I don't (like to) add too much weight too fast..

Gamisch

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Because I am EXTREMELY scared to injure myself. As a kick/thai boxer I've injured every muscle at least once. Also deep unjuries like nerve damage, broken eye sockets ect.

I know most will chime and say do this or do that. I HIGHLY appreciate these advices, but the only problem is that as useal there are more ways to Rome than just one. I have to stick to something clear. A clear program stops me from running around the gym like a headless chicken but I'm a man with a plan now

I got a push pull leg program 12x 4 although most heavy lifts go like 12- 12 - 10- 6. I like this, it immediately forced me to stop ego lifting and reduce the weight.

Yet, most programs talks about adding 5 lbs every time? That's unsustainable ammi right? I can barely do 132 lbs( 60 kilos) witj a 12x 4. I don't wanna increase weight untill I am 100% sure my technique is good/better, and I don't wanna ,again, injure myself.

I wanna hit the gym religiously at least 3 years in a row. I am not in hurry( read first paragraph), and due to genetics and athletic background I already grow like cole.

1. Am I cutting myself short due to fear aka wasting time that could be more productive?

2. Or is this a correct philosophy?

3.after what time should I choose another program? And how and what? I am at this for six weeks, and was told do this for 8/12 weeks. I am aining at 12 because I still struggle with the current weights.

 

CAPSLOCK BANDIT

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Basically you've answered your own question, lifting heavy is the answer but doing so without good technique as you've said is gonna be a back breaker.

If you wanna start today, hire a trainer to help you direct your efforts into what you wanna grow and your technique will come with it.

If you can't afford to hire a trainer, stick to machines where you can still lift somewhat heavy but safely.

Do not try to lift heavy free weights without excellent technique, you gotta develop a feel for your body, you gotta know "This don't feel right, eject".

Its difficult because the path ahead is sub-optimal, but it usually is and there will usually be set backs along the way.
 

BackInTheGame78

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It's unsustainable past a certain point but if you are untrained, you should be able to see a LOT of gains initially for the first 3-6 months while your body basically goes into a hyper growth period before plateauing.

Essentially your body does not want to allow the muscles to become stronger than the tendons and ligaments that support them, which is why people who take steroids have so many tendon/ligament issues.

It overrides the bodies ability to regulate muscle growth to protect itself, but as a person who isn't on steroids, you should be able to grow quite a bit in comparison to where you are now, having not lifted much at all before you reach that limit.

Ligaments and tendons become stronger much slower than muscles due to their lack of blood flow. You could also speed this process up somewhat if you do things designed to get more blood flow to those areas as well...

Essentially what you are worried about is only a concern if you are not using proper form, which is a very valid issue starting out...it takes a little while to understand what good form is and when you are using too much weight to keep proper form.

THAT is where most new people hurt themselves, not from increasing weight...it's from using too heavy of a weight with improper form.
 

EyeBRollin

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How much do you weigh? Height?

Sets of 12 are a lot for barbell lifts. High rep is better suited for dumbbell accessory work.

For LP, I recommend 5 rep sets.
 

Gamisch

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How much do you weigh? Height?

Sets of 12 are a lot for barbell lifts. High rep is better suited for dumbbell accessory work.

For LP, I recommend 5 rep sets.
6,1 today 82 kilos . Kinda weird as it seems Iam gaining muscle. Normally at 85 kilos i have a belly ,but now I have visible abs?

Like, dudes see me outside be like ,"hey thats that gym ninja" as I m always there either to box, run, or hit weights.

I'll definitely consider this. I have to say I can lift 176 lbs but definitely not 12 times, 4 sets so I dialed it back to 60 kilos.
 

Gamisch

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It's unsustainable past a certain point but if you are untrained, you should be able to see a LOT of gains initially for the first 3-6 months while your body basically goes into a hyper growth period before plateauing.

Essentially your body does not want to allow the muscles to become stronger than the tendons and ligaments that support them, which is why people who take steroids have so many tendon/ligament issues.

