What I am referring to here when I discuss rest periods is the amount of
time between sets. For the most part, rest periods are directly
related to the workload. I will break down the 4 main training goal
categories below and detail the fine particulars in their rest periods.
Strength and Power
For a quick refresher, strength and power exercises usually involve
maximal and near-maximal weights with repetitions of 6 or lower.
Research has shown that there are much greater strength gains from
individuals who rest for 2-5 minutes rather than 30 seconds.
The fact that when your training goals are for strength and power, and
you are literally pushing your muscles to the limit should be no
surprise that longer rest periods are necessary.
Hypertrophy
Studies have shown that 30-90 second rest periods facilitate the
greatest gains for hypertrophy training goals (6-12reps). The theory
behind this time frame is that you actually want to start another set of
exercises for the same muscle group before it has completely
recovered. This can increase the metabolic demand and damage within the
muscles to facilitate muscular growth.
Muscular Endurance
Muscular endurance training (12+ reps) has a goal to increase the
aerobic capacity of muscles. In doing so, and the fact that muscular
endurance training is training with lighter resistance, rest periods
between sets should be as minimum as possible (30 seconds or less).
I'm curious about what those of you who have Beasted (Body Beast) have found about how it has impacted your overall athleticism.
Athleticism? Body Beast has hardly helped at all, and may in fact have 'slowed' me down a bit...but then again, sometimes we have to take 1 step back in order to take 2 steps forward.
No individual who uses periodizational training should do the same thing all the time.
Let's take Professional athletes for example, they don't do the same training all the time.
Power training and Strength training can only take you so far. Sure, it may be great at the start, you feel awesome, you start making some pretty big improvements, but like ANYTHING, you WILL plateau...guaranteed. Your body will simply reach a point in which you can no longer improve. That may be due to a number of factors, but one major factor (in keeping with the theme here) your muscles will eventually reach a capacity, due to their size, to no longer be able to improve (in this case, gain strength).
For someone like yourself, I would recommend spending even a few weeks every year stepping away from the strength training and focus on endurance and hypertrophy. Why? Because not only does it change things up and gives your body a break from all of the heavy forces being placed on it, but it also increases your affinity for success when you come back.
By training your muscles to be more efficient (endurance training, see: high repetitions, lower resistance), you improve their overall ability to generate energy, therefore improving your success rate with force generation.
By training them to increase in size (hypertrophy), you improve their likelihood to be able to lift more. Bigger muscles don't always mean that they can move more weight, but they certainly improve your affinity to train them to do so.
So, back to Body Beast, although a lot of guys like to have 'big, ripped muscles', hypertrophy/endurance training also plays a tremendous part in periodized training blocks.
I, myself, am trying to gain muscle now, so that when I go back and start doing more functional training, my muscles will be prime to gain strength back (and then some), so that I can push myself even further than I did before.
Quote of the day: "Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."
~Jim Rohn
I will give a very quick crash-course on my thoughts on Body Beast:
"Hypertrophy" has been shown to be elicited best in a 6-12 rep range. 6-8 is sometimes referred to as "functional hypertrophy" where it is a bit more strength based, 8-12 is *generally* the magic zone for bodybuilders.
Having said that, your muscles are split into 2 fiber types (there are actually further sub-groups, but we will stick to types 1 and 2 for simplicity). Type 1 or "slow-twitch" and type 2 or "fast-twich".
Type 1 fibers are more aerobic, so they primarily use oxygen as their energy source. This means that they contract slower, produce less force, and are therefore targeted with lower resistance, higher reps.
Type 2 fibers are more anaerobic, so they primarily use stored energy. This means that they contract quickly, producing higher amounts of force/power, and are therefore targeted with higher resistance and lower reps as they are great at generating force, but fizzle-out quickly.
