I just started a 5 day routine(1 bodypart per day). Certain things about these routines have made me abandom the workout in the past.
How do you guys cope with the pump?
After doing a few diff exercises and hitting the same muscle, I start getting the pump and feel like I start to fatigue easily and lose power. Besides taking longer rests, is there anything else I can do to last longer? Or does my body just have to adjust to hitting one muscle for an entire workout?
An example is my chest day:
Flat BB bench 4x6
Incline BB Bench 3x10
Decline BB bench 3x10
Flat DB Flys 3x10
Incline DB Flys 3x10
[quote]tw0scoops2 wrote:
I just started a 5 day routine(1 bodypart per day). Certain things about these routines have made me abandom the workout in the past.
How do you guys cope with the pump?
After doing a few diff exercises and hitting the same muscle, I start getting the pump and feel like I start to fatigue easily and lose power. Besides taking longer rests, is there anything else I can do to last longer? Or does my body just have to adjust to hitting one muscle for an entire workout?
An example is my chest day:
Flat BB bench 4x6
Incline BB Bench 3x10
Decline BB bench 3x10
Flat DB Flys 3x10
Incline DB Flys 3x10[/quote]
This si the first time I’ve heard someone talk about “coping” with the pump
Dude, by the time you get a good pump, you likely will be fatiguing alot faster. You will probably start dropping reps very quickly after your main exercise. You just aren’t used to doing this much volume for one bodypart in one session.
If you’re worried about the weight you use, go ahead and take more rest if you need it. Nothing is written in stone (in general, I would rather take a long rest period than miss reps). As you acclimate to this type of training, your work capacity will increase and you will find yourself being able to handle much more volume than you are now.
[quote]Itchy wrote:
tw0scoops2 wrote:
I just started a 5 day routine(1 bodypart per day). Certain things about these routines have made me abandom the workout in the past.
How do you guys cope with the pump?
After doing a few diff exercises and hitting the same muscle, I start getting the pump and feel like I start to fatigue easily and lose power. Besides taking longer rests, is there anything else I can do to last longer? Or does my body just have to adjust to hitting one muscle for an entire workout?
An example is my chest day:
Flat BB bench 4x6
Incline BB Bench 3x10
Decline BB bench 3x10
Flat DB Flys 3x10
Incline DB Flys 3x10
This si the first time I’ve heard someone talk about “coping” with the pump
Dude, by the time you get a good pump, you likely will be fatiguing alot faster. You will probably start dropping reps very quickly after your main exercise. You just aren’t used to doing this much volume for one bodypart in one session.
If you’re worried about the weight you use, go ahead and take more rest if you need it. Nothing is written in stone (in general, I would rather take a long rest period than miss reps). As you acclimate to this type of training, your work capacity will increase and you will find yourself being able to handle much more volume than you are now.
[/quote]
Yeah I know…I love the pump, but IMHO it interferes with my workout, lol.
Thanks for the feedback! I’ll keep at it. The Surge Workout Fuel is definately helping with recovery in between sets.
Some people are going to rip on me for this, but if you are getting too fatigued and losing strength I seriously think you should trim down those exercises. I mean you have a lot there. Are those all straight sets?
Some people can tolerate and grow off of a lot of volume, while others need to back down and pick less lifts while focussing very hard on the chosen ones.
It could also be that you go too fast through your exercises. Slow it down a little in regards to rest periods and moving from one exercise to another.
[quote]tw0scoops2 wrote:
I just started a 5 day routine(1 bodypart per day). Certain things about these routines have made me abandom the workout in the past.
i tried that sort of routine the other day only doing
bench 4x6-8
incline db 3x6-8
flyes 3x10-12
and after that my arms had nothing left
=mind u i put my chest and back together but still it should do, i agree reducing volume and increasing the weights, no point in doing shitloads of volume if the last few exercises are with have wat u usually lift if they were done first
Heh I’m one of the proponents of massive amounts of volume on this site and I only do 4 more total sets than you what you have listed for your workout.
I’ve been doing this approach for most of my training career so I am used to it. If you are just starting though, like itchy said, tone it down some and work your way up.
You can’t jump from doing just bench press for chest and then all the sudden add in 4-5 other exercises and expect to do well at them.
I agree here that this may be too much volume for you at this point. You didn’t list your stats. How long training and what kind of weights are you pushing?
If longer rest periods don’t solve the problem, I would back off a little on the volume for now. As your work capacity increases, you can always add more sets in. Right now I train 5 days on a 3-way split, and I do less total volume for my chest than you do (slightly), and I built up to that amount over a couple of months.
One thing you might try is to have one main lift that you do 5-6 sets on and use the numbers from that lift to track your srength increases. After the main lift, add more sets/exercises as you see fit. Like Der Candy said, some people grow off very little volume and few exercises–if you can gain by doing only 8-10 sets per bodypart, great–keep doing it. Once gains slow down, you can always add more volume in later (which I think MOST everyone will eventually have to do).
