Hello everyone, I hope you could help me to beat a few doubts of mine relating to strength training
By now I´m training with weights 2 times at week performing Power Cleans, Squats and Bench presses.
I´m trying to end up my lift sessions round 60 min.That kind of training seems to work fine for me but I can´t avoid to have some questions
1-It could be better change the Bench Press for the Standing military Press? or maybe alternate them?I´ve read that avoid delts presses it´s a bad idea for that joint…
2-It´s ok to lift 2 days/week? Recently I´ve been sent the CF´GPP dvd and I´ve seen that lift sessions occurs during 4 times a/week during GPP and 3 during SPP, so I guess if I´m doing it right
unless it was the physio who told you that military presses are bad for your joints, dont listen to them, they are fine. i prefere my presses to the front v’s the rear due to shoulder discomfort, but at the front they are fine, for me. For you, it may be different?
If you are close to the strength levels you want to be, need to be, then weights 2 times per week should be fine. if you need that extra strength, perhaps you could up it to 3 times per week.
There should be no reason not to include shoulder presses after the bench presses, no real need to rotate them with benchs, if you had to rotate them due to time constraints, rotate with another exercise perhaps?
ok your asking a very borad question which is perfectly fine. i would advise that you do a lot of reading and if you a realyl serious pick up a copy of supertraining read that cover to cover and you will be better equiped to train yourself or anyone for that matter than 90% of the “coaches” out there. dont trust everything you read online, even from this site. a lot of stuff seems to make sense but is really a psuedo science (it makes since only becasue of false assertion). but still read and consider and dont be afriad to change your mind. seriously though read supertraining and youll be light years ahead of the game.
your questions
ask yourself what is the purpose of the excercise and what is the goal of your training. military press and bench press arent what most would consider interchangable. also any excercise can be dangerous if performed incorrectly. this is why learning is so important.
again training frequecny is dependent on your goals but ive known people to train upwards of 6 hours a day 7 days a week but this is for specific purpose and only done by people who are under proper supervision and are very experienced.
i reccomend you go out read charlies work read siffs work read louies work so on and so forth get a feel for the methodolgy in each of these training system ect. im not im not saying that anyone is the golden method but almost everyone has something that can be culled by a eager individual .
Thanks for answers , yeah the main reason behind my election of only 1 press movement is a matter of time.
Due to my lack of more than 2 training hours the most of the days , I try to performe strength sessions in 60 to 75 min. (excluding cool down period)
But it´s certain too that performing only that 3 movements per session (adding some extra warming up movements) permits me to lift with more intensity
That´s why I´m asking to choose between Bench Press vs Military Standing Press , I feel fine with the 2 lifts but I wonder if performing both in a single workout could be better than alternate then (i.e 1cycle of 3 weeks of BP following of 1 cycle of 3 weeks of Standing MP)
Ussually I´m perfoming 2 warm up sets plus 3 to 5 sets on Power Clean , SQT and BP resting 3 min between sets and 5 min between exercises.
In the past I´d been training with bodybuilding routines performing lots of exercises and sets per session expending 2 hours the most of the days , performing classic strength cycles only 2 to 3 months per year
Any idea or comment on my workout would be honestly appreciated
Thanks for answers , yeah I know I read more than I should and often I suffer the analysis paralisis because of that
Supertrainig is a magazine? excuse my ignorance but I´m not a frecuent English talker and I´m relatively new on strength training , I´ve discover that site year and half ago so you can imagine my novice on that purpposes :o
Supertraining is a book. Probably the best book on “training” available period. There is also a Supertraining email list on Yahoo Groups where topics are discussed.
that is some massive amount of time in the gym!! massive. massvie rest periods drag out the gym experience. any reason for this?
i have spoken to a few powerlifter who only have 60-90 seconds between sets. I personaly get away with 30-60sec. sometimes when i superset, ie, 100kg in bench followed by chin-ups without any rest, only the resting from walking from one exercies to the other. 10sec perhaps?
just wondering on your reasoning for long rest periods?
rest periods should reflect the desired outcome. there may be times that you “max” and want five min between lifts or “neurological pairs” and sometimes where you wat as little as 6 seconds in between (no this is not the bodybuilding concpet of supersetting) dont make the blanket statement that you should have a certain amount of rest.
supertraining is THE book on strength training. i will say hands down that it is the best. even though i have my issues with tthe text. it often repeats itself (probably becasue each section was written as a seprate entity). i disagree with some of the authors baisis. and the book is poorly organized. but it i still the best text ever written on the subject of athletic strength training.
