How many reps and sets?And some other questions:

dacookie

At the moment I do 10 reps 3 sets on everything im doing at the gym.I use most of the machines and the bench press and I have been going for around 2 months now.

I have a few questions:

-I am looking for a strength-endurance build, as I am a basketball player so if you could recommend some x reps per set and how many sets etc.Someone told me to do a 10-8-6 and plop on weight each time(heavyiest last)which I think is wrong but, he said many people recommended it too him.Another person recommended I do 7-7-7 and on the last set plop OFF around 25% weight.So I really don't have a clue what to do atm, everyone is saying different things.

-Also I have been told, or overheard that doing free weights instead of machines gets a much better result.Is this true?

-And lately in the last week or so I have taken a liking to this energy drink called blue bear(tastes like red bull almost, good kick from it, but there is a deal in spar in my area that you get 2 for 1 euro!Thats like 4/5 of tehse is a red bull.)Just want to know if its ok for me to drink this or will it affect my health or performance or something.Just a tad bit worried about the caffeine content, but I am only having like max 1 a day.

Really appreciate your advice, thanks.

TheScript

free weights are better than machines because free weights force you to use more muscles in the body and you are required to balance while doing free weight. on a machine u can sit there, balanced,no hassle. free weights all the way.
Stay away from that crap man, they can be good for you, especially at that price.

dacookie

Ok thanks for advice, but by staying away from that crap you mean the machines or the drink?And which can be good for me?The drink?:D

TheScript

the drink man, the machines are grand but dont over rely on them. stick to the water or powerade or something, no red buull-esque stuff!

Mikel

Red Bull type stuff is probably not the best thing for you, I can't imagine overdoing the caffeine and taurine is a good idea for your sleep etc, but then I drink a lot of coffee so maybe just don't overdo it. It's just sugar and stimulants so how much worse it is than a coffee or a coke I don't know.
Some people take supplements before training which have a similar effect....it's not the devil is what I'm saying..

If it's strength endurance you're after you'll have to clear your mind of the 3x10 mentality.
Check out crossfit.com and crossfit.ie, check out the timed workouts especially, you'll get strength endurance to burn.
For strength training think deads, squats, google starting strength and stronglifts.com. Will help your vertical jump.

Oh yeah, eat, check out the stickies at the top of the forum on nutrition and lifting.
search the forum for plyometrics, olympic lifting, have a good look around the crossfit site, it's the best resource I've seen for athletic type training.
There's some nuttiness but you can filter that out, it's far outweighed by the good stuff.

dacookie

Ok thanks but I couldn't really find anything on that site for reps/sets, just how to do the actual excercises is all I could find.And for that there are some good people on youtube for anyway.

Mikel

dacookie wrote: »

Ok thanks but I couldn't really find anything on that site for reps/sets, just how to do the actual excercises is all I could find.And for that there are some good people on youtube for anyway.

Er the front page has the workout of the day, look at the wod for Saturday,

Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

Rest precisely three minutes between each round.

Do that and see how you feel compared to after your usual workout.

Look at the workouts, some are do as many of x as you can in 20 mins, others are tabata intervals where you work for 20 secs and rest for 10.

Hell you can come up with your own, pick an exercise say a burpee, see how many you can do in a min, or use 20 - 10 sec intervals........or see how many pull ups you can do in 20 mins etc etc etc

The point is, if it's 'strength endurance' you're after you won't get it from a particular rep scheme like 3x10 or 5x5 or 8x4

dacookie

How I usually do it is around 20 secs break and then do the next set.When I have finished that excercise I go onto the next one straight away, if the spot on the machine is taken up I do a different one.

Your sure I can not get it from a rep scheme?As I think this is the easiest to remember and for bench press your sure I can't use a rep scheme?Its what I see a lot of other people doing when I ask them.

BobbyOLeary

dacookie wrote: »

How I usually do it is around 20 secs break and then do the next set.When I have finished that excercise I go onto the next one straight away, if the spot on the machine is taken up I do a different one.

Your sure I can not get it from a rep scheme?As I think this is the easiest to remember and for bench press your sure I can't use a rep scheme?Its what I see a lot of other people doing when I ask them.

To paraphrase Charles Poliquin "For strength endurance you first need the strength to endure"

In other words, you're probably better off getting strong before worrying about your level of strength endurance. Get up to a decent level of strength on the big compound lifts first. CrossFit will do this but not as quick as a pure strength building program such as Starting Strength. My personal view of CrossFit is that you should have a half decent level of strength before attempting it, but thats just me.

