Weight Lifting Guide - Everything You Need To Know - Page 14

quote ShadowGuard

I played baseball a lot and had some problems with my right arm every now and then.

Would my baseball injuries have any effect on weight-lifting? I have not played baseball competitively for over 2 years.

Yes, they quite possibly could. Baseball players are notorious for having a heap of shoulder issues. Do you do any work to strengthen your external rotators? On top of that, extra dumbbell and unilateral work might be in order to catch up your lagging side, and to prevent your dominant side from taking over in barbell exercises. Eric Cressey is an extremely smart guy who deals with a heap of shoulder injuries and baseball players in particular, he's also a powerlifter so he knows his way around the weight room. Try checking out some of his articles for some more in-depth stuff about training specifically to the imbalances and issues you have likely accrued by playing baseball.

If I split my workout like this:

Mon: Chest
Tue: Back
Wed: Shoulders
Thu: Legs
Fri: Arms & Abs
Sat: Rest
Sun: Rest

Is a good workout routine?

Yeah maybe I'll change the resting days. And it's good to note I've been on an intermediate workout for two years now and feel it's time to take it up a notch. Plus I honestly feel the advanced workouts better suit me as I get bored easily so I'll only be doing a workout once a week.

quote Braden

If I split my workout like this:

Mon: Chest
Tue: Back
Wed: Shoulders
Thu: Legs
Fri: Arms & Abs
Sat: Rest
Sun: Rest

Is a good workout routine?

What are you stats (height, weight, waist circumference, bf%, squat, bench, DL, shoulder press, pullups, dips)? Training body parts one day per week mainly works well for the advanced lifters (4-5 years training) and people on drugs. Others tend to need more frequency, hitting muscles twice per week if they have been lifting for a few years, or three full body routines per week if they're an absolute beginner.

Eg.

Mon: Push
Tue: Pull
Wed: Rest
Thu: Push
Fri: Pull
Sat: Rest
Sun: Rest

or

Mon: Upper
Tue: Lower
Wed: Rest
Thu: Upper
Fri: Lower
Sat: Rest
Sun: Rest

or

Mon: Chest/Bi
Tue: Legs
Wed: Off
Thu: Back/Tri
Fri: Off
Sat: Repeat

or

Mon: Chest/Back
Tue: Legs
Wed: Off
Thu: Bi/Tri
Fri: Off
Sat: Repeat

Height: 6 ft
Weight: 75 kg
Waist circumference: Not sure, but I have a small waist
BF%: My middle line in the abs shows clearly, as well as horizontal lines when flexed. So I guess around 10-15%.
Squat: I haven't done squats lately but I do leg press at about 120 kg (last time I tried squats, I use around 40kg)
Bench: Last time I tried (I've been doing bench press machine instead for a long time) was 40kg. I'm weak in my pecs
DL: What's that?
Shoulder press: 12.5-15 kg in each arm
Pullups: I can't do a lot, probably around 3 with perfect form
Dips: Never did them seriously, but I could do about 5 with perfect form last time I tried

Any weight mentioned for exercises means I can do 12 repetitions with good form for 3 sets.

As for the workout, I was planning on workout so intensely on each muscle group every day that I would NEED the long rest. That's why I changed it in fact, so that I could focus on each muscle more and use every last ounce of energy the muscle has to offer.

quote Braden

As for the workout, I was planning on workout so intensely on each muscle group every day that I would NEED the long rest. That's why I changed it in fact, so that I could focus on each muscle more and use every last ounce of energy the muscle has to offer.

That's a common thought and idea, but intensity is only one variable, volume and frequency also factor in. So if you push very far in one direction (high intensity, low volume, low frequency) you miss the benefits that come from frequency and volume. You can do more volume if you hit the same muscles twice a week, more frequency, and despite training a muscle twice, it won't be at half the intensity of one session, it will be more like 75%, so you average intensity is higher. Again, intensity blocks of training can work well, but it's for more advanced folks. If you want to geek out on things you can do research into Hans' general adaptation syndrome, efficiency in motor unit recruitment and stuff like that.

