kangaeru

I'm going to make this short and sweet. The way you need to do this is in 3 phases. Every phase should be after 2-3 weeks of the previous phase, when your muscles stop feeling the intense burn that they used to.

1st phase: Light weight, high reps

DO AT LEAST ONE SUPER SET!!! A super set is when you alternate between two machines which hit the same body part but use a slightly different method. For example with biceps, I use a curl machine and a free weight 45lb bar (normally used for bench press) with weight added to each side as necessary for whatever I'm looking to achieve.

In the first phase, you want to make sure you can do 4 sets of 10-12 ON EACH MACHINE. Total of 8 sets!

2nd phase: medium weight, medium reps

You want to do a weight which you can do for 6-8 reps for 4 sets. This will probably be about a 20-30% increase in the weight of what you used for your first set.

3rd phase: heavy weight, low reps

This is when you do heavy, heavy weight, probably 50-70% over what you originally started with, for 4 alternating sets, again for a total of 8, for 3-5 reps.

You do each of these cycles for about 2-3 weeks, so you should have about 4-5 sessions of each before moving on to the next phase.

You then repeat this cycle, increasing your starting 'light' weight by 15% each time. After 6 months of this, if you began curling a 45 lb straight bar for biceps, by the time you're 6 months into it you'll probably be curling 75 or so. Of course this depends a lot on your health, current condition and strength, how well you eat, etc. But I've found this 3 way cycle to be, by far, the best way to up my strength and size without having to use supplements or work out for ridiculously long hours.

You don't have to live at the gym if you work out smart!

Comments welcome!

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thingstodo

This sounds pretty good. I'm always looking for ways to change up my routines, so I'll give it a try.

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kangaeru

In addition to these exercises, try to do another 1-2 work outs per body part, for a total of 3-4 sets per muscle group. You do NOT need more than that. You don't want to overtrain, because it's just as bad as undertraining!

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calvin88

Hmm this sounds like a good idea. I've just been doing the pyramid with each muscle group about twice a week. And lately I haven't been feeling as sore as i used to so I'm going to have to try your method.

hannukah harry

it's an interesting idea... what i like about it is that if you're just starting out it gives you some adjustment time with the light weights, and then when you're back to the light weights gives you time to fully heal and grow. and you're not doing any one thing long enough to really get bored.

when i start back weight lifting in september, i think i'll give this a try, i'll let you know how it goes!

thanks!

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Leo

Thanks for the tip kangaeru. I have really struggled to get back into resistance training after doing it for many years. I'm going to give this pattern a go and hopefully I can let you know how I get on in the next couple of months.

Stompy

This is exactly what MaxOT is - and it's very good, IMO.

The theory behind it is: get to the point. The reason you lift is to build muscle. The way to build muscle is to rip the fibers so it can rebuild itself. It's more effective (so they say) to lift a massive amount at low reps (4-6) to where you reach failure on your 4th-6th rep as opposed to 8-10 reps of a slightly lighter weight.

When you first start off, you do the warmup sets like you described. I personally do a 12-10-8-6-6-6 for the warm up.

After you do the 6th one, rest for 2-3 minutes (or move onto the next muscle group if you're doing more than one, ie bicep/tricep). Once you're done resting, start right off w/ the heavy weight again and do the same failure set(4-6 reps). Rest again, and do it once more.

You only need to do 2-3 sets per muscle group - I generally do 3 because some say 3-4 and others say 2-3... so 3 is a nice medium. It's a very quick and to the point workout.. but damn does it work good. I like it because it's convenient.

I personally do one muscle group per day, but bicep/tricep I do in the same day. Day 1: Legs, Day 2: Chest, Day 3: Back, Day 4: Shoulders: Day 5: tricep/bicep. I'm never in the gym for more than 20-30 mins.

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Zeraph

Some good tips here. thanks.