Changing Routine?

[GregCP]

I'm at week 7 and was wondering whether or not i should change weight training exercises for the final half of the challenge.

My progression:

week 1-3 : have increased strength and weights steadily on all parts

week 4-5: seemed to hit a plateau a bit....slightly increasing in weights in some areas...no progression on others. However, do notice good size and pumps

week 6-current: dramatically increased strength and weights in most areas.

Body parts having the slowest progress (strength/weights): back, biceps, chest
body parts having the most significant progress (strength/weights): Quads, hamstrings, shoulders, calves, abs

i think im showing most progress in legs mainly because I never worked my legs before the challenge.....so there was a lot of room to improve.

But size wise...i do notice that i have made some significant gains...i look and feel good..i get good pumps....and maybe since after i've noticed better progress this last couple weeks...maybe i will be able to break through and hit new high points.

At week 6: i have dropped only 1.5% BF = 2 lbs (currently 16.5% BF), but have gained 5 lbs of muscle.

I do take creatine regularly and also a booster (N.O. XPLODE) prior to workouts. So I do have a lot of energy and stay focussed.

Question is...should i stay on my current regimen as long as Im making progress..or would i benefit even more gains if i switch everything up at this point? I want to be able to get the most out of my 12 weeks....because i did enter the BFL contest.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by GregCP

I'm at week 7 and was wondering whether or not i should change weight training exercises for the final half of the challenge.

My progression:

week 1-3 : have increased strength and weights steadily on all parts

week 4-5: seemed to hit a plateau a bit....slightly increasing in weights in some areas...no progression on others. However, do notice good size and pumps

week 6-current: dramatically increased strength and weights in most areas.

Body parts having the slowest progress (strength/weights): back, biceps, chest
body parts having the most significant progress (strength/weights): Quads, hamstrings, shoulders, calves, abs

i think im showing most progress in legs mainly because I never worked my legs before the challenge.....so there was a lot of room to improve.

But size wise...i do notice that i have made some significant gains...i look and feel good..i get good pumps....and maybe since after i've noticed better progress this last couple weeks...maybe i will be able to break through and hit new high points.

At week 6: i have dropped only 1.5% BF = 2 lbs (currently 16.5% BF), but have gained 5 lbs of muscle.

I do take creatine regularly and also a booster (N.O. XPLODE) prior to workouts. So I do have a lot of energy and stay focussed.

Question is...should i stay on my current regimen as long as Im making progress..or would i benefit even more gains if i switch everything up at this point? I want to be able to get the most out of my 12 weeks....because i did enter the BFL contest.

here's the deal :

if you want results you HAVE to switch everything up, its essential.

you should never do the same exercise for more than 8 weeks, 8 weeks is the max. ideally you should change everything around every 4 weeks. changing everything after 6 weeks is ok too, 8 weeks is just about acceptable but 4 weeks is perfect.
if you just keep doing the same exercises then ur body gets used to them and you just dont get results.

sometimes i just change the order of the exercises e.g if ive been doing 5 sets of leg extension and then one set of squats ill change it to 5 sets of squats and 1 set of leg extensions. other times though ill change the actually exercise and do leg press instead of squat.

also its important to increase the weight u are lifting frequently. you should never use the same weight for more than 2 sessions. in the book bills says ''aim for a weekly increase'' so you should increase every single weeks without fail. me personally i aim for an increase every single session. sometimes this isnt achieveable therefore ill end up using the same weight for the next session but i never go more than 2 sessions without an increase.
the key is to only increase by small amounts because then its manageable. most time i only increae by 0.5kg

[GregCP]

Great advice...I'll definately change my workouts when i start again Monday

[sshultz]

Seems to me if you're making dramatic gains with the current routine, you have the option of sticking with what you're doing. However, I do believe in switching it up, not only to keep it from getting boring but to keep the gains coming.

I stated in another post that I don't necessarily buy into the 5% increase on a weekly basis. Not only does the body react differently each week (or each session) to a workout, your body will get to the point where you can only lift so much weight. You can't continually make 5% gains each week. If you do, you will end up in some record book as the strongest man on the planet. Yes, you should try to push harder each session but there will come a point at which it's physically impossible for you to lift anymore weight for a given exercise. You should make gains, but listen to your body, not what someone else tells you your body should be saying. If something is working, you have the option of sticking with it until it no longer works. Only you will know when it's no longer working.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by sshultz

Seems to me if you're making dramatic gains with the current routine, you have the option of sticking with what you're doing. However, I do believe in switching it up, not only to keep it from getting boring but to keep the gains coming.