DL is deadlift. Given your strength numbers, leanness and training status, I think you would do well with with an upper/lower split, with some classic hypertrophy work for some areas you may have neglected (traps, forearms, calves), and some strength-biased hypertrophy for the rest of your upper and lower body. What this means is that you'll be using lower reps and heavier weights, so that you get stronger, but you'll also be gaining muscle, because we're not going for maximal strength here. This will always help you with future hypertrophy routines because it will establish some baseline strength, neural efficiency with heavy weights, connective tissue strength etc.

Something like this (for a period of 6 weeks) would work well:

Mon

A. Squat 4x4-8, rest 90 seconds

B. Leg curl 4x4-8, rest 90 seconds

C1. Walking Lunges 3x12-15, rest 45 seconds
C2. Standing calf raise 3x7-9, rest 45 seconds

D. Abs of choice 3x5-10, rest 60 seconds

Tue

A1. Barbell Bench Press 4x 4-8, rest 90 seconds
A2. Close grip chinups 4x5-7, rest 90 seconds

B. Seated DB shoulder press 4x5-8, rest 90 seconds

C. DB shrug 4x5-10, hold 2 sec at the top, rest 90 seconds

D1. Decline DB fly 4x12-15, rest 120 seconds
D2. Dips 4x5-7, rest 30 seconds

Wed
Rest


Thu

A. Deadlift 3x4-8, rest 120 seconds

B. Leg Press 4x5-8, rest 120 seconds

C1. Back Extension 3x12-15, rest 45 seconds
C2. Abs of choice 3x10-15, rest 45 seconds
C3. Seated calf raise 3x15-20, rest 45 seconds

Fri

A1. Incline barbell bench press 4x4-7, rest 90 seconds
A2. Seated cable row 4x5-8, pull shoulder blades together for 2 sec, rest 90 seconds

B. DB lateral raise 3x12-15, rest 75 seconds

C1. Bicep Curl variant 3x5-9, rest 60 seconds
C2. Decline DB extensions 3x5-9, rest 60 seconds

D1. Wrist curls 2x12-15 (each arm), rest 60 seconds
D2. DB external rotations 2x6-8 (each arm) - start with 1kg DB, rest 60 seconds

Sat
Rest

Sun
Rest

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I'll explain the notation just in case you're not familiar with it. C1/C2 notation means you do one set of C1, rest the alloted time, do one set of C2, rest the alloted time, and continue until all sets of C1 and C2 are complete. This is instead of doing all sets of ‘C1’ then all sets of ‘C2.’ Beware of people stealing one of your stations while you're on the other, so put your towel on one, and your drink bottle on the other so people know they're taken.

Rest between exercises should be 1-3 minutes where not specified, which will just be the time it takes you to unrack the weight on the equipment you were using, and set up the next piece of equipment.

2 x 8-11, 60 sec rest (for example) means you are going to do 2 sets of 8-11 reps. Do 1-2 light warm up sets of the movement to get a feel for the weight, then do a set with a weight you can do for 8-9 reps. Use the same weight for the next set after resting the allocated time (60 sec). On the next set you might get 7-8 reps. Next time you repeat that workout, aim for more reps with the same weight. Once you can do the upper rep limit (11) in all the allocated sets (2), increase the weight to one you can only do 8 reps with, and repeat the process over and over.

Of course it is essential to write down what weights and reps you do on each exercise so you know how much to use next time.

Long post, but obviously very important, what do you currently eat and drink in a day?

quote HBK619

C1/C2 notation means you do one set of C1, rest the alloted time, do one set of C2, rest the alloted time, and continue until all sets of C1 and C2 are complete. This is instead of doing all sets of ‘C1’ then all sets of ‘C2.’

I do this for every work out now. Two things:
1- This may sound like a dumb question coming from someone who has worked out 5 days a week for the past 2.5 years, is this also what you call 'supersets?'
2- As for me, I dont rest as much as you say to. A good example is my arm day. Ill do a set of bicep curl, then move straight into a set of tricep extension, then I take a rest.

I do not feel very fatigued when I do this. I have been doing that set-up for about 6 months. Works great because you get the same workout in about half the time. Especially when you are doing about 12 different workouts at 4 sets each in one day.