Beginning Weight Training

[Kruzcynski]

Makes sense, thank you for explaining that.
I think I'll keep calories at a conservative level, as a female, gaining muscle is hard enough already, so I'll focus on improving form for a while and increasing the weight to get the most stimulus I can.

Thank you again.

[lylemcd]

It was something I sort of mentioned but didn't get into detail in the first part of the series but that is one reason for even 'advanced' folks to go back to jump ball fundamentals for a bit. OFten the ability to really hit the muscles ddrops as weights go up as form starts to deteriorate. Lightening it up and working on what bodybuilders used to call the 'mind muscle link' and really hit the target muscle often does goods things even with lighter weights.

[Hejduck]

Originally Posted by lylemcd

1.Intensity (percentage of 1 rep. maximum): 60% or a weight that could be done for ~20 repetitions to failure.

Stupidity warning, but the language difference gets to me here.

For the first weeks: did you use/do you recommend using a weight you could do ~20 reps(failure) with but only do 8-12 reps,
and actually not working to failure?

Or should the 8-12 reps just about be failure?

[lylemcd]

You use a weight that you could do 20 reps with if you had to. And do 8-12.

[Hejduck]

So you should keep this up for aprox. the first 2-3 months to get things going (again) without ever working yourself fatigued, adding weight carefully, until you finally reach a weight were 8-12 reps equals failure?

[lylemcd]

I write the articles so that I don't have to repeat myself here and I know I discussed progression in terms of various approaches.

[Hejduck]

Off course, but what I didn't get from the article(part 4) though I read it twice, is when 'what weight you can do' meets the 'weight you actully do',
except maybe "when feeling ready".

If I missed this due to poor english I humbly appologise.

[Daisygirl]

This is by far the best information I have found for beginners (like ME!) I'm incorporating it all into my new plan, with small modifications based on what I currently have access to in terms of equipment. (You'd laugh very hard at my current mismatched hodgepodge of things I've rigged up.)

Thank you for the knowledge!

[wrkt]

Originally Posted by lylemcd

That sounds reasonable, yes. Thought you might be surprised that, if you're fixing technique and working the actual target muscle more effectively, that you're getting more of a growth stimulus even though the load on the bar is lower.

Keep in mind that we are interested in tension on the muscle and weight on bar is only a proxy for that (since we can't measure the first).

But if I drop the weight on someone's cable row by 10% to correct technique but hit the back 20% harder because they are actually using those muscles....

Part of why people often get screamingly sore the first time they do this, the target muscle is actually getting worked properly for the first time even though load on the bar is much lower.

Now that definitely qualifies as a lightbulb moment! Too often we're just exercising our egos out there....

[Nacho]

I started my wife on a program using this principles about six weeks ago and she LOVES it because she can see steady progress each workout.

Great article.