I would like to add that as much as someone might like to say they are a (to use the OP) group I, II, or III style lifter, people shouldn’t look to put themselves in there just cause they feel like it, or cause trainer X does this, or cause big guy Y says to do it.
Trainers should look to be brutally honest and look at their individual responsiveness; this means measure progress, whether it be strength, lean body mass (however you measure it), appearance in the mirror, but something objective to find out what you really respond to. And BE HONEST about whether you are making progress or not.
I don’t believe its a psychological thing as to what you do, and will respond to. I think its psychological for what’s holding you back from making the gains you should be making, but objectively evaluating progress can easily be achieved.
I have been involved with so many teams and individuals, where the same common program (for whatever reason) leads to person X responding like crazy and person Y making no gains at all.
[/quote]
That’s exactly how I feel. It took me ages before I truly found my training “grove”, because my body seemed to respond very anti-typically. For those who fall into this category, it’s so easy to be distracted/confused/unfocussed because people are constantly telling you that you are doing it “wrong”.
Whenever I did the typical 1x/week bodypart training (apart from legs), my strength stagnated. My muscles would ‘recover’ after 3-4 days and go back to normal by the time I trained them again. If I didn’t have any common sense or experimental nature and ended up asking on here “why I wasn’t getting any results”, no doubt I would have been told that “I’m not trying hard enough, or not eating enough…go lift eat and sleep and stop whining like a little girl!” lol
I don’t know where i fall but i train pretty much 6/7 days a week, hit each part twice a week and do on average around 20-25 sets per session per body part.
[quote]Marzouk wrote:
I don’t know where i fall but i train pretty much 6/7 days a week, hit each part twice a week and do on average around 20-25 sets per session per body part.
High frequency, volume and intensity?[/quote]
You’re in Akuma’s gang (group 3)
I find that this group tends to do a lot of higher rep sets (maybe finishing off with lower reps when ramping)
Well i normally start around 8 as warm ups then drop down to like 5ish kinda max rep ranges. I fell pretty guilty if have more than 2 days a week out the gym.
I think today was my 10th day straight or something. I seem to recover really quickly and hardly need days off.
[quote]bwhitwell wrote:
I can’t give you a list for your body and personality type. Through trial and error, with lots of patience and honest assessment, you will have to come up with your own list. [/quote]
Just to be clear, I wasn’t asking you to “write my list for me,” as it were. I was just wondering what sort of changes you’ve noticed over time as it relates to your body and/or training. Many people have retrospective “I probably would have done [this, this, and that] differently when I was that young,” and I thought it might be interesting to hear what yours are.
Split my back up so it’s one day upper, one lower.
Split chest, one day flat benching, one day incline.
Legs I’ll focus one day with hammies first, one day quads first.
I also rotate between heavy and pump work. One day will be high rep, lots of squeezing and control, the other day heavy ass weight during the weekly sessions.
I bump rep ranges up and then repeat them with more weight after each cycle. So in a month its, Wk 1 12-15 reps on my top sets, Wk 2 8-12, Wk 3 5-8, Wk 4 2-5, then the next month start over, but heavier than the previous months weeks.
Pretty basic. I pick exercises based on how I feel. Rest an extra day if needed, don’t rest an extra day if I feel good.
[quote]bwhitwell wrote:
I can’t give you a list for your body and personality type. Through trial and error, with lots of patience and honest assessment, you will have to come up with your own list. [/quote]
Just to be clear, I wasn’t asking you to “write my list for me,” as it were. I was just wondering what sort of changes you’ve noticed over time as it relates to your body and/or training. Many people have retrospective “I probably would have done [this, this, and that] differently when I was that young,” and I thought it might be interesting to hear what yours are. [/quote]
Sorry, I didn’t catch that. I started off in BB with a lot of density and not enough intensity. I didn’t really know the difference until I was educated by T-Nation. I wish I had used ramping or 5/3/1 ( not invented yet) to get stronger in the 85-95% 1rep max on the basics. Instead, I used pre exhaust, supersets,isolation exercises and very short rest intervals. I made progress with this type of training,( 50lbs in 5 yrs),and was lucky with genetics in that I was able to be competive without weighing more than 169lbs. I think I would have made more progress if I had trained for strength in the compound movements and then finished each bodypart with isolation exercises with higher reps.
i have been doing group one training, i really want to give group 2 a shot i think ill give it about 4-8 weeks before i decide if i like it or not unless im just not progressing at all.
lol i hope its not 4-8 weeks wasted with no progression
[quote]Marzouk wrote:
I don’t know where i fall but i train pretty much 6/7 days a week, hit each part twice a week and do on average around 20-25 sets per session per body part.
