Weightlifting for Kiwis - Discussion and support regarding the art of swole

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I'm going through one of those crises of confidence and I keep getting conflicting information so I figure I'll let you guys decide for me: if I'm aiming to build as much muscle as possible should I favour many reps at lighter weight (say 4 x 10 after warm-up sets) or less reps at higher weight (4 x 4-5 after warm-up) or should I mix it up depending on the lift?

To give an example, I currently do 4 sets of bench press at 90kg (200lbs~) for 4-5 reps at a time, but then I do 4 sets of seated dumbell press at 22.5kg (45lbs~) for 8-10 reps. There's no real reasoning behind how much I do of what, so I have no idea if what I'm doing is optimal.
So here is my understanding from some experience and a decent bit of watching the science based and natty fitness guys.

Size and strength are built together, usually one a bit more than the other. You don’t need (a lot of) size to be strong or (a lot of) strength to be huge, but each supports the other.

Sets of 3-5 tend to build strength more than size. Effort should be maximal, as in it’s heavy enough where you can’t get more reps than 3-5.

Sets of 5-8 are in a more hypertrophic zone, and 8-12 and 12-15 are considered progressively more hypertrophic rep ranges. I have seen some studies that indicate sets of 7-8 are the sweet spot but it does seem to vary depending on what muscle group you work. Only a few smaller muscle groups are worth taking past the 12-15 rep ranges, smaller ones like deltoids and triceps and biceps, and abs and calves and such. Compound movements should stay in the 8-12 range for hypertrophy at the highest end since form breakdown and partial reps are more dangerous in compounds than in isolations, and you are not providing adequate stimulus for growth while doing compounds if it’s light enough to take past that.

Dynamic double progression is a very effective way to push your strength and size, which will let you keep a consistent and continual stimulus for growth in your training. If you can press 90kg for straight sets of 5, you can try to keep adding reps until you get to 8 per set, then weight up and push until you can hit your rep and set targets. You are likely keeping reps in the tank on the first set—try to do 8 at first, and hit a rep range of 5-8 for the next sets. You don’t have to keep this static rep scheme. Adding reps while keeping perceived effort constant will build size. Keeping the intensity constant and advancing in a target rep range and stepwise in weight will make the progression dynamic, since set to set your performance will vary,

The most common way I’ve seen to rate effort is RPE, rate of perceived exertion. 10 is 0 reps in reserve, at or near failure. 9 is one in reserve, 8 is 2, and so on, with 1 being you can do it forever. For working sets you will want to keep it high for your initial sets, 8 or so, back off a bit for any extra compounds in the same area (say for your bench OHP combo you’d want to do OHP at 7 RPE since you’ve already put your triceps and anterior delts through the wringer). If you do a full body split this is a bit less relevant since your exertion doing squats will have a less profound impact on dips or OHP. The more experienced you get the easier it is to rate perceived exertion set to set. Ideally you will keep RPE fairly constant between sets, and use dynamic rep ranges to achieve this. You have more energy at first, so dig deep and get 8 instead of 5. You’re falling off after that effort so you’ll get 6, then 5, then really have to grind out or use a rest-pause to get to 5 on the last set. In each case your RPE is very high and you have new goals to hit next training. Once you can hit straight sets at your chosen rep range you can weight up or push the rep range.

Isolations you should push hard, RPE 8-10, failure is your friend there. If you keep intensity high in a higher rep range you will build muscle.
 
Última edición:
Recently caught up with an old friend, and we've started working out together. Literally just talking about not liking brown people and trannies while he teaches me how to lift. It's pretty fun to lift heavy objects, and it's nice to have someone to talk about this stuff with in real life.
 
So the SS protocall waan't working for me, primarily because I can not get to a gym consistantly 3 days a week due to my job. No knock on the system, it just didn't fit into my schedule. So I got an online coach, and he developed a routine that is flexible. Essentially its got 4 workouts, two barbell and machine based, two dumbell based for when I can't get to the gym. So far, it seems to be working out pretty well although to be fair its only been a couple weeks. When I do get to the gym he has me vidyaing my Squat and Deadlift, and gives me feedback in order to improve it. Basically my form on squats is about 90% and deadlift though still sub par is coming along nicely.

