heavy weight, low reps

[jdl1981]

Hi guys,

I'm starting some heavy training today, what I need some help with is how many exercises and sets should I do? I was thinking 4 exercises doing 3x5.

Is this enough or too much? I'm used to training in the 4 x 8 - 12 range with at least 5 exercises.

Starting with chest and tri's today. I should add I train at home so just got barbells, dumbells and an adjustable bench

[RemainAllHoof]

I am no expert... I don't even look like I know what I'm doing... however, sniffing around, I've found two different ideas which you could try...
1) Ultra slow reps - 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down.
2) Continually doing the reps until you cannot activate that muscle - as many reps as you can do in 3 minutes with as much rest as you need! I'm trying 2 minutes as I find 3 minutes is too much.

Of course, what you eat is important.

I am trying option 2 and it seems to be working for me. Takes about 4-5 days to fully recover so I only train once every 4-5 days.

Edited by RemainAllHoof on Monday 25th April 13:14

[Animal]

Why are you making the change? What are your goals?

[jdl1981]

Animal said:

Why are you making the change? What are your goals?

I want to increase my strength and bulk up. I've trained for a few years using body weight and weights where I can do 4 sets of say 10 reps but now want to step it up a bit

[snowy slopes]

The way i understood it was this

For little muscles, use light weight and do lots of reps

For big dense muscles, use lots of weight, and do less reps

However, i do know a pro bodybuilder, and i can ask him the best way if you want?

[mcelliott]

There are some very well qualified people on this thread that will no doubt offer more expert advice, but I would suggest don't even bother training small muscles, concentrate on the larger muscle groups with compound exercises with a rep range of 6-8 as heavy as you can. Good diet, and lots of rest.

[jdl1981]

Thanks for the help guys, chest and tri's went well earlier. Found by the time I came to do my tri's they were well worked anyway. Just did 3x5 incline, flat and decline bench and flyes. Bench at 70kg flyes at 16kg

[Lost_BMW]

FWIW - my tuppenceworth...

If you want to get stronger (than your last routine was doing) then 3 x 5 or similar is a great routine but check on the % of 1 rep max systems/cycles recommended or you may use too litte weight, or too much, and not hit the reps wanted by the end of the workout. Many cycles vary this load workout to workout or week to week and some have workouts with fewer reps one day and more another - there's loads out there to look at.

Exercise wise I reckon 3 or 4 per workout is fine but would make them the big strength building compounds. e.g. personally for strength gains I wouldn't even bother with flyes, though I know others disagree, ditto with lateral raises etc.

I'd choose from squats, dead lifts, shrugs, bent rows, chins/pull ups, bench press, close grip bench press, dips and overhead presses with maybe barbell curls and 'skull crushers' added to the mix. Quite a few of us on here rate cleans, hang pulls etc. too.

Speed of rep wise some, but by no means all, bodybuilders emphasise slow reps but stuff I've read from s&c guys, powerlifters et al suggest the positive part should be as fast as possible (but not by cheating/using momentum) to activate the fast twitch fibres to their max. Creatine supplementation may help too but that's another argument!

[jdl1981]

Lost_BMW said:

FWIW - my tuppenceworth...

If you want to get stronger (than your last routine was doing) then 3 x 5 or similar is a great routine but check on the % of 1 rep max systems/cycles recommended or you may use too litte weight, or too much, and not hit the reps wanted by the end of the workout. Many cycles vary this load workout to workout or week to week and some have workouts with fewer reps one day and more another - there's loads out there to look at.

Exercise wise I reckon 3 or 4 per workout is fine but would make them the big strength building compounds. e.g. personally for strength gains I wouldn't even bother with flyes, though I know others disagree, ditto with lateral raises etc.

I'd choose from squats, dead lifts, shrugs, bent rows, chins/pull ups, bench press, close grip bench press, dips and overhead presses with maybe barbell curls and 'skull crushers' added to the mix. Quite a few of us on here rate cleans, hang pulls etc. too.

Speed of rep wise some, but by no means all, bodybuilders emphasise slow reps but stuff I've read from s&c guys, powerlifters et al suggest the positive part should be as fast as possible (but not by cheating/using momentum) to activate the fast twitch fibres to their max. Creatine supplementation may help too but that's another argument!

Would you say training each body part once a week is enough? I intend to do chest/tri's, back, shoulders/abs then legs and rest for 2 days. Also, with deadlifts are they best done with legs or back? Having done a little research I'm not going to bother concentrating on biceps as I've had my best gains on those when only doing chins

[Lost_BMW]

jdl1981 said:

Would you say training each body part once a week is enough? I intend to do chest/tri's, back, shoulders/abs then legs and rest for 2 days. Also, with deadlifts are they best done with legs or back? Having done a little research I'm not going to bother concentrating on biceps as I've had my best gains on those when only doing chins

I think if you train hard enough (e.g by pushing the weights according to the % limits many recommend) once a week is enough, if you are splitting body parts. I've gained well doing this.

On the other hand many powerlifters train the same exercises (but usually with different rep & load ranges from what I've seen) three times a week, or 'push' twice a week, 'pull' twice a week - or ditto for lower and upper body - and don't think once a week enough to make real gains on one lift.

When I started I did the same exercises (whole body) three times a week and then after a few months changed to each body part twice a week for ages - it seemed to be 'the thing' back then - but things were very haphazard and probably over done with too many workouts and, especially, sets. When things got stale or gains stopped I'd change things around. I got better gains when I calmed down and moved to fewer sets and trained the big areas/ exercises twice in an 8 or 9 day cycle, and things like shoulders, triceps and biceps just once.

Not sure about deadlifts with legs - it makes sense re. any over training of the area but is hard to do in one workout. I've varied this in the past but haven't squatted in years due to a back injury, though liked leg press and hack squats. Diddley's your man to ask on this one.

Thing is there's plenty of time to try one routine now, then change things around in, say, 6 weeks. The changes/variety might do you good or you might hit on the sort of pattern that suits you best. As long as you are consistent, work hard and eat and rest well I think you'll gain whatever; it's so easy to over think and over complicate things.