System Shock

[estropes]

I've been on a heavy routine for about 2 months now. I went to bench the other day, and by bench keeps going down. It began when I was doing 260 x 4 x 4. My weight slowly started going down...260 - 250 - 240...every week it just kept getting hard and harder to lift.

So I said fu<& it, lightened the wieght and started doing 2 sets of 15, 3rd set to failure.

I've been working like this on every body part for about 2 weeks now and it's really helping. I'm guessing it was just the shock my system needed. I'm expecting to go back to heavy to mid/heavy lifts in another 2 weeks.

Just thought I'd pass along that it my experence heavy isn't always the best way....you really need to shock your muscles sometimes.

 

[tzan]

I always pyramided my heavy sets. For example on bench I would do around 275x10/295x7/315x4/325x2. I then switched it up the pyramiding to just hitting certain amounts of reps. For example, on bench I did 305x6x4. After a few weeks of this approach, I realized that I really wasn't making any progress in my lifts. It's tough to find out what works for you, because evryone is different. I now just switched it so I pyramid certain exercises and others I just go with the same weight and reps. To each is his own.

p.s. I do disagree with your theory about heavy isn't always the best way though. As long as YOUR controlling the weight, the heavier the better!

 

[estropes]

heavy

I know everyone on this board disagree with heavy isn't always the best. I've been doing heavy lifts and compound movement for a pretty long time and I think I may have just hit a wall I think that switching to a lighter weight higher reps just shocks the system enough to be able to go back to higher weights to start moving back up. At least that's been my experience. Like you said everyone is different, so what works for me might not work for others. I thought I's just throw out the possibility for others to switch, even if it's for 2 weeks, just in the possibility to get the program and muscles back on track.

Also I couldn't agree more about handling heavy weights or any weights for that matter. Slow and mechanical, it's the only way to lift, now matter how much weight or how many reps your doing.

 

[DaCypher]

I could never really understand the pyramiding style because without the first couple sets I can go much heavier even with a few minutes rest between sets.

 

[Jabs]

I hate when my lifts are going good then all of sudden your strength starts going down. Its hard for people to change their program because your body needs some change. Thats what seperates most bodybuilders is the ones who can recognize when a change is needed.

 

[Grizzly]

It might be because of overtraining. My personal favorite set/rep scheme is 4sets of 4-6 reps. I love to train that way, but after about 6 weeks my body is just absolutely trashed and I need to either take a week off or up the reps to 8-10.

 

[DaCypher]

It might be because of overtraining. My personal favorite set/rep scheme is 4sets of 4-6 reps. I love to train that way, but after about 6 weeks my body is just absolutely trashed and I need to either take a week off or up the reps to 8-10.

Do you ever try lowering the amount of sets after those 6 weeks to maybe 2-3 (or even just one) while keeping the 4-6 reps? Not trying to start another HIT argument, just curious...

 

[Grizzly]

Well, sometimes I only do two sets when I'm supposed to be doing 4. Usually at the end of my workout on the last exercise or two. I do as much as I feel that it takes to really stimulate myself. My personal philosophy is to anihilate the body so I don't usually do such a low volume. Although, sometimes I do a slightly lower volume every 2-3 weeks. Not usually by reducing sets rather by reducing the number of exercise. I generally do this with arms. One week I'll do 3 biceps and 3 triceps exercises and the next I'll only do 2.

 

[DaCypher]

Thats interesting, I find that I do that somewhat as well with my arms. My arms (bis and tris) seem to be the most variable, sometimes they'll really lag in progress while other times they seem to explode. I guess its because they're used so much in other upper body exercises as well.

 

[The Dude]

Want a wicked shocker? Try one of Hatfield's "C" workouts from his ABC program. I did one for back last week with t-bar rows (the "machine" t-bar), deadlifts, and close-grip pulldowns. My back was screaming during the workout, that night, and for days afterward. For now, I intend to try to shock each muscle group one every month or so and to keep these sessions spaced out. I'd destroy myself if I did them all in one week.

Rest/Pause workouts like those described on Anabolicextreme.com are good too. For a while I was doing 3 normal cycles of workouts followed by a week of rest/pause workouts. Pretty nice change up.