Old Intensity Isn't as Intense Anymore

Just out of curiosity, what are your current maxes on the big three?

[quote]ninjaboy wrote:
Just out of curiosity, what are your current maxes on the big three?[/quote]

http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/blog_sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_log/first_time_training_log_

A good way to push yourself to the max is to find a training partner who is a little stronger than you then have your partner do as many reps in the exercise as possible then you immediately do the same exercise and try to beat his reps and continue this cycle until one of you cannot go any more. This will give an incredible burn and will force you to go to the max.

Gah i WAS going to write an essay but i couldn’t be assed…

Pick ONE program JUST ONE and stick with it for 6 MONTHS

Bill Starrs 55
Or Ripptoes 5
5

One of those 2… would be perfect !

I stayed on Starrs 5*5 for 18 months !

Stop worrying about ADVANCED excercises… even i dont and im just a little bit bigger.

[quote]Stength4life wrote:
alit4 wrote:
strengthforlife, what are your goals?

Strength… For now anyways. I plan on beginning a mass phase in March. I want to get as much Strength as I can at my weight right now.[/quote]

Following up on alit4’s suggestion that powerlifting type training techniques can then be beneficial to you, it’s worth noting that it would be hard to name a successful powerlifter – or strongman competitor, for that matter – whose training relies much if any on SuperSets, Dropsets, Rest Pause, or any particular focus on Time Under tension.

I do see that you’ve already grasped from other posts that such things need not be your emphasis, but it’s worth pointing out, to help support that, that strength athletes generally don’t focus on such.

[quote]Stength4life wrote:
ninjaboy wrote:
Just out of curiosity, what are your current maxes on the big three?

http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/blog_sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_log/first_time_training_log_
[/quote]

No offense, but I thought you were a little further along in your development. As others have said, bring intensity to training rather than relying on a particular technique.

One thing that has been a big benefit for me is to religiously log my workouts. It makes each workout goal driven since I am striving to beat the numbers from the last similar session. Training intuitively does work but for me it helps my mental focus if I have specific targets that I can see on paper.

Looking at your log I would say you are doing a lot of volume for a strength cycle. I do not mean this as anything more than constructive but you might want to focus on getting stronger before concentrating on carving up your workouts. Your profile says you weigh 158 pounds and based on your max lift numbers I would say you have a lot of strength to gain as well as the ‘base muscle’ to go with it.

Focus on increasing you poundages during your workouts and the intensity will come. Fewer sets, fewer reps, more pounds and monitor your rest. I am a big fan of timing rest but that is what I prefer.

Example - On Xmas eve you did 83 reps of DLs. If I ever tried that at even 70% of my max I would require a stretcher. (BTW - I believe working below 70% for anything other than a warm up is a waste of time but that is what works for me.)

I think you are well below your work capacity and that in order to jump start your next steps you really need to challenge your ideas around training. Even as a body builder you have to have a very strong (literarily and figuratively) base and based on the information you have given you may need to focus on a programing change.

300andAbove has some good suggestions.

Stength4Life -

I think you just need to focus on training hard and getting more weight on the bar over time. Paying your dues basically. Everyone has to. But right now, I don’t think rest-pause, drop sets or anything else will do you much good. Working hard and kicking your own ass is a learnt skill. Over time and the accumulation of hard ass workouts will get you where you want to be.

Like others have said, pick a basic program and work it hard. Focus on adding more weight when you can. I would also advise dropping the straight set theme (or at least lower the sets) because with the amount of volume you are doing in your workouts (eg chest workouts) I think it is really slowing your progress.

[quote]RWElder0 wrote:
Looking at your log I would say you are doing a lot of volume for a strength cycle. I do not mean this as anything more than constructive but you might want to focus on getting stronger before concentrating on carving up your workouts. Your profile says you weigh 158 pounds and based on your max lift numbers I would say you have a lot of strength to gain as well as the ‘base muscle’ to go with it.

Focus on increasing you poundages during your workouts and the intensity will come. Fewer sets, fewer reps, more pounds and monitor your rest. I am a big fan of timing rest but that is what I prefer.

Example - On Xmas eve you did 83 reps of DLs. If I ever tried that at even 70% of my max I would require a stretcher. (BTW - I believe working below 70% for anything other than a warm up is a waste of time but that is what works for me.)

I think you are well below your work capacity and that in order to jump start your next steps you really need to challenge your ideas around training. Even as a body builder you have to have a very strong (literarily and figuratively) base and based on the information you have given you may need to focus on a programing change.