Machine weights aren't going to get you the fitness you're after. Hit up the squat, deadlift, shoulder press, power clean and the bench. Get those up to a reasonable standard then worry about specific strength endurance. Believe me, as you get stronger you'll find you're getting some of this strength endurance you're after.

dacookie

I dont really like the Crossfit thing, as it doesn't make sense for me.I go to the gym on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.If I do the excercises on the days they specify, il end up with uneven muscles if you get what I mean.

Ok il start doing squats, deadlift, shoulder press, and bench but not power clean, I dont really like that excercise.Is there anything else I should be doing?

So is there no rep/set system?Why cant I do say 7 reps per set of 3(saw someone saying they were doing 5 and working for strength)and if I can do that easy just plop on more weight?

conceited

Bobby is giving you some good advice, I'd listen to him.
If i had to pick one for you, the power clean would be it.
Learn it, you won't regret it.

Hanley

BobbyOLeary wrote: »

To paraphrase Charles Poliquin "For strength endurance you first need the strength to endure"

Nice!!!

BobbyOLeary

dacookie wrote: »

I dont really like the Crossfit thing, as it doesn't make sense for me.I go to the gym on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.If I do the excercises on the days they specify, il end up with uneven muscles if you get what I mean.

Ok il start doing squats, deadlift, shoulder press, and bench but not power clean, I dont really like that excercise.Is there anything else I should be doing?

So is there no rep/set system?Why cant I do say 7 reps per set of 3(saw someone saying they were doing 5 and working for strength)and if I can do that easy just plop on more weight?

Thats cool, CrossFit isn't for everyone, despite what the Glassman's preach. What is for everyone though is getting stronger. Unless you're already strong, and by this I mean you're about an intermediate to advanced on Rippetoe's strength standards chart

Strength Standards - 1RM in Pounds

So unless you're strong you could do with getting stronger, as stupid as that sounds. Work on starting strength for a while, and do pick up the Power Clean, I can't think of a better weight exercise for a basketball player really. It builds explosiveness, helps your deadlift and plus it just looks cool. The power clean covers the explosive part of Starting Strength whereas the other exercises are purely balls to the wall strength.

On the reps thing, Starting Strength is typically 3x5 for Squat, Bench and Press; 1x5 for Deadlift; and 5x3 for the Power Clean. Yes it is a strength building program, but as I previously said, unless you're strong already you could do with getting stronger.

Colm_OReilly

I dont really like the Crossfit thing, as it doesn't make sense for me.I go to the gym on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.If I do the excercises on the days they specify, il end up with uneven muscles if you get what I mean.

Uneven development won't happen. Certainly not at your stage of advancement and certainly if you don't start cherry picking workouts. The vast majority of my clients would train 3x/week and generally on a split like you mentioned.

I can definitely see why it's confusing, as it's so fundamentally different from most fitness programs out there. Seeing as our definition of fitness is "work capacity across broad domains" we need highly varied routines to keep our fitness up. If you PM me your email addy I can send you on a routine used by basketball coaches in the states. IIRC it was more programmed than CF but used its principles.

Ok il start doing squats, deadlift, shoulder press, and bench but not power clean, I dont really like that excercise.Is there anything else I should be doing?

Can I ask why you're avoiding the power clean? It appears that you want a workout that consists of exercises you like, in a program you like, with a rep range you like. If you don't force yourself to attack the things that are uncomfortable you're limiting your gains unfortunately.

My personal view of CrossFit is that you should have a half decent level of strength before attempting it, but thats just me.

On this Bobby, there was a lot of discussion at the Manchester Cert on doing SS to prep you for CF, but the empirical evidence gathered so far is that it's not as productive as you'd believe. ATM, we're finding that scaling the reps, while keeping the weight as heavy as safely possible, is having the best effect so far.

Yes, definitely, the stronger you are the better you'll be at CrossFit to a point. But amazingly, a lot of home CrossFitters, who follow the mainsite wod, tend to skip the Max Effort days as much as those who skip the 5/10K runs, seeming to prefer the ~20 min "metcons" the most. This of course blunts their progress.

Colm

BobbyOLeary

ATM, we're finding that scaling the reps, while keeping the weight as heavy as safely possible, is having the best effect so far.

