Training Programs and Such

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Just wondering if anyone takes the initiative anymore to devise their own programs?

I think the best tool for learning is fucking up. You get experience from it and eventually, in order to not fuck up anymore, you learn, improvise, and improve.

Too many people seem to be blindly following programs, and asking questions, that with a little time spent under the bar, seem like common sense.

Only you can tell what exercises work best for you, everything else anyone offers is just a suggestion and is not proven to work. I think people would be much more happy with their results, if everything didn’t revolve around, “I want it now,” but instead some logic, practice, and time, fuck, people would be bigger, faster, stronger.

I’ve followed some programs when I’ve gotten stuck, but the funny thing is after a week or two they were know longer the programs I intially started, just variations as I knew some things would work and some wouldn’t.

Begginers on the other hand should follow some sort of program, but after a few months, start thinking for yourself. Some people should just spend more time doing, simple as that.

You can’t put on weight, eat more…your arms aren’t growing, train them…you can’t feel the target muscle working, well fucking use less weight and focus on form…I can’t get bigger/stronger no matter what I do, well get off your ass and go train for a damn hour anhilating one muscle group and do the same the next day. Keep piling on the weight, forget about how many sets, do it until your muscle is dead, accompany that with a lot of food and badda bing you’re there.

THis bodybuilding forum has been slow lately, and maybe it has to do with the same questions being asked not only every week, but somtimes similar threads popping up multiple times in one day…

Thoughts? Does anyone else follow this logic? Of course the biggest dudes around do…

2

Great post. Although there are some great systems/strategies out there in the end the only way to make it out mediocrity in this sport is to do what works for you, and this requires a lot of trial and error and a high level of body awareness that can only come from time in the weight room.

3

I totally agree with both of you.

It gets very frustrating when you do screw up, thinking that you wasted alot of time, but we’re in this for the long haul, and those screw ups lead us in the right direction.

Its true that there are good (even great) training programs out there, but no program, not even the “best”, can tell you how you’re body is going to react or what it will need on a given day. The best a program can do is educate you and taking away principles from it.

Hence why I’m so glad CT has been talking about autoregulation lately. People seem to listen to a piece of paper more than to themselves, which is a shame. I know, because I used to do that.

Thats why I threw out specific set/rep schemes. I never know what my body will need on a given day.

4

That’s the whole point boys, most people would do better just thinking for themselves.

5

I think it’s part ignorance, and impatience like you say. Many people ask me “what’s your program” as if just following a certain number of sets and reps (it changes every time I go to work out) will turn them into me. It’s responsibility of the performer to research and increase their succeeding odds the most possible, at least it should be.

We go back to when internet programs and coaches began; if you order people to do certain things instead of teaching them how to get big, they’ll eventually return as clients. Finally I think that there’ll always be more people who like to be told what to do, instead of people that think for themselves. There’ll always be suckers in the gym (no matter if they’re increasingly more).

On the other hand, there’ll always be leaders that make themselves to be called leaders, and the others to be called followers, suckers, loosers, whatever.

6

Templates are where it’s at, not programs, more flexbility. And yes, everyone should get to a point where they design their own training split, only you know how your body responds to training and your weaknesses, and if you don’t then you haven’t gotten enough experience yet to make your own.

7

I wouldn’t say I have a program, I have the muscle groups that I like to work together and a rough order in which I like to do them. The number of sets, reps, and exercises I do change depending on the day.

8

i agree with mofo.

i don’t really have a set thing, i just do what’s not sore the next day.

then again, i’m not the biggest guy in the gym, so who knows if i’m doing shit right.

9

Yeah I use my own program, but the way you phrased it makes it sound like some complex thing, lol. I guess it is if you incorporate things mentioned in all the latest articles, but I don’t really buy into all that stuff at the moment.

Anyway, I agree with the what you’ve said here. However, the thing about not feeling the target muscle working is something I find that happens to me when I use lighter weight. The heavier I go the more I am able to feel the target muscles working, even if form is compromised somewhat.

Oh, and what you said about the same questions being asked repeatedly is essentially why I haven’t been on this site for a while. The same arguments, same questions; it just gets boring and after a while I stopped really learning anything, so I stopped reading. I’m trying to spend more time on it simply because I’ve realised that during the time I was on here a lot, I was more motivated in the gym (and training in general).

10

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Just wondering if anyone takes the initiative anymore to devise their own programs?

I think the best tool for learning is fucking up. You get experience from it and eventually, in order to not fuck up anymore, you learn, improvise, and improve.

Too many people seem to be blindly following programs, and asking questions, that with a little time spent under the bar, seem like common sense.

Only you can tell what exercises work best for you, everything else anyone offers is just a suggestion and is not proven to work. I think people would be much more happy with their results, if everything didn’t revolve around, “I want it now,” but instead some logic, practice, and time, fuck, people would be bigger, faster, stronger.

I’ve followed some programs when I’ve gotten stuck, but the funny thing is after a week or two they were know longer the programs I intially started, just variations as I knew some things would work and some wouldn’t.

