Am I the only one here whose primary goal is size? I'm on HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), a counter-intuitive workout plan and have been noticing visible results quite quickly. I used to do HIT training with a 3-4 day split, always to failure, but it was more tiring on the CNS (really dead between workouts) and gave medium size gains, at least compared to HST.
On April 10 2010 23:35 RowdierBob wrote: Eshlow, what in your opinion is the best bench press to do?
I've been doing an all-round body routine lately due to time constraints and only have time for one form of bench. Incline, decline or flat - which is best and why?
Cheers mate.
Regular one is fine. If you want a bit more triceps emphasis go with close grip bench.
Kinda already answered right below your post though...
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
People always make time for the things they want to do... as stated already.
On April 11 2010 21:54 Energies wrote: Wow, eshlow is spiderman.
My lower back is killing me, I have no idea why. I am getting the same muscle soreness I would get after a day of heavy deadlifts or squats but this time it has stayed with me for like 2 weeks, admittedly I have done some running and light squats in that period. I thought it would be fine yesterday and did some squats, I was working my way up to around 250-260lb, I went to 176lb on my third warm up, it was strange, lifting the weight was easy but the pain after each set was excruciating so I stopped.
Also my deadlift has tanked. I haven't dead lifted in about 3 weeks, I was at around 350lb if the deadlift was my first exercise, but I could still bust out a set of 280-300lb fatigued. I tried it a few days ago and I hadn't worked legs or back that day, I just chose it as a compound exercise. There was 220lb on the bar, I did 3-4 reps and placed the weight down, it was just... too hard.
At the moment my lower back is a little bit tense but no pain. Cycling or running strains it slightly but doing any squats or dead lifts and I'm sure the pain would return. I'm confident the issue will resolve it self if I just allow it enough time to recover but how can I currently maintain my strength and mass without being able to do exercises like squats/deadlifts/Overhead press/cleans ??
I would start to do more mobility work for your back.. maybe some mckenzie exercises too.
Maintaining strength and mass is fairly easy -- just eat well. You can still go to the gym and do upper body or bodyweight strength work. Sprinting is great for maintaining mass (and even building it as well). There are lots of alternatives.
As for conditioning, you're likely better off doing sprinting and stair running work. That's the most applicable for trekking as well.
Stair runs with a heavy backpack would be fun. Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
On April 11 2010 10:02 shmay wrote: Speaking of SS. I did my third round of Squats/Deadlifts yesterday and once again felt completely drained today. Is there some way to combat this, or do I just need to wait it out?
Drained as in lacking energy? Are you eating a well balanced meal? Eating at least a 3:1 Carb to Protein ratio after working out? Because taking in carbs after a workout can increase your capacity to store muscle gylcogen up to 300%, according to recent studies, anyways. That would definitely help with the "drained" feeling.
Headache, and zero energy. I had stuff to do but never made it past my couch. I basically spent my entire day watching DBZ abridged episodes and surfing random sites, then laying down every couple hours because even that fatigued me.
Yeah I'm on the PaNu diet, so I'm not getting much carbs haha. Maybe I'll start adding sweet potatoes post work out. Feeling better today tho.
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
pushups / planks. maybe a short run?
Low carb is going to be energy draining when you switch... you may want to transition with a bit more carbs. Eat some vegetables, maybe have some fruit. You can drop the carbs from week to week as your body adapts.
On April 12 2010 12:36 cz wrote: Am I the only one here whose primary goal is size? I'm on HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), a counter-intuitive workout plan and have been noticing visible results quite quickly. I used to do HIT training with a 3-4 day split, always to failure, but it was more tiring on the CNS (really dead between workouts) and gave medium size gains, at least compared to HST.
HIT is garbage:
1. without gear (steroids), or 2. unless you're at elite levels where you need such high volume specific focus on a bodypart and the recovery after it (while doing multiple practices a day.
HST is fine for hypertrophy. Most of the basic barbell stuff is great for hypertrophy as well. Full body routine in general are superior for most beginners and intermediates.
There's no way it's better than SS for novices for gaining strength and mass. That's the goal of the program.
P90x is more of a conditioning program. Yes, you will gain some strength and likely some mass (and/or cut off fat because of the stricter nutrition), but that's because of the novice effect.
It really depends on your goals though. If someone was coming up to me and looking to get strong and big... SS. 100% of the time.
If someone was coming up to me and wanted to "get in shape" or "look better" sure p90x is an option that will work if you follow it 100% to the letter. Honestly though there are, in general, better programs out there.
It's a lot of volume for beginners, and you will likely see more overuse injuries on this than on a correctly executed SS program or other beginning weightlifting program.
What I found works really well for me was just buying a standard barbell (that's plates with 1" holes, not an olympic barbell, which has plates with 2" holes), and nothing bigger than 10 lb. plates.
It all tucks away neatly under the furniture, and there's nothing really heavy or awkward to wrestle in and out of storage, which is important since I don't have an exercise room.
Lately my favorite exercise is something I think would be called a clean-grip muscle snatch. Basically, I pull the bar up to nose level and then press it out smoothly, without stopping to catch it on my shoulders. I can handle a little more weight that way than in the strict press, but not as much as in the power clean and push press.
Anyway, when I'm on the computer I keep the loaded barbell sitting on the floor, and go over and lift it now and then. For instance, I interrupted myself typing this post to muscle snatch 140 lbs for about the 10th time today.
I also like power curls, bent rows, good mornings, and reverse lunges, and some other stuff, depending on what I feel like my weak points are, or what I've been overdoing.