This week my goal is to lift 4 times, M, T, Th, F. I did a gym routine monday, barbells tuesday, today is a rest day. Tomorrow will be either gym or barbell depending on where I park gor the night, and the other the following day. If I can reliably stick to this, and I am pretty sure I can, I expect to see some good results.
 
: if I'm aiming to build as much muscle as possible should I favour many reps at lighter weight
No. That is called "toning".
or less reps at higher weight
Yes. However, the reps you've indicated are not what I would consider high or low. For my training, I consider 8 reps to be "strength" training, and only 3 sets. .

Put simply, lower weight + high reps gives you the endurance to lift that same amount of weight more times.

If you use higher weight you will only be able to do fewer reps until you gain new muscle ie strength, and it is the hypertrophy of that higher weight that stimulates muscle growth.
 
So the SS protocall waan't working for me, primarily because I can not get to a gym consistantly 3 days a week due to my job. No knock on the system, it just didn't fit into my schedule. So I got an online coach, and he developed a routine that is flexible. Essentially its got 4 workouts, two barbell and machine based, two dumbell based for when I can't get to the gym. So far, it seems to be working out pretty well although to be fair its only been a couple weeks. When I do get to the gym he has me vidyaing my Squat and Deadlift, and gives me feedback in order to improve it. Basically my form on squats is about 90% and deadlift though still sub par is coming along nicely.

This week my goal is to lift 4 times, M, T, Th, F. I did a gym routine monday, barbells tuesday, today is a rest day. Tomorrow will be either gym or barbell depending on where I park gor the night, and the other the following day. If I can reliably stick to this, and I am pretty sure I can, I expect to see some good results.
Good luck man, it's good you're rethinking your training approach so you can keep up with it.
 
Good luck man, it's good you're rethinking your training approach so you can keep up with it.
Thank you. I did manage to get in all 4 workouts this week, although technically workout 3 and 4 was friday morning and saturday morning (3:30 am and 2:00 am respectively) instead of thursday and friday but that was just due to my schedule.

It's weird but I find it easier to push myself to workout at the end of the day after working 10+ hours that I do to wake up early and workout before I start work, not sure why. Maybe its just inertia.
 
I'm the same. I have far more strength at the end of the day.
Its not so much strength as energy. Even whrn I wake up early its so easy to lose time just lying in bed, smoking cigs and browsing the farms, and next thing I know I've wasted 90 minutes just trying to get up. But once I'm parked for the night I'm it's easy to just decide that I need to pull my bike off the passenger seat, unfold it and ride to the gym, or grab my bench and dumbells no matter how tired I am.
 
I'm going through one of those crises of confidence and I keep getting conflicting information so I figure I'll let you guys decide for me: if I'm aiming to build as much muscle as possible should I favour many reps at lighter weight (say 4 x 10 after warm-up sets) or less reps at higher weight (4 x 4-5 after warm-up) or should I mix it up depending on the lift?

To give an example, I currently do 4 sets of bench press at 90kg (200lbs~) for 4-5 reps at a time, but then I do 4 sets of seated dumbell press at 22.5kg (45lbs~) for 8-10 reps. There's no real reasoning behind how much I do of what, so I have no idea if what I'm doing is optimal.
You'll see lots of bullshit that will waste your time but for most people the cycle of how you get big is like this: Attempt to develop size aka hypertrophy work, when you start stagnating there, focus on developing your CNS aka strength training, when you start stagnating...... You get the idea.

Take it from somebody who followed Rippletits "STRENGTH TRAININ IS ALL A MAN NEEDS!" for a bit before they actually made some progress in the gym beyond the beginner phase.
 
Man I hate my shoulder strength. Been going these past few weeks with trying to go heavier with less reps and got down to 3x3 for workouts. Hit 245 bench, 335 deadlifts, 320 for hack squats, but shoulder press came out to 145. Its really frustrating
That's not lagging all that much honestly, about 10% above 1pl8, and your bench is about 10% above 2pl8. What's happening with your deadlift though?
 
