Not to disrespect anyone’s opinion, but I do not think there is such a thing as lifting too heavy early in a cycle. You can overtrain, but lifting light early in the cycle is not the answer. Lift hard and heavy for 3-4 weeks while increasing volume. If you feel yourself getting beat up or your lifts become more difficult, reduce volume by half for a week or two.
Second, sets of 12 are not effecient for making you stronger. They’re not actually that great for hypertrophy either, especially if they are too light. Strength is best built in the 1-3 rep range with weights above 85% of 1RM. Hypertrophy is best realized in the 8 rep range with weights that allow you to perform 3-4 sets of 8…barely. I suggest…
Warm Up
Sets of 2-3, working up to a near rep max, then another set or two at that weight. Long rest breaks (3-5mins).
3 x 8 at a weight that barely allows you to complete the last set…1-2 min rest breaks.
Tricep work such as dips or close-grip bench press.
Throw in some board presses. Two or three 2 x 4’s on your chest with a good spotter. You will be using weights in excess of your 1RM for doubles and triples.
This is not some crazy, exotic lifting. This is bread and butter powerlifting. It will be demanding, so I would only do this off season or GPP. If you don’t compete as a sprinter, you can probably get away with it anytime.
All auxiliary exercises would be for lower body speed stuff… ghr, sldl, etc.
Low volume …3 sets per exercise per day. Allows me to focus on more than just bench press, too. It’s similar to what rb34 reccomeded in that other thread.
Star: are you suggesting that I do 2-3 sets of heavy weight and then hypertrophy stuff afterwards? So like adding in additional presses with sets of 8? I could even do dumbbell work even?
Low volume …3 sets per exercise per day. Allows me to focus on more than just bench press, too. It’s similar to what rb34 reccomeded in that other thread.
Star: are you suggesting that I do 2-3 sets of heavy weight and then hypertrophy stuff afterwards? So like adding in additional presses with sets of 8? I could even do dumbbell work even?
Its the BFS football workout. Maybe not ideal, but I would change it so that I would be doing low volume speed work m-w-f and tempo and an work on Tuesday and Thursday. Med ball after speed and before weights. x25 throws.
Its the BFS football workout. Maybe not ideal, but I would change it so that I would be doing low volume speed work m-w-f and tempo and an work on Tuesday and Thursday. Med ball after speed and before weights. x25 throws.
That’s a lot of weeks to do hypertrophy/strength endurance work. The more trained you are the less time you need to spend doing it. I don’t mean to say it’s unimportant only that you need to spend more time with 5’s and 3’s and less in 12’s. Shorten your blocks down-no need to do that many consecutive weeks of the same rep range-too much type I fiber development. 6-8 reps, while closer to developing strength is not really addressing that issue like lower reps would. Shorter blocks with more frequent rotation of the rep ranges.
I don’t think I’ve gained much muscle fiber at all. That’s what my original post was asking really. Can I develop muscle fiber lifting heavy weights as long as I gain body weight?
Week 1 3x3
Week 2 3x5
Week 3 5-3-1
Week 4 deload
Or should I spend 4-6 weeks doing 3x8 and adding some mass and then lower the reps to the 1-5 range? Too most ppl this maybe isn’t too much of a concern. But my bench press is embarrassing. I haven’t made considerable progress in 4 years now…!!
I don’t think I’ve gained much muscle fiber at all. That’s what my original post was asking really. Can I develop muscle fiber lifting heavy weights as long as I gain body weight?
Week 1 3x3
Week 2 3x5
Week 3 5-3-1
Week 4 deload
Or should I spend 4-6 weeks doing 3x8 and adding some mass and then lower the reps to the 1-5 range? Too most ppl this maybe isn’t too much of a concern. But my bench press is embarrassing. I haven’t made considerable progress in 4 years now…!!
I would definitely be in favor of higher volume weights than what you have planned there. Also, it really comes down to your diet when you are trying to put on weight. How is that going?
Yes, on at least one day. If you lift heavy and hard, one day of bench/chest per week will work. If you’re not sure about 1 day/week or 2 days/week, split the difference.