It might not be the most efficient plan, but it takes no discipline at all. It's just kind of a game to see how much weight you can handle, and the numbers do go up over time. I like it, and since I go by how I'm feeling, I don't get injuries the way I used to by going to the gym and trying to stick to a plan.
On April 10 2010 23:35 RowdierBob wrote: Eshlow, what in your opinion is the best bench press to do?
I've been doing an all-round body routine lately due to time constraints and only have time for one form of bench. Incline, decline or flat - which is best and why?
Cheers mate.
Regular one is fine. If you want a bit more triceps emphasis go with close grip bench.
Kinda already answered right below your post though...
On April 11 2010 21:54 Energies wrote: Wow, eshlow is spiderman.
My lower back is killing me, I have no idea why. I am getting the same muscle soreness I would get after a day of heavy deadlifts or squats but this time it has stayed with me for like 2 weeks, admittedly I have done some running and light squats in that period. I thought it would be fine yesterday and did some squats, I was working my way up to around 250-260lb, I went to 176lb on my third warm up, it was strange, lifting the weight was easy but the pain after each set was excruciating so I stopped.
Also my deadlift has tanked. I haven't dead lifted in about 3 weeks, I was at around 350lb if the deadlift was my first exercise, but I could still bust out a set of 280-300lb fatigued. I tried it a few days ago and I hadn't worked legs or back that day, I just chose it as a compound exercise. There was 220lb on the bar, I did 3-4 reps and placed the weight down, it was just... too hard.
At the moment my lower back is a little bit tense but no pain. Cycling or running strains it slightly but doing any squats or dead lifts and I'm sure the pain would return. I'm confident the issue will resolve it self if I just allow it enough time to recover but how can I currently maintain my strength and mass without being able to do exercises like squats/deadlifts/Overhead press/cleans ??
I would start to do more mobility work for your back.. maybe some mckenzie exercises too.
Maintaining strength and mass is fairly easy -- just eat well. You can still go to the gym and do upper body or bodyweight strength work. Sprinting is great for maintaining mass (and even building it as well). There are lots of alternatives.
As for conditioning, you're likely better off doing sprinting and stair running work. That's the most applicable for trekking as well.
Stair runs with a heavy backpack would be fun. Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
On April 11 2010 10:02 shmay wrote: Speaking of SS. I did my third round of Squats/Deadlifts yesterday and once again felt completely drained today. Is there some way to combat this, or do I just need to wait it out?
Drained as in lacking energy? Are you eating a well balanced meal? Eating at least a 3:1 Carb to Protein ratio after working out? Because taking in carbs after a workout can increase your capacity to store muscle gylcogen up to 300%, according to recent studies, anyways. That would definitely help with the "drained" feeling.
Headache, and zero energy. I had stuff to do but never made it past my couch. I basically spent my entire day watching DBZ abridged episodes and surfing random sites, then laying down every couple hours because even that fatigued me.
Yeah I'm on the PaNu diet, so I'm not getting much carbs haha. Maybe I'll start adding sweet potatoes post work out. Feeling better today tho.
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
pushups / planks. maybe a short run?
Low carb is going to be energy draining when you switch... you may want to transition with a bit more carbs. Eat some vegetables, maybe have some fruit. You can drop the carbs from week to week as your body adapts.
On April 12 2010 12:36 cz wrote: Am I the only one here whose primary goal is size? I'm on HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), a counter-intuitive workout plan and have been noticing visible results quite quickly. I used to do HIT training with a 3-4 day split, always to failure, but it was more tiring on the CNS (really dead between workouts) and gave medium size gains, at least compared to HST.
HIT is garbage:
1. without gear (steroids), or 2. unless you're at elite levels where you need such high volume specific focus on a bodypart and the recovery after it (while doing multiple practices a day.
HST is fine for hypertrophy. Most of the basic barbell stuff is great for hypertrophy as well. Full body routine in general are superior for most beginners and intermediates.
Failure too much is just crappy.
HIT is low-volume, high intensity. I have no idea what to think of it as I haven't done enough other programs (my primary goal is size, btw). There's a huge debate with respect to HIT vs volume workouts that is not at all resolved yet: for every guy who thinks HIT is garbage there's a guy who thinks volume is a waste of time.
What program would you recommend for an intermediate lifter whose goal is size?
On April 12 2010 13:19 cz wrote: HIT is low-volume, high intensity.
It's a little more complicated than that. The definition of "intensity" accepted in the HIT community is not the same as the one accepted by most other weight trainers. It's normally used to mean weight used (as a percentage of what your 1-rep maximum), but in HIT, it is more like how close you come to momentary exhaustion, or how far beyond momentary exhaustion you push.
HIT is more of a training philosophy than a specific program. It tends to promote ideas like taking sets to failure, or pushing beyond failure with rest-pause, forced negatives, or drop sets, and discourage ideas like multiple sets or "easy days" where you do a limited amount of work with reduced weights.
On April 12 2010 13:19 cz wrote: HIT is low-volume, high intensity.
It's a little more complicated than that. The definition of "intensity" accepted in the HIT community is not the same as the one accepted by most other weight trainers. It's normally used to mean weight used (as a percentage of what your 1-rep maximum), but in HIT, it is more like how close you come to momentary exhaustion, or how far beyond momentary exhaustion you push.
HIT is more of a training philosophy than a specific program. It tends to promote ideas like taking sets to failure, or pushing beyond failure with rest-pause, forced negatives, or drop sets, and discourage ideas like multiple sets or "easy days" where you do a limited amount of work with reduced weights.
