I use my phone as a timer.
For things like biceps or triceps, about 1 minute
For exercises like squats and deadlifts about 2 minutes
for everything else, on avg 75-90 seconds
[quote]scmtkings4 wrote:
I use my phone as a timer.
For things like biceps or triceps, about 1 minute
For exercises like squats and deadlifts about 2 minutes
for everything else, on avg 75-90 seconds[/quote]
ok,youve been given good advice so far.what I would suggest is similar to bluecollartrain’s workout protocol except I would swap from 8 reps down to 5 reps on the work sets and increase the weights accordingly.imo it is easier to progress weight-wise at this rep range.
I would also increase my rest time from 2 minutes on the big lifts out to as much as 4 minutes.each set should be max effort after well rested.
my last suggestion in regard to training would be to swap to barbell bench for this phase of your journey.i realise people swear by their dumbbell training but i believe you will advance strength wise a lot more efficiently via bb and can always come back to dumbbells later to improve the stretch etc.
as mentioned by other posters above you need to eat big.it is a hotly disputed topic at the moment but imo you need to choose a time frame and forget about the scale and simply eat a lot and lift as heavy as you can.you have some decent numbers so far but they wont reflect in your physique until you feed the body appropriately.
yeah I was also thinking about giving the 5x5 another try. the last time I tried this was about 2-3 years ago. Let’s see if they helps me get my strength up.
and yeah I think it’s probably time to switch back to barbell. It’s just that I’ve always felt like bench didnt hit my pecs as much as dumbells did. The main bodypart that I want to bring up is my chest, which is why I’ve always focused on dumbells.
keep us posted mate.
improve those numbers a bit and get some extra food down your neck and your body will take off.
you’re at that spot right before you start to see some night and day improvement.
1g/lb is fine for protein. Especially natty and not in a massive deficiet. Also 4 min for rest times? I would not reccomend. As long as rest times are semi consistent that’s all that matters when trying to progress in strength. But doing one week at 1 min next week 2 next week 3 and watching strength go up is diff than keeping rest at 1-2 min and watching strength go up
I guess what i’m saying with the longer rest periods is to aim for max effort with max weight on every set.
if you can achieve that with 2 minutes then great but I would suggest that perhaps with the longer breaks you could put another 5 or even 10 kilos on the bar for some lifts and start shocking the muscles.
I realise everybody responds differently to different protocols-just an idea.