Now, whenever you lift (or press) a weight, your body "recruits" muscle fibers to do the job. Obviously, the heavier something is, the more fibers must be recruited to move said weight. But, regardless of how heavy something is, your body NEVER recruits all of its fibers into any given lift. This may or may not be an evolutionary thing, as you don't want to completely fatigue a muscle 100% in any given action just in case you still need to use it in times of need.
When you are lifting a lighter weight for more reps, the body recruits *mostly* Type 1 fibers, while the type 2 fibers are *mostly* just resting or coming along for the ride (being lazy). Then, as you increase weight and lower the reps, the reverse effect happens, the type 2 fibers are doing the work while the type 1 fibers are being lazy.
If you are training for strength, there is no reason why you shouldn't be lifting heavier weights in lower rep ranges, as you want to improve strength. BUT, when training for hypertophy, you want to recruit as many fibers as possible to increase your chance of growth.
Type 2 fibers have a greater affinity for growth, but there is still room for growth with Type 1. So, what I believe Body Beast is attempting to do is target both types of muscle fibers with the varying repetition ranges. First, you start off with 15 reps to target the Type 1 fibers, then as you increase weight and lower reps, then you are targeting the type 2 fibers. Not only that, but with training a wider range of rep ranges as you do, you recruit more overall muscle fibers, eliciting a higher chance for muscular growth.
Make sense?
Quote of the day: "Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."
~Jim Rohn
I am in the process of recovering from my first ever Tough Mudder a few days ago, and also planning my future fitness goals.
I have had a very regimented schedule for pretty much all of 2012. At the beginning of the year, I was wrapping up my round first round of P90X2. After that, I jumped right into a mass phase where I had some pretty good success packing on some muscle mass.
April 19 2012
Next, I moved into a performance-based training schedule to prepare for Warrior Dash and Tough Mudder. Heading into Tough Mudder, I honestly felt like I was in the best overall shape of my life. I have been an athlete all of my life, competing at fairly high levels of competition in soccer and hockey (and other sports), however my level of fitness would generally be geared towards the sport I was to be competing in.
August 16 2012
For Tough Mudder, and something I will touch on in future blogs, my goal was to be as efficient as possible in many different facets of fitness and energy systems in my body.
Needless to say, I have been very regimented in my training, and diet as possible throughout the year. So I feel as though my fitness plans, at least for the next little while, is to be as opposite to that as possible.
I will still attempt to follow a structured schedule for the coming weeks, however my training goals will be far from structured. My Tough Mudder training was very specific in its periodization. I wanted to first put on a bit of muscle mass, then increase the performance of said muscle so that it could perform as highly as possible.
Now, my goals are to be a bit more 'primal' if you will. I am definitely going to step back a bit in regards to my cardio training. 2012 has been a year full of aerobic cardio, which is fine when I am training for an endurance event like Tough Mudder, but now that I no longer have a specific event to train for, my cardio training will be utilized much more efficiently with interval training - or in other words, higher levels of effort, shorter overall workouts.
Back to the 'primal' ideal, I want to lift stuff...heavy stuff. Most specifically, heavy weights. My resistance workouts will be targeted towards building a bit of hypertrophy, but to also maintain/increase my overall strength. With all of my cardio and performance-based strength training this year, I have no doubt lost a bit of my strength gains, as is the case when you don't lift as many heavy things!
I really enjoy watching the movie "Pumping Iron". For those of you who haven't seen it, you can actually watch the movie in its entirety on Youtube. It follows the bodybuilding phenomenon of the 70's, most notably Arnold Schwarzenegger in his heyday. Sure, these guys were 'roidin', but how else do you suppose you build muscles that large?
Anyways, watching the movie not only gives me a new appreciation for how much of a complete animal Arnold is, but also cracks me up at how funny/playful of a guy he is. Every time I watch the movie I get inspired to go lift heavy things! I will link part 1 of the movie below, you can then continue on to find the other 11 parts on Youtube if you wish!
For my schedule, many of you who follow my blog, or my youtube channel know that I really enjoy the Beachbody workouts. Tony Horton is of great inspiration, displaying how much is possible physically, even into your 50's.