It really is just low-volume, high intensity. Very few sets per exercise, a few exercises per muscle group, each taken to failure. I think that definition covers every program that is considered HIT and doesn't include anything that isn't HIT.
On April 11 2010 21:54 Energies wrote: Wow, eshlow is spiderman.
My lower back is killing me, I have no idea why. I am getting the same muscle soreness I would get after a day of heavy deadlifts or squats but this time it has stayed with me for like 2 weeks, admittedly I have done some running and light squats in that period. I thought it would be fine yesterday and did some squats, I was working my way up to around 250-260lb, I went to 176lb on my third warm up, it was strange, lifting the weight was easy but the pain after each set was excruciating so I stopped.
Also my deadlift has tanked. I haven't dead lifted in about 3 weeks, I was at around 350lb if the deadlift was my first exercise, but I could still bust out a set of 280-300lb fatigued. I tried it a few days ago and I hadn't worked legs or back that day, I just chose it as a compound exercise. There was 220lb on the bar, I did 3-4 reps and placed the weight down, it was just... too hard.
At the moment my lower back is a little bit tense but no pain. Cycling or running strains it slightly but doing any squats or dead lifts and I'm sure the pain would return. I'm confident the issue will resolve it self if I just allow it enough time to recover but how can I currently maintain my strength and mass without being able to do exercises like squats/deadlifts/Overhead press/cleans ??
I would start to do more mobility work for your back.. maybe some mckenzie exercises too.
Maintaining strength and mass is fairly easy -- just eat well. You can still go to the gym and do upper body or bodyweight strength work. Sprinting is great for maintaining mass (and even building it as well). There are lots of alternatives.
As for conditioning, you're likely better off doing sprinting and stair running work. That's the most applicable for trekking as well.
Stair runs with a heavy backpack would be fun. Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
Sprinting actually sounds quite appropriate, as I'm currently low on free time. But I can always throw on a tank top and some shorts and run down to the park and do some sprints.
Would you recommend doing something like 100 metre sprint rest, 100 metre sprint rest until I'm fatigued or do smaller sprints 40-50 metres with much shorter rest periods.
I completely blew out my quads in an MMA session 2 days ago. We were doing squats and jumps and takedowns. I could barely walk down the stairs and still find it very painful and hard to do. How long should I expect this to carry on and are there any exercises I can do? Should I be doing quad stretches all the time or what? Never had any muscles this destroyed before.
On April 12 2010 21:54 sc4k wrote: I completely blew out my quads in an MMA session 2 days ago. We were doing squats and jumps and takedowns. I could barely walk down the stairs and still find it very painful and hard to do. How long should I expect this to carry on and are there any exercises I can do? Should I be doing quad stretches all the time or what? Never had any muscles this destroyed before.
If you are feeling actual pain or have severe soreness then you should not do any exercises, as anything would just be overtraining anyway. I found stretching helps, but really you just have to take time off and recover.
On April 10 2010 23:35 RowdierBob wrote: Eshlow, what in your opinion is the best bench press to do?
I've been doing an all-round body routine lately due to time constraints and only have time for one form of bench. Incline, decline or flat - which is best and why?
Cheers mate.
Regular one is fine. If you want a bit more triceps emphasis go with close grip bench.
Kinda already answered right below your post though...
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
People always make time for the things they want to do... as stated already.
On April 11 2010 21:54 Energies wrote: Wow, eshlow is spiderman.
My lower back is killing me, I have no idea why. I am getting the same muscle soreness I would get after a day of heavy deadlifts or squats but this time it has stayed with me for like 2 weeks, admittedly I have done some running and light squats in that period. I thought it would be fine yesterday and did some squats, I was working my way up to around 250-260lb, I went to 176lb on my third warm up, it was strange, lifting the weight was easy but the pain after each set was excruciating so I stopped.
Also my deadlift has tanked. I haven't dead lifted in about 3 weeks, I was at around 350lb if the deadlift was my first exercise, but I could still bust out a set of 280-300lb fatigued. I tried it a few days ago and I hadn't worked legs or back that day, I just chose it as a compound exercise. There was 220lb on the bar, I did 3-4 reps and placed the weight down, it was just... too hard.
At the moment my lower back is a little bit tense but no pain. Cycling or running strains it slightly but doing any squats or dead lifts and I'm sure the pain would return. I'm confident the issue will resolve it self if I just allow it enough time to recover but how can I currently maintain my strength and mass without being able to do exercises like squats/deadlifts/Overhead press/cleans ??
I would start to do more mobility work for your back.. maybe some mckenzie exercises too.
Maintaining strength and mass is fairly easy -- just eat well. You can still go to the gym and do upper body or bodyweight strength work. Sprinting is great for maintaining mass (and even building it as well). There are lots of alternatives.
As for conditioning, you're likely better off doing sprinting and stair running work. That's the most applicable for trekking as well.
Stair runs with a heavy backpack would be fun. Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
On April 12 2010 03:35 shmay wrote:
On April 11 2010 18:19 Ero-Sennin wrote:
On April 11 2010 10:02 shmay wrote: Speaking of SS. I did my third round of Squats/Deadlifts yesterday and once again felt completely drained today. Is there some way to combat this, or do I just need to wait it out?
Drained as in lacking energy? Are you eating a well balanced meal? Eating at least a 3:1 Carb to Protein ratio after working out? Because taking in carbs after a workout can increase your capacity to store muscle gylcogen up to 300%, according to recent studies, anyways. That would definitely help with the "drained" feeling.