300andAbove has some good suggestions.[/quote]

following on from this post.
take your deadlift for example. you say you can do 215 for 4 reps. so do 160 for 5 x 5 and then add 10 lbs each subsequent workout, record it on a log, until you don’t make 5 reps. then cycle back and start again at say 170. rinse and repeat. at the end of each cycle you will hit a new PR.
simple but very effective.do something similar for squat and bench, add in a few additional excercises if you wish and as the weights increase that intensity you are looking for will be there.
good luck with your training.

[quote]giterdone wrote:
Stength4life wrote:
ninjaboy wrote:
Just out of curiosity, what are your current maxes on the big three?

http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/blog_sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_log/first_time_training_log_

No offense, but I thought you were a little further along in your development. As others have said, bring intensity to training rather than relying on a particular technique.

One thing that has been a big benefit for me is to religiously log my workouts. It makes each workout goal driven since I am striving to beat the numbers from the last similar session.

Training intuitively does work but for me it helps my mental focus if I have specific targets that I can see on paper.
[/quote]

None taken. I actually started using a stop watch because I CANNOT workout intuitively. And I definitely need to start logging my workouts better. I am consisten with training, but not so much the logging./\

[quote]RWElder0 wrote:
Looking at your log I would say you are doing a lot of volume for a strength cycle. I do not mean this as anything more than constructive but you might want to focus on getting stronger before concentrating on carving up your workouts.

Your profile says you weigh 158 pounds and based on your max lift numbers I would say you have a lot of strength to gain as well as the ‘base muscle’ to go with it.

Focus on increasing you poundages during your workouts and the intensity will come. Fewer sets, fewer reps, more pounds and monitor your rest. I am a big fan of timing rest but that is what I prefer.

Example - On Xmas eve you did 83 reps of DLs. If I ever tried that at even 70% of my max I would require a stretcher. (BTW - I believe working below 70% for anything other than a warm up is a waste of time but that is what works for me.)

I think you are well below your work capacity and that in order to jump start your next steps you really need to challenge your ideas around training. Even as a body builder you have to have a very strong (literarily and figuratively) base and based on the information you have given you may need to focus on a programing change.

300andAbove has some good suggestions.[/quote]

When you say you think I am well below my work capacity, do you mean I can be lifting heavier? And I think that 83 DL’s was a typo. And what program would you reccomend? Any specific powerlifting programs that you know?

[quote]Der Candy wrote:
Stength4Life -

I think you just need to focus on training hard and getting more weight on the bar over time. Paying your dues basically. Everyone has to. But right now, I don’t think rest-pause, drop sets or anything else will do you much good. Working hard and kicking your own ass is a learnt skill. Over time and the accumulation of hard ass workouts will get you where you want to be.

Like others have said, pick a basic program and work it hard. Focus on adding more weight when you can. I would also advise dropping the straight set theme (or at least lower the sets) because with the amount of volume you are doing in your workouts (eg chest workouts) I think it is really slowing your progress. [/quote]

Mentally, I’m starting to think so too. I believe my workouts have been suffering as a result of my mindset. I wouldn’t give each rep all I could because in the back of my head I was relying on these techniques.

[quote]Stength4life wrote:

I believe my workouts have been suffering as a result of my mindset. I wouldn’t give each rep all I could because in the back of my head I was relying on these techniques. [/quote]

That’s the main problem of using advanced techniques before you need to. I was in a similar situation where I couldn’t muster the intensity to get the most out of using drop sets.

In hindsight, I just wasn’t at the stage where I needed to use them - I was just using them for the sake of it, really.

Sometimes, the problem with using higher volume is that you can get away without applying intensity because you can still get results from the actual volume.

And, as you said, there’s always the danger of developing a ‘mental block’, where you deliberately hold back on really pushing yourself just to get through the workout.

It’s usually a sign that you are working with a level of volume that you aren’t ready for yet. Once you cut down on the volume, then you’ve really got to push yourself to squeeze that same level of stimulation out of comparatively fewer sets. That’s where the intensity comes in.

what a retarded useless thread.

You dont know how to up your intensity? 20 rep squats, smolov, german volume training etc.

If you dont feel your workouts are intense enough its because you train like a pussy.

Thank you, Mega Newb, as always, you have contributed to the constructive intellect that we all strive to serve here on T-Nation.
Thusly, helping misconstrue the terminology of ‘intensity’, you have pronounced yourself a being as high up in the social/intellectual food chain as a baboon’s bottom. (I think YOU are in fact referring to density).

OP, I think the general census decrees that you should be working in a lower rep range considering your goals and the amount of progress you have achieved.

I’ll visit your Log every now and then. So how about looking into powerlifting then?

[quote]forevernade wrote:
Thank you, Mega Newb, as always, you have contributed to the constructive intellect that we all strive to serve here on T-Nation.
Thusly, helping misconstrue the terminology of ‘intensity’, you have pronounced yourself a being as high up in the social/intellectual food chain as a baboon’s bottom. (I think YOU are in fact referring to density).