Week 1
Day 1 Upper
Day 2 Lower
Day 3 Upper
Week 2
Day 1 Lower
Day 2 Upper
Day 3 Lower
If you hit chest twice per week, you could do one strength day (low rep high intensity) along with maybe 2-3 sets of incline dumbell press, and do hypertrophy the second day (incline bench, 3-4 sets of 8). I also like weighted dips, as they hit both the chest and triceps fairly hard.
If you’re worried about volume, drop the accessory execises.
Thats the exact set up i did last fall that worked really well. But can I do speed work on upper body days? I feel like that set up doesn’t suit my lower body as well because i can handle 2x per week lower body. At least I could back when my poundage was 100 pounds lighter.
As for the body weight gain… Yes that was my original intent. I absolutely need to gain weight, I haven’t gained much bw at all. Its why i asked if:
bodyweight gains lead to strength gains even with 1-5 rep range workouts.
OR
hypertrophy style training leads to larger muscles and increased maximal strength when transitioned.
You can’t grow new muscle fiber, you can enlarge your existing fibers (hypertrophy) or improve your ability to use what you have (strength)…or both. You can only gain weight by increasing your caloric intake above your caloric expenses.
Or should I spend 4-6 weeks doing 3x8 and adding some mass and then lower the reps to the 1-5 range? Too most ppl this maybe isn’t too much of a concern. But my bench press is embarrassing. I haven’t made considerable progress in 4 years now…!!
That’s old style linear periodization. Whether you call it complex, concurrent or block training, working both qualities, mass and strength, at the same time is the better way to go.
I like to train speed early in the day on a lower body day, but there is no reason you can’t do speed before upper body as long as you have adequate recovery before the next speed session.
As for the body weight gain… Yes that was my original intent. I absolutely need to gain weight, I haven’t gained much bw at all. Its why i asked if:
bodyweight gains lead to strength gains even with 1-5 rep range workouts.
OR
hypertrophy style training leads to larger muscles and increased maximal strength when transitioned.
Both are correct, which is why I like to train strength and hypertrophy concurrently. Larger muscles have a higher capacity for strength, and stronger muscles can handle more load leading to improved hypertrophy. But you must eat an excess of calories in order to gain mass. You might try adding a protein shake or two, or possibly even a weight gain shake.
when you posted the alabama football offseason workout they were doing high volume strength and speed with like 20 sets of power cleans each day 3x per week. Werent they?
Im curious why you think 3 strength and speed sessions of low volume is too much?
Is there a way i can upload an excel file onto CF.com? i have a program written up that im really excited about. :rolleyes:
Not sure what your goals are now. You originally were talking about your maxes moving up but you want to move bodyweight up too? Not that hard to do but you don’t need the reps to be that high for that long especially if strength is your primary goal. Four weeks at the most maybe every 4-6 months. You can get an occasional volume bump to begin a block at times after the strength endurance block (3 x 10 possibly for four weeks gradually increasing the int.) as in the intro micro being for 5 x 5 or 3 x 10 then descending into 3 x 5 and possibly 3 x 3 during the block with the unload week being another, lighter 3 x 3 or 3 x 2. The first week of a block having higher volume serves as the overreaching week.
I am proposing not that you go super- light week one but possibly not as heavy as you seem to have done in the past-based largely on your comment about bp and your first week of inclines. As I said earlier, I have seen time an again people start a four week block where week one works them so hard they have no where to progress to. If they move up by too much week 2 they often can’t go up week 3.
If the volume does not stay constant during a four week period as in strength end./hypertrophy I would suggest dropping the volume down as intensification takes place.
Not a big fan of the BFS rep scheme.
If you have not done higher reps in some time then perhaps 3 x 10 for 3-4 weeks.
Next weeks 3 x 5, 3 x 5, 3 x 5, 3 x 3 with all but the last week ascending in intensity.
Then another block starting with an overreaching week of 5 x 5, then 3 x 5, 3 x 3, then a light 3 x 2.
If you are removed from high reps for an extended period of time but not so long since doing a dedicated strength end. block, start a block, only in the off or pre-season with a single week of 3 x 10 then 3 x 5, 3 x 5, 3 x 5 (or 3 x 3).
I would not recommend doing 6 straight weeks of the same reps-and the weights that would be associated with those reps. Change a bit more frequently as in every 3-4 weeks. It appears as you get away from true strength work for too long and then when you do it, you don’t spend enough time, relatively speaking in that range.
