Help bluewater87 gain strenth thread

Originally Posted by DylloS

You are lean.

Couple basic questions:
1) how many reps should i be doing per set? I try to get at least 8, but aim for ten. Is that too many? Should i increase the weight and aim for less reps?
2) Should i wait for that muscle group to heal before i work it out again? usually takes 3 days or so for me to heal, so should i wait those three days to go work that muscle again?

Originally Posted by bluewater87

Couple basic questions:
1) how many reps should i be doing per set? I try to get at least 8, but aim for ten. Is that too many? Should i increase the weight and aim for less reps?
2) Should i wait for that muscle group to heal before i work it out again? usually takes 3 days or so for me to heal, so should i wait those three days to go work that muscle again?

There is no magic number. It's about volume. 5x5 sets are just as good as 3x12 as long as total weight moved is the same. Plus, 5x5 reps will get you stronger so imo those are better. I am biased though. It's what I personally like.

No need to wait. Soreness doesn't meant the muscle isn't ready again. I was in agonizing pain from a run workout I did last saturday. Legs were still toast on monday and I hit a 3rep max squat PR. Same yesterday. Glutes and hams fried. Another 1 rep max PR.

I'll try the less reps more sets approach.

Good to know.
For some reason i thought that your muscles get stronger while they are healing, and that it is somewhat wasteful if you go work them out again before they are healed.

Originally Posted by bluewater87

I'll try the less reps more sets approach.

Good to know.
For some reason i thought that your muscles get stronger while they are healing, and that it is somewhat wasteful if you go work them out again before they are healed.

it's weird. I know of plenty of programs that have you squat daily and these are strength based programs. There's a lot of info out there now that wasn't so popular years back. People knew it but they just followed what bodybuilding magazines were doing.

Originally Posted by bluewater87

I'll try the less reps more sets approach.

Good to know.
For some reason i thought that your muscles get stronger while they are healing, and that it is somewhat wasteful if you go work them out again before they are healed.

Common misunderstanding. If you have worked your muscles past fatigue levels, as it is done in bodybuilding style workouts (8-15 reps, moderate weights), muscles mainly get bigger, not stronger. How can they get strong while they are busy repairing torn fibers?

Strong means you have to make your muscles adapt to heavy weights progressively, while avoiding fatigue as much as possible. This automatically calls for low rep/high intensity style workouts.

Originally Posted by SeanC

Common misunderstanding. If you have worked your muscles past fatigue levels, as it is done in bodybuilding style workouts (8-15 reps, moderate weights), muscles mainly get bigger, not stronger. How can they get strong while they are busy repairing torn fibers?

Strong means you have to make your muscles adapt to heavy weights progressively, while avoiding fatigue as much as possible. This automatically calls for low rep/high intensity style workouts.

little info about last night. Worked up to a max squat, did heavy pause rep, then 30 115lb front squats and I feel like I could easily squat again today. I almost want to lol. Well, I'm cleaning so a form of squats. What's your Pr for the clean anyway. I may shoot for a new one. I'm at 205lbs

A trick that I've always found effective to getting much stronger is not over-repping warm up weights. I have increased my weights significantally over the past few months using this method.

On chest days when I bench, I warm up with about 3 reps of 135, then relax for about a minute or two, have some water (not too much though) move up to 155 and do 3 of those. Then I take about a 2 minute break and stretch it out a bit. After that I move up to 185 and do that three times, break for a few minutes, move up to 205, 225, 245, 265, 285, (smaller breaks and 2 reps after 205.) Then I go to what I think would be my max and add about 10 pounds. For instance, I thought my max would be 305, then I added 10 to 315. I was able to get one in, so I immediately dropped down to 285 and did 5 of those.

The reason being is that you want to get comfortable with the heavier weights. A lot of confidence is added when you know that you have the weight securely in your hands. I know it may sound odd and not work for everyone, but give that a shot with your warm-up weights and see if you can work your way up faster. Also with this method, you allow your muscles to get comfortable with weight, but not over-tired by doing too many reps.