OP, I think the general census decrees that you should be working in a lower rep range considering your goals and the amount of progress you have achieved.

I’ll visit your Log every now and then. So how about looking into powerlifting then?[/quote]

SHUT THE FUCK UP

your under 150lbs, your a fucking newb. Im so sick and tired of little bitches over analizing everything and crying when ever people tell them the cold hard truth.

How hard is this shit? You dont know how to make your workout harder than the last one? Give up lifting, you dont have what it takes.

This forum has turned into a giant tampon with the ammount of vagina’s posting here. Go take your “constructive intelect” and use it to lift and weigh more than the average 12 year old you fucken jerk off.

I would literally cock slap you if you said that to me in person, and I physically can do that because your “constructive intelect” means jack shit when you have NO results.

God people like you make this site suck.

T-Nation used to be “hardcore”. the flood of people like you have completley changed that tho.

go ahead and write up a long drawn out worthless comeback, it doesnt changethe fact your a 150lb little bitch who hasent earned the right to be the shit on the bottom of my shoe, much less argue with me on the subject of intensity. My intensity sodomizes what ever intensity you think you bring to the table with your gay porn grunts and girlish flustered look you probably have when getting ready for your 225lb squats. If you can even squat that, you pobably dont even train legs because it would interfere with your dancing, god your a litte fucken bitch.

MegaNewb is right.

In another thread, a guy didn’t know how to gain weight, despite the fact that his daily caloric intake was fluctuating by 2,000 calories.

Bodybuilding is not complicated. I am under the impression that some people are truly lazy and don’t know how to simply push themselves.

[quote]Der Candy wrote:
MegaNewb is right.

In another thread, a guy didn’t know how to gain weight, despite the fact that his daily caloric intake was fluctuating by 2,000 calories.

Bodybuilding is not complicated. I am under the impression that some people are truly lazy and don’t know how to simply push themselves.[/quote]

X 2.

A run of 20 rep squats will quickly show the real meaning of intensity, and you’ll soon find out if you have it or not.

If you can get through a six week cycle of those (done properly, of course), then I don’t think intensity will be a problem anymore.

[quote]Mega Newb wrote:
forevernade wrote:
Thank you, Mega Newb, as always, you have contributed to the constructive intellect that we all strive to serve here on T-Nation.
Thusly, helping misconstrue the terminology of ‘intensity’, you have pronounced yourself a being as high up in the social/intellectual food chain as a baboon’s bottom. (I think YOU are in fact referring to density).

OP, I think the general census decrees that you should be working in a lower rep range considering your goals and the amount of progress you have achieved.

I’ll visit your Log every now and then. So how about looking into powerlifting then?

SHUT THE FUCK UP

your under 150lbs, your a fucking newb. Im so sick and tired of little bitches over analizing everything and crying when ever people tell them the cold hard truth.

How hard is this shit? You dont know how to make your workout harder than the last one? Give up lifting, you dont have what it takes.

This forum has turned into a giant tampon with the ammount of vagina’s posting here. Go take your “constructive intelect” and use it to lift and weigh more than the average 12 year old you fucken jerk off.

I would literally cock slap you if you said that to me in person, and I physically can do that because your “constructive intelect” means jack shit when you have NO results.

God people like you make this site suck.

T-Nation used to be “hardcore”. the flood of people like you have completley changed that tho.

go ahead and write up a long drawn out worthless comeback, it doesnt changethe fact your a 150lb little bitch who hasent earned the right to be the shit on the bottom of my shoe, much less argue with me on the subject of intensity. My intensity sodomizes what ever intensity you think you bring to the table with your gay porn grunts and girlish flustered look you probably have when getting ready for your 225lb squats. If you can even squat that, you pobably dont even train legs because it would interfere with your dancing, god your a litte fucken bitch.[/quote]

Dude calm the fuck down. Talking shit doesn’t make you look tougher then the guy who is 150 pounds. It just makes you look insecure. And you post full of typos just makes you look stupid. No offense.

[quote]roybot wrote:
Der Candy wrote:
MegaNewb is right.

In another thread, a guy didn’t know how to gain weight, despite the fact that his daily caloric intake was fluctuating by 2,000 calories.

Bodybuilding is not complicated. I am under the impression that some people are truly lazy and don’t know how to simply push themselves.

X 2.

A run of 20 rep squats will quickly show the real meaning of intensity, and you’ll soon find out if you have it or not.

If you can get through a six week cycle of those (done properly, of course), then I don’t think intensity will be a problem anymore.

[/quote]

Usually, intensity isn’t a problem on leg day.