A short article i wrote....

Dragan

on the importance of changing up your workouts

Repetitive Ranges

One thing that strikes me every time I’m down in the gym are the people whose workouts you can predict. You know the ones. You can say what excercises they will do, for how many reps and with what weight. It should be noted that these are also the guys that will be wearing the same t-shirts this time next year. They won't be moving up in size any time soon.

I won't go so far as to say I find the whole idea offensive, but it does leave me befuddled. Why would you bother? You’re not really doing anything except mentally masturbating yourself because "you go to the gym" and burning some calories. And don't give me any of the "I don't want to get bigger" rubbish. Two things already limit us on that front, genetics, and the amount of calories we eat on a daily basis. You can only get so far on a certain diet folks.

But anyway, back to business. I guess what I’m trying to get people to think about it do they do the same? How many times this year have you had the same workout?

Anyway, there are three different things you can change on a daily basis in your workout. It's normally a good idea to make sure you change at least one of them. Lets get too it.

1) The Exercises You Do: A guy I know trains "instinctively". This means that when he's walking into the gym he honestly doesn't know what exercises he will do. He will do what he feels like doing on that given day. I'm not saying go quite this far, but don't do the same thing week after week. For each body part there are numerous, hell, almost endless variants of exercises you can do. So why do the same ones, in the same order, each week?
Our muscles grow to adapt to new stimulus, and to be able to deal with the stress we place on them and the things we ask of them each week. If your not making them do things their not used to doing they won't grow. Plain and simple.

2) The Rep Range you work in : One rep max, 5 by 5, 8 for strength, up to 12 is the best for hypertrophy, 15+ for muscular endurance. Some people lift in the same ranges for years. But why? Because a website or an article in Muscle and Fitness told them too? The golden rule of rep ranges is to mix things up. Whether it be on a day to day basis or from exercise to exercise there is no reason not to change the numbers of reps you doing. Once again, this differing stimulus will offer your muscles something new, giving them a reason to grow and adapt and become stronger.

3) The weight your lifting: One of my golden rules for lifting, and something that I have found serves me well is the basic principle of Progressive Resistance. Basically the aim of the game is to try and increase the weight you’re lifting from week to week. Did 80 pound curls from 10 reps last week? Why not try 82.5 this week. Nailed that 150kilo deadlift? Tag an extra 5kilo plate on each side. Lifting, or at least trying to lift, more weight each week is pretty much the most basic way to bring along your gains.

Keep the above three lifts in mind and you will be well on your way to keeping your gains coming and your strength on the rise. Remember, the day your routine stagnates is the day your gains do as well.

(( Damn it, i'm too lazy for all this copy and pasting dude!!!! ))

Jak

If you wish to post an article on boards post it on boards.

If you wish to post an article on your own forums do so.

This is not a referral site. I am fine with you having small links to your community in your sigs and posting here, but not posting empty topics with links.

JAK.

poobum

what about if instead of doing the normal 5x5 sets of reps or whatever doing like 10x12 of a lower weight would work btr every now and then etc?

Dragan

poobum wrote:

what about if instead of doing the normal 5x5 sets of reps or whatever doing like 10x12 of a lower weight would work btr every now and then etc?

Indeed, because you are changing it up. With regard to rep ranges, there should be no such thing as "Normal"!!!

because_I_can

This is all relative. BBer's wouldnt train the same as powerlifters/olympic lifters.

As a general rule oly lifters consider a triple to be high reps and i personally never go over 5 reps on lifts like c&j, squat, dead snatch etc
with assistance exercises like pullups, rows id go higher to 8 reps.

Truth is the amount of muscle on your body isnt an indication at all of how strong you are. I know lots of big guys who are relatively weak. And as you reach the higher levels of power sports like sprinting/lifting you'll find athletes who rarely train their "muscles". Instead they train their CNS - Central Nervous System by doing 1rms and greater almost exclusively. This fries the body and requires at least 2x the recovery of a muscular training session but if done correctly(and you are very lucky) will increase strength without adding any muscle mass (this is the holy grail really).


Eg Sulemanolgu trained under the Bulgarian system for years and it consisted of 1rm attempts throughout the cycle as opposed to the end of a cycle. He c&j'ed over 3x BW. This ratio wouldnt have been possible had he trained with higher reps.
I have his training sheet for a year and well its truely awesome.
FS'ing 230kg about 3 times a week at only 60 odd kg. And thats only a fraction of it. He trained like 8 hrs a day every day...
Sorry ive gone off on a bit of a tangent here but you see my point.
Not everyone is a BBer and if you want to keep muscle mass down then there are other methods of getting strong

Dragan

because_I_can wrote:

Sorry ive gone off on a bit of a tangent here but you see my point. Not everyone is a BBer and if you want to keep muscle mass down then there are other methods of getting strong

True, but this is not what my article was about and who it was aimed at dude.

Powerlifting and Oly lifting are far from the most common forms of lifting one is likely to see in a gym. Instead, you see people working in the 10 to 12 range with **** all weight going no where.

Hence the reason the article was written.

I'm sure in the future i will do some pieces on Powerlifting and Olympic lifting, it's just that right now, this is the piece i want to write.

To be honest, i would love to see a good article written by yourself given your interest and daily training in it, it would be better than something that i would right as i have only really dabbled in this side of the weight game.

because_I_can

Sorry im no writer and my technical knowledge is hit and miss. Id know a good bit in my head but getting it down on paper in a logical manner is a no no.

Good article though. I remember when i was starting out and all i did was 3x8 on everything

Dragan

because_I_can wrote:

Sorry im no writer and my technical knowledge is hit and miss. Id know a good bit in my head but getting it down on paper in a logical manner is a no no.

Ah.... no worries, maybe if i get round to writing something i can PM it to ya first, make sure i'm not saying something i shouldn't be!!!