strength training

[poochy]

I have two questions can you weight train lets say chest once a week and still get good results or must you hit that body part twice a week. I do a push-pull work-out chest and tri's mon. bi's and back tues. and shoulders on wed. then four days off.
The other question is I use a creatine suppliment every day and was thinking of adding l-glutamine too for helping with muscle repair do you think this is a good idea or unnessary?

 

[CCS]

L-glutamine is only needed if you really work your muscles hard, and then you only need it during recovery. Once a week will give you improvements, though you should eventually plateau. Even 3x a week will flatten out eventually. Everyone puts on more muscle in their first 3 months than in the rest of the year, though at 3x you won't low down as soon.

 

[CCS]

Anything you do will help you. Whether it is 6 or 20 reps to failure or to a few reps before failure, you will improve. They key is to challenge yourself, and then give yourself a few days to recover. Some ways are faster than others, but I know I'll get stronger either way.

 

[The Gardener]

CCS, what are your thoughts on reps and sets combinations?

I cycle my workouts into three stages, in effect working out one third of my body in each stage, then a day off, then restart.

When I do my exercises, my "base" workout is 3 sets of 10 reps each.

After doing this for two cycles, I'll do a cycle where I do just one or two sets of each exercise, but try to maximize the reps and do as many as I can. I do this just to mix up the "muscle memory" and try to introduce some stamina to the muscles over and above the set of 10 reps they are used to.

Then, I'll do my standard 3x10 again for a week or two.... and after that I'll have a "max out" day, where I will crank up the weight for each of my exercises to challenge them, but do maybe 4 or 5 reps. I do this to try to add some power to the muscle, but also to add variety to the routine and keep the muscles challenged. This is also a good period to increase my base "3x10" workout weight amounts. I challenge all my muscles with a higher weight, and for the muscles that seem to be able to cope with it well, I KEEP that weight from then on for my basic 3x10 workouts.

I'm not all that knowledgeable about how to build a good set routine and what is optimal... what are your thoughts? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[CCS]

Your rutine is more complicated than mine. I try not to do the same exercise twice in a workout. I'll do pull ups, rows, reverse butter flies, and curls one day, and maybe find a different way to work those muscles. And on my chest/tricept day I'll do dips, inclined, flat, and declined bench press, tricept extentions, and butterflies. I warm up with 3 minutes of fast tredmeal walking uphill with arm stretches, then lift half my mormal weight as a warm up, then start with heavy weights to failure at 6 reps and gradually work to lighter weights that bring me to failure at 20 reps. I did not get sore, but now I'm trying to do 6 sets to get sore and see if that helps, since I hit a plateau. I don't know the ideal rest time. Some experts say to repeat every 4 days with a light workout on the 2 day (1st being a rest day after 0, the workout day), but others go every 3 days. I guess I'm just going to change it up, see if I get stronger in 2 weeks, and if not, change it again. By stronger I mean 3 extra reps of the same heavy weight.

 

[CCS]

OK I did about 6 or 8 sets last night of the same muscle groups, and made my forearms burn. I don't think it is possible to have burned them much more then that. Well, I could have I guess, but that would hurt. Anyway, no soreness. They say soreness is caused by micro tears, but I think they have more research to do since soreness does not start until 12 hours after the workout. I think other chemicals are produced. I think soreness is the oxidative damage that accumulates after a workout without anti-oxidants (metabolism makes free radicals). I think it is like a sun burn. I think all the anti-oxidants I took before and after the workout protected me. So I don't know how much tearing I actually got, but I'm giving myself two days to recover, and going to burn them harder next time and repeat the anti-oxidant stuff. Next time I'll take fruit juice with me so I don't have to stop early from light headedness.

 

[I_Hate_DHT]

Once a week is perfect...

 

[JohnnySeville]

LOL, you guys know lots about growing hair, but not about exercise.

 

[CCS]

This is true. I can't say I know how to build muscle. I can only recite what I've read, tell you what I've done, and vouche that I've not built much muscle, though my muscles have changed shape recently. I measured circumference and they are still 13 inches, though.

 

[CCS]

edit: memory foam was in the wrong thread.

 

[bubka]

i will answer the question since some people here are not capable

what i did, and i learned this from some people who were in some decent college football programs

like you did, monday: push, chest and tris, Tue: pull, back and bis, wed, legs (though i never did this much), thurs, shoulders (tris still some too), fri off, then repeat

 

[JohnnySeville]

The routine you use is based on your OBJECTIVES and GENETICS , one size does not fit all. Any form of exercise is better than nothing, but make the most of it by designing a routine that is appropriate for you.


PS... shoulders and chest/tris are too close together in your routine, if you work shoulders too hard your chest workout will suffer, not enough recuperation, for most people.

 

[Harie]

make the most of it by designing a routine that is appropriate for you.

With the amount of routines that are already out there, there really is no need to "design" a totally new routine for you. Many way smarter people than you or I have designed hundreds of great routines that we can follow forever.

