Today’s training is biceps and back
Not sure on the routine yet. A friend is coming to lift and we have a solid two hour window so it should be fun. Feeling like doing some weighted pull ups. That sounds like fun.
My infection is on the mend and that’s a big relief. Five more days on meds. They say avoid direct sun exposure while taking them. I’d planned on yard work tomorrow on my off day… wonder if it will really make that much of a difference. It also says to drink plenty of water. I wonder if the sun warning is because of burning or dehydration. Who knows.
Hopefully the glute feels well enough for legs on Friday. I missed them last week on vacation and don’t want to miss again. That’d be like starting over again.
So the plan will be to hit bis and back today, legs Friday, and shoulders Saturday or Sunday. It’s good to be back on a routine. I’m still not used to lifting only four days. It’s still playing games with my head like I should be training more. I’m trying to just settle in, lift heavy, and eat for gains.
Growth occurrs while you rest. Just tell yourself that you could be robbing yourself of gains if you train on your rest day.
I’ve settled into doing my cardio on “rest” days. Cardio is walking on a treadmill for now but it’ll eventually be elliptical and bike intervals again.
What’s better for hypertrophy, volume or heavy weight?
I’ve always been a 10-15 rep guy, who on occasion does crazy volume. I’ve managed to grow some muscle, but feel I’ve plateaued.
Last session I decided to do heavy curls with fewer reps. My usual workout is something like:
Isolation curls 3x15@30
Alternating curls 3x15@35
Ez bar curls 3x15@72.5
Yesterday I thought I’d mix a little volume with some heavy weight.
Alternating dumbbell curls 3x10@55
Ez bar curls 1x100@47.5
I’m more sore than I’ve been in my biceps in probably a year. What’s the best for growth?
Still quite a bit of volume here anyway. The answer for you may be just to mix it up more. Have a few weeks where you do heavier weights to failure but less overall volume. And then some weeks where you take lighter weights to failure and do more of a pump style workout. You dont have to stick to one type of training.
I am no expert at all, but I’ve read a lot of stuff.
for the biceps thing: EZ curl one set to failure about 10-12 reps rest 60 seconds repeat and try to get half the reps.
(Or one set to failure in the 8 rep range, rest, lower the weight and shoot for amrap 12 - 15 rep.)
One set DB curl, rest pause
finish with the 100 rep curl.
BUT you should probably listen to some of the known BB’er around here @The_Mighty_Stu comes to my mind and @BrickHead too.
Why does it have to be one or the other? Like anything else, could that be an individual thing? Another factor is diet and another recovery (so I heard) so these also need to be in check if the hypertrophy is minimally paired with fat gain. But if something isn’t working fast enough, change from what you’re doing for a few months to the other thing you’re not doing and see what happens.
There’s an often cited research study that showed that hypertrophy was basically the same as long as failure was achieved during the set. They compared going to failure in 8 reps and 30 reps. The lower rep group showed better strength gains but it was still fairly small.
The flavor of the month is low volume, high intensity training. DC does double rest pause. Paul Carter and CT use quite a few different methods such as Paul’s 350 sets and 50% sets. You know what they all have in common? They all go to failure.
Paul builds on that by pointing out that the body adapts to the stimulus. One can’t do the same thing over and over and expect the body to continue to grow. Your workout shows that. You threw a new type of stimulus at your biceps and now they are sore.
It’s not so much that one is better than the other. You just have to vary your training on occasion. My plan for the rest of the year is to use 350 sets as my lighter work and switch over to double rest pause sets for a heavier phase.
*A 350 set is 3 sets taken to failure with one to two minutes of rest between each. The goal is to hit 50 reps with that weight. For example, doing cable fly’s with 50 lbs for 24, 15, 12. That’s 51 reps so you’d increase the weight for the next workout.
They are still comparing rep ranges more conducive to hypertrophy than strength.
Assuming that you are in a rep range that leads to hypertrophy, I’d reckon the following is a wise approach to not get injured unnecessarily (it may still happen),
Free weights: leave 1-2 reps in the tank
Machine compound/pulley: 1 rep short or max good reps without breaking form
Isolation: to failure
I’ve been doing basically the same program for about 18 months now which is a mix of both, and seeing consistent gains in size and strength. Start out every session with a big heavy compound lifts, warming up to 3 sets of 4-6 reps, then onto accessory work of 2-3 exercises targeting 2/3 sets of 8-12 reps. Good mix of both strength and pump work. Im sure I could see more progress in either strength or size if I targeted a specific training method but my goal is to look big and strong and actually be big and strong. Progress is slow and steady. I am on the higher side of volume but am able to recover and it works for me. Typical week:
Shoulders (heavy)/chest (light)/ tris
Back/Bis
Rest or Cardio/abs
Legs/Bis(very light) & Shoulder mobility band work in between squats
Chest (heavy)/shoulders (light)/tris
Rest or Cardio/abs
Full body very light/recovery day
I know you said that you were lifting about 5 days/week and considering reducing that to 4. I think that if you reduced your training days but upped your intensity (if that’s possible) then you would see some size gains. Keep the feedbag on the whole week but, my guess is, is that your work combined with training, you are not getting the full recovery you need for size.
Yeah basically the same question with a lot of good responses. I think your correct in the idea that mixing it up is good and will stimulate the muscles.
I like the 350 sets a lot. That sounds right up my alley. Thanks J. I should have thrown the term effort into the mix too. Gotta push through the pain to earn the gain
Thanks SH! Yeah I’m gonna stick with the four days here for a while and see how it goes. It’s hard to gauge if your making size gains when your body fat is back to a normal range. I don’t think I’ll really know if I’ve achieved anything until I compete next year again. My cut got me down to 155 this year. Hoping that it will be more like 165 next year
7/01
Woke at 177.4
Decided to have some fun in the gym today and did a super high rep pump chasing workout. Had a blast and destroyed chest and triceps! Give it a try if you want. Just need some cables and dumbbells. The pump was insane!
