Your success and making your body as good as possible, so that it better serves your needs is within your reach. It is yours to attain providing you follow the means to success and the selection of sets and reps and proper poundage.
It is important to pick the right exercises, but what is needed is the right use of the right exercises. Therefore picking a suitable set and rep scheme is the secret of your success. Arthur Jones once said it only takes one shot to kill an elephant, so therefore he advocated 1 set to failure. A lot of trainees who have had years of experience lifting weights can use the one set to failure with satisfactory results. What is failure is it when your goal is 8 reps, and you get to 8 compete the rep and attempt to move it and the bar edges forward an inch in good form and focus and you are unable to move any more.
I believe one must first know what set and rep scheme works for them, and this takes time to work out and experiment. Are you suited and can gain from high reps, low reps, and multiple sets? Having trained and spoken to many people who weight train 6 to 8 reps is about perfect for general strength and development. I preferred 15 to 20 reps for deadlifts and squats one set and for the rest of the exercises it was 6 to 8 reps. Calves and abdominals 15 to 20 reps as the calves being so far from the heart needed more reps to encourage blood flow to that muscular area.
The main reason I preferred higher reps for squats and deadlifts was the heart and lungs had to work extra hard and this suited me greatly for improving my metabolic and endurance conditioning for Australian Rules Football. The result being I rarely suffered injuries. I have always preferred and advocated for people whom I trained to perform 2 to 3 sets per exercise. One warmup set, and two hard work sets. Or one warmup set, and one work set or hard set. Do not wear yourself out warming up, the aim of the warmup sets is to recruit the muscle fibers for one all-out effort.
During my twenties and thirties I had success using the 5x5 five sets of exercise, Reg Park used this 5x5 system often. One can use the same weight each set, and complete five sets with that weight or progressively use more weight each set of five, your lasts set is an all-out effort of five. With this system of 5x5 I only used three exercises per workout, Workout 1# deadlift, dips and dumb bell rows, Workout 2# squats, press behind neck and barbell curls simple, short, and effective. Whatever rep and set range you use; you need to ask yourself did that rep or set range satisfactorily work my body to ensure I get results. Not just a pump but actual results, if we are honest with ourselves, we will know.
Now that I am 72 years young, I vary between normal speed reps of one set to failure and slow speed reps or 8 x 8. Please let me explain the above in further detail. Normal speed is taking 2 seconds on the positive part of the rep under control, and focus with a 1 second hold, and 4 seconds on the negative part of the rep, with a 1 second hold before you start to positive part of the rep. For example in the seated machine chest press, one takes approximately 2 seconds to push the weight away from the body, hold the weight for 1 second and lower the weight back to the chest taking 4 seconds under control and focus. My goal is 10 reps before I increase weight.
The 8x 8 speed using the seated shoulder press machine for example, I take 8 seconds to raise the weight above my head under control and focus, hold for 1 second at the top and lower in 8 seconds, hold for the count of 1 second and raise again in 8 seconds. With this version of rep cadence obviously I use less weight. My goal is 5 reps before I increase weight. These two versions of reps and speed of reps was an excellent suggestion from coach Bob Whelan, and it works fine, never had an injury.
SELECTING THE PROPER POUNDAGES.
Just last week in the gym I train at; a young bloke came up to me while I was doing standing barbell curls using 55 pounds for a set of 9 reps and said, “that weight looks hard for you even though it is only light.” I said to him “It may appear light to you, but it feels heavy to me.” What is important is not the weight used, but the weight you select to use for the exercise that works the targeted muscles, without cheating or throwing the weight about. Therefore using excellent form and focus.
After a planned lay off a week, whenever I came back to training, I always started my weight at 70 % of my final workout weight. I would gradually increase so over two to three weeks I was back where I was before or maybe a bit heavier. I noticed the two weeks when I was using lighter weights with perfect form, I looked bigger and felt stronger. I said to myself is the rest, giving my body a chance to rejuvenate and grow or is it the lighter weight used enabling me to use better form, focus and target the muscles with intensity. Now I realise it was the latter, use a weight that you can lower in 4 seconds, rest a second at the bottom, get it up in a controlled 2 second rest 1 second at the top and lower in 4 seconds.
One of the great experts in weight training was George F Jowett whom I read a lot about. Jowett had an ultra / rugged, muscled shapely body and was athletic to back it up. One of the main things Jowett taught when working with students who wanted to build muscles using weights was: DON’T LET YOUR DESIRE TO LIFT MORE GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR NEED TO LIFT CORRECTLY. One would be wise to learn from Jowett’s teachings.
I can recall from the very first issues of Stuart Mc Roberts hard gainer magazine , Stuart wrote numerous times that after several years of hard consistent training a drug free lifter of 5 feet 9 inches in height with a muscular bodyweight of 182 pounds with a 7 inch wrist, should aim for a 300 pound bench press for 1 rep a 400 pound squat for 1 rep and a 500 pound deadlift for 1 rep .To achieve these poundage’s in good form is impressive lifting in my eyes.
If you were able to achieve the above at the same bodyweight or even 8 pounds heavier you would be barbell curling 120 to 130 pounds for reps , standing barbell pressing 150 pounds for reps , or pressing 66 pound dumb bells overhead with each hand for reps , bench pressing 220 pounds for reps, deadlifting 250 pounds for reps, dumb bell rowing with 120 pounds in each hand for reps, Using 170 pounds on the lat machine pulldown machine for reps. This is all drug free lifting, for a man who trains twice a week, has a family, and works at a full-time job. Compete against yourself, no one else, remember you will always be as good as most and better than some. Be better than you were yesterday, not as good as or better than someone else.
Stick to the above, continually attempt to lift more weight in good form and focus, and you will need to buy bigger clothes.
