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Scráib

Howdy all,

I'm using the gym and I'm focusing on building muscle building, so most of my gym trips are spent in the weights area.

Since I'm relatively new to this I've been given a fitness plan. The thing is, all the excercises are something along the lines of 15 reps, average weight, break, 15 reps. I've a friend who's a gymaholic who maintains that I should have much heavier weights, and only do about 5+ reps, then move on.

Which is the more effective method?

heno86

hey man,yeh your friend is right about the weights being heavier 15 reps would generally be considered to be more focused on muscular endurance pick a weight that you can hit 8-12 reps with good technique,you can cycle your traning to include all rep ranges ie. periodisation but just starting out aim for 8-12 and keep it simple ie. compound exercises low volume

FTA69

That plan sounds like a pile of sh*t considering what you want like. My buddy was in the same boat as you and the instructors gave him a plan which was all machines and all 3x15; waste of time in my opinion.

Give this site a browse, I started it there last week and it's perfect for size and strength gains. The fact you've never done free-weights before is also irrelevant, under this program you start with an empty bar to learn technique and form, in no time you'll be moving up to very challenging weight. Have a look.

www.stronglifts.com

d'Oracle

I have spoken to coaches who reckon you should do high reps for a few sessions before you start doing heavier low rep stuff.

Also OP you're not really telling much for people (ones who know) to base stuff on.
What exercises were you given?
Who gave you the plan?

Scráib

d'Oracle wrote: »

I have spoken to coaches who reckon you should do high reps for a few sessions before you start doing heavier low rep stuff.

Also OP you're not really telling much for people (ones who know) to base stuff on.
What exercises were you given?
Who gave you the plan?

I've been going to the gym since September last, so I want to push on to the heavier weights. If for no other reason than I'm not seeing that much of an improvement, so changing the workout might help.

In terms of excercises I do the chest press (machine), row (machine), upright row, leg extension (machine), bicep curl, supine fly, & dips. I usually start off with a spell on a cardio machine like the rower. I'm aiming to build upper body muscle mainly.

The guy who gave me the plan was one of the sportsco employees, he seemed to know what he was talking about.

heno86

Scráib wrote: »

I've been going to the gym since September last, so I want to push on to the heavier weights. If for no other reason than I'm not seeing that much of an improvement, so changing the workout might help.

In terms of excercises I do the chest press (machine), row (machine), upright row, leg extension (machine), bicep curl, supine fly, & dips. I usually start off with a spell on a cardio machine like the rower. I'm aiming to build upper body muscle mainly.

The guy who gave me the plan was one of the sportsco employees, he seemed to know what he was talking about.

well diet wise atleast he doesnt unfortunately,the first thing you need to do is swap all those machines for the free-weight alternatives as they are far more beneficial to building muscle than machines,machines are great for starting out and variety but in general you should train with free weights for best muscle gains.....and focus on the heavy compound exercises that work several muscles as opposed to isolation exercises(leg ext) good lifts to work on would be first and foremost the squat,deadlift,bench press, military press,chins,dips etc.

Brian?

Scráib wrote: »

I've been going to the gym since September last, so I want to push on to the heavier weights. If for no other reason than I'm not seeing that much of an improvement, so changing the workout might help.

In terms of excercises I do the chest press (machine), row (machine), upright row, leg extension (machine), bicep curl, supine fly, & dips. I usually start off with a spell on a cardio machine like the rower. I'm aiming to build upper body muscle mainly.

The guy who gave me the plan was one of the sportsco employees, he seemed to know what he was talking about.

Sounds like you got the cookie cutter program every beginner in the gym gets. It should have been changed a month after you were given it.

I'd say you need to learn to squat, deadlift, military press, bench press and do pull ups. Once you've learned those excercises, look at doing starting strength or something similar.

A lot of people mainly want to build their upper body's, you'll find that they don't. Training your legs is vital to building a decent physique. Squatting and deadlifting although predominantly leg driven excercises will help build a better upper body than a program full of upper body isolation excercises.

