Making gains

Butty

Hi Guys,

I've seen in another thread about people making massive gains in their bench over the course of 6 months or so. I'm just wondering what the best way is to make gains... Lifting manageable weights for a lot of reps or lifting heavier weights but for only a small number of reps.

Currently I'm in the gym 4 times per week - 2 upper body sessions and 2 lower body sessions. My lower body is progressing fine but I seem to only make little or no gains in my upper body sessions particulary my bench. Just wondering what the optimal routine is for making gains - heavy / lighter weights, few / many reps, how many sessions per week, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Colm_OReilly

For gains in strength, you need to be lifting heavy. Sets of 3-5 are optimal for this type of gain.

Why are you splitting your routine?

Check out this routine: www.startingstrength.net/workouts. People have recorded adding 40lbs of mass and up to 300lbs on their squat with this program.

Butty

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

For gains in strength, you need to be lifting heavy. Sets of 3-5 are optimal for this type of gain.

Why are you splitting your routine?

Check out this routine: www.startingstrength.net/workouts. People have recorded adding 40lbs of mass and up to 300lbs on their squat with this program.

Cheers for the advice.

Basically I split my routine because of time. I don't spend more than an hour in the gym so was finding it difficult to get through the full routine as I also try to get a small bit of cardio in though generally I do this outside my gym workout. Is this not a good idea? Realistically how often should I be looking to lift to make gains and gain mass?

Roper

I di the same workout (more or less) on the link Colm posted and it takes me about 35 minutes. I don't have to wait on equipment to become free etc. so obviously that might take up some time if you were doing that in a commercial gym. But I still don't think there's any reason why you shouldn't get it all in an hour.

Personally, I think your cardio should be intense, intense enough so that you wouldn't be able to exert yourself for some considerable time afterwards. So I'd do cardio one day, lifting another.

Butty

Roper wrote: »

I di the same workout (more or less) on the link Colm posted and it takes me about 35 minutes. I don't have to wait on equipment to become free etc. so obviously that might take up some time if you were doing that in a commercial gym. But I still don't think there's any reason why you shouldn't get it all in an hour.

Personally, I think your cardio should be intense, intense enough so that you wouldn't be able to exert yourself for some considerable time afterwards. So I'd do cardio one day, lifting another.

I would generally do cardio after weights so it's a bit different though I'm more focused on lifting at the moment so not so much an issue.

Perhaps I'm trying to do too much rather than focusing on a smaller number of core exercises. My routines currently involve the following:

Lower body days:
Warmup (including some core work - abs etc)
Leg raises
Leg curls
Calf raises
Squats
Deadlifts
Some cardio

Upper body days:
Warmup (including some core work - abs etc)
Bench press
Bicep curls
Dips
Lat pulldowns
Shoulder press
Some cardio

Would I be better to combine the two routines but use fewer exercises such as the ones outlined in the link above?

Thanks again