question about weightlifting.

[RBtrucking4]

I have been reading that your not supposed to workout a muscle group more than once a week but i usually work out every muscle group every other day. Am i doing it wrong should i spread my lifting out so that i only do a musclegroup a week or is what im doing alright?

 

[RBtrucking4]

Anyone wanna help me out on my quest for answers?

 

[cyrex]

all depends on your recovery.

Honestly if you are not on some major roids this is what may be happening:

A) You aren't working out nearly hard enough so your recovery over that 1 day period is more than enough to go back and do the same thing again

OR

B) You are working hard enough and are not giving your muscles enough time to recover and get some protein synthesis going. If this is the case you are just promoting endurance more than strength/muscle growth.
saying you should only work each muscle group once/week is really unfounded a 'week' is a man made time span that has no biological basis, however it's pretty damn easy to remember:
Mon Chest tris
Tues Legs
Wed Back Bis
Frid shoulders
S/Su rest

doing something to that effect should give you more than enough recovery time and time to build muscle. Also if you spend 2 hours in the gym doing a full body workout
think of how good you can hit your chest and tris alone in that 2 hours... MUCH better IMHO.

 

[RBtrucking4]

well i dont know i mean how long can you really spend on one muscle i usually just do 3 sets of 10 first set is a warm up second set is a medium then the last set is a max something i can only get up 5-7 times without a break. What kind of reps should i be doing for maximum strength gain? Also I dont get sore from lifting anymore thats why i figured i could do it every other day. Are you saying i should be getting sore? Can you give me an example of some reps for maximum strengh? Thanks. I am not looking to build endurance just make my arms, legs, back bigger, stronger. I have come up with a routine that goes like this tell me what ya think.

Monday: chest, tricep
Tuesday: off
Wednsday: Deadlift,
Thursday: Off
Friday: Bicep, forearm, leg lifts.

The only thing is for wensday i need to find another lift to accompany the deadlift i tried doing power clean but im not really a big fan of it so maybe you can give me an idea of what else i could do on wensdays.

Thanks alot i really appreciate the help.

 

[RBtrucking4]

O ya and i dont have the equipment for the squat if i did i would add that but i do all my lifting in a basement and all i have is a regular bench press no squat rack or anything like that.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

Sounds like you need to visit the Training forum.

But...

Maximum strength: Heavy ass weight, low reps! Plain and simple.

Set one = 6 reps
set two = 4 reps
ect.

don't forget to do warm up sets before you heavy sets though. Especially when just starting out with strength training.

You don't need a forearm specific session, they SHOULD be roasted from back day with deadlifts, rowing, and shrugs.

Power cleans are amazing... get used to it if ya can, and incorporate it consistantly when your comfortable with it. OLY (olympic lifts) are KING... speed and strength.

Clean Squats are fun too Kindof an "advanced" lift though, learn technique and practice with light weight to get form down first.

 

[cyrex]

if you are going to failure on your 3rd set, do another 2 sets after that to failure...don't just stop after not being able to do another rep once you hit failure on 1 set...

 

[cyrex]

For example.. i did legs last night:

Started with back squats
1 warmup set of slow 5 reps at weight X
1 set at weight Y for 8 (felt like I could have done 3 or 4 more reps)
2 sets at weight Z (20 lbs more than I did last week) for 6 reps each set. each set felt like I could have only done 1 or 2 more reps (if that)
1 set at weight z+10 for 4 reps
2 sets at weight Y for 8 reps (near failure each time)

then I hopped over and did hack squats in a similar fashion but without the warmup set and without the z+10 set

then I went and did some ham curls with 2 different machines till failure total of 8 sets
next lunges 2 sets
next I did front squats 4 sets of 8 at 135 (lighter weight for me but I couldn't have done more at the point and felt safe about it being that I'd been working hard all night)
then knee extensions and knocked out as many reps as I could for 4 sets at the max weight.

By this time I wasn't able to walk straight or upright for about 2 minutes.

Once I was able to make it to the seated calf raises I tossed 4 plates on there and did 3 sets of 80
then put 1 more plate on and did it as many times as I could (calf cramped up pretty bad at 20 reps so I stopped there and stretched).

The point of this is that by the time I was done my legs were OUT OF COMMISSION so of course I went and jumped rope for 200 fast jumps mixing in double jumps and crossovers.

Today I'm not tooo terribly sore but I feel it. I can walk fine but I know I worked my legs last night
Tomorrow I'll feel fine, but I also know that I blasted my legs sooo hard last night that they will be growing well for the next 5-6 days and that's even being that I've got Test E runnin through my blood which should be giving me faster recovery...

You sound like you need to up your volume and intensity a LOT more.

 

[RBtrucking4]

ya sounds about right thanks for all the help im gonna give it a shot and see what goes on.

 

[wlmcrae]

I think this Shadow thread might answer some questions as well.

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=365802