Hello again man , the main reason behind this rest periods is to allow SNC recuperate properly to go again with next set , at least this is the concept that I´ve learnt on the most of articles related to strength training…but as I´ve mentioned before “I´m quite new on strength training” so I don´t know if I´m right or not
At my times as bodybuilding traine I use to work with more volume of work and less rest periods.
Thaks man , something similar was in my mind but I would like to read opinions on what´s about include another lifts , mainly a delt press (i.e. military press), a kind of row (like bent over ) and pull-ups or similar moves.
I´ve seen on GPP dvd that CF consider some lifts like prymary lifts (I suppose that they are the lifts in wich you have to work with more intensity) and secondary lifts
My great doubt is on how manage those secondary lifts without overtraining or descompensating the different body parts , I don´t wanna get bulky at upper and thick at legs for example
I guess if Military Press could be more interesting that Bench press as a primary lift (however a little more of chest could be great for me because I´m not “so gifted” at this muscle group to be honest
i have never noticed much difference between 2-5min rest in the amount of weight lifted, perhaps real heavy leg exercises, even then, more like doing partial reps and your just completely nacked. perhaps on olympic lifts if you do them, form plays a big part there.
And the differences from 2-5min are soo small that unless your going for 1Rm or 3Rm max’s, then there is no point. It just eats into your time that could be better spent elsewhere.
if a muscle fully recovers in say 3min. then by the next set, the same fibers will do the same work again.
if a muslce is 90% recovered by 2min, then extra fibres will be called into play to help.
if a muscle is 80% recoved by 1min, then more fibres will be called into play
therefore, unless your aiming for max lifts, a shorter recovery enlists more fibre, perhaps less rest on 1st few set, more revovery last couple of sets.
also, olympic lifts need more recovery due to technique issues.
the larger the muscle groups targeted, the more rest may be required, ie, heavy squats, though lighter squats wont need such long recoverys.
You also have to see how you feel and how your body responds. I find I can superset UB assistence exercises without any real rest between sets, but squats take right around 3 minutes (my top sets) – less time and I’m not recovered enough to do a quality set, much longer and I start to cool down too much (and lose focus).
lol you havent considered the after effect of motor activity on the cns. you probably know it as complex training but its so more comples (no pun inteended) then mister donald chu would have you believe. there are after effects that last many days after muscular activity some that last min some that last seconds it all depends on the work done. understanding this allows you to program training in such a way that previous work assist in future work. everything is interrealted ect ect.
In Verkhoshansky’s new book, “Special Strength Training, A Practical Manual for Coaches” he mentions several times the importance of breaks between sets and series of sets in determining the effect of the strength training. Many of the programs in the manual show rest periods between sets from 4 to 6 minutes. They also show rest periods between series of sets from 10 to 15 minutes. Verkhoshansky states, “Any reduction in the rest pauses leads to an accumulation of non-oxidized products of the metabolic processes in the body and as a consequence, decreases the contractile properties of the muscles and changes the specific direction of the training effect of the loads. An excessive increase in the rest pauses causes a decrease in the optimal excitability of the central nervous system and the readiness to work of the athlete. This results in cooling of the muscles and on the whole, decreases the force of the strength load training influence.”
Verkhoshansky claims that this is not a defect in his SST programs, but rather speaks to their integrity. “The rest pauses between sets and series are important components of the SST programs and greatly determine their efficiency.”
yes, imagine the time involved just doing a few exercises??
such massive long training would only really involve elite status athletes training full time without commitments.
doing track work, IE, 2hrs, then gym like that, 1.5 - 2hrs, that’s half a day.
So it all depends,
how much time you got
level of current ability
level of ability you want to achieve. IE, sub 12, sub 11, sub 10.5, sub 10.1, sub 10 etc.
I have considered the role of CNS effects onto the whole training plan, thats why weights training is a suppliment to track work, not a main exercise to make you run faster. weights are interplayed into your total training plan.
Smash yourself with hrs of weights training at 1 or 3RM max efforts, and track work will suffer, unless its planned in at the right time.
