Posted by Ryan A on December 2, 2005, 11:46 am, in reply to "Re: train each muscle once per week" Wave style periodization is a great way to add strength and still get all the muscular development you want. Let me use my current routine as an example. I have an upper body day with horizontal push/pull. Currently my main exercise is DB Incline Press which I do for 4-6 sets of 4-10 reps. I have been supersetting these with DB Row for the same rep ranges. I follow that with another Chest/triceps (CG BP, JM press) exercise and then another Rowing exercise (seated cable rows, Chest Supp Rows) 2-3 sets of 6-10 reps. Usually by this time my triceps are shot but sometimes I still have a little energy in the biceps and I do 1-2 sets of curls. I have another day with overhead press/pullups and then another day with legs. I do abs on all of the days. These workouts last less than an hour. In the big picture, I start out doing higher reps, say for DB Incline doing 10,8,6,6,8,10 in a pyramid type approach. The next week, I up the weight and do 8,6,4,4,4,6,8 and then I just did a 5x5 in the 3rd week. Now you can start over and give your body a rest with the higher reps, you can even do something like 2-3 sets of 12 in the 4th week and then start over. If you are doing a barbell lift, I would take the pyramid deeper such as in the squat, My question is, have you tried rep ranges lower than 10? When you say you it no longer zaps you, what exactly does that mean? Ideally, lifting should NOT zap you, you just need to be making gains. Zapping has very little to do with strength gains. I find it hard to believe that you can just increase forever in weight for 3x10 because if you could you would be benching 800 lb. So, I am unsure how you are measuring progress and say it doesn't "zap" you. How often do you change exercises? If may find if you stop being zapped, your gains will skyrocket. Lower rep training can vastly improve your high rep training, ie doing some sets in the 3-5 range can make you a lot stronger in the 8-15 range. This usually develops from the high weight you use as the reps lower and the strict form you must have to get the lifts, this form carries over and cleans up sloppy technique in the high reps, usually saving a lot of energy, letting you do a bit more on all your sets. Overall, I think it is fine to do these bodypart splits BUT, I think you should avoid the zapping mentality. I see guys in my gym all the time doing biceps all day and the weight they end up using on the last few exercises is very very low so you must ask yourself, is it worth the extra time to get 1% more training effect by doing that 4th or 5th exercise when I could have achieved 95% of the effect with 2 exercises and benefited from extra rest? The extra rest you have(which you smartly touched on in your last post) is the key. Strength is gained on your off days just as much as in the gym so make sure you keep that in mind when trying to maximize your strength. I usually include arms with my upper slits but if you think you can squeeze it in without hurting the other big muscle lifts(shoulder press, rows, pullups, bench press) then I dont see a problem with doing a bi's/tri's day but a whole day for biceps and triceps seems like it would really hurt recovery for the other groups if you were raelly taxing your body in the session (which seems to be your goal), unless of course you did something that was not on a 7 day cycle, ie you repeated training every 10 days or something. That was quite lengthy and if you don't read it all, I understand... Hope it does some good though,
71.142.236.60
I am not criticizing you in any way, as there are many people that train bodypart splits, but I believe training the fullbody or even an upper lower split is about mental attitude and pushing yourself on those few sets you do if you are after a great workout.
10,8,6,6,8,10
8,6,4,4,4,6,8
6,4,2,2,2,4,6
5,3,1,1,1,3,5
and then start over/take a week off if the 4th week was grueling/do some really light form type work. You can also keep the rep ranges the same say, do a 5x5 every week but wave the weights you use, ie 50%,55%,60%,65%,70% and then at the end, 70%,75%,80%,85%,90%. Both of these waves allow the body some time to recover better and train different aspects (endurance for higher reps, speed for lighter weights) in preparation for the higher weight to come.
I usually take 1-2 minutes on most sets, with 2-3 minutes on the middle sets. Certainly, I do not do this all the time, but training designs can be altered for brief cycles to get the body in a new gear and this can help get over plateaus in old designs.
Ryan
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