I really enjoy using home-workout DVDs, mainly because the timing of the workouts keeps me from dawdling, and spending an entire morning working out. More often than not, especially recently, I find myself modifying or adjusting the workouts so much that I don't even watch them, it is just nice to have something on my workout room tv and some background noise.
So having said that, I have decided to really branch away from the Beachbody workouts as I am using quite a few modifications and concoctions of my own.
One of the main reasons for this is that I feel I want to build a bigger chest. I consider myself a 'hardgainer', and nowhere on my body is it harder for me to put on mass than on my chest. Because of this, I have created a couple different workouts so that I can attack my chest twice a week.
Day 1 - Chest & Back and Core
Day 2 - Plyo Legs
Day 3 - Shoulders & Arms
Day 4 - Core and Yoga/Stretching/Recovery
Day 5 - Chest & Shoulders
Day 6 - Sprint Training
Day 7 - Recovery
This will be my schedule for the next 4 weeks. I am currently planning on starting this schedule this upcoming Sunday (August 26th). If this schedule looks new or unusual to you, I will provide more details on each of the workouts towards the end of the 4 weeks. They may need some refining or adjustments to them, since they are new to me as well. I will check back in a few weeks to give you full details on each so that, if interested, you can add them to your repertoire as well.
I will of course keep you updated as I go, so stay tuned!
Quote of the day: “Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it.”
Any training program should begin first and foremost with setting a goal or goals. Last year, I blogged a 7-step approach to program design. If interested, you can start here with Step 1: Needs Analysis If you want a quick, straight to the point guide to sets and reps, refer to the image above, while I explain each "Training Goal" below, along with applications of each. To begin, however, as I said before, you should start at square one, and decide on what your training goals are. Secondly, you should determine either your 1RM (1-rep maximum) or 10RM. If you look around online, you can find many different ways of calculating such a thing. You can choose to either test yourself to determine your 1 or 10-rep maximum, or you can try various testing procedures to estimate your 1RM or 10RM. Testing your rep maximums is not necessarily imperative, but it can be helpful to accurately choose proper resistance to hone in on your repetition goals listed in the table above. If you decide to calculate your 1RM, you can then follow this table to aim for specific reps: %1RM - Number of Repetitions Allowed 100 - 1 95 - 2 93 - 3 90 - 4 87 - 5 85 - 6 83 - 7 80 - 8 77 - 9 75 - 10 70 - 11 67 - 12 65 - 15 So, a quick example on how to use this table: If you can bench press 250 pounds 1 time, you should use 218 pounds for 5 reps. Make sense? Good, let's move on. What training goal should I aim for? Hard to say, that is usually up to the individual, but for most folks who are just looking to "get in shape", usually the hypertrophy and muscular endurance categories are mostly used. Both of these categories allow for a fair amount of strength increase, but also allows folks to burn calories, etc. Strength training and power training (for the most part) is targeted for specific sports and athletic performance. Not only that, but as I will explain later, strength and power training repetition goals should only be used by experienced resistance-trained individuals, done with safe, proper, equipment, monitored by a certified strength and conditioning specialist, and be performed as "core exercises". Strength vs. Power Training I don't intend on making this a science lesson, so I will do my best to explain this in simple terms. Strength is the amount of force a muscle or muscles can generate to move a load or weight. For example, an individual may be able to max out their bench press at 250 pounds. By lifting that 250 pounds, once, they can generate a lot of strength to move the weight up one time, but the repetition may be slow. Power, on the other hand, is being able to generate force at a much higher rate. For example, an individual who can bench press 250 pounds, 1 time, would want to drop down in weight, in order to press the weight at a faster rate. Strength training can be valuable in many facets of athletics, however, in many cases, power is far more valuable to perform better. Let me use this example, because of the recent events at the 2012 London Olympics. Usain Bolt has very strong legs. I am assuming he uses strength training to make his legs strong. Having said that, there are many individuals who have just as strong, if not stronger legs than he does. The difference here, is his ability to generate force, or power. He is able to generate a tremendous amount of power to propel himself