It overrides the bodies ability to regulate muscle growth to protect itself, but as a person who isn't on steroids, you should be able to grow quite a bit in comparison to where you are now, having not lifted much at all before you reach that limit.

Ligaments and tendons become stronger much slower than muscles due to their lack of blood flow. You could also speed this process up somewhat if you do things designed to get more blood flow to those areas as well...

Essentially what you are worried about is only a concern if you are not using proper form, which is a very valid issue starting out...it takes a little while to understand what good form is and when you are using too much weight to keep proper form.

THAT is where most new people hurt themselves, not from increasing weight...it's from using too heavy of a weight with improper form.
Oke so I'm not completely wrong for taking my time? I do have to say that ,especially witu yge bench it gets easier , I do 12 with one pause, 2 weeks ago I needed 3 or 4 pauses at this weight.
 

BackInTheGame78

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Oke so I'm not completely wrong for taking my time? I do have to say that ,especially witu yge bench it gets easier , I do 12 with one pause, 2 weeks ago I needed 3 or 4 pauses at this weight.
Not completely wrong but I wouldn't be afraid of trying to push yourself either. If you can do 12 reps easily then it's time to increase your weight.
 

Gamisch

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Basically you've answered your own question, lifting heavy is the answer but doing so without good technique as you've said is gonna be a back breaker.

If you wanna start today, hire a trainer to help you direct your efforts into what you wanna grow and your technique will come with it.

If you can't afford to hire a trainer, stick to machines where you can still lift somewhat heavy but safely.

Do not try to lift heavy free weights without excellent technique, you gotta develop a feel for your body, you gotta know "This don't feel right, eject".

Its difficult because the path ahead is sub-optimal, but it usually is and there will usually be set backs along the way.
Yeah someone mentioned joining a competition and I like that dea. To make it more serious or something like that. The bodybuilders in my gym indeed told me they got personal trainers .. I am stubborn like a new sosauve member auto filtering his shady girlfriend's redflags into grey...

Felt like the PT dudes were just hustling..in boxing there's a HUGE resentment against weightlifting. My trainer also "prohibited " me from weightlifting as he felt like it would slow me down in the ring.

I will give it a second look tho..you're definitely on to something.
 

Gamisch

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Not completely wrong but I wouldn't be afraid of trying to push yourself either. If you can do 12 reps easily then it's time to increase your weight.
Oke clear. Tbh both the squat and the Bpress ( with "right " form, holding the tension for a seconds and in sets of 12 )are murdering me..its gets better ,but I am still many weeks away from increasing and doing twelf..we'll see, I'm not gonna stop anyway. Motivation through the ****ing roof!


It does however conflict with @EyeBRollin his suggestion to do 5 which also makes sense.

I know you guys have had legendary arguments about fitness related topics, so let me first grap some popcorn..
 

hellonwheels

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1. Am I cutting myself short due to fear aka wasting time that could be more productive?

2. Or is this a correct philosophy?

3.after what time should I choose another program? And how and what? I am at this for six weeks, and was told do this for 8/12 weeks. I am aining at 12 because I still struggle with the current weights.

What’s your history with ligament/tendon strains? Depending on that I’d say you’re not cutting yourself short and it’s the correct philosophy.

Every time I’ve overdone it on lifting/running past 30 my knees/elbows go out with tendinitis. Went from normal max of 10k trails runs to half marathon, knee was effed and couldn’t run for 2-3 months. This year I made it my goal to hit a clean muscle up, and just went crazy on it practicing one day (got my first one) about 5 weeks ago. Haven’t been able to do a single pull up since that day due to tennis elbow and it’s depressing as hell - keeps flaring up when trying to do any upper body exercise.

Nothing wrong with knowing your limits. I get 100x more joy out of being injury free and able to work out consistently than pushing my limits. All about perfecting form and proper rest to avoid breaking your body.
 

BackInTheGame78

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Oke clear. Tbh both the squat and the Bpress ( with "right " form, holding the tension for a seconds and in sets of 12 )are murdering me..its gets better ,but I am still many weeks away from increasing and doing twelf..we'll see, I'm not gonna stop anyway. Motivation through the ****ing roof!