The best effect on what though? On metcon performance? Or on fitness in general (loosely, your metcon, CFT and gymnastics combined)? I'll happily admit my metcon performance is poor but I can outlift a lot of the guys I've trained with down in your place. I'm going off whats posted on the message board for this by the way. Maybe its just me but the progression in the slow lifts seems to be a bit slow for my liking in straight CrossFit. That said, the first real structured program I followed was Starting Strength so I'm probably a bit biased when it comes to it. I do like my slow lifts.

EDIT: What I mean is that I get smoked by most of your guys on Metcons but its the opposite on the slow lifts. Obviously this isn't true for everybody, Ruairi, Kyle, Will and Rob for example. Maybe scaling the reps provides the best increase in metcon performance, I'm just not so sure about it helping pure strength development.

Mikel

dacookie wrote: »

Ok il start doing squats, deadlift, shoulder press, and bench but not power clean, I dont really like that excercise.Is there anything else I should be doing?

So is there no rep/set system?Why cant I do say 7 reps per set of 3(saw someone saying they were doing 5 and working for strength)and if I can do that easy just plop on more weight?

Right so what you want is for someone to tell you what you already thought, maybe if you keep asking you'll get the answer you want.
If strength is your goal listen to what Bobby says, the idea that you can't have strength endurance without strength makes sense.
If conditioning is more important at the expense of slower progress at the lifts listen to Colm.

BobbyOLeary

Why cant I do say 7 reps per set of 3(saw someone saying they were doing 5 and working for strength)and if I can do that easy just plop on more weight?

You could do this, much like I could do a leg press instead of a barbell squat. The fact is is that following a program like Starting Strength or CrossFit will get you the fitness you claim to want. Doing whatever you want to do in the gym won't. Simple as.

dacookie

Ok really thanks for the advice, especially Bobby and Colm.

Il give the starting strength a shot, and then maybe in a few months time il bump this thread about the endurance part

And il give the power clean a go, il ask one of the trainers there to show me proper form as I don't really get it.What scared me away from it is the fact that it looks dangerous, and was thinking I would mess up and the weight would land on my foot or something.

And no im not "intermediate to advanced on Rippetoe's strength standards chart" but I don't think this chart makes sense for me, im 16, 17 in a few months and I guess this is based on 18-21 year olds.

And when you say 3x5, you mean 3 reps, 5 sets?or the other way around?

And just one more question, ive seen an article that says why to lift explosivly rather than slowly.This is for everything not just power clean, for example when doing bench press when your pushing the bar off your chest your going as fast as you can, a fair bit longer when its coming down to your chest.But then I see other people saying to do things "nice and slow".Also saw some random youtube comment saying quick twitch fibers are 30% bigger than slow twitch fibers.So which is the proper way to do it?

Edit: And Bobby, is starting strength just what you stated in your previous post?

BobbyOLeary

I'm about to go to sleep but I'll give you a better reply tomorrow.

If you're 16, then Starting Strength is the way to go. Btw, those strength charts are for all ages of adult, they're based on body weight, not age or height.

Anywho, I had the same misconceptions about the power clean, ask Colm, I was afraid to learn it in fear of throwing my back out. If you can, get down to Colm for a couple of sessions on the barbell lifts. He sorted out my low-bar back squat in one session and I hit a new PR (110kg) recently because of it. He taught me the power clean too.

Just curious, whats your height and weight?

Right, I'm off to bed, I'll write a much better and more coherent reply tomorrow.

Roper

If you're 16 and have only been using machines, I'd try some more intense bodyweight exercises for a few weeks, get your body used to lifting and then begin to add an external weight slowly. When you say you're asking "the trainer", who is that? The vast vast majority of gym trainers are NCEF qualified which is a course that doesn't include a very good resistance portion so you may be taking your chances.

The power clean, like any exercise, is dangerous if done incorrectly but with good form and some coaching it's fine.

I know I'm pissing in the wind here but I remain unconvinced that crossfit is the way to go for sports training :0.

Mikel

Roper wrote: »

I know I'm pissing in the wind here but I remain unconvinced that crossfit is the way to go for sports training :0.

How so?
I think these things are more of a spectrum than either or, Crossfit with a degree of specialisation appropriate for your sport seems a good idea to me.
What approach do you take?