I stated in another post that I don't necessarily buy into the 5% increase on a weekly basis. Not only does the body react differently each week (or each session) to a workout, your body will get to the point where you can only lift so much weight. You can't continually make 5% gains each week. If you do, you will end up in some record book as the strongest man on the planet. Yes, you should try to push harder each session but there will come a point at which it's physically impossible for you to lift anymore weight for a given exercise. You should make gains, but listen to your body, not what someone else tells you your body should be saying. If something is working, you have the option of sticking with it until it no longer works. Only you will know when it's no longer working.

bill says in his book ''i want you to reach higher every single week. aim for a weekly increase''

the fact is that if you keep lifting the same weight for too long you wont see any gains. another fact is

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by yakubu

bill says in his book ''i want you to reach higher every single week. aim for a weekly increase''

the fact is that if you keep lifting the same weight for too long you wont see any gains. another fact is

IF YOU INCREASE BY A SMALL ENOUGH AMOUNT EVERY 2 SESSIONS YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HANDLE THE INCREASE. this is beacause when you work out you tear your muscles and they grow back STRONGER. if you have done 2 sessions then your muscles will now be stronger than they was 2 sessions ago therefore they can deffinately handle an increase that is as small as 0.5kg

[Chris]

Increasing by a small amount also includes increasing the reps if necessary. I realize this changes the 12, 10, 8, 6, etc. but that's fine for a couple workouts while you keep trying to increase the weights. Here's an example. If you are doing 20# dumbbell curls and want to go up in weight, but the next weight is 25#, this is a 25% increase.. but if you increase the reps from 10 to 11, this is only a 10% increase. Doing small increases like this can sometimes better prepare you for the jump to the next weight.

Keep in mind too, that you don't have to change everything. You can change the order in which you train the body parts (shoulders, back, then chest, etc.), you can do dumbbells instead of barbells (or vice-versa), and/or you can pre-exhaust your muscles by doing the concentration move before the compound (like cable cross overs before bench press).

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by Chris

Increasing by a small amount also includes increasing the reps if necessary. I realize this changes the 12, 10, 8, 6, etc. but that's fine for a couple workouts while you keep trying to increase the weights. Here's an example. If you are doing 20# dumbbell curls and want to go up in weight, but the next weight is 25#, this is a 25% increase.. but if you increase the reps from 10 to 11, this is only a 10% increase. Doing small increases like this can sometimes better prepare you for the jump to the next weight.

Keep in mind too, that you don't have to change everything. You can change the order in which you train the body parts (shoulders, back, then chest, etc.), you can do dumbbells instead of barbells (or vice-versa), and/or you can pre-exhaust your muscles by doing the concentration move before the compound (like cable cross overs before bench press).

if you are aiming for muscle gains then u should never do more than 12 reps.

this is the problem with gyms - theres too much of a leap between weights

[Chris]

Originally Posted by yakubu

if you are aiming for muscle gains then u should never do more than 12 reps.

"Never say never"... while it's true that you should stay in the lower rep range for the bulk of your workouts, occasionally going with higher reps is a good thing for building mass. If you don't believe me, try going to 15 a few times and see how your muscles feel afterward.

btw, where do you keep coming up with all these absolute statements.. not trying to be rude, but I think your source may be misinformed.. and it appears to be rubbing off.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by Chris

"Never say never"... while it's true that you should stay in the lower rep range for the bulk of your workouts, occasionally going with higher reps is a good thing for building mass. If you don't believe me, try going to 15 a few times and see how your muscles feel afterward.

btw, where do you keep coming up with all these absolute statements.. not trying to be rude, but I think your source may be misinformed.. and it appears to be rubbing off.

absolute statements ? id otn know , im just sticking to the facts. its a well known fact that if you want to gain muscle they dont do more than 12 reps. if you want muscle tone then do 12-20 reps

[Chris]

The following is from a M&F article: 25 ways to improve your workouts.

Don't train too heavy for too long

>> Yes, training with a heavy weight that prevents you from getting more than 4-5 reps is good for strength and overall mass when done in conjunction with lighter training that allows you to get 8-12 reps. Yet too much heavy training may work against muscle growth. Baylor University (Waco, Texas) scientists found that when athletes trained using their 6RMs, they had higher levels of active myostatin (a protein that limits muscle growth) than when they did the same workout using their 18RMs. Keep to your heavy rep ranges for no longer than 6-8 weeks, then switch to a lighter-weight, higher-rep scheme to keep your myostatin levels in check.