Random internet article:

http://thefitnesstech.blogspot.com/2007/12/squat-for-big-arms.html

AntiVirus

I've been going to the gym for about 2 months now. I told the gym instructor that I wanted to tone up, all my exercises are 15x4 with a 45 second rest, wait a couple of minutes then move on to the next exercise. I've had a big improvement in those 2 months. Is that a normal routine for toning up?

mloc

AntiVirus wrote: »

Is that a normal routine for toning up?

Toning up is one of the most misunderstood, ambigious terms in the fitness domain.

Essentially, it means losing bodyfat. Screw the 4x15 machine based workouts; NOBODY who is not injured or recovering should be doing that. Free weights, 8-12 reps max. Less reps if you want a strength focus. Combine this with a good diet and high intensity cardio work, and you'll "get toned".

It makes no difference if you are male or female. That is irrelevant.

AntiVirus

mloc wrote: »

Toning up is one of the most misunderstood, ambigious terms in the fitness domain.

Essentially, it means losing bodyfat. Screw the 4x15 machine based workouts; NOBODY who is not injured or recovering should be doing that. Free weights, 8-12 reps max. Less reps if you want a strength focus. Combine this with a good diet and high intensity cardio work, and you'll "get toned".

It makes no difference if you are male or female. That is irrelevant.

It's not really machine based. I'm finding it very tough with only a 45 second break and Ive been uping the weights once I complete a 15x4 set. From what I've read, its low reps with heavy weights for building big muscles and higher reps more sets for stronger muscle endurance which is more of what I'm aiming for. I'm only knew to this so I don't know if I've picked it up wrong?

Upper body work out Mondays
10mins Threadmill
15x4 chest press,
15x4 chest flys
15x4 chin ups,
15x4 Press ups,
15x4 Lat pull downs,
15x4 Machine Rows
2000 metres rowing machine R10.

mloc

AntiVirus wrote: »

stronger muscle endurance

I guess it depends what you mean by strength.

If you are talking about the muscular endurance required for sports like rowing, cycling etc, then higher rep endurance stuff is definitely of some use. In the conventional "getting stronger" sense, lower reps is definitely the way to go. This should definitely form part of any sports training regime, but a bigger part is the goal is power; sports like rugby, american football and sprinting come to mind.

AntiVirus

mloc wrote: »

I guess it depends what you mean by strength.

If you are talking about the muscular endurance required for sports like rowing, cycling etc, then higher rep endurance stuff is definitely of some use. In the conventional "getting stronger" sense, lower reps is definitely the way to go. This should definitely form part of any sports training regime, but a bigger part is the goal is power; sports like rugby, american football and sprinting come to mind.

I see what your saying. So for example when doing the chin ups I can only do, 15,12,8,6 now (day 1 I did could only do 10,6,4,3) would I be better doing 3x10 with weights or keep aiming for 15x4, which would be of more benefit do you think?

Yapamillias

AntiVirus wrote: »

I see what your saying. So for example when doing the chin ups I can only do, 15,12,8,6 now (day 1 I did could only do 10,6,4,3) would I be better doing 3x10 with weights or keep aiming for 15x4, which would be of more benefit do you think?

Its all relative as you cant focus on endurance and strength without a decrement in either one or the other. In my opinion there would be more benefits to doing weighted chin ups (providing proper form and Range of Motion is being adhered to). You seem to have a good endurance base so maybe lower reps (eg. 4-6) with weights followed by increasing reps with said weight would be your best course of action.

AntiVirus

Yapamillias wrote: »

Its all relative as you cant focus on endurance and strength without a decrement in either one or the other. In my opinion there would be more benefits to doing weighted chin ups (providing proper form and Range of Motion is being adhered to). You seem to have a good endurance base so maybe lower reps (eg. 4-6) with weights followed by increasing reps with said weight would be your best course of action.

I love doing chin ups, arms are always fully extended and the chest has to touch the bar or it doesn't count, there's no point cheating myself. I enjoy doing what I do at the moment although I'm exhusted so I'm going to stick with it for 1 more month and then I'll look into taking the advice you and mloc have given me.

Thanks and thanks to mloc too.