BobbyOLeary

And il give the power clean a go, il ask one of the trainers there to show me proper form as I don't really get it.What scared me away from it is the fact that it looks dangerous, and was thinking I would mess up and the weight would land on my foot or something.

Good stuff, I was afraid of the Power Clean too. Just make sure whoever teaches it to you knows what they're on about. Most gym trainers (no offence intended) don't know enough about the power clean to coach it properly. Again I'll recommend Colm's place here, they'll introduce you to the movement pretty well.

And no im not "intermediate to advanced on Rippetoe's strength standards chart"

Then you could get a good bit stronger. Where do you fall on that list as a matter of interest?

And when you say 3x5, you mean 3 reps, 5 sets?or the other way around?

I mean 3 sets of 5 reps. Whenever I write it down I mean sets x reps. So 3x5 means 3 sets of 5 reps.

And just one more question, ive seen an article that says why to lift explosivly rather than slowly.This is for everything not just power clean, for example when doing bench press when your pushing the bar off your chest your going as fast as you can, a fair bit longer when its coming down to your chest.But then I see other people saying to do things "nice and slow".Also saw some random youtube comment saying quick twitch fibers are 30% bigger than slow twitch fibers.So which is the proper way to do it?

Honestly? I'm not quite sure. I never really bought into the whole time under tension malarky. I found I got great results when I just performed the movement at a pace that I could keep good form. Whether this was fast or slow depended on the exercise.

Edit: And Bobby, is starting strength just what you stated in your previous post?

Not quite. Look at the website

Starting Strength Wiki

This can answer a lot more questions about the program than I ever could. Ideally buy the book off amazon or aasguaard.com (the publisher) and read the wiki too. The book is a worthwhile investment, it'll stick with you for years. Hope this helps

dacookie

Height and weight?Im like 5'11 or something near that and around 65kg I think.I don't do 1 RM but I will give it a shot in a few weeks maybe.At the moment on the list I would say I am just a bit behind from Novice.Not 100% sure as I don't know pounds, only kg.

Really thanks for the help, I have learned a lot of new things and the whole 10 reps thing will be behind me soon.I was just doing it like that because most of my friends were doing it that way. Maybe il post some progress in a few weeks/months.Im Going to the gym tomorrow so il give the free weights a shot and the ones you recommended me too.

BobbyOLeary

Height and weight?Im like 5'11 or something near that and around 65kg I think.I don't do 1 RM but I will give it a shot in a few weeks maybe.At the moment on the list I would say I am just a bit behind from Novice.Not 100% sure as I don't know pounds, only kg.

Don't worry about the 1RM, especially at your level it'll do more damage than good. I thought you were further along. I'm the same height as you, though I'm 20 and I weigh about 80kg.

Really thanks for the help, I have learned a lot of new things and the whole 10 reps thing will be behind me soon.I was just doing it like that because most of my friends were doing it that way. Maybe il post some progress in a few weeks/months.Im Going to the gym tomorrow so il give the free weights a shot and the ones you recommended me too.

Glad I could help get another person strong! I started to learn about all this stuff a couple of years back and its helped me no end. Just some last pieces of advice:

1. Learn the lifts properly, if in doubt video it and post it here.

2. Buy Starting Strength, it really is worth it. Worst comes to worst you can resell it, there's always someone looking for a copy.

Good luck with it!

dacookie

Ok, so I got a reasonable amount of strength now, but my dad was worried I could injure myself by doing the lifts wrong, so he sent me to his trainer.And basically in a nutshell: I told him I wanted Strength endurance and I told him how some guys on a forum advised me to do what ive been doing for awhile now(bench press etc)mostly 5 reps.But absically whats he said is I shoudlnt have been doing that for strength endurance.So I told him that quote For strength endurance you first need the strength to endure" and he basically said thats bull**** and doesnt make sense.

So now he says I should be doing this program(Il be seeing him next wednesday about legs etc, but this is what he said for upper body.)

DB chest press 4 sets 12 reps
DB chest flye 2/3 sets 10/12 reps
Shoulder press 4 sets 12 reps
lateral raise 2/3 sets 10 reps
alt bicep cirl 3 sets 10/12 reps
Hammer curl 1 set to failure
Warmup- cardio 10min
Cool down- cardio 10 min

Can I get some opinions on what he said and this program?