If you want to read the rest, check out this link: 25 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR WORKOUTS - Training - Muscle and Fitness

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by Chris

The following is from a M&F article: 25 ways to improve your workouts.

Don't train too heavy for too long

>> Yes, training with a heavy weight that prevents you from getting more than 4-5 reps is good for strength and overall mass when done in conjunction with lighter training that allows you to get 8-12 reps. Yet too much heavy training may work against muscle growth. Baylor University (Waco, Texas) scientists found that when athletes trained using their 6RMs, they had higher levels of active myostatin (a protein that limits muscle growth) than when they did the same workout using their 18RMs. Keep to your heavy rep ranges for no longer than 6-8 weeks, then switch to a lighter-weight, higher-rep scheme to keep your myostatin levels in check.

If you want to read the rest, check out this link: 25 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR WORKOUTS - Training - Muscle and Fitness

what they are talking about there though is 6rms. on body for life you never do a 6rm. your 6 reps is always a level 8.
im not suprised that the 6 rms werent as succesful as the 18rms cos 6rms are for strengh not muscle gains.
i play football and im required to use all kinds of different rep ranges to get the most out of my sport. im required to do one session a week of 20 reps - the purpose of this is for strengh endurance. in preseason im required to do 6rms for six weeks - the purpose of this is to achieve maximal strengh. its not for muscle growth , its for maximal strengh so that i will have enough strengh to do plyometrics in the season which produces explosive power.
in season im required to do 3rms as well as plyometrics. this rep range produces power.

in the off season i do body for life to build muscle. if you want muscle gains then stick to body for life and dont go beyond the 12 reps. if 15 reps was better for muscle growth than 12 reps was then im sure that bill would have incorporated this intot he body for life system and if only doing level 10 intensities for 6 - 8 weeks was better than doing it for the whole 12 weeks then im sure bill woyuldnt have incorporated that into the body for life system too.

at end of the day if you want muscle gains then you must increase the weights you are lifting frequently and you must and you must reach failure with your last reps. thats a fact and i dont think anyone can argue with that

[Rhone]

Originally Posted by Chris

Increasing by a small amount also includes increasing the reps if necessary.

When I'm able to increase the weights in an exercise where it seems like I'm having to fight particularly hard to improve--like bench press--generally I'm not able to get to 12 reps on the last two sets. I might only get 6 or 7. At that point, improvement in subsequent workouts means being able to squeeze out 1-3 more reps each workout until I reach 12 and am able to increase the weights again.

I agree with sshultz that it's ridiculous to think that you can continually increase the weight every workout by x% without eventually hitting a plateau or (less likely) achieving superhuman levels of strength. Sorry Yakubu, feel free to prove us wrong by bench pressing 1000lbs within the next few years.

Also, thanks for the link to that article, Chris. I've long suspected that occasionally using higher rep ranges (which is actually what I plan to do every 4th week in my current "challenge") is too often overlooked as a method of periodization that could be useful even for people who scoff at the idea of building endurance.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by Rhone

When I'm able to increase the weights in an exercise where it seems like I'm having to fight particularly hard to improve--like bench press--generally I'm not able to get to 12 reps on the last two sets. I might only get 6 or 7. At that point, improvement in subsequent workouts means being able to squeeze out 1-3 more reps each workout until I reach 12 and am able to increase the weights again.

I agree with sshultz that it's ridiculous to think that you can continually increase the weight every workout by x% without eventually hitting a plateau or (less likely) achieving superhuman levels of strength. Sorry Yakubu, feel free to prove us wrong by bench pressing 1000lbs within the next few years.

Also, thanks for the link to that article, Chris. I've long suspected that occasionally using higher rep ranges (which is actually what I plan to do every 4th week in my current "challenge") is too often overlooked as a method of periodization that could be useful even for people who scoff at the idea of building endurance.

at the start of body for life im benching 12kg dumbells. if i increase by 0.5kg every single week then at the end of the 12 weeks ill be able to bench 17kg dumbells. thats an overall increase of 5kg in 12 weeks. thats not very much and it is extremely achievable.
if i increase by 0.5kg every single session then at the end of the 12 weeks id be benching 20kg dumbells which is a total increase of 8kg over the whole 12 weeks. again this aint much and is certaintly achieveable

by my calculations i dont think ill ever be benching 1000lbs as you suggested. whats witht he over exageration ?

