Weight / Rep / Warm up Question

G

Greenetuckian

0
Here is a couple of strength training questions I have had for years and have never had answered to my satisfaction.

#1 - When lifting you often see either the school of though (SOT) that you should work a weight to 10 reps. Another SOT is to use heavy weights for 3-5 reps. Now here is what I would like to know - Why not just do maximum lifts of 1-2 reps?

#2 - I see a lot about warming up. I also see that in several training logs of people starting lifts at low weights and working up heavier during that training session. Here is the question - Why not do a stretch and quick / light warm up and go straight to maximum lifts before you have already tired your muscles out so you cannot possibly hit your top lifting weight?

Any Ideas? :confused:
 
1. You can use many different rep ranges to accomplish different goals and improve certain strength quailites. There's no one optimal rep range.

2. That's a huge subject - some people have injuries and need more warming up then others, some use dynamic stretching, to name a few.

There's rarely any cut an dry to answers to questions of this nature.
 
Thanks for answering newf. On the warmups I really wasn't thinking much about how long someone stretchs but how many warm up sets on the weights they perform, tiring out their muscles there by never hitting near their peak during a workout.

Use to I would have done bench presses something like this -
138x10, 165x5, 182x3, 193x1 = 4 total work reps

Now my thoughts might be to do something like -
(WU 138x5), 204x1, 193x3, 182x(to failure but at least 3) = 7 or more total work reps

The only potential drawback for the very low reps at near max weights would be perhaps a higher probability of injury. I am also of the belief that you need to work both slow and fast twitch muscle. I think I will incorporate both in my workouts and do one heavy workout and one more endurance workout a week for both upper and lower body. We'll give it a month and see how it does.
 
Injury can happen at maximal and sub-maximal weights. I don't think that adolescents or older (50s plus) need to use heavy triples and below (powerlifters aside). Checking for 1RMs from time to time is another subject though.

The body needs to be primed for working in the 95-100% range. A warm up of 50% for 6, 60% for 6, and 70% for 5 is good.

If you'll look in my journal, I'm constantly hitting doubles and singles for my push press and power Oly moves. As long as I stay away a few reps shy of failure, I don't fag out to where it impacts pushing myself. The other thing, that as long as you are pushing yourself in the 80% range and above you will be gaining in strength.

Hope this helps.
 
what i don't understand is why many people work out the same muscle 90% of the time. For instance the biceps - first warmup, then one machine, then free weights, then another machine, then some other technique with free weights and finally perhaps bench press. Just sounds stupid to me to do so much on one muscle :S
 
and it is!:p dont do stuff or think its right just because people at the gym do it;)
he could be doing his biceps day or something like that.. but still:p
 
Yeah, it's obviously not a great idea to be doing 1 rep maxes all of the time. I never do any exercise to failure either.

Without doing warmups, I wouldn't be able to hit the big lifts. It also has to do with your central nervous system being ready as well. I strongly believe that if one were to warmup and then do the work/heavier sets, that person would be able to lift more - rather than just jumping into it.
 
Good discussion, I especially like the one from Obshobs -

what i don't understand is why many people work out the same muscle 90% of the time. For instance the biceps - first warmup, then one machine, then free weights, then another machine, then some other technique with free weights and finally perhaps bench press. Just sounds stupid to me to do so much on one muscle :S
Click to expand...

I get the Men's Health newsletter and read this today.
Curls are a waste of time because they isolate a muscle group that's the size of an orange," says Juan Carlos Santana, M.Ed., C.S.C.S., director of the Institute of Human Performance in Boca Raton, Florida. Instead, work larger muscle groups with pulling exercises such as lat pulldowns and rows, both of which also work your biceps
Click to expand...

I may give this a try. I am looking for overall fitness but the Bench Press, Curl, ect. are what I am most familiar with. I may see about getting out of my comfort zone and trying some other things. I might even get gutsy and try squats again. Squats are how I was injured years ago and I have been afraid of them every since. I wish my leg press went a lot higher. I can do it's top weight 15 reps and one legged presses put it sevely out of balance.

I am still unsure on the heavy / low, lighter / high splits though. It may just be something I have to learn for myself. I think I will stay in the vein of one heavy workout for upper / lower and one lighter, high rep workout for each a week with 3 days off weights for recuperation.
 
You should most definitely be working your entire body and not just the typical bench and curls for the "show" muscles that everyone can see.
 
There is something to be said for "show muscles". I doubt anyone wants to put in a lot of work strength training if no one notices. This being said I am setting up my strength training routine to try and maximize fitness while hopefully giving myself something people will notice. I also am trying to get completely away from tobacco so I am eating a lot more (comes with the territory). As you reduce nicotine intake you have a lot of hunger, at least I do. I know this will raise my BF% if nothing is done so I want to gain muscle everywhere to try and offset this increase in caloric intake to build muscle instead of packing on fat during this time.
 
Greenetuckian said:
There is something to be said for "show muscles". I doubt anyone wants to put in a lot of work strength training if no one notices. This being said I am setting up my strength training routine to try and maximize fitness while hopefully giving myself something people will notice. I also am trying to get completely away from tobacco so I am eating a lot more (comes with the territory). As you reduce nicotine intake you have a lot of hunger, at least I do. I know this will raise my BF% if nothing is done so I want to gain muscle everywhere to try and offset this increase in caloric intake to build muscle instead of packing on fat during this time.
Click to expand...

Show muscles are not the top priority or reason for everyone to train though, a lot do it just simply for health. Of course the "show" part is a plus. But what most people don't understand is that when you train your WHOLE body, all of the muscles develop, including the precious show muscles, more so than ONLY training them.
 
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