KYLE ELLIS wrote:"but for right now, i'd say, around 12-15 reps per set, with weight that you can comfortable control. that'll increase your strength without bulking you up much. The size and weight that you WILL gain with that workout, would be solid muscles"
Joe that is wrong. Doing high reps is what causes hypertrophy. You don't really gain mass by doing small amounts of reps with high weight. A body builder would actually do high reps 12 or more with about 75% 1rpm or so... What you recommended wouldn't increase strength much for an experienced lifter and if they used enough weight for the overload principle they most likely would bulk up.
By most people's definitions, 12-15 reps is endurance training. If you can lift 75% of your 1RM 12-15 times, that is probably not your true 1RM. Most hypertrophy workouts are in the 8-12 reps, with 60-120sec recovery in between sets. This rest interval is often ignored. IT IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THE SETS AND REPS THEMSELVES. The appropriate rest interval will allow you to train the energy system that you are training for. As a pole vaulter, weight is a big concern, yes. I agree with that. But likewise, I jumped 13'6" weighing 150, and 15'7" weighing 162. The master's section has some good weight managing posts on there-which I feel are appropriate for all levels... not just us old farts. I like the 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. I would suggest 4 sets of 12 with 60sec recovery, then the next week, go up in weight by about 10 pounds, and try 4 sets of 10, with 90sec. the third week, go up ANOTHER 10 pounds, and try 4 sets of 8 reps, with 2min recovery... see how this works out for you. For most lifts in the 125-175 pounds weight range, 1 rep I have found (and a lot of books suggest this) to be about 5 pounds. So if you were to prorate you max, for example;
1 set of 12 at 135 pounds is a 1RM of 180-185 pounds.
1 set of 10 at 145 pounds is a 1RM of 185-190 pounds
1 set of 8 at 155 pounds is a 1RM of 190-195 pounds.
Just like that, you made your workout about 5 pounds heavier each week, and got more and more into the "less reps, more weight" type of mentality. With all this said however, understand that doing 3 sets instead of 1 is going to change what that calculated max would be (I'll save the math lesson, but I have curves for that stuff too
). And in conjunction with one of my previous posts, if your 1RM is 185, base your workout off of about 155. The weights will feel really light, but it will lend to the best results for bar speed and training endevors outside of the weightroom--i.e. the runway.My $0.02, try it if you'd like, try something else if you'd like.
. When i did this, I used very heavy weight, and only did set's of 4-8. and yes, i got stronger, but i also 'blew up' in size, mainly inpart to the inflamation. The idea of my workout, isn't to increase the muscle fiber size or 'thicken' it, it's to increase the DENSITY of the muscle fibers. Think about blowing up a balloon. Sure, it's MASS has increased, but there's nothing occupying the space; DENSITY has greatly decreased. And that's what it's about, DENSITY. From my experiences in the weightroom, doing low reps with high weight, increased the size of my arms and chest. But once i started increasing the reps and decreasing the weight, i started loosing size but getting stronger.