High frequency, volume and intensity?[/quote]
You’re in Akuma’s gang (group 3)
I find that this group tends to do a lot of higher rep sets (maybe finishing off with lower reps when ramping)[/quote]
Not only that. Some people have to train around their injuries. The ones that have gotten injured in the pass learn that training with higher volume and lower weights is much safer than going for 5,6 heavy ass reps. It also depends what body part you’re training as well to an extend.[/quote]
For some of us 5,6 reps are high rep. Anything more would fall into the “you want me to do what?” category"[/quote]
hahaha I wish there was a “like” button on these forums.
[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
Im pretty sure but not 100% there is a 4th group which is low frequency low volume. I find that method works good for my body but I cant stand being in the gym 3 or 4 days a week I need more![/quote]
Agreed. Due to work, I started doing Glenn pendlays 5x5 a month ago, and I can feel myself growing. I’ve put on 6lbs. PB every session, and its helped me realise I don’t need 50 sets in a session to grow. But I hate training for 3 days a week lol… only downside. [/quote]
Yep, I’m finding I am getting good gains (especially in strength) with much less volume and still only hitting each muscle 1x per week. I’m going to start 5/3/1 next week but I honestly love training and will find it hard not to hit the gym 5-6x per week
I’ve dropped from training 5-6x/week, to 4x/week. It’s really helped me having a day off between most workouts (drive and energy), and I’m able to gain weight far easier. This is what I used to do in the earlier days of my training with much success until I picked up routines from here.
When training 5-6x/week, strength plateaued very frequently even while taking in up to 7000 cals/day! I carried this on for a good year or so. Of the gains that I did make, most weren’t very lean at all.
I finally realised that you cannot just out-eat a program that your body doesn’t like. IF you respond better to low volume, and more rest days…do it…and don’t feel guilty or confused/distracted by it because other people are doing something else (you’ll only hold yourself back if you do)
I respond well to both types, high and low volume. My set-backs have always been conistency and diet. When I have those going right, then I progess well with either type of training. My back is the only thing that I know of that grows more with both types, heavy weight and low reps then volume training the next round. It has been said hundreds of times but you have to find out what works for your body.
ijm,good post,liked it.
i’m in group 1(?),each muscles group 2xweek but with even low volume ( just 2RP sets to death or 3 set Hernonish for muscle groups,one excercise per session…).
doing also a lot of “cardio” at work,I agree that group’s appartenence is due mainly to mental habits but -very imo- I think that “weight lifting habits” are developed on own type of fibers…
I mean : if one is pretty strong and fast and always did explosive sports I presume he ‘ll like short and very intense w/o, or not?
Personally I would like to stay more in the gym but i really do everything I have in very few sets (joints problems welcome :-),each time I started something like a 5x5 Star with long rest (4min) between sets I feel bored,tried in the past also shorter rest (45’) and higher reps with a ligher load (70% of 1rm).
Have to say that joining T-Nation was the best thing I ever done for weight lifting as I learnt a lot of things from a lot of you not just Stu,profX,modok,bww,etc etc…
now I’m doing sets (to fiaulure of course of 8 reps and also a widowmaker/pumping set of 10,never considered that before T-Nation.
thanx to all.
Mikael/few days ago my girlfriend brought me in a boutique to give me a gift,the XXL sweater was so tight that i was embarassed,new nickname: “sausage” LOL
Have you experimented with the different groups? Like, I find that some people who gain weight easily tend to respond well to group 3 (high volume/frequency) because it helps their gains to be leaner (if that makes any sense?)