Brian?

dacookie wrote: »

Ok, so I got a reasonable amount of strength now, but my dad was worried I could injure myself by doing the lifts wrong, so he sent me to his trainer.And basically in a nutshell: I told him I wanted Strength endurance and I told him how some guys on a forum advised me to do what ive been doing for awhile now(bench press etc)mostly 5 reps.But absically whats he said is I shoudlnt have been doing that for strength endurance.So I told him that quote For strength endurance you first need the strength to endure" and he basically said thats bull**** and doesnt make sense.

So now he says I should be doing this program(Il be seeing him next wednesday about legs etc, but this is what he said for upper body.)

DB chest press 4 sets 12 reps
DB chest flye 2/3 sets 10/12 reps
Shoulder press 4 sets 12 reps
lateral raise 2/3 sets 10 reps
alt bicep cirl 3 sets 10/12 reps
Hammer curl 1 set to failure
Warmup- cardio 10min
Cool down- cardio 10 min

Can I get some opinions on what he said and this program?

Thats a poor enough program, especially if thats all he's giving you for the upper body, there is zero back work in there. No rows or pull ups/pulldowns, that makes not sense at all especially if he's giving you 2 types of bicep curls. For any pressing movement you do e.g. bench press, you should balance it with a pulling movement e.g. 1 arm DB row.

2/3 sets of 10/12 reps is going to add muscle alright but it won't give you the strength gains that a 5x5 program would.

Hanley

dacookie wrote: »

Ok, so I got a reasonable amount of strength now, but my dad was worried I could injure myself by doing the lifts wrong, so he sent me to his trainer.And basically in a nutshell: I told him I wanted Strength endurance and I told him how some guys on a forum advised me to do what ive been doing for awhile now(bench press etc)mostly 5 reps.But absically whats he said is I shoudlnt have been doing that for strength endurance.So I told him that quote For strength endurance you first need the strength to endure" and he basically said thats bull**** and doesnt make sense.

So now he says I should be doing this program(Il be seeing him next wednesday about legs etc, but this is what he said for upper body.)

DB chest press 4 sets 12 reps
DB chest flye 2/3 sets 10/12 reps
Shoulder press 4 sets 12 reps
lateral raise 2/3 sets 10 reps
alt bicep cirl 3 sets 10/12 reps
Hammer curl 1 set to failure
Warmup- cardio 10min
Cool down- cardio 10 min

Can I get some opinions on what he said and this program?

That's fcuking shocking.

Ask him does he not believe in back work.

Then ask him how the program's going to increase your strength.

Ask him how strong he is, and for some references from clients that he got strong.

Then ask him for your money back and walk away.

Colm_OReilly

LOL with Hanley there!

I understand it can be difficult to do anything when your parents disagree but unfortunately that trainer is giving you a terrible, terrible program.

You are young, and interested in sports performance, therefore there is no need whatsoever to split your body into different sections. You don't exclusively use certain body parts playing basketball, you use your body. You should be using total body exercises, like have been mentioned.

Most form faults are not dangerous, just inefficient. The risk of injury with powerlifting/weightlifting is generally chronic in nature - meaning you pick up injuries through form creep over time.

Re-reading your post I see your training had out of hand dismissed Poliquin (sp?), one of the world's top trainers. Is he also going to dismiss Rippetoe, Glassman, Simmons?

As a digression for the general readers - I'm not saying that all the trainers above are unaminously in agreement about athletic trainer, but I'd wager they'd all discard the 'program' posted.

If you'd like, I could help you out with your lifts. Your dad is more than welcome too, and the trainer. That way, it's not just some dude on a forum dispensing advice.

Roper

dacookie wrote: »

So I told him that quote "For strength endurance you first need the strength to endure" and he basically said thats bull**** and doesnt make sense.

Hey I'm pretty sure that's a quote from me. I like it, but I didn't recieve my royalty cheque from you yet so I'll assume it's in the post. It doesn't make sense to him because he doesn't know what he's doing, and I know that because he wrote that awful programme for you.

I'll explain the strength endurance thing. Firstly, let's establish a really bad strength scale for the sake of argument. 1 being weak as piss and 10 being strong like bull. Let's say you're a 3 on our little scale. What is your time in the gym best spent doing? Gaining endurance to repeat your strength of 3 repeatedly? Or working on getting your strength to 10? The answer should be obvious enough. Now that's not to imply that you just do strength work, with no endurance work whatsoever.

