[quote]destroyedquads wrote:
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
[quote]destroyedquads wrote:
[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
[quote]destroyedquads wrote:
The reason why bodybuilders ramp is because you lift heavier weight more intensely = growth.
those first sets are priming the muscle, joints and mind with gradually heavier weights ready for the really heavy set were you go all out and give it everything you’ve got.
If you are taking your sweet time doing 3 sets of the same weight, none of those sets are going to be as effective because you will be holding back on each of them, to ‘keep some in the tank for the next set’. With ramping, you will be lifting heavier weight because you will not be fatigued from those other straight sets. Instead, the earlier sets are just to warm up and prepare yourself. SO as a result you will lift heavier weight and you will give it your all and not hold back.
In your example you would be lifting more than 60lb if you would have ramped. You also would be progressing faster because you would just have one set to worry about (and not 3).
If you are doing 3 whole sets of medium high reps the weight is too light for bodybuilding and you are shortcharging yourself.[/quote]
Treating ramping as only doing one imporant set is improper IMO. Every set I do has a purpose and I try to feel the muscle working as best as possible. I certainly “worry about” the sets preceeding my last. What happens on the day your last set sucks. ANd you didnt really put in 100% effort into your earlier sets, sounds like you just caused yourself to have a bad workout when you could have salvaged something by giving 100% all the time. [/quote]
Thats not what I meant. At all. It should be obvious that I was talking in refrence with doing 3 straight sets to failure. In ramping, it’s generally the last set to failure, so you will be concerned with long term weight progression with that LAST set and not with previous sets like when you do straight sets. Of course all the sets are important from a preparatory perspective.
I sometimes think people deliberately nit pick posts in order to find something ‘wrong’ and make themselves feel smarter than those people around them.[/quote]
If doing my second to last set of rack pulls at 500lbs it certainly isnt just a warmup or a set to prepare myself for the last set. Every set is treated the exact same, just the weight and reps are different. [/quote]
Exactly, but if that set is 10 reps this week, you are not going to think next week: ‘oh I got 10 reps with this set last week, so I should get more in order to progress’.
That set is still just being used to prepare for the heaviest one, and not really to judge progress and whether or not you are stronger this week. Why? because you will not always feel the same every workout. The weights and reps for your warm up/preparatory/work set (or however you want to call it; I think we are arguing over semantics here) will vary depending on HOW YOU FEEL THAT DAY and what will best prepare you for the heaviest ‘work set’ that day for that exercise.
Today I incline bench:
barx20
135x10
185x6
225x6
275xmax reps
I felt really in the zone and warmed up so I felt like I didn’t really need a whole lot of warm up/working/preparatory sets for the last set. But maybe next week I will be feeling shitty due to various stressors, lack of sleep, etc. I may need more warmups/working sets with higher reps or smaller weight incremements to help prepare me and get in the zone.
This is what I meant by ‘they dont matter, only the last set does’, because the last set is what you will be measuring your weight progression on. I am not talking about effort or concentration. I am not saying that the previous sets don’t contribute to growth. I am saying that you don’t use them for measuring progression (the last set is).
I know that you know all of this. I know that we are talking about the same fucking thing when it comes to ramping. I am not some HIT disciple, that is fucking offensive to even call me that. This is a misunderstanding based on semantics which is why I am very fucking annoyed.
I call warm ups any set that prepares me for the last set. I guess most people call them work sets, some call them preparatory sets. Whatever. It is one fucking word.
Edited to better get my point across.[/quote]
Calm down.
We see your point.
It’s hard to communicate online soemtimes because of limited time and patience.