Help a noob lifter

[Snap87]

This may be a little late to ask ever since ive been looking at threads through the health and fitness. Anyways i am kind of confused on the kind of workouts. Whats a pyramid set? is pyramid set the best "way" to go for building "mass"(i think that mean like putting meat in my body?). Ive found a routine that looks alright i guess...its like this,

-Monday: chest/triceps
-Wednesday: Back/biceps
-Friday: Legs/shoulders
-3 sets for each body group

Is this a good routine? If so what excercises are best for each body group? If not, can i see what a good routine looks like?

Also what is this "post-workout" and "pre-postworkout" all about?

THANKS!

 

[Warboss Alex]

Your split is good. What you've asked has already been answered, read Manuva's sticky:
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79386

and then these threads:

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81347
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81505

 

[Bible_Belt]

I don't understand why more reps with a lower weight is not as good as fewer reps with more weight? Isn't the idea to just get to the point of muscle failure? Shouldn't it not matter how?

from the 10 Things thread:
1) Do I have to go to the gym to put on muscle? Why can't I just do pushups at home?

Yes. If you seriously wish to start increasing your strength and muscle mass, it is almost impossible to succeed without access to the progressively heavier weights that are standard at most gyms.

The reason is that to stimulate muscle growth, we must constantly be increasing the amount of stress (weight) we subject the muscle fibre to.

Basically, this means that as you get stronger, you must start lifting a heavier weight in order to get stronger still; without increasing the weight as your strength increases, your muscles will stop adapting (growing).

This is why bodyweight exercises such as pushups will not increase muscle mass. Your muscles will adapt the first few times you do pushups, but as you cannot easily increase the weight your arms are pushing, you cannot continue to provide stimulus for you're muscles to grow.

 

[Warboss Alex]

Originally posted by Bible_Belt
I don't understand why more reps with a lower weight is not as good as fewer reps with more weight? Isn't the idea to just get to the point of muscle failure? Shouldn't it not matter how?

Training to failure comes in many flavours. Take a 5kg dumbbell in each hand and do bicep curls to failure, you might get 100s of reps before you get tired and can't do anymore. That counts as training to failure, but so does a rest-pause set with your maximum weight. Which do you think is more beneficial?

Once you've mastered that 5kg dumbbell, i.e. your body has become strong enough to lift it, training at that weight for no matter how many reps is just endurance training or even a cardio workout.

When muscles get stronger, they generally get bigger too. You get stronger by lifting progressively heavier weights, sticking to the same weight all the time means your body has no reason to increase strength and therefore not to increase size either.

Take a good look at the people in the gym. Take note of the ones who after a few months still look exactly the same - I'll bet they're the ones who use exactly the same weight each time for five sets of 50-odd reps. Now if they'd only added even 1kg to their lift every time, I guarantee they'd look different in 3 months' time.