You'll see lots of bullshit that will waste your time but for most people the cycle of how you get big is like this: Attempt to develop size aka hypertrophy work, when you start stagnating there, focus on developing your CNS aka strength training, when you start stagnating...... You get the idea.
Stagnation is probably my biggest barrier to progress. Not because I'm lazy, but I get into a very autistic routine where I do the same lifts in the same order for the same reps for the same number of sets with the same weights without even really thinking about what I'm trying to achieve.

Recently I've been mixing things up because of some advice a guy at the gym gave me, (and more recently after feedback I got here) but I'd never thought about cycling routines to avoid stagnation. Thanks for the tip.
 
Today a duo of zoomers asked me for advice regarding their deadlift form. I'd tried telling them the basics like activating the lats to keep the bar close; backs straight; not squatting the deadlift and so on, guess they got some of it.
Nice man. The cue I got told for lat activation was imagine squeezing oranges in your armpits. Dunno why but it really worked.
 
Today a duo of zoomers asked me for advice regarding their deadlift form. I'd tried telling them the basics like activating the lats to keep the bar close; backs straight; not squatting the deadlift and so on, guess they got some of it.
I'm a fan of the "imagine a $50 bill is stuck in your armpit and you wanna keep it there" cue for deads. At this point my form is pretty much locked in and I've got the optimal limb proportions for it (long arms and torso/short legs for my height) for that movement though.
 
If you could see my grip strength, you would understand
I have found that doing almost all of my deadlifts with a double overhand grip helped out my grip a lot. The exception is 1RM tests or the very last day before a deload. I also do dead hangs as part of my post-resistance training cooldown stretch routine. However, my 1RM is only around yours and I'm not training for powerlifting or any sort of strength sport, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

Grip strength also has a pretty strong link to your overall central nervous system's fatigue, I think. Are you well rested?
 
Stagnation is probably my biggest barrier to progress. Not because I'm lazy, but I get into a very autistic routine where I do the same lifts in the same order for the same reps for the same number of sets with the same weights without even really thinking about what I'm trying to achieve.

Recently I've been mixing things up because of some advice a guy at the gym gave me, (and more recently after feedback I got here) but I'd never thought about cycling routines to avoid stagnation. Thanks for the tip.
When I first started lifting I did a similar thing. I was a very skinny person so I fell into the /fit/ stronglifts meme for a long time. Of course it worked at the beginning but then it didn't, because in weightlifting nothing truly works forever and you will eventually stagnate on a singular program like that. I stuck to it because I was like "ThIS is HoW yOu geT biG!!!!!" and more fat autists convinced me I was doing the right thing.

When I changed it up and starting cycling my training styles according to what I was responding to is when I made real progress. I started working out years ago but I would say in the past 1.5-2 I have probably made like 95 percent of my progress in those years. Those first years I was scratching my ass metaphorically thinking I was putting in the proper work I needed but all I would do is get tired and never progress.
 
I also do dead hangs as part of my post-resistance training cooldown stretch routine.
I have been doing farmers walks to improve my grip strength a bit but that isn't working too well. I maxxed out at 365 once with deadlifts but my grip was really giving out. Gotta add these dead hangs


Grip strength also has a pretty strong link to your overall central nervous system's fatigue, I think. Are you well rested?
Probably not. The voices in my head demand I lift round heavy object too much
 
When I first started lifting I did a similar thing. I was a very skinny person so I fell into the /fit/ stronglifts meme for a long time. Of course it worked at the beginning but then it didn't, because in weightlifting nothing truly works forever and you will eventually stagnate on a singular program like that. I stuck to it because I was like "ThIS is HoW yOu geT biG!!!!!" and more fat autists convinced me I was doing the right thing.

When I changed it up and starting cycling my training styles according to what I was responding to is when I made real progress. I started working out years ago but I would say in the past 1.5-2 I have probably made like 95 percent of my progress in those years. Those first years I was scratching my ass metaphorically thinking I was putting in the proper work I needed but all I would do is get tired and never progress.


Doing StrongLifts/Starting Strength style training got me from a super weak state where I wasn't doing any lifts with a full plate to about a 400 lb deadlift, 340 squat, 260 bench, 165 press. Those numbers aren't anything special but they're a hell of a lot better than where I was before I started with that style of training.
 
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