Also, you may gain a bit of fat when gaining strength, it's really hard to stay super lean when gaining any weight and strength, but from your pics, it doesn't look like gaining a small amount of fat will be a problem.

(I appologzie for some poor grammar and spelling; reason: phone)

Originally Posted by DylloS

little info about last night. Worked up to a max squat, did heavy pause rep, then 30 115lb front squats and I feel like I could easily squat again today. I almost want to lol. Well, I'm cleaning so a form of squats. What's your Pr for the clean anyway. I may shoot for a new one. I'm at 205lbs

Never tried maxing out on cleans. Stopped cleaning after I started to get tennis elbow. I will have to suck it up and start doing them again.

Be careful about maxing out too often, you'll feel strong until you suddenly don't, CNS is a real bitch. Bulgarians were on "recovery agents" all the time for a good reason.

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I don't even know what my clean max is right now


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Tonights leg press:
180x4
270x4
360x6x4

feelsgood.jpg

Moving up to 400 next time.

Soreness is a poor indicator indeed... But strength and hypertrophy progression does happen while the body heals and recovers. Let's not confuse the OP here.

There are some great high frequency training programs out there, but most of them all have some active recovery strategically planned into them (lighter loads, speed work, etc) to balance it out and allow your body/CNS to recuperate. Even if that means doing a slightly different variation of whatever. However, if you're constantly hitting the same target muscle groups almost every session training close to maxing out under heavy ass loads all the time, you're gonna burn out quick... Or worse, get injured. Point is, intensity, volume and load all need to be factored into a high frequency program, and that is part of recovery and progressing.

new pr on bench press last night, 225. could probably have done 235.

Moving up to 185 from 135 on back squat now that my form is better.
Going to learn/practice deadlifts soon.

Was doing sets of 360-410 on leg press the other night. Did 2x8 of the 410.

May 9 on the left, april 12 on the right
Weighing 195 pounds now

Your pvssy cat has nice legs lol

looking good bro. You have a long torso, so work more back/lats, side and rear shoulders. Cannot see quads/glutes

I'm comfortably doing 3x6x185 on bb flat bench.
Did dumbell flat bench as well tonight and it felt good. was doing sets of 75 pounds each hand.

I don't see a whole lot of progress in the pics above (not that i really expect to see much change in such a short time), but i can definitely notice a difference irl.

New pr on bench, 235. Could probably have done 245.

Really liking the pump from dumbbell presses!

Gotta be careful with my shoulder on decline BB bench, it likes to crack n stuff if I go too low or do wide grip.

Did 5x225 on the squat rack. Didn't get atg though. Doing squats more frequently now (not just leg days). May add deads in there as well.

I need to get my eating straight. Some days I really slack, some days I put on like 5 pounds. It's not that I don't want to eat, I just have to prepare meals better.
Last night after my workout I came home and ate two chicken breasts, a full yam, a 500g pack of bacon, then a nut bar and apple sauce before bed.
No wonder some days I'm 192 pounds, some days I'm 199. I'm usually around 195-6 right now.

Worked out legs after soccer last week. Felt fatigued somewhat, so I'm gonna just do soccer tonight. Been to the gym the last 3-4 days in a row.



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bb flat bench:
6x115
6x155
3x6x185
moving up to 195 soon

dumbbell flat bench:
3x6x75 each hand
gyms biggest dumbbells are 75. i should be doing 80s.

dumbbell incline bench:
6x65
2x6x70

bb incline bench:
2x6x135
6x145
definitely my weakest lift

cable flys:
3x6xwhatever the 4th plate is

cable flys (adjusted to bottom):
2x6xwhatever the 4th plate is

fly machine:
3x6x180

The incline bb bench is my weakest lift, and it's the one i tend to do last.
Should i move it near the start (where i am less tired) so i can do more weight?

Soccer games at least twice a week, and gym about 4-5 times a week.

Weighing 196-199 now.

Natural stance


posing