down the track. "Core" vs. "Assistance" Exercises Strength and power repetition ranges are intended to be done by "core exercises". A core exercise is one that recruits one or more large muscle areas (chest, shoulder, back, hip, thigh), involve two or more primary joints, and receive priority when one is selecting exercises because of their direct application to sport. "Assistance exercises" on the other hand, usually recruit smaller muscle areas (upper arm, abdonminals, calf, neck, forearm, lower back, or anterior lower leg), involve only one primary joint, and are considered less important to improving sport performance. Summary: Strength - High-load, low-repetition training to improve overall strength of the muscle(s) being trained. Should mainly be targeted by "core exercises". Long periods of rest between sets to allow full recovery of muscle fibers in order to produce maximum amount of force every subsequent set. Power - High-load, low-repetition training similar to strength training but designed to increase the overall explosiveness of the muscles. Also designed to be targeted by "core exercises" only. Also intended to have long periods of rest between sets to promote full recovery. Hypertrophy - Higher repetition goals when compared to strength or power training. Shorter breaks as well, as the intention is to cause a higher metabolic demand in the muscle fibers to promote muscular growth. Muscular Endurance - Low rest periods, higher rep goals, lower loads. Ideally used to improve the aerobic efficiency of the muscle fibers. Should be used by endurance athletes to improve muscular efficiency. Not intended to improve overall strength or power, however. Quote of the day: "The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work." ~ Richard Bach
I have a question about weight loss and muscle gain. I want to increase muscle mass, therefore I have to take in
more calories. But if I do that won’t it just turn to fat? How does
the body know to build muscle instead of storing the extra calories as
fat? Am I missing something? Can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?
Ah yes, the million dollar question for a lot of guys. I know a lot of guys (and gals) who wish to put on some muscle mass while cutting body fat at the same time. This can be an extremely difficult task to do, but it is possible.
First of all, let's assess the need to put on mass. From an athlete's perspective, some folks have the misconception that bigger muscles mean stronger muscles, which is not always true. Athletes who compete in events that require speed and agility, for example, should train their muscles to be strong and powerful, but do not necessarily want to add any weight to their frames as that could potentially slow their speed. Soccer players are a prime example of this. Soccer players need to be strong and powerful for fast acceleration and dynamic changes in direction, but unnecessary weight could slow them down.
On the other hand, an athlete like a football player (lineman for example) may want to put on mass to not only become stronger and more powerful, but the mass will also make them more difficult to push around.
In this case, however, I believe the individual asking this question wishes to put on a bit of muscle mass for cosmetic reasons, which is fine, as this is one of the most common questions I receive.
There are a number of factors involved in performance and body composition, but for the most part, your diet regulates how you look. Again, this is a pretty broad statement, as the types of exercises you perform as well as your genetics play a big part in how you look.
So what do you eat to put on mass? Well, to put on any type of mass, you need to eat...a lot. Again, I am generalizing here, but for the most part, your calories in must be more than your calories out in order to gain weight. If you are a young male (or female) who has an extremely fast metabolism, this can be a tricky task, but it is doable, you just need to keep feeding yourself every few hours.
How does
the body know to build muscle instead of storing the extra calories as
fat?
This is the trickiest part of the equation, because let's face it, anyone can gain weight by eating a lot of crap. What most people intend to do is build lean mass, aka muscle.
Any tissue in the body that is being structured requires the building blocks to do so. This is where protein, or more specifically amino acids, come into play. There are a wide variety of studies that have been done on just how much protein should be in one's diet in order to build muscle.
Some folks think more is better, but remember that protein is still a macronutrient, which means too much is still just extra calories, and therefore if unused will be stored in the body as fat.I personally like to aim for the 1g/pound of body mass rule. I usually sit around 176/177lbs, so I try and aim for at least 170-180g of protein a day.
