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Balancing form/weight etc

C

craze

New member
Hi I have 2 questions in 1.

Firstly: I find doing certain excercises I can do say 50-60KG finish my set and the muscles are burning. But then i can also increase that to say 90KG and do a proper set, my muscles are exhausted but not burning as they are with the lighter weight? Just wondering why this is so?

Secondly: We all know you need to increase resistance to improve, I am trying to understand the appropriate balance, as increasing weight it is quite easy to lose form. So how do you balance this properly and when you reach a platue is it time to change exercise (same muscle) or say include lower weights and higher reps? I have read breifly about different muscle fibre groups etc. Also some weeks i notice certain body parts appear stronger than the week before etc and it tends to change, some weeks i excell in an area, then other weeks drop back a bit or don't improve.

Thank you all
 
The "burn" is not necessary to stimulate muscle growth. It's just a burn. Do 1,000 pushups in one day, you will have a burn, doesn't mean you'll get a chest like Arnold Squashenegger.

Start with just the bar. In every session, do more than you did before - more weight, or more reps, or more sets. Even just 1kg or 1 rep increase is fine.

A weight you can lift for less than 3 reps is a bit risky on your own. A weight you can lift more than 12 times, well lifting it 16 rather than 15 times won't do much. So stick to 3-12 reps. Aside from that, just add weight when you can, when you can't add weight add reps, when you can't add reps add sets.

For example, if today you squatted 60kg 5,5,5 then tomorrow you must squat,
65kg 5,5,5 - more weight, or
60kg 6,6,6 - more reps, or
60kg 5,5,5,5 - more sets

and any of those would be more, and stimulate muscle growth.

As a beginner, the reason you start low is to learn good form, have it be second nature. Of course form breaks down as you reach your current strength limit. So err on the side of starting low, just with the bar. It feels slack but what's important isn't where you start, but where you're going - progress. Better to start with a 20kg bar lifted for 1 set of 1, and in every session add 1kg or 1 rep or 1 set, than to start with 90kg 3x6 and get stuck at 95kg 3x6.

If you reach a plateau, probably you are not eating enough good food, or getting enough good sleep. Eat and sleep more.
 
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Are both sets performed to failure?
How many rep's? And what exercises are you using as an example.

I ask- because more often than not upper body respond differently to the lower body.

A number of variables need to be taken into consideration for exercising and need to be explained to you before giving you an answer that you will understand.

Then you will understand how you can apply this to your workout template.

Overload is the key for stimulating growth, form is essential for true progression.

Each repitition must be excactly the same as the previous; the positive portion of the movement should be fast enough so you can pause for one second; no bouncing, the negative portion of the exercise needs to also be controlled and twice as slow as the positive portion of the exercise.
You continue until you cannot perform another full rep, in perfect form.
You stay on the target rep and not progress until you own that.

Another variation to progression is double progression;

For example if your target is 8-12 rep's with XXkg's, once you target is reached and owned you can increase the kg's by 10% and reduced the rep range back to 8.
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I aim for 12 reps per set. The lighter set i would not say its till failure (just burning so i want to stop) the heavy set is till failure. Examples are leg extension, ab crunch machine.

Both of what you guys posted is very helpful, thanks
 
Since no one really answered this one:

Firstly: I find doing certain excercises I can do say 50-60KG finish my set and the muscles are burning. But then i can also increase that to say 90KG and do a proper set, my muscles are exhausted but not burning as they are with the lighter weight? Just wondering why this is so?
Click to expand...

I will do it.

You feel a burn due to a build up of lactic acid (specifically the hydrogen ions dissassociating from the lactate but I will not go into that as it is not needed). Lactic acid will build up less when you lift really heavy (3-5 reps) as you are using an energy system (mainly) that does not create lactic acid. When you go from about 12-20 you will really feel a burn as you are using an energy system that creates lactic acid as a waste.
 
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