Starting Strength, Intermediate 5x5, Smolov Squat Cycle, Dual Factor Theory, Westside for BB, HST, GVT, OVT, Periodization and the list goes on and on and... You could run just the ones I listed for a good couple of years.

*EDIT*

I shouldn't have said no need to design a totally new routine. If you become an advanced lifter (more than a few years of serious lifting under your belt), then yes, design a routine for yourself. Advanced lifters are people that are preparing for body building competitions, power lifters and athletes. Unless you've been lifting consistently, and lifting smart for years, you are not an advanced lifter. Do yourself a favor and follow routines of people that were/are advanced lifters that designed a better program than you ever could.

Though, if you want to make me laugh, newbie splits are always funny. Your 5 sets of 12 reps and 5 different curl exercises that you do 3x/week = LOL

 

[dietcola]

i know alot about bulking because i was 145 and needed to put on weight desperately. so now i'm 190, already went up to 210 and now came back down. continuing to build muscle while losing fat is difficult. at 190 i'm pretty lean so now i'm just building muscle, trying not to add fat.

i hit each muscle group once a week, but each muscle group is also worked as a secondary muscle group at least once a week as well. i'm spending 25 minutes a week concentrating on each muscle group, two groups a workout. an average workout will look like

excercise 1 1 x 12, 1 x 10, 1 x 8
excercise 2 1 x 12. 1 x 10, 1 x 8
excercise 3 1 x 12, 1 x 10, 1 x 8

i change this every 2 or 3 months. so far my results have been nothing shy of amazing. i feel ohkay about my hair because i have the type of body you find in men's health magazines. i've been working out my whole life and it took me until last year to figure out the key to success. DIET. if you don't want to eat properly you might as well keep your fat/skinny *** out of the gym.

 

[JohnnySeville]

Canned exercise routines are fine for those that have no prior knowledge, but are less than optimal. Been there, done that. When I first started I used to try all the magazine routines, then I got smart and designed my own routines based on ME. First train smarter, then harder.

 

[Harie]

I first started I used to try all the magazine routines

I didn't mean magazine routines. Those are always BS. All men's fitness mags are nothing more than advertising space for supplements with sh!t articles thrown into the mix to fool everyone.

 

[CCS]

Your 5 sets of 12 reps and 5 different curl exercises that you do 3x/week = LOL

Do you mean 5 sets of each curl exercise, or 5 different bicept exercises totally 5 sets of 12 reps = lol?

 

[CCS]

I first started I used to try all the magazine routines

I didn't mean magazine routines. Those are always BS. All men's fitness mags are nothing more than advertising space for supplements with sh!t articles thrown into the mix to fool everyone.

That is a bit disturbing. I knew the mags just sold supplements, but I thought the workouts were good, just because I knew the diet stuff was correct. I also saw a lot of the same stuff repeated on bodybuilding.com. So even Iron Man magazine is crap?

 

[CCS]

i know alot about bulking because i was 145 and needed to put on weight desperately. so now i'm 190, already went up to 210 and now came back down. continuing to build muscle while losing fat is difficult. at 190 i'm pretty lean so now i'm just building muscle, trying not to add fat.

i hit each muscle group once a week, but each muscle group is also worked as a secondary muscle group at least once a week as well. i'm spending 25 minutes a week concentrating on each muscle group, two groups a workout. an average workout will look like

excercise 1 1 x 12, 1 x 10, 1 x 8
excercise 2 1 x 12. 1 x 10, 1 x 8
excercise 3 1 x 12, 1 x 10, 1 x 8

i change this every 2 or 3 months. so far my results have been nothing shy of amazing. i feel ohkay about my hair because i have the type of body you find in men's health magazines. i've been working out my whole life and it took me until last year to figure out the key to success. DIET. if you don't want to eat properly you might as well keep your fat/skinny *** out of the gym.

A lot of sources are saying to work each muscle group only once a week. How much would I lose if I worked them every 4 days, 4 compound sets and 1 isolation set each total for a muscle pair?

 

[Harie]

That is a bit disturbing. I knew the mags just sold supplements, but I thought the workouts were good, just because I knew the diet stuff was correct. I also saw a lot of the same stuff repeated on bodybuilding.com. So even Iron Man magazine is crap?

All muscle magazines have agendas to promote their line of supplements. Many of the muscle mags have workout routines that no one but the most advanced juiced up person should attempt. Then there's the flavor of the month routines that pretty much suck. I've read very, very few articles in any muscle mag that was worthy of my attempting it at the gym.

Usually anything by Pavel Tsatsoline (sp), who writes (maybe not anymore) for Muscle Media mag, was decent. And on his own, he's a great strength coach and has great non-traditional exercises etc.

But to build a whole exercise mentality around what you read in Flex, Muscle Media, Men's Health etc is crazy. If you're bored one week, sure, give the "latest and greatest" muscle magazine exercise routine a try, but don't make it your life.