Headache, and zero energy. I had stuff to do but never made it past my couch. I basically spent my entire day watching DBZ abridged episodes and surfing random sites, then laying down every couple hours because even that fatigued me.
Yeah I'm on the PaNu diet, so I'm not getting much carbs haha. Maybe I'll start adding sweet potatoes post work out. Feeling better today tho.
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
pushups / planks. maybe a short run?
Low carb is going to be energy draining when you switch... you may want to transition with a bit more carbs. Eat some vegetables, maybe have some fruit. You can drop the carbs from week to week as your body adapts.
On April 12 2010 12:36 cz wrote: Am I the only one here whose primary goal is size? I'm on HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), a counter-intuitive workout plan and have been noticing visible results quite quickly. I used to do HIT training with a 3-4 day split, always to failure, but it was more tiring on the CNS (really dead between workouts) and gave medium size gains, at least compared to HST.
HIT is garbage:
1. without gear (steroids), or 2. unless you're at elite levels where you need such high volume specific focus on a bodypart and the recovery after it (while doing multiple practices a day.
HST is fine for hypertrophy. Most of the basic barbell stuff is great for hypertrophy as well. Full body routine in general are superior for most beginners and intermediates.
Failure too much is just crappy.
HIT is low-volume, high intensity. I have no idea what to think of it as I haven't done enough other programs (my primary goal is size, btw). There's a huge debate with respect to HIT vs volume workouts that is not at all resolved yet: for every guy who thinks HIT is garbage there's a guy who thinks volume is a waste of time.
What program would you recommend for an intermediate lifter whose goal is size?
One of the basic barbell intermediate programs and lots of food. Likely a linear intermedaite program like Bill Starr's 5x5
Hey guys, I need some help with nutrition. Nutrition has always been my least favourite part of being active. I always try to be as strict as I can and since I don't have much money to throw around I find myself often chained to bland, repetitive preplanned meals, such as: "Tuna fish sandwich" twice or three times a day or oatmeal (which makes me dry heave) for breakfast.
Here is my list of foods. Oatmeal Tuna Fish sandwich Turkey Breast sandwich with cottage cheese in it banana Whey proten + milk Fried Chicken breast + brown rice
What can I do to spice things up while keeping to a poor man's budget? I'm definitely going to start buying salmon, and I should probably start eating pasta as well. I don't really get tired of that.
I've tried subsituting oatmeal with sweet potatoes but those taste TERRIBLE. Maybe there's some sort of sweet potato blended recipe out there?
On April 14 2010 02:38 Warrior Madness wrote: Hey guys, I need some help with nutrition. Nutrition has always been my least favourite part of being active. I always try to be as strict as I can and since I don't have much money to throw around I find myself often chained to bland, repetitive preplanned meals, such as: "Tuna fish sandwich" twice or three times a day or oatmeal (which makes me dry heave) for breakfast.
Here is my list of foods. Oatmeal Tuna Fish sandwich Turkey Breast sandwich with cottage cheese in it banana Whey proten + milk Fried Chicken breast + brown rice
What can I do to spice things up while keeping to a poor man's budget? I'm definitely going to start buying salmon, and I should probably start eating pasta as well. I don't really get tired of that.
I've tried subsituting oatmeal with sweet potatoes but those taste TERRIBLE. Maybe there's some sort of sweet potato blended recipe out there?
It seems to me lots of people on here who are looking to eat healthy completely neglect fruit and vegetables as part of their diet, choosing to focus on a mainly lean protein diet. Lean proteins are obviously important, but make sure you throw in some veggies when you make your chicken or eat a fish sandwich.
Also, has anyone seen anything concrete about the benefits of fasted cardio? My friend who is an absolute monster swears by it but he works out like 3x a day so I can't say that's any proof.
I'm currently doing the anabolic diet and some weird combination of SS + HIIT, that is i do the A and B workouts monday and thursday and i do HIIT on a recumbent bike tuesday and friday. Does that look good as far as fat loss is concerned which is my main goal. Also I've been wondering about German Volume Training, if I could incorporate it once a week with switching between squat and deadlift or is that detrimental to muscle since I'm low carbing it?ž
EDIT: Concerning the fasted cardio it's supposed to work, I haven't seen much on the topic but Shellby Starnes who is pretty famous around the bodybuilding crew says it does show results.
On April 10 2010 23:35 RowdierBob wrote: Eshlow, what in your opinion is the best bench press to do?
I've been doing an all-round body routine lately due to time constraints and only have time for one form of bench. Incline, decline or flat - which is best and why?
Cheers mate.
Regular one is fine. If you want a bit more triceps emphasis go with close grip bench.
Kinda already answered right below your post though...
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
People always make time for the things they want to do... as stated already.
On April 11 2010 21:54 Energies wrote: Wow, eshlow is spiderman.
My lower back is killing me, I have no idea why. I am getting the same muscle soreness I would get after a day of heavy deadlifts or squats but this time it has stayed with me for like 2 weeks, admittedly I have done some running and light squats in that period. I thought it would be fine yesterday and did some squats, I was working my way up to around 250-260lb, I went to 176lb on my third warm up, it was strange, lifting the weight was easy but the pain after each set was excruciating so I stopped.
Also my deadlift has tanked. I haven't dead lifted in about 3 weeks, I was at around 350lb if the deadlift was my first exercise, but I could still bust out a set of 280-300lb fatigued. I tried it a few days ago and I hadn't worked legs or back that day, I just chose it as a compound exercise. There was 220lb on the bar, I did 3-4 reps and placed the weight down, it was just... too hard.