It does however conflict with @EyeBRollin his suggestion to do 5 which also makes sense.

I know you guys have had legendary arguments about fitness related topics, so let me first grap some popcorn..
I agree that 12 is probably too much and that you'd be able to increase strength quicker with fewer reps
 

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I always recommend Phraks Greyskull LP for fast beginner strength/size increase. Adding 5lbs more than you did last week isn't going to injure you out. Adding 50lbs will. The lower rep scheme lends itself to lifting more weight and not having cardio be the thing that's holding you back.
He could also likely benefit from Escalating Density Training(EDT) where he simply works on supersetting 2 exercises for like 5-8 reps each for a period of time, say 5 minutes, that work different muscle groups.

For instance, doing DB rows and bicep curls together for as many reps as he can. Goal is to beat the previous high for last time and once he beats it by 20%, he increases the weight.
 

Gamisch

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He could also likely benefit from Escalating Density Training(EDT) where he simply works on supersetting 2 exercises for like 5-8 reps each for a period of time, say 5 minutes, that work different muscle groups.

For instance, doing DB rows and bicep curls together for as many reps as he can. Goal is to beat the previous high for last time and once he beats it by 20%, he increases the weight.
Sounds interesting!

Two exercises a day? How do you determine what exercises? How often? How long before switching to a new program?
 

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Sounds interesting!

Two exercises a day? How do you determine what exercises? How often? How long before switching to a new program?
They are usually exercises that work the opposing muscle groups...

So you could do like biceps/triceps, back/chest, back/triceps, chest/biceps, shoulders/rear delt, quads/hamstrings, etc...

You do 5-8 reps of one, then 5-8 reps of the other and keep switching til the time runs out and track the number of reps, then multiply it by the weight you are using and that's your volume for the day.

The goal is to beat your volume each time thru either more reps with the same weight or more weight with the same reps.

You could stack like 3-4 of these together for a workout and that would be it. Since you wouldn't be working the same muscle groups you could take short rest periods to crank up the fat burning as well
 

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Unless he's trying to get good at lifting weights Really really fast like a crossfitter, this is a terrible tool for rapid strength and size gains...
In the beginning it's virtually irrelevant..anything you do will add size and strength rapidly.

Also, everything I've read and experienced while doing it doesn't agree with you.

 
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BackInTheGame78

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This is more complicated than it needs to be. Beginners need to load up a barbell and lift a progressively greater amount of weight. They need a base foundation of strength.
It's all about volume. Sets, reps, all of that stuff is secondary. How much volume are you lifting over x amount of time.
 

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I really dislike pulling the "but whose bigger" card, but aren't you like 160lbs..? This is not the weight of a hugely muscular individual unless you're like 5'3.

You also believe every health and fitness article that his yahoo news, so...
Currently 165ish but at my strongest I was 188 lbs and I'd put my pound for pound lifts head to head against most people and likely win.

Big 3 was 1,420 lbs...Deadlift 565 lbs, squat 475 lbs, Bench(decline, cant flat bench due to shoulder issues) 380 lbs x 2.

That was at age 40 BTW.

Highly doubt there are too many people pound for pound that aren't competing in powerlifting events that are going to touch those. That was sub 15% BF as well, not walking around with a giant gut, I had abs showing.
 
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BackInTheGame78

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Okay but you're using your powerlifting experience to try advising hypertrophy... you weren't amateur, so I'm sure you understand the difference.

Did you ever use EDT to help you achieve your powerlifting goals, and do you think it would help get a better PR for someone who isn't in the beginner phase?
I was never an actual competitor, I just loved pushing myself to see how far I could go...

Actually yes. I trained a lot of different modalities over the course of a year and EDT definitely helped because as your body becomes more accustomed to moving more weight in a shorter period of time, it helps pushing out extra reps when you go back to lifting heavier.

Usually found I could get 2-3 extra reps on the same weight as I did before when I reached my upper limits
 
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