Muscular Endurance

B

BobLoblaw

0
Hi, I'm new to the forums and am impressed with all the knowledge and helpfulness in here.

I'll start with a little background about myself. I have been working out on and off for about a year or so, looking to do it more regularly soon. I'm skinny, 5'8 132 lbs but very athletic and generally fit. I've been playing various sports all my life.

My question is about my endurance issues. I see most routines have 2 or 3 sets of the same exercise at the same (or even increasing) weight. For most exercises, all I can do is one set at a certain (~8 rep) weight. I cannot do a second set at the same weight. This is mostly for my upper body (chest press, shoulder press). My first set feels as it should, easy enough to get up and an effort to finish the last rep or two. I cannot even do one rep when I try a second set.

Is this normal and if not, what can I do to increase my stamina during weight training? I'm a little surprised that I have this problem because my aerobic endurance has always been good when playing sports. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
1. How old are you?

2. How much time do you rest between sets?

3. What are your goals? gain muscle, fat loss, strength, power, speed, endurance. On a specific exercise?

You can try super setting an upper body exercise like bench press with a lower body exercise like lunges to increase your rest time but at the same time working other parts of your body. For example

You do 1 set of bench, 8 good reps take about 45 seconds
you rest 30 seconds
you do 1 set of lunges 10 - 12 reps each leg should be about 1 to 2 min
then you rest for 30 seconds or 1 min.

Here you have from 2 to 3 and a half minutes to rest between your first set of bench and your second set. This allows you to train heavy on multiple sets and work your full body in less time.

If you want to be athletic, gain muscle and be stronger just make sure you rest from 2 to 3min between sets so you can always lift heavy with good form. I like to superset because I don't have a lot of time to spend in the gym working out.

Another reason could be your nutrition. A client of mine use to have this problem because he didn't eat anything 4 hours before the workout. After the first sets his energy just went down and couldn't do a second set.

Feel free to have something to eat at least 1 hour before your workout.
Make sure is balanced, carbs, protein, healthy fats and lots of water.

Hope this helps

Rick_CSCS
 
What Rick said but also get a good spotter on the 2nd second. Then, tell yourself that you can do it. I think it's mostly mental man. If you think you can and will it to happen, you will do it!!!
 
Rick_CSCS said:
1. How old are you?

2. How much time do you rest between sets?

3. What are your goals? gain muscle, fat loss, strength, power, speed, endurance. On a specific exercise?

You can try super setting an upper body exercise like bench press with a lower body exercise like lunges to increase your rest time but at the same time working other parts of your body. For example

You do 1 set of bench, 8 good reps take about 45 seconds
you rest 30 seconds
you do 1 set of lunges 10 - 12 reps each leg should be about 1 to 2 min
then you rest for 30 seconds or 1 min.

Here you have from 2 to 3 and a half minutes to rest between your first set of bench and your second set. This allows you to train heavy on multiple sets and work your full body in less time.

If you want to be athletic, gain muscle and be stronger just make sure you rest from 2 to 3min between sets so you can always lift heavy with good form. I like to superset because I don't have a lot of time to spend in the gym working out.

Another reason could be your nutrition. A client of mine use to have this problem because he didn't eat anything 4 hours before the workout. After the first sets his energy just went down and couldn't do a second set.

Feel free to have something to eat at least 1 hour before your workout.
Make sure is balanced, carbs, protein, healthy fats and lots of water.

Hope this helps

Rick_CSCS
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply Rick.

1. 21 years old
2. I have tried all sorts of variations, sometimes I rest 1-2 min and other times I do a set and only come back to it at the end of my workout and still can't do it.
3. My goal is to gain muscle/strength and increase my weight in the process.

Your suggestion about eating before is a good one. My workouts and diet are not that structured right now and I know they need to be. I just wanted to get some ideas about the cause of this specific problem I've always had whenever I lift weights.
 
Okay

Try this with a spotter, ask anyone in the gym, most people will help you. Just be careful because once they help you they will offer some kind of advice and sometimes is good but sometimes is not the best.

warm up - set of 12 - 15 reps low weight
Heavy set - a weight that you can do from 3 to 5 reps, rest 3 to 4 minutes
Regular work set - a weight that you can do 10 to 12 reps
Heavy again - try as many as you can 1,2,3, it doesn't matter just go for it

Eventually you will be able to do 5 reps on set 1, 12 reps on set 2, and 5 reps on set 3

Then you try regular sets with a weight that you can do 8 to 12 reps and keep yourself in that range. The way I use the range is like this:

If I do 12 reps with a specific weight like 190lb on bench, I say to myself that is too light and I bump up the weight to 200 or 210 and try to do at least 8 reps. Sometimes I do 5 and sometimes I get 8. If I get 8 then this is the weight I will start in my next workout for that exercise.

11 - 12 reps too light
9 - 10 reps you can increase the weight
5 - 8 reps optimal

I write my goal to lift like 235 and the number of reps that I can do at the moment. Once I can do 235 11 or 12 times I increase the weight.

Just be consistent with your workout, don't spend more than two days without working out. Eventually you'll see results.

Remember, you only get results because of the things you do.

Rick_CSCS
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top