1. Re: Chins and plateaus Teri Pokere <T.Pokere@mailbox.uq.edu.au>
2. food intake Premduth Vidyanandan <vidyanan@expert.cc.purdue.edu>
3. Re : reaching failure <Alessandro.Pirotta@netit.alcatel.it>
4. Re: Progression, pattern-overload, info, creatine every day? Rama Balasubramanian <rama@homer.ctd.comsat.com>
5. Re:Pattern overload Erkki Turunen <eraturu@mail.dlc.fi>
6. A good routine Scott Garber <scottg@toad.net>
-------------------- 1 --------------------
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 1997 21:19:16 +1000
From: Teri Pokere <T.Pokere@mailbox.uq.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Chins and plateaus
Hi, This is my response to the following.
>
> I have been training HIT style for about 2 months now with good
> progress. One thing very important to me is to be able to do proper
> chinups. Right now I can only do 6 4-6 sec neg chins but I still can't
> do even 1 positive chinup. at 6' and 227 lbs at about 33% BF I know it
> will take awile. Should I try to increase the number of negatives I do
> or should I try much slower negs in order to build strength? In other
> words what's the best way to improve my chinning ability? Any feedback
> would be much appreciated!!
>
> John
Wrt eccentric contractions as with all HIT techniques I would
concentrate on increasing the quality before quantity. If I was in your
case I would perform 1 30 sec rep providing segmentation does not
occur. The segmentation as I understand it to be is jerky performance
that temporarily unloads the muscle if even for fractions of seconds.
It may not happen for a exercise like chins where there is such a great
range of motion. Use a weight (bw is prob sufficient that you will be
working very very hard throughout most of the actual rep and especially
toward the end of the rep. In making this suggestion 30 sec may be too
long. Arthur Jones had one football player who couldn't even do one
negative with his 300lbs and after 12 days he was able to do 4 and 3/4
reps. Remember like a well tuned engine there are such things as the
mixture being too lean or too rich. Only by trying things out and
making accurate measurements are you able to determine what is best for
you.
> Hello,
> I've been doing weight training for about 3 months. I do one set of
> each exercise to failure. Because I train by myself, I train with machines,
> that way I can go all the way to failure without fear of being hopelessly
> trapped under a barbell. Because I train with machines, I can only
> increment the weight in 10 pound increments. I've been noticing that for
> quite a long time, I reach failure using the same amount of weight at the
> same number of repetitions, no matter how hard I try I can't perform another
> repetition in good form. What this has caused is that I am able to maintain
> my current physical condition, but I am not able to improve it.
>
> Any suggestions out there on how to improve my physical condition?
>
>
I remember reading on Mike Mentzer's quote section about a guy who
reduced his volume of training and would make some initial progress but
it was very short lived. He undertook the consolidation routine of MMs
and after 10 wks his weights in squats and deadlifts increased by over
100 pounds. This routine only involved 6 exercises 3 (Squat, pulldowns,
Dips) on one day followed by 3 (deadlifts, shoulder presses, calf
raises) 6 or 7 days later. He made improvements on all exercises for 10
wks and now is thinking of reducing the frequency further due to a
plateau. If anyone is interested it can be found on a hyperlink
embedded in text on Mike Mentzer's Welcome page (the quotes page),
wwwmikementzer.com will point you in the right direction. Just
something to think about.
Cya
Teri
PS The consolidation routine has been reduced even further with the
shoulder presses and calf raises been given the chop. Check out the
following address if interested.
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~drewnutz/hd9.htm
-------------------- 2 --------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 11:42:20 -0500 (EST)
From: Premduth Vidyanandan <vidyanan@expert.cc.purdue.edu>
Subject: food intake
Hi i would like to know something about weight lifting..It is corncerning
the food intake. Some people tell me that you shouldn't eat immediately
before or after eating.
I would like to know if this is true. Also are you allowed to
drink water while working out?
Thankx
Premduth
-------------------- 3 --------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 97 20:00:51 +0100
From: Alessandro.Pirotta@netit.alcatel.it
Subject: Re : reaching failure
>>I've been noticing that for
>>quite a long time, I reach failure using the same amount of weight at the
>>same number of repetitions, no matter how hard I try I can't perform another
>>repetition in good form.
>sounds like you've hit a plateau: some likely reasons:
>1. you're over training. how many times per week are you working out? Any
>more than 2 or 3 is too much. the optimal frequnecy varies from person to
>person - some can only gain working out once every ten days.
>2. you're not eating enough/right. count your calories. your muscles can't
>grow without enough.
>3. you're not getting enough sleep.