At the moment my lower back is a little bit tense but no pain. Cycling or running strains it slightly but doing any squats or dead lifts and I'm sure the pain would return. I'm confident the issue will resolve it self if I just allow it enough time to recover but how can I currently maintain my strength and mass without being able to do exercises like squats/deadlifts/Overhead press/cleans ??
I would start to do more mobility work for your back.. maybe some mckenzie exercises too.
Maintaining strength and mass is fairly easy -- just eat well. You can still go to the gym and do upper body or bodyweight strength work. Sprinting is great for maintaining mass (and even building it as well). There are lots of alternatives.
As for conditioning, you're likely better off doing sprinting and stair running work. That's the most applicable for trekking as well.
Stair runs with a heavy backpack would be fun. Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
On April 12 2010 03:35 shmay wrote:
On April 11 2010 18:19 Ero-Sennin wrote:
On April 11 2010 10:02 shmay wrote: Speaking of SS. I did my third round of Squats/Deadlifts yesterday and once again felt completely drained today. Is there some way to combat this, or do I just need to wait it out?
Drained as in lacking energy? Are you eating a well balanced meal? Eating at least a 3:1 Carb to Protein ratio after working out? Because taking in carbs after a workout can increase your capacity to store muscle gylcogen up to 300%, according to recent studies, anyways. That would definitely help with the "drained" feeling.
Headache, and zero energy. I had stuff to do but never made it past my couch. I basically spent my entire day watching DBZ abridged episodes and surfing random sites, then laying down every couple hours because even that fatigued me.
Yeah I'm on the PaNu diet, so I'm not getting much carbs haha. Maybe I'll start adding sweet potatoes post work out. Feeling better today tho.
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
pushups / planks. maybe a short run?
Low carb is going to be energy draining when you switch... you may want to transition with a bit more carbs. Eat some vegetables, maybe have some fruit. You can drop the carbs from week to week as your body adapts.
On April 12 2010 12:36 cz wrote: Am I the only one here whose primary goal is size? I'm on HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), a counter-intuitive workout plan and have been noticing visible results quite quickly. I used to do HIT training with a 3-4 day split, always to failure, but it was more tiring on the CNS (really dead between workouts) and gave medium size gains, at least compared to HST.
HIT is garbage:
1. without gear (steroids), or 2. unless you're at elite levels where you need such high volume specific focus on a bodypart and the recovery after it (while doing multiple practices a day.
HST is fine for hypertrophy. Most of the basic barbell stuff is great for hypertrophy as well. Full body routine in general are superior for most beginners and intermediates.
Failure too much is just crappy.
HIT is low-volume, high intensity. I have no idea what to think of it as I haven't done enough other programs (my primary goal is size, btw). There's a huge debate with respect to HIT vs volume workouts that is not at all resolved yet: for every guy who thinks HIT is garbage there's a guy who thinks volume is a waste of time.
What program would you recommend for an intermediate lifter whose goal is size?
One of the basic barbell intermediate programs and lots of food. Likely a linear intermedaite program like Bill Starr's 5x5
So you recommend a strength program for someone looking for size gains? This love for starting strength and its ilk is completely out of hand: sure it's a nice base, but if you have lifted before and want size it is not at all the ideal path.
Notes for everyone in this thread:
Programs whose goal is to increase muscle size are better at increasing muscle size than programs whose goal is to increase strength, and vice versa. Very basic tenet. This applies less and less, of course, the more of a beginner / novice you are.
On April 10 2010 23:35 RowdierBob wrote: Eshlow, what in your opinion is the best bench press to do?
I've been doing an all-round body routine lately due to time constraints and only have time for one form of bench. Incline, decline or flat - which is best and why?
Cheers mate.
Regular one is fine. If you want a bit more triceps emphasis go with close grip bench.
Kinda already answered right below your post though...
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
People always make time for the things they want to do... as stated already.
On April 11 2010 21:54 Energies wrote: Wow, eshlow is spiderman.
My lower back is killing me, I have no idea why. I am getting the same muscle soreness I would get after a day of heavy deadlifts or squats but this time it has stayed with me for like 2 weeks, admittedly I have done some running and light squats in that period. I thought it would be fine yesterday and did some squats, I was working my way up to around 250-260lb, I went to 176lb on my third warm up, it was strange, lifting the weight was easy but the pain after each set was excruciating so I stopped.
Also my deadlift has tanked. I haven't dead lifted in about 3 weeks, I was at around 350lb if the deadlift was my first exercise, but I could still bust out a set of 280-300lb fatigued. I tried it a few days ago and I hadn't worked legs or back that day, I just chose it as a compound exercise. There was 220lb on the bar, I did 3-4 reps and placed the weight down, it was just... too hard.
At the moment my lower back is a little bit tense but no pain. Cycling or running strains it slightly but doing any squats or dead lifts and I'm sure the pain would return. I'm confident the issue will resolve it self if I just allow it enough time to recover but how can I currently maintain my strength and mass without being able to do exercises like squats/deadlifts/Overhead press/cleans ??
I would start to do more mobility work for your back.. maybe some mckenzie exercises too.
Maintaining strength and mass is fairly easy -- just eat well. You can still go to the gym and do upper body or bodyweight strength work. Sprinting is great for maintaining mass (and even building it as well). There are lots of alternatives.
As for conditioning, you're likely better off doing sprinting and stair running work. That's the most applicable for trekking as well.