[Rhone]

The exaggeration was to express a point--a point which still holds up when the exaggeration is taken away.

Now, I agree that what you projected you could do in 12 weeks is entirely possible; my argument (and I suspect what sshultz was trying to say) is that the progress a beginner can make in 12 weeks is not infinitely sustainable.

Don't believe me? Fine, okay, I'll play Math with you. Let's pretend, for a moment, that you are able to continually add 0.5kg per dumbbell per session to your bench press over the next three years. With BFL, you're doing 3 sessions every 2 weeks, which mathematically means 1.5 sessions per week. There are 52 weeks per year, hence 156 weeks in 3 years. 156*1.5 = 234 workout sessions in 3 years.

Now, we'll be nice and give you 4 weeks off to rest per year, so let's say it's really 144 weeks. So, 144 * 1.5 = 216 workout sessions. Starting with 12kg dumbbells and adding 0.5kg every workout session, that means after 3 years you should be able to bench press 12 + (216*0.5) = 120kg dumbbells. That's 264lbs, I believe. 264lbs per dumbbell, meaning 528lbs total.

I don't think they even make dumbbells that heavy.

Even if we presume you just increase 0.5kg per week instead of per workout, it still comes out to 12 + (144*0.5) = 84kg, or 185lb dumbbells you should be able to bench press in 3 years.

Now, I hate to be a naysayer, but I would like to humbly suggest that the chances of you being able to bench press dumbbells that heavy in 3 years is not a whole lot higher than the chance of you being able to press 1000lbs. Again, feel free to prove me wrong.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by Rhone

The exaggeration was to express a point--a point which still holds up when the exaggeration is taken away.

Now, I agree that what you projected you could do in 12 weeks is entirely possible; my argument (and I suspect what sshultz was trying to say) is that the progress a beginner can make in 12 weeks is not infinitely sustainable.

Don't believe me? Fine, okay, I'll play Math with you. Let's pretend, for a moment, that you are able to continually add 0.5kg per dumbbell per session to your bench press over the next three years. With BFL, you're doing 3 sessions every 2 weeks, which mathematically means 1.5 sessions per week. There are 52 weeks per year, hence 156 weeks in 3 years. 156*1.5 = 234 workout sessions in 3 years.

Now, we'll be nice and give you 4 weeks off to rest per year, so let's say it's really 144 weeks. So, 144 * 1.5 = 216 workout sessions. Starting with 12kg dumbbells and adding 0.5kg every workout session, that means after 3 years you should be able to bench press 12 + (216*0.5) = 120kg dumbbells. That's 264lbs, I believe. 264lbs per dumbbell, meaning 528lbs total.

I don't think they even make dumbbells that heavy.

Even if we presume you just increase 0.5kg per week instead of per workout, it still comes out to 12 + (144*0.5) = 84kg, or 185lb dumbbells you should be able to bench press in 3 years.

Now, I hate to be a naysayer, but I would like to humbly suggest that the chances of you being able to bench press dumbbells that heavy in 3 years is not a whole lot higher than the chance of you being able to press 1000lbs. Again, feel free to prove me wrong.

ok lets put it this way - what i suggested is absolutely achievable in the 12 weeks. what will happen down the line over 3 years i do not know but what i do know is that increasing the weight every single week is deffinately achievable during the 12 weeks.

im 25 and the only time in my life when id previously lifted weights was when i was 21 and this only lasted 2-3 months. so when i started b4life this year i was definately a beginner.
i did 4 weeks of body for life earlie this year and in those 4 weeks i increased every single exercise by 0.5kg every single session apart from squats, lying tricep extension, lateral raise and seated dumbell press.

the 4 exercises that i failed to increase every single session got increased every single week and i handled the increase fine

so the progress a beginner can make in 12 weeks IS infinitely sustainable

lots of the bodyforlife champions were beginner and let me tell you - they didnt achieve the results they did by lifting the same old weights weeks in week out.

do you people even know anything about body building. anyone who knows anything about this subject knows the importance of increasing weights. this is like a soccer player saying ''what does offside mean?''. my reply would be ''i thought you played soccer, i thought you knew a lot about this game ''

at the end of the day you are saying the increase aint important were as bill phillips stresses the importanc eof the increase . now if ive got to pick out of you and bill i think ill listen to bill thanks