Even with all of this discussion on diet, one fact still remains - you need the proper stimulation for tissue growth. What I mean by this, is that in order to build muscle, you need to resistance train. Not only that, but you need to lift heavy things. Resistance training causes damages to your muscle fibers which, in turn, cause stimulation for growth.
Essentially all types of resistance training causes at least some sort of stimulation for muscular growth, but in order to maximize your potential for growth, you should lift very heavy things. When you lift heavy, your body produces more testosterone, which in turn, causes a chain reaction of processes that stimulate muscular growth.
The nice part about this, is that the more muscle mass your body has, the more calories it burns at any given time. The more calories being burned at any time can translate into lower percentages of body fat.
Other resources to help with this topic can be found on my blog:
I would consider myself a "hardgainer". A hardgainer is someone who struggles to put on mass - fat or muscle. I spent many years as a teenager struggling to try and put on weight. Recently, I have received many e-mails and messages from individuals who would also be considered hardgainers and are looking for advice to put on muscle. Below is a list that I have compiled of tips and tricks, but also things to watch out for if you are looking to put on some mass.
1. Increase Your Calories
This is probably one of the biggest problems many people face when trying to put on mass. If you struggle to keep your weight up, chances are, you have an extremely fast metabolism, and/or you lead an extremely active lifestyle.
I suggest searching online to find a good estimate of your "resting metabolic rate" and then adding calories on top of that every day in order to build mass and gain weight.
2. Lift Heavy!
Some workouts may have you aiming for high repetitions with low resistance. This may give you a short-term "pumped" feeling because your muscles will be engorged with blood, but that is only temporary. Instead, you will want to be moving some pretty heavy weights/resistance in order to properly promote muscle growth.
Hypertrophy (muscle cell growth) occurs best in the 6-12 repetition range, although if you can hit 12 reps on an exercise, you are best to increase your resistance next time around.
3. Forget About Muscle Confusion
By designing your workout regimen to change from day-to-day is smart as you want to allow proper recovery for your muscles being worked. If you work your chest and back on Monday, you certainly should not work them again until at least Wednesday. Having said that, do not get too crazy with the idea that more "muscle confusion" must be better. Sure, you may have sore muscles more often as you are attacking them in different ways constantly, but muscles grow and adapt based on repetition.
Your workout weeks should be the same for 3-6 weeks in order for your muscles to adapt and grow to the stimulus being applied to them. You may not get as sore in weeks 2, 3, or 4 as you were in week 1, but don't think that that means you aren't improving!
4. Progressive Overload
Related to #3, you need to continually challenge and stimulate your muscles to grow. Each and every workout that you do (assuming you recover properly) will stimulate growth and repair so that your muscles return bigger and stronger than they were before, so you should therefore increase your workload the following week. By increasing either your resistance or number of reps (staying within the 6-12 rule) you will continue to 'overload' your muscles every time.
5. Don't Waste Too Much Time/Money on Supplements
I use supplements because they are convenient, but the truth is, whole foods are ALWAYS a better option. If you can, spend your money on cuts of lean meats/fish and eat, eat, eat. Protein supplements and bars are fine in a pinch, but can oftentimes give you plenty of other undesirable ingredients.
6. Use Your Large Muscles
Many bodybuilders use concentration exercises that work on individual muscles at a time. They do this because they can get plenty of "help" from the *ahem* "products" that they take to pack on muscle where and when they need it. Most bodybuilders also have the affinity to build muscle from superior genetics, so forget about that. If you wish to build some serious muscle, you need to work your large muscle groups to increase testosterone production. These include: your back (use chinups/pullups), chest (pushups, chest presses), shoulders (overhead presses), legs and glutes (squats, lunges).
7. Set Realistic Goals
Without the help of anabolic "aids" many of us will never achieve body-building-type success that some