[quote]facko wrote:
[quote]kinein wrote:
[quote]facko wrote:
[quote]EndersDrift2 wrote:
[quote]facko wrote:
[quote]Loudog75 wrote:
Op,
You listed your routine but I’m curious, how much weight are you using on your rows and curls.[/quote]
A lot less than you lol. I’m approx 147lbs right now…rows right now around 135lbs for 5x10…I usually do curls with a 25 on each side[/quote]
Maybe you should do less volume, higher weight and greater rest periods so its less of an endurance/pump workout and more for size and strength.[/quote]
I don’t see how it’s an endurance pump workout… honestly. I’ve gained approx. 7lbs in a bit less than 4 weeks.[/quote]
That isn’t a lot of sets, I wouldn’t consider your training a volume workout.[/quote]
Thanks for the input…would you say I could actually stand to increase sets or should stay where I am at. I think a lot of people are confusing the fact that because I’m doing that many reps or sets…with 60 seconds rest…it must not be intense or something. But I have puked before…and I am genuinely growing…
I know it is working…just wasn’t sure if it was OPTIMAL…[/quote]
When it comes to optimal, I’d look first at your nutrition. If your trying to build more muscle, making sure that you have enough protein and calories is probably the biggest thing.
Every. Single. Day. Your not missing one meal, and when you go overboard on exercise you make sure you compensate for the extra calories being burned. If your gaining.
If you read T-Nation a lot you’ll find out that a lot of people in the beginner stages can make great gains using almost any training protocol. How they look and to some extent how much muscle they build is based on nutrition. (CONSISTENT 365 days a year).
If your steadily gaining weight every month and it hovering around the same body-fat % but still gaining weight, size, strength. Then its a good thing.
Optimal … thats hard to pin down imo.
I think the only Optimal training in my mind is.
- You must be hungry and passionate. If the sun went out, you’d still eat and train.
- Go with a proven form of training that someone can vouch for, and really apply yourself and challenge yourself - don’t sell it short unless you’ve really sold out to it and went through the process. Ya should be able to at least appreciate something about the program.
- ALWAYS ALWAYS make sure you get enough nutrition for your goals.
- REST and or catching up on rest if you fell behind.
- Making time to deload or take a complete break from training every 2-3 months. For 1-2 weeks depending on how the training taxed your body.
- the 10 rep only philosophy is good in the beginning, but you should aim higher, if you can do 10 easily on a set throw in 2 more, or 5 more, if I’m spotting someone and I notice the sets too easy at 10, I’ll goad them into piling on more. I’ll just keep on saying 1 more til I see their muscles really getting taxed.
- Move on up to a more challenging weight in your sets. Don’t be worried if you can’t hit 10. Every rep should be quality and 8 reps of quality is better then 8 + 2 pretend reps. Or better yet scream for a spotter and thrash in some negatives.
- Developing the mind muscle connection and keeping in mind what your goals are - always have goals, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
- Log your workouts, on paper, on a blog, in a journal, so you can track your progress.
- Be ready to modify your training based on how you feel.
- I’ve driven to the gym and then driven home because I realized my CNS was shot and/or I realized a main support muscle was completely shot and I wouldn’t be able to workout worth a damn. In cases like that - Rest and Eating became the most important priority for that day.
Keep learning and apply yourself.
I recommend you read from:
Professor X, Stu, Waylanderxxx, Prisoner, Thibs, Bushidobadboy, ACtrain, 1more rep, steelyd, holymacaroni, layroyal and others. For those of you I didn’t name, don’t be offended. I just haven’t gone on tnation much in a while so I only can use foggy memory and friends list to recall some suggested people.
But yah go and read every single post they’ve made 
There is like 100,000 hours worth of reading on training and eating. Just from the people I named.