[quote]NoxiousRogue wrote:
What are your opinions regarding soreness?[/quote]
It’s an occasional side effect of training, but it’s definitely not mandatory for progress. Being sore when you’re not usually sore, and vice versa, can actually be pretty informative. It’s your body’s way of saying, “Hey. We know something’s different. Not sure if like.”
No, you shouldn’t always feel sore or unable to function after training. However, you’re more likely to be sore if: You’re relatively-new to lifting, you’re performing an exercise you haven’t done before, you’re working in a rep range you haven’t used before, or if you’re using intensity-boosting techniques (such as slow negatives).
In general, if your daily nutrition and workout nutrition are in line, you shouldn’t feel totally trashed beyond the point of usefulness after training, unless your workouts are ridiculously intense or poorly designed.
A rule of thumb: If your muscles are just “sore” to move, you’re fine. If they’re physically painful to the touch (for example, simply pressing a finger into your pec), you went too far.
If you’re not sore, then you know your training is on track exactly by seeing strength and/or size gains from week to week. If I deadlift 300x5 today, but I’m not sore after, and next week I deadlift 315x5, but I’m not sore, and the week after I’m up to 320x5, wouldn’t that mean things are “working” regardless of how I feel after training?
Not to be a dick, but… all of them. You’re 17 years old. Over the course of your training life, you’ll do best to experiment with everything from sets of 1 to 100, no joke. You’ll eventually learn what your body responds best to, in terms of building size and strength.
But generally speaking, if most of your sets for most of your exercises are in the 4-10 rep range, you won’t go wrong. I do, however, recommend that younger dudes just getting started start off by building a foundation with some higher-rep bodyweight training.
With the exception of some bodyparts around smaller joints and poor leverage (especially the biceps and triceps), I haven’t seen that much of a need for “this bodypart” responds best to “that rep range.”
For everyone who tells you, for example, the hamstrings grow best with heavy weight and low reps, you can find someone who saw their best progress with lighter weight and higher reps. This is why it’s important for you to experiment and learn through experience.
You did bring up a legit point, though. If you’re noticing joint pain (whether it’s the shoulder, tricep/elbow, quad/knee, whatever), a relatively-lighter weight, more strict form, and moderate to higher reps is usually a good bet.
We’re actually talking about that in this thread:
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_beginner/relationship_between_total_volume_and_massstrength_and_repssets_
Read the article I linked to there.
Can you be specific?
Not to bust your balls, but how long have you been on the program, how much bodyweight have you gained in that time, and what are your bests on the basic exercises?
Also, for reference, what’s your current height, weight, and general fat level (not percentage, but are you pudgy, average, kinda lean, pretty ripped, etc.?)
Once or twice a week is plenty. When I do include direct ab training, which isn’t all the time, I generally try to do a different type of movement each day. One day for flexion exercises (crunch, reverse crunch, etc.), one day for static or anti-rotation exercises (plank variations, Pallof press, etc.), maybe one day for rotation movements (full contact twist, cable woodchopper, etc.)
There are some competitive bodybuilders on this site that don’t train abs more than three or four times a week. It’s an often-debated point, but in the big picture, direct ab training is kinda low on the totem pole.