im doing the circuit in this article… http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1499282 …however i have a simple question…how heavy do i go for these circuits? lets say my max bench rpess is 225 and it says horizontal push exercise for the first and i chose bench press. it says 12-15 reps…would 135 be a good weight?
yeah just use a weight that gets you the burn. you dont want to go to heavy and not be able to complete the reps. and if it seems to light through a little more on. play with it until you get a weight that gives you a good burn since you are trying to illicit lactic acid.
It will be quite humbling. You will have to use really light weights. Try, say, 80 lbs and see what you think.
As for circuits, resistors in parallel use 1/R=1/R1+1/R2+… and R=V/I.
i dont understand…if i use 80 lbs for bench ill be able to do like 40 reps lol it says 12-15
Go as heavy as you can as long as you stay within the required rep range for all three sets.
If you use 135lbs on the bench and get 15 reps for all three sets, then increase the weight next time. You may end up using 155lbs and getting 15, 13, 12 or something like that. If you can’t get 12, then stay with that weight until you can. Or if it’s way too heavy and you miss the 12-15 reps on more than one set, decrease the weight.
Your first workout will probably be a “feeler” workout, and then you should be able to gauge if you need to go heavier or lighter the next time.
[quote]kobe4life08 wrote:
i dont understand…if i use 80 lbs for bench ill be able to do like 40 reps lol it says 12-15[/quote]
Yeah it’s 12-15 reps, but it’s 3 seconds down and 1 second up, so that means each set is anywhere from 48-60 seconds before moving on to the next exercise.
You won’t feel much of a burn until about rep #8, then after that, the lactic acid builds up in you and you’ll be screaming (on the inside).
My max is 225 also, and I tried 135 the first time and it was rough. I had to drop it down to 95 to get through the next sets. But the first couple of times you do the circuit, you’ll get a feel for what’s comfortable for you.