Begginers on the other hand should follow some sort of program, but after a few months, start thinking for yourself. Some people should just spend more time doing, simple as that.

You can’t put on weight, eat more…your arms aren’t growing, train them…you can’t feel the target muscle working, well fucking use less weight and focus on form…I can’t get bigger/stronger no matter what I do, well get off your ass and go train for a damn hour anhilating one muscle group and do the same the next day. Keep piling on the weight, forget about how many sets, do it until your muscle is dead, accompany that with a lot of food and badda bing you’re there.

THis bodybuilding forum has been slow lately, and maybe it has to do with the same questions being asked not only every week, but somtimes similar threads popping up multiple times in one day…

Thoughts? Does anyone else follow this logic? Of course the biggest dudes around do…

[/quote]

x2. I agree.

I’ve never followed a program before and have always made my own routine. It has helped show me what was and wasn’t working out for me. I will always continue to do so.

11

[quote]w00tage wrote:
Yeah I use my own program, but the way you phrased it makes it sound like some complex thing, lol. I guess it is if you incorporate things mentioned in all the latest articles, but I don’t really buy into all that stuff at the moment.

Anyway, I agree with the what you’ve said here. However, the thing about not feeling the target muscle working is something I find that happens to me when I use lighter weight. The heavier I go the more I am able to feel the target muscles working, even if form is compromised somewhat.

Oh, and what you said about the same questions being asked repeatedly is essentially why I haven’t been on this site for a while. The same arguments, same questions; it just gets boring and after a while I stopped really learning anything, so I stopped reading. I’m trying to spend more time on it simply because I’ve realised that during the time I was on here a lot, I was more motivated in the gym (and training in general).[/quote]

Dude I haven’t read a training article since 2007 when I first joined. I don’t buy into anything because I know my body better than anyone else, nor do I plan on doing anything other than lift heavy, eat and repeat, it’s so simple, but so few get it. I built my own template, as that one guy mentioned templates are good, and with it I train each muscle at least once per week and do the exercies I like and work best. I was doing barbell rows with 300 whatever pounds and did not feel them in my lats/back at all. It wasn’t until I backed off until I felt the muscle working. I’m not talking light weight per se, I’m talking the heaviest weight I can use to target my lats without turning it into a bicep workout, where I’m hip thrusting enough to make it look like I’m about to give the bar an orgasm.

Learn from yourself, this isn’t about programs as much as that statement.

12

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
Dude I haven’t read a training article since 2007 when I first joined. I don’t buy into anything because I know my body better than anyone else, nor do I plan on doing anything other than lift heavy, eat and repeat, it’s so simple, but so few get it. I built my own template, as that one guy mentioned templates are good, and with it I train each muscle at least once per week and do the exercies I like and work best. I was doing barbell rows with 300 whatever pounds and did not feel them in my lats/back at all. It wasn’t until I backed off until I felt the muscle working. I’m not talking light weight per se, I’m talking the heaviest weight I can use to target my lats without turning it into a bicep workout, where I’m hip thrusting enough to make it look like I’m about to give the bar an orgasm.

Learn from yourself, this isn’t about programs as much as that statement. [/quote]

Yeah exactly. I suppose I have a template, but it’s pretty basic and quite general. I do the exercises I feel work, and I prefer to do the exercises I like best (obviously lol), but I have a bunch in there I hate: for example, I recently added pullups back in. I did them when I first started working out, but I HATE them so I removed them for a long while. Just did them again the other week, and the amount I felt it in my lats was amazing. I remember a video I watched ages ago (Vic Martinez training back), and he said “always do pullups” and now I always will. Lat pulldowns don’t even come close.

Anyway, that’s just an example of how I tried something out, and now my “program” will always (almost) include them. Sure, I might have been missing out all that time I didn’t do them (almost definitely), but I learnt something useful from that. If I had done them the whole time, it’s possible I wouldn’t have felt it hitting my lats so hard and would consider them non-important.

Yeah, fair enough man. In the case of BB Rows, it was the opposite for me.

13

I’ve always done my own thing. The thought of doing someone else’s routine just seems boring to me.

14

Good post. Unfortunately I learned this about a year ago, and I can honestly I’ve wasted a lot of time in the gym following programs to the T. I sure as hell wasn’t sacrificing effort, but I didn’t have enough experience to know how to tailor a program to suit my needs. That is why I really like 5/3/1. All I do is follow the 4 basic lifts (have changed the squat to front squat) because I just want to get my strength up in those. But the rest of the exercises are really up to me, so every cycle I design my own program. I switch up the exercises and change the rep-range for that specific exercise (basically what I feel works for me). I do take the deload regardless of how I’m feeling though (but I always feel like shit after week 3 so it works out). Intensity is periodized in 5/3/1 so I think it is good to take a bit of a break after getting up to 95% on lifts. Also, 5/3/1 is meant to make slow progressions, and for me to skip the deload cycle after cycle will likely set me up for failure in the future.