Lastly, if I wanted to make someone waste their time in the gym and become completely imbalanced, then I would give them that programme. 0 pulling movements, 0 compound movements, and totally wrong rep ranges for strength gains.

celestial

That has got to be the worst programme I've ever seen. Ever.

Also ask him should you add in another exercise just in case your biceps aren't getting worked enough...

Did he mention back at all? Maybe he is about to get to the back element of this programme he's gonna put you on....

dave80

dacookie wrote: »

Ok, so I got a reasonable amount of strength now, but my dad was worried I could injure myself by doing the lifts wrong, so he sent me to his trainer.And basically in a nutshell: I told him I wanted Strength endurance and I told him how some guys on a forum advised me to do what ive been doing for awhile now(bench press etc)mostly 5 reps.But absically whats he said is I shoudlnt have been doing that for strength endurance.So I told him that quote For strength endurance you first need the strength to endure" and he basically said thats bull**** and doesnt make sense.

So now he says I should be doing this program(Il be seeing him next wednesday about legs etc, but this is what he said for upper body.)

DB chest press 4 sets 12 reps
DB chest flye 2/3 sets 10/12 reps
Shoulder press 4 sets 12 reps
lateral raise 2/3 sets 10 reps
alt bicep cirl 3 sets 10/12 reps
Hammer curl 1 set to failure
Warmup- cardio 10min
Cool down- cardio 10 min

Can I get some opinions on what he said and this program?

'Worst program ever' ditch that trainer, ask for you money back and do starting strength

Transform

dave80 wrote: »

'Worst program ever' ditch that trainer, ask for you money back and do starting strength

Let me guess the leg day will be leg press, leg extensions, maybe some squats then 3 sets on hamstrings etc

Total junk program (that possibly most others are following) and as dave80 says.

GymJohn

Yeah That's a hypertrophy programme and a bad one at that! transfrom you forget the ab & adductors!

Strength Endurance:

As has already been said get stronger and you will get more strength endurance. Here's why, Every contraction your muscles make is a percentage of your 1rep max. Increase your one rep max and every contraction you make whether it's 50% or 90% of your 1rm will be a higher percentage.

To train specifically for strength endurance you can do a squat for 6 reps, then jump straight into lunges for 8 on each leg and then finish with leg press for 12 reps. All weights are heavy for that rep range no light weights. Take 3mins rest & repeat.

Sack the trainer!

dacookie

Alright Il get around to responding to the posts tomorrow, bit busy today, so il just post this program he gave for me to do aswell as the other one, both of them twice a week.

Squat 12/15 reps 4 sets
Straight leg deadlift 8/10 reps 2 sets
Pullover 12/15 reps 4 sets
DB shrug 10 reps 3 sets
Bent Row DB 12 reps 3 sets
skull crushers 12/15 reps 3 sets
close grip pushup to failure 2 sets

Thanks for comments btw

dacookie

Ok all I got from the comments is that its a **** program, so I guess I wont do it.And Colm il consider your offer.How much per session?

I guess il get back to the starting strength program.The trainer did help me with one thing though.I had a rounded back when doing the deadlift, and my back would always hurt after doing it so I decided to leave that out of the previous program.He gave me some pointers on how to straighten it, which helped a bit to some extent.He also said to me power clean is not necessary :eek: , its like one of my favorite lifts now, but since the past few weeks I havent been doing it because I got some gym stuff for my house, but I dont have a mat or something to protect the ground if I fail a rep when doing power clean.(The floor is wooden, and if I brake that my Dad would go ape **** on me)So im currently looking for a mat or something to do the lift on, but cant find any.Anyone know a good one?

And if I wanted to mix the starting strength program up with an edurance would, could someone post it here?If you wondering what equipment I have, I got a treadmill, dumbells, olympic barbell and a bench press/squat rack.Would I just do starting strength put more reps less weight?

(BTW, when I say starting strength I mean the program that was posted a good few months ago in this thread, that I was advised to do)

BobbyOLeary

Ok, so I got a reasonable amount of strength now

What do you mean by reasonable? Just curious here, reasonable can mean many things to many people.

I guess il get back to the starting strength program

Best decision you can make in this regard.

And if I wanted to mix the starting strength program up with an edurance would, could someone post it here?