>the second three months are the most challenging. the gains slow down and you
>have to really dedicate yourself. check out the HIT FAQ section on cycling
>intensity. Maybe take a week or two off and redesign your workout.
>spr
I think it is quite common for a HG to hit a plateau sooner or later. I
believe at the beginning the most of progress in strenght is due to a
more efficient fibers recruitment. In the meantime the fibers
themselves are stimulated to get bigger but it takes time! Really I
don't know how much inch size is needed to lift some pounds more
(assuming the fiber recruitment is already at max). I only know it took
eight weeks to me (I'm a HG of course) to gain a few inch fractions (an
overall weight gain of only 1Kg - 2.2pound I guess) and to improve, for
instance, my best bench pressing of 5Kg. And I'm almost sure I'm not
overtraining and I guarantee you I take a great care about my diet.
Anyway I agree it is a good idea cycling with both intensity and
exercises: save for a while the body part you're stagnating at and come
back later with more physical strenght and psychological freshness (I
wouldn't worry so much being a HG).
(BTW it is my 1st post - I cannot get out of saying thanks everybody is
contributing to this valuable digest)
--Alex
-------------------- 4 --------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 14:46:20 -0500
From: Rama Balasubramanian <rama@homer.ctd.comsat.com>
Subject: Re: Progression, pattern-overload, info, creatine every day?
Adam Fahy <afahy@student.umass.edu> writes
> I train by myself as well, only my gym doesn't have many machines. > Well, not many _good_ machines. Since we have a cage, I do my squats > there, and do not have to fear crushing myself. AFA bench press, I use > dumbells rather than the bar. This also makes it so that I can do > multiple sets at whatever rest interval I desire (try that with the > barbell bench press in a university gym - 98% of the trainees only bench > and curl. The others do bench, incline bench, and curl).
[ good stuff snipped ]
Apart from what Adam writes, I'd like to add the fear of crushing
oneself with freeweights is probably unfounded. Deadlifts, bent-over
rows, weighted dips, you cannot crush yourself doing these, unless you
do something really silly :-).
In my experience squats one rep short of failiure have been more productive than leg presses going to failiure, YMMV. Even going to failiure in squat is not a problem if you have a cage! It takes some practice though. The only problem is the bench press. For this I have been forced to use a machine, since I work out without a partner too.
For me moving from machines to free-weights made a significant
difference. Try it, you might have the same experience. 2 years of
leg presses didn't do squat :-). 6 months of deadlifting and
squatting have made my legs significantly bigger.
Rama
-------------------- 5 --------------------
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 1997 21:56:23 +0200
From: Erkki Turunen <eraturu@mail.dlc.fi>
Subject: Re:Pattern overload
>From: "James Krieger" <jkrieger@eecs.wsu.edu>
>Free weights are less likely to result in pattern overload because, every
>time you lift the weight, the factors of balance and stabilization cause
>you to lift the weight slightly different for every repetition. The
>movement path will not be exactly the same for each repetition, although it
>will be close.
>
>Machines force your body to move in a two dimensional pattern, which can
>force joints to move in ways that they may not want to move. Your body
>must conform to the machine. With free weights, your body is allowed to
>move the way that it wants to. We are not 2 dimensional beings. Free
>weights also are better for building functional strength due to the use of
>smaller stabilizing muscle groups.
Although the freedom of movement is restricted in machines the degree of
restriction is varying. For example the leg press is more restricted than
the Smith squat, because in the latter you are able to direct the emphasis
either on the hip joint or the knee joint by having a more or less upright
back position. Besides, even a barbell does restrict the movement by forcing
a determined distance between the hands during a set. Thus only dumbbells
are free weights in the strictest sense.
Although free weight movements are superior in building stabilizing muscles I don't think we should limit ourselves on them. Smith machine squat is a decent exercise to those whose body structure is not suited to barbell squats (long femurs and short back). And even a squat-disadvantaged trainee can in addition do partial squats in order to develop the stabilizers.
Erkki Turunen
-------------------- 6 --------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 18:57:54 -0500
From: "Scott Garber" <scottg@toad.net>
Subject: A good routine
I'm a welder by trade and work in the constuction arena. My job is very demanding physically. Can the hit principles give results or could i be overtraing by lifting 2 times aweek, with 3-4 days rest. What would be a good workout to follow and how often to train? Thanks for the list.
Scott Garber
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<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>I'm a welder by trade and work in the
constuction arena. My job is very demanding physically. Can the hit principles
give results or could i be overtraing by lifting 2 times aweek, with 3-4 days
rest. What would be a good workout to follow and how often to train?
Thanks for the list.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Scott Garber</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>