Not adding weight

A

Acein91

0
So for the past couple months I've mostly been mostly trying out all sorts of compounds, learning the movements, and getting my form right.

I think I've finally got it all down now. But the kind of workout I'm aiming to do is still out of my reach. Currently I'm not adding more weight to any of my exercises and instead am either adding more reps or decreasing rest time between sets. I used to give myself two minutes, I've now decreased it to 1 minute 30 seconds, after that I'm going to drop it down to 1 minute 15 seconds and after THAT 1 minute. For my military press, though, I'm unable to do 12 reps with just the bar, which weighs 45 lbs. 12 reps is what I'm going for, and I can only get about 8 right now, so I'm not adding any weight to the bar and am trying to add reps until I get to 12.

My question is, is this a legitimate form of progression and can I still expect to gain muscle while doing this?
 
There are many types of progression, set, rep, weight progression. They are all legitimate forms of progression-I know Chad Waterbury utilizes rest, set, AND rep progression in his workout programs (ABBH, 10x3 Fatloss) though not necessarily all in one- but if you're new (it sounds like you are but sorry if I guess wrong) it'd say it's easiest and most efficient to add weight each time instead of the other types of progressions. You should be able to add weight steadily for some months yet.

Also, sometimes if you're looking to be able to do more reps with a certain weight, it'd help to do lower reps with a heavier weight.
For instance I was stuck doing like 6 chinups at a time, and then i went on to strap 20 lbs. to my ankle and do like 3 at a time with that extra weight. Now I can do 8 with the 20 lbs. and 12+ with just my body weight where as when i just kept trying to go for more reps at the same weight I had no improvement.
 
Eh, I'm not exactly new, but I'm still learning, so it's all good.

I do mix it up with reps though. I sometimes do sets with higher weights and lower reps than normal (mostly to avoid boring routine, but it has its benefits)
More to the point though, the lower rest period is really fatiguing for me, and I don't really feel like adding more weight AND reps while lowering rest period would help, really. I wouldn't make it through my whole workout

I'll make high weight/low reps a more crucial part of my plan though if you do think it would help me add reps
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top