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
Heh I’m one of the proponents of massive amounts of volume on this site and I only do 4 more total sets than you what you have listed for your workout.
I’ve been doing this approach for most of my training career so I am used to it. If you are just starting though, like itchy said, tone it down some and work your way up.
You can’t jump from doing just bench press for chest and then all the sudden add in 4-5 other exercises and expect to do well at them.[/quote]
About a year ago (and 15 lbs. lighter), I followed a basic 5x5 4-day and I remember the last workout on this routine because I got 300 lbs. for he first time on the bench press. I switched to a 4 day a week, 3 way split. My first chest workout I did something like 7 sets of 8 on the bench press. I missed reps on the last 2 sets, and I was completely wiped out just from doing about 25 more total reps. Afterwards I moved to incline db press and I could barely move 65 lbs. for a few wobbly reps.
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
Heh I’m one of the proponents of massive amounts of volume on this site and I only do 4 more total sets than you what you have listed for your workout.
I’ve been doing this approach for most of my training career so I am used to it. If you are just starting though, like itchy said, tone it down some and work your way up.
You can’t jump from doing just bench press for chest and then all the sudden add in 4-5 other exercises and expect to do well at them.[/quote]
I guess it’s the whole mindset that I tried to do too much at first. I’m used to doing that amount of sets, but for a upper/lower split, so I guess the idea of doing drastically less(at least in the beginning) per workout, doesnt feel like it’s enough to grow.
You’re right though, I’m sure I can’t just jump into it like I did.
In my opinion, the best you could do is to just wait until your body becomes acclimated to the increased volume/intensity (by increasing the sarcoplasmic material, minute vessels and becoming more effective at anaerobic glycolysis).
The reason I mention that is to emphasize the fact that muscles adapt very differently to strength and hypertrophy training and the transition always takes a little while.
Whenever I change from a strength routine to a hypertrophy routine I keep using almost the same weights as before and just add a rep in each session until I hit the 8 - 12 range. I honestly don’t believe in the “shock” value of changing up training too dramatically at once. It should be just about getting strong in different rep ranges.
It might be a good idea to use contrast showers at first to help the body release the trapped blood in the muscles (the pump).
EDIT: Didn’t see the last post when I replied. To think of it, I agree - just reducing the volume might be the best!
[quote]tw0scoops2 wrote:
I guess it’s the whole mindset that I tried to do too much at first. I’m used to doing that amount of sets, but for a upper/lower split, so I guess the idea of doing drastically less(at least in the beginning) per workout, doesnt feel like it’s enough to grow.
You’re right though, I’m sure I can’t just jump into it like I did.[/quote]
btw are you pyramiding up? While I always do at least four sets for each exercise usually only 2 are actual “working sets”.
So for instance when I finish my bench press I’ll take about 3-4 minutes before I start my incline press. The first two sets I use a weight that I could do for 15-20 reps but only do 10, after that I ramp it up to were I am using a weight that I will fail with at 10-12 reps.
In essence I am allowing the muscle to slightly recover before I kill it again.
If I did for bench
12x135
5x405
5x405
5x405
Id probably have to call it a day, but instead I’ll do something like
12x135
10x225
10x315
5-8x385
5x405
still gets the job done but at the same time keeps gas in the tank for my other exercises.
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
tw0scoops2 wrote:
I guess it’s the whole mindset that I tried to do too much at first. I’m used to doing that amount of sets, but for a upper/lower split, so I guess the idea of doing drastically less(at least in the beginning) per workout, doesnt feel like it’s enough to grow.
You’re right though, I’m sure I can’t just jump into it like I did.
btw are you pyramiding up? While I always do at least four sets for each exercise usually only 2 are actual “working sets”.
So for instance when I finish my bench press I’ll take about 3-4 minutes before I start my incline press. The first two sets I use a weight that I could do for 15-20 reps but only do 10, after that I ramp it up to were I am using a weight that I will fail with at 10-12 reps.
In essence I am allowing the muscle to slightly recover before I kill it again.
If I did for bench
12x135
5x405
5x405
5x405
Id probably have to call it a day, but instead I’ll do something like
12x135
10x225
10x315
5-8x385
5x405
still gets the job done but at the same time keeps gas in the tank for my other exercises.[/quote]
Yeah I do probably about 2 “warm up” sets before I get to my work weight. And that kinda tapers off into the workout to maybe 1 set for everything else that is a compound movement.
[quote]tw0scoops2 wrote:
Yeah I do probably about 2 “warm up” sets before I get to my work weight. And that kinda tapers off into the workout to maybe 1 set for everything else that is a compound movement.[/quote]
OK good. Then yah, it’s just a matter of time until your body adapts to this style, you’re on the right track.
[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
tw0scoops2 wrote:
Yeah I do probably about 2 “warm up” sets before I get to my work weight. And that kinda tapers off into the workout to maybe 1 set for everything else that is a compound movement.
OK good. Then yah, it’s just a matter of time until your body adapts to this style, you’re on the right track.[/quote]
