (legs are without a doubt the problem area).

I will look into 5-3-1 some more. My initial turn off was the base of a particular exercise, like the squat, which is something that I have extreme difficulty with. I still do them, but I think that it would all unravel trying to do the squats with the supporting exercises.

6

[quote]Section 8 wrote:
Thanks for the replys.

My goal is to build some muscle mass (I started with essentially none, so far, that plan has worked). RIght now I am 183 pounds, 3 months ago I was 187 (I was up to 220 a couple of years ago) and am 6 feet 3/4 of an inch tall. My weights are low, I am well below average in strength. I have neuroapathy in my legs and have been doing exercises only with my body weight (legs are without a doubt the problem area).

I will look into 5-3-1 some more. My initial turn off was the base of a particular exercise, like the squat, which is something that I have extreme difficulty with. I still do them, but I think that it would all unravel trying to do the squats with the supporting exercises.[/quote]

There are 6 important exercises, in my opinion: squat, deadlift, bench, overhead press, chin/pullup, and row. Everything else is optional. Focus on the basics, get that down, then decide what else you need to supplement, if anything. You can sub in other exercises for squats and deads and still get results, but I would not do this if it wasn’t absolutely medically necessary. If your physical limit is a body-weight squat, there is nothing wrong with that. If you can add some weight little by little, that’s even better.

As far as sets and reps, if I understand your post, you are going to failure on even the warm-up sets. Let me know if I am mistaken. If that is what you are doing, I would change strategies. You want to have only one set per exercise near–but not to–failure, and that is your top or your last set (maybe also a “finisher”–a lighter weight, high rep set after your top set). For example, let’s say you want to work in the 10 rep range. if you are benching, and your 12 rep max is 135, you could warm up with 45 x10, 65 x5, 95 x5, then hit 135 for 10, then rep out with a 95 lbs. finisher. Next time you bench, you want to either add a rep or 5 lbs. to your top set. over time, this really adds up and its how you get stronger.

If you want to go 3x10 or 5x5 with the same weight as a top set (some people prefer this way), warm up in the same fashion, but make sure you are using a weight for your work sets that you only get near–but not to–failure on your last set. If you are on your last set of a 5x5, and you get to 4 and you might not make 5 reps, stop at 4. Next time, get the 5 reps. Again, you want to add either a rep or some weight the next time you lift.

There are lots of different ways to do it, but going to failure on lighter weights before you get to your top set is unnecessary and counterproductive. Use the warm up sets to get you primed to work with the heavier weight, not to exhaust your muscles before you get there. This key is to keep progressively adding weight slowly over time. At some point, you will want to start wave-loading the sets and reps, but that is not necessary when you are just starting out.

7

I have not been doing any warm up at all. If I was going to use 135 pounds, I would do 135 pounds for 3 sets till failure.

I will read that a few more times and figure out what I would like to try.

Thanks a lot.

8

I have been doing no warm up at all. If i was going to lift 135 pounds, set the weight to 135, and do 3 sets to failure/near failure (depending on exercise), and move on to the next exercise.

Initially my weights were so light I didn’t see the point, but now that I am getting some odd soreness, I thought it would be a good idea to do it.

Thank you for the information. I will be reading this a few times and figuring something new out to try.

9

I have been doing no warm up at all. If i was going to lift 135 pounds, set the weight to 135, and do 3 sets to failure/near failure (depending on exercise), and move on to the next exercise.

Initially my weights were so light I didn’t see the point, but now that I am getting some odd soreness, I thought it would be a good idea to do it.

Thank you for the information. I will be reading this a few times and figuring something new out to try.

I read this almost right away but didn’t realize for a couple of days that my post wasn’t put up using quick reply. I’m a little “slow” sometimes, so it figures that I can’t use the “quick” feature. Heh.