What exactly do you mean by mixing it with endurance? I'm going to presume you mean mixing it with some cardio on a treadmill and such? Rip preaches against this as it'll slow down your strength gains immeasurably. If you want to keep up your endurance he recommends adding in a single CF style metcon (Cindy, Angie, Helen and such, not Linda or some other heavy-ass WOD) into your week and possibly adding another if you can recover in time.

An example would be:

Mon: SS
Tue: Rest
Wed: SS
Thur: Rest
Fri: SS
Sat: CrossFit
Sun: Rest

I realise you'll be playing basketball in the week as well but just use that as an example. A guy called Michael Rutherford did some work with an American basketball team (not NBA or anything but relevant here) mixing up max effort lifting and CrossFit WODs. He apparently had some great success with the team. I don't have a direct link for the article but go to the Performance Menu Website and search for Max Effort Black Box. You need to pay for the article so I don't know how much of its contents I can post, probably none.

I'd really advise you to just get cracking at SS, you won't regret it.

He also said to me power clean is not necessary

He's a clown. Also, I'll bet you real money that he doesn't know how to coach the lift properly, so conveniently its not necessary. Sorry for the long post but I had a good bit to write.

Hanley

BobbyOLeary wrote: »

He's a clown. Also, I'll bet you real money that he doesn't know how to coach the lift properly, so conveniently its not necessary. Sorry for the long post but I had a good bit to write.

Depending how strong he is, it may not be.

ANd OP, why can't you just put the weight down when powercleaning? Why do you HAVE to drop it?

dacookie

Reasonable?I dunno I guess I ment reasonably better than your average person.By endurance I ment mixing SS with some program that contains high number of reps or something like that.

Thats also what I thought about the power clean, because I insisted that he showed me it and he said again that its really not necessary.The annoying thing is that I asked my Dad if he could watch over me while I try a 1RM, my Dad was like "Just do the program the coach gave you and then work your way up to the bigger weights."My Dad has this narrow mentality to some extent that if he thinks something or is convinced by someone that "this is the way things are done" then he will almost completly ignore another persons opinion.This is kinda off topic but im just gonna add it in cause I think its pretty funny: my dad doesnt think other lifeforms exist on other planets, he thinks this because "he hasnt seen them.":D

I dunno why, Il pick it back up but I guess its because I just have this idea in my head that I either push myself to the limit or not do it at all.

BobbyOLeary

I dunno why, Il pick it back up but I guess its because I just have this idea in my head that I either push myself to the limit or not do it at all.

Good way to think tbh. There's no point pissing about with that terrible program. Just lash into Starting Strength.

By endurance I ment mixing SS with some program that contains high number of reps or something like that.

I see. Backpedal a tad. What do you want to achieve with these endurance sessions? What is your reason for wanting to do them? After x amount of time what do you want to have achieved? I'm honestly just curious. Words like "endurance" get thrown around the whole time and mean different things to different people.

On a side note, how did you get to this reasonable level of strength? Again purely curious, did you do Starting Strength?

Colm_OReilly

Ok all I got from the comments is that its a **** program, so I guess I wont do it.And Colm il consider your offer.How much per session?

Happy to give you a session or two gratis - hate to see young athletes on terrible programs, it upsets me immeasurably.

dacookie

BobbyOLeary wrote: »

Good way to think tbh. There's no point pissing about with that terrible program. Just lash into Starting Strength.



I see. Backpedal a tad. What do you want to achieve with these endurance sessions? What is your reason for wanting to do them? After x amount of time what do you want to have achieved? I'm honestly just curious. Words like "endurance" get thrown around the whole time and mean different things to different people.

On a side note, how did you get to this reasonable level of strength? Again purely curious, did you do Starting Strength?

My reason to wanting more endurance?So I can go longer in a basketball match.I got it from SS, which im picking up again at the moment.Ditching that other program.

Procasinator

Would HIIT be a good idea? Basketball in it nature is full of intensive bursts, and HIIT shouldn't have negative impact on strengths.

This would help you last longer.

Of course, you might already be doing HIIT-like drills as part of your training.

BobbyOLeary

I got it from SS, which im picking up again at the moment.Ditching that other program.

Good stuff, glad to hear it. Let us know how you get on, its always good to see someones progress. If you get a chance do call down to Colm's place, he'll make sure you're getting your lifts spot on. He'll also never try to put you on bicep curls for basketball performance.