Stair runs with a heavy backpack would be fun. Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
On April 12 2010 03:35 shmay wrote:
On April 11 2010 18:19 Ero-Sennin wrote:
On April 11 2010 10:02 shmay wrote: Speaking of SS. I did my third round of Squats/Deadlifts yesterday and once again felt completely drained today. Is there some way to combat this, or do I just need to wait it out?
Drained as in lacking energy? Are you eating a well balanced meal? Eating at least a 3:1 Carb to Protein ratio after working out? Because taking in carbs after a workout can increase your capacity to store muscle gylcogen up to 300%, according to recent studies, anyways. That would definitely help with the "drained" feeling.
Headache, and zero energy. I had stuff to do but never made it past my couch. I basically spent my entire day watching DBZ abridged episodes and surfing random sites, then laying down every couple hours because even that fatigued me.
Yeah I'm on the PaNu diet, so I'm not getting much carbs haha. Maybe I'll start adding sweet potatoes post work out. Feeling better today tho.
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
pushups / planks. maybe a short run?
Low carb is going to be energy draining when you switch... you may want to transition with a bit more carbs. Eat some vegetables, maybe have some fruit. You can drop the carbs from week to week as your body adapts.
On April 12 2010 12:36 cz wrote: Am I the only one here whose primary goal is size? I'm on HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), a counter-intuitive workout plan and have been noticing visible results quite quickly. I used to do HIT training with a 3-4 day split, always to failure, but it was more tiring on the CNS (really dead between workouts) and gave medium size gains, at least compared to HST.
HIT is garbage:
1. without gear (steroids), or 2. unless you're at elite levels where you need such high volume specific focus on a bodypart and the recovery after it (while doing multiple practices a day.
HST is fine for hypertrophy. Most of the basic barbell stuff is great for hypertrophy as well. Full body routine in general are superior for most beginners and intermediates.
Failure too much is just crappy.
HIT is low-volume, high intensity. I have no idea what to think of it as I haven't done enough other programs (my primary goal is size, btw). There's a huge debate with respect to HIT vs volume workouts that is not at all resolved yet: for every guy who thinks HIT is garbage there's a guy who thinks volume is a waste of time.
What program would you recommend for an intermediate lifter whose goal is size?
One of the basic barbell intermediate programs and lots of food. Likely a linear intermedaite program like Bill Starr's 5x5
So you recommend a strength program for someone looking for size gains? This love for starting strength and its ilk is completely out of hand: sure it's a nice base, but if you have lifted before and want size it is not at all the ideal path.
Notes for everyone in this thread:
Programs whose goal is to increase muscle size are better at increasing muscle size than programs whose goal is to increase strength, and vice versa. Very basic tenet. This applies less and less, of course, the more of a beginner / novice you are.
I happen to think that at the intermediate level, you are still on a strength-level, where you have so much potential. In the end your muscles will grow better if you can squat 400 instead of 300 pounds. So I personally would still go for more strength gains at that level (since you won't gain strength on BB programms so easily), and do hypertrophy-specific stuff later. Besides that, my legs have grown immensly with 3x5/5x5. But that may not account for much, I grow from pretty much anything. But mass gains with 5x5 should be pretty good if you eat enough.
On April 10 2010 23:35 RowdierBob wrote: Eshlow, what in your opinion is the best bench press to do?
I've been doing an all-round body routine lately due to time constraints and only have time for one form of bench. Incline, decline or flat - which is best and why?
Cheers mate.
Regular one is fine. If you want a bit more triceps emphasis go with close grip bench.
Kinda already answered right below your post though...
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
People always make time for the things they want to do... as stated already.
On April 11 2010 21:54 Energies wrote: Wow, eshlow is spiderman.
My lower back is killing me, I have no idea why. I am getting the same muscle soreness I would get after a day of heavy deadlifts or squats but this time it has stayed with me for like 2 weeks, admittedly I have done some running and light squats in that period. I thought it would be fine yesterday and did some squats, I was working my way up to around 250-260lb, I went to 176lb on my third warm up, it was strange, lifting the weight was easy but the pain after each set was excruciating so I stopped.
Also my deadlift has tanked. I haven't dead lifted in about 3 weeks, I was at around 350lb if the deadlift was my first exercise, but I could still bust out a set of 280-300lb fatigued. I tried it a few days ago and I hadn't worked legs or back that day, I just chose it as a compound exercise. There was 220lb on the bar, I did 3-4 reps and placed the weight down, it was just... too hard.
At the moment my lower back is a little bit tense but no pain. Cycling or running strains it slightly but doing any squats or dead lifts and I'm sure the pain would return. I'm confident the issue will resolve it self if I just allow it enough time to recover but how can I currently maintain my strength and mass without being able to do exercises like squats/deadlifts/Overhead press/cleans ??
I would start to do more mobility work for your back.. maybe some mckenzie exercises too.
Maintaining strength and mass is fairly easy -- just eat well. You can still go to the gym and do upper body or bodyweight strength work. Sprinting is great for maintaining mass (and even building it as well). There are lots of alternatives.
As for conditioning, you're likely better off doing sprinting and stair running work. That's the most applicable for trekking as well.
Stair runs with a heavy backpack would be fun. Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
On April 12 2010 03:35 shmay wrote:
On April 11 2010 18:19 Ero-Sennin wrote:
On April 11 2010 10:02 shmay wrote: Speaking of SS. I did my third round of Squats/Deadlifts yesterday and once again felt completely drained today. Is there some way to combat this, or do I just need to wait it out?
Drained as in lacking energy? Are you eating a well balanced meal? Eating at least a 3:1 Carb to Protein ratio after working out? Because taking in carbs after a workout can increase your capacity to store muscle gylcogen up to 300%, according to recent studies, anyways. That would definitely help with the "drained" feeling.
Headache, and zero energy. I had stuff to do but never made it past my couch. I basically spent my entire day watching DBZ abridged episodes and surfing random sites, then laying down every couple hours because even that fatigued me.
Yeah I'm on the PaNu diet, so I'm not getting much carbs haha. Maybe I'll start adding sweet potatoes post work out. Feeling better today tho.
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
pushups / planks. maybe a short run?
Low carb is going to be energy draining when you switch... you may want to transition with a bit more carbs. Eat some vegetables, maybe have some fruit. You can drop the carbs from week to week as your body adapts.
On April 12 2010 12:36 cz wrote: Am I the only one here whose primary goal is size? I'm on HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), a counter-intuitive workout plan and have been noticing visible results quite quickly. I used to do HIT training with a 3-4 day split, always to failure, but it was more tiring on the CNS (really dead between workouts) and gave medium size gains, at least compared to HST.
HIT is garbage:
1. without gear (steroids), or 2. unless you're at elite levels where you need such high volume specific focus on a bodypart and the recovery after it (while doing multiple practices a day.
HST is fine for hypertrophy. Most of the basic barbell stuff is great for hypertrophy as well. Full body routine in general are superior for most beginners and intermediates.
Failure too much is just crappy.
HIT is low-volume, high intensity. I have no idea what to think of it as I haven't done enough other programs (my primary goal is size, btw). There's a huge debate with respect to HIT vs volume workouts that is not at all resolved yet: for every guy who thinks HIT is garbage there's a guy who thinks volume is a waste of time.
What program would you recommend for an intermediate lifter whose goal is size?
One of the basic barbell intermediate programs and lots of food. Likely a linear intermedaite program like Bill Starr's 5x5
So you recommend a strength program for someone looking for size gains? This love for starting strength and its ilk is completely out of hand: sure it's a nice base, but if you have lifted before and want size it is not at all the ideal path.
Notes for everyone in this thread:
Programs whose goal is to increase muscle size are better at increasing muscle size than programs whose goal is to increase strength, and vice versa. Very basic tenet. This applies less and less, of course, the more of a beginner / novice you are.
I happen to think that at the intermediate level, you are still on a strength-level, where you have so much potential. In the end your muscles will grow better if you can squat 400 instead of 300 pounds. So I personally would still go for more strength gains at that level (since you won't gain strength on BB programms so easily), and do hypertrophy-specific stuff later. Besides that, my legs have grown immensly with 3x5/5x5. But that may not account for much, I grow from pretty much anything. But mass gains with 5x5 should be pretty good if you eat enough.
I really disagree with this line of thinking, that doing strength programs at novice/beginner/intermediate levels results in better size at a later date than someone who did size programs the entire way. In my view, and unlike some others on this thread I actually don't just state everything as being obvious fact, size programs are better for size than strength programs, at whatever time period you want to measure the finish line.
I also don't understand your reasoning with respect to why doing a strength program for a long time, even at intermediate levels, before switching to size programs would result in the largest size. If you can squat 400 pounds and you switch to a hypertrophy program, you have little room to improve. If you can squat 200 pounds and start a hypertrophy program, you have a long way to improve while making size gains before nearing your genetic limit. In other words, strength first seems detrimental to overall later size as you have less room to travel.
I have no doubt, though, that you gained size and strength on a 5x5. Hypertrophy programs will lead to increased strength and strength programs will lead to increased size, it's just the proportions of which are different, which is why (along with what I said above) that I think it's silly and in fact less than optimal advice to suggest to someone who is aiming purely for size and isn't a complete beginner (and even if he was...) to start a strength-oriented program like 5x5s.
On April 10 2010 23:35 RowdierBob wrote: Eshlow, what in your opinion is the best bench press to do?
I've been doing an all-round body routine lately due to time constraints and only have time for one form of bench. Incline, decline or flat - which is best and why?
Cheers mate.
Regular one is fine. If you want a bit more triceps emphasis go with close grip bench.
Kinda already answered right below your post though...
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
People always make time for the things they want to do... as stated already.
On April 11 2010 21:54 Energies wrote: Wow, eshlow is spiderman.
My lower back is killing me, I have no idea why. I am getting the same muscle soreness I would get after a day of heavy deadlifts or squats but this time it has stayed with me for like 2 weeks, admittedly I have done some running and light squats in that period. I thought it would be fine yesterday and did some squats, I was working my way up to around 250-260lb, I went to 176lb on my third warm up, it was strange, lifting the weight was easy but the pain after each set was excruciating so I stopped.
Also my deadlift has tanked. I haven't dead lifted in about 3 weeks, I was at around 350lb if the deadlift was my first exercise, but I could still bust out a set of 280-300lb fatigued. I tried it a few days ago and I hadn't worked legs or back that day, I just chose it as a compound exercise. There was 220lb on the bar, I did 3-4 reps and placed the weight down, it was just... too hard.
At the moment my lower back is a little bit tense but no pain. Cycling or running strains it slightly but doing any squats or dead lifts and I'm sure the pain would return. I'm confident the issue will resolve it self if I just allow it enough time to recover but how can I currently maintain my strength and mass without being able to do exercises like squats/deadlifts/Overhead press/cleans ??
I would start to do more mobility work for your back.. maybe some mckenzie exercises too.
Maintaining strength and mass is fairly easy -- just eat well. You can still go to the gym and do upper body or bodyweight strength work. Sprinting is great for maintaining mass (and even building it as well). There are lots of alternatives.
As for conditioning, you're likely better off doing sprinting and stair running work. That's the most applicable for trekking as well.
Stair runs with a heavy backpack would be fun. Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
On April 12 2010 03:35 shmay wrote:
On April 11 2010 18:19 Ero-Sennin wrote:
On April 11 2010 10:02 shmay wrote: Speaking of SS. I did my third round of Squats/Deadlifts yesterday and once again felt completely drained today. Is there some way to combat this, or do I just need to wait it out?
Drained as in lacking energy? Are you eating a well balanced meal? Eating at least a 3:1 Carb to Protein ratio after working out? Because taking in carbs after a workout can increase your capacity to store muscle gylcogen up to 300%, according to recent studies, anyways. That would definitely help with the "drained" feeling.
Headache, and zero energy. I had stuff to do but never made it past my couch. I basically spent my entire day watching DBZ abridged episodes and surfing random sites, then laying down every couple hours because even that fatigued me.
Yeah I'm on the PaNu diet, so I'm not getting much carbs haha. Maybe I'll start adding sweet potatoes post work out. Feeling better today tho.
On April 11 2010 20:04 evanthebouncy! wrote: here's my question now: school getting super busy, probably no time to excercise.. what do I do
pushups / planks. maybe a short run?
Low carb is going to be energy draining when you switch... you may want to transition with a bit more carbs. Eat some vegetables, maybe have some fruit. You can drop the carbs from week to week as your body adapts.
On April 12 2010 12:36 cz wrote: Am I the only one here whose primary goal is size? I'm on HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training), a counter-intuitive workout plan and have been noticing visible results quite quickly. I used to do HIT training with a 3-4 day split, always to failure, but it was more tiring on the CNS (really dead between workouts) and gave medium size gains, at least compared to HST.
HIT is garbage:
1. without gear (steroids), or 2. unless you're at elite levels where you need such high volume specific focus on a bodypart and the recovery after it (while doing multiple practices a day.
HST is fine for hypertrophy. Most of the basic barbell stuff is great for hypertrophy as well. Full body routine in general are superior for most beginners and intermediates.
Failure too much is just crappy.
HIT is low-volume, high intensity. I have no idea what to think of it as I haven't done enough other programs (my primary goal is size, btw). There's a huge debate with respect to HIT vs volume workouts that is not at all resolved yet: for every guy who thinks HIT is garbage there's a guy who thinks volume is a waste of time.
What program would you recommend for an intermediate lifter whose goal is size?
One of the basic barbell intermediate programs and lots of food. Likely a linear intermedaite program like Bill Starr's 5x5
So you recommend a strength program for someone looking for size gains? This love for starting strength and its ilk is completely out of hand: sure it's a nice base, but if you have lifted before and want size it is not at all the ideal path.
Notes for everyone in this thread:
Programs whose goal is to increase muscle size are better at increasing muscle size than programs whose goal is to increase strength, and vice versa. Very basic tenet. This applies less and less, of course, the more of a beginner / novice you are.
I happen to think that at the intermediate level, you are still on a strength-level, where you have so much potential. In the end your muscles will grow better if you can squat 400 instead of 300 pounds. So I personally would still go for more strength gains at that level (since you won't gain strength on BB programms so easily), and do hypertrophy-specific stuff later. Besides that, my legs have grown immensly with 3x5/5x5. But that may not account for much, I grow from pretty much anything. But mass gains with 5x5 should be pretty good if you eat enough.
I really disagree with this line of thinking, that doing strength programs at novice/beginner/intermediate levels results in better size at a later date than someone who did size programs the entire way. In my view, and unlike some others on this thread I actually don't just state everything as being obvious fact, size programs are better for size than strength programs, at whatever time period you want to measure the finish line.
I also don't understand your reasoning with respect to why doing a strength program for a long time, even at intermediate levels, before switching to size programs would result in the largest size. If you can squat 400 pounds and you switch to a hypertrophy program, you have little room to improve. If you can squat 200 pounds and start a hypertrophy program, you have a long way to improve while making size gains before nearing your genetic limit. In other words, strength first seems detrimental to overall later size as you have less room to travel.
I have no doubt, though, that you gained size and strength on a 5x5. Hypertrophy programs will lead to increased strength and strength programs will lead to increased size, it's just the proportions of which are different, which is why (along with what I said above) that I think it's silly and in fact less than optimal advice to suggest to someone who is aiming purely for size and isn't a complete beginner (and even if he was...) to start a strength-oriented program like 5x5s.
The vast majority of problems with people not getting big is because they don't eat enough.
I assume you would agree that Starting Strength is very near optimal for a complete novice (from what I gathered). But that you disagree that a strength related intermediate program would be even close to optimal for someone looking to put on size. If these are not the case then I misunderstood your post a bit.
"In other words, strength first seems detrimental to overall later size as you have less room to travel."
I do not agree with that at all. Any weight class athletes move up by lifting heavy and just packing in the kcals. Size follows.
As long as you have the stimulus for mass (whether it be high intensity, high volume, etc.) and you eat enough you will gain mass.
I do agree (if you would agree with this) that optimize muscle mass gains it would be better to switch to a higher volume (reps) routine after either SS or a linear intermediate program.
Anyway, from what I've experienced on the net it's pretty easy to criticize. However, what exactly would you suggest for a specific hypertrophy program then?
EPT
Remember, the terrain is pretty uneven so I would skip a stair here and there to not let your body get into a rhythm.
