Originally posted by Mr.Hash wid da Stash
Hey Alpha Male Female Catcher,
Hmm good point. You look pretty massive, that chest protrudes like hell!
Thanks Mr Hash. Front on I wish my chest was a bit wider but the side view I am quite happy with. Guess it means I'm more suited to power lifting than body building.
But the thing is I noticed when I went to 15 reps I felt my muscles sore the next day. The week after I tried lifting heavier and going for a max of 8 reps and I was significantly less sore. Is soreness a good indicator of how well your growing? Ie; "sore muscles next day= your growing"? Thanks.
I have read some theories that soreness is bad and others that it is good and I doubt think even the professional scientific researchers on the topic know for sure (don't think there is a definitive theory yet).
I have allways assumed soreness is good. If nothing else it is an indicator that you gave the area a pretty good work out. That is not debatable (i.e. you definitely did some damage). What is debatable is wether you did too much damage i.e. hit the area too hard ot not. Some say yes soreness is a sign of overtraining.
Others like me say no its not, rather soreness is what you should strive for after every work out. I have rarely failed in achieving sore pecs after a bench press workout and as you noted my chest is probably my best asset. So trainging to induce soreness hasn't done me any harm and quite likely has done me a lot of good (thats how I got to be the size I am).
That being said I do not retrain until the soreness is gone and I feel that the area has completely recovered. In fact I only train once a week. Again there is much debate as to wether or not it is good to retrain muscles while they are still sore. Some here will say yes others like me say no. (If you workout as intense as I do during a workout I suspect waiting a week to retrain is the way to go - lower intensity but more regualr training is just a different way of achieving the same results).
My once a week workout lasts 3.5 hours which most people on this site will say is an absolute no no as your muscles start being catabolized after about 1 hour. I have been doing a 3.5-4 hour workout once a week for the last 8 years and I have gotten bigger not smaller as my photos attest. So I am living proof that you can train only once a week and also for 4 hours at a time and still have your muscles growing bigger from week to week not smaller. (Mind you I train as intensley at the end of three hours as I did at the start - I read somewhere recently that going over the 1 hr mark is OK is you are still training very intensly as in this case your body is still releasing growth hormone instead of catabolizing agents - don't know if its true or not. I do suspect that for most people going over the one hour mark is bad though I suspect that years of training this way has caused my body to adapt to this type of training - I don't advice any one else to train this way).
If 15 sets are making you more sore than 8 then maybe you should go with the 15 reps. (Edited to say victor may well be right and soreness in the case of 15 rep workouts may not be indicitive of the right type of muscle stimulous to grow - I really don't know - like I said I have no experience of trainging going over 8 reps (and certainly won't be going over 8 reps anytime soon myself).
From time to time though it might be good to do the lower reps to work on increasing your strength (wether you do 8 or 15 reps). For example once a month do a strength oriented workout where you go for max weight with 6 reps.
As I understand it although increasing strength does not necesarily increase muscle size directly, it does how ever indirectly determine the max muscle size you can achieve.
Similarly increasing muscle size by volumn training doesn't directly increase muscle strength but it does indirectly determine the maximum strength you can achieve. (I'll have to write another thread to explain what I am talking about here).
I guess what I am saying is that yes concentrate on high volumn training to build size but from time to time you will have to do strength training to in order to break through plataeus to increase your size. So from time to time you should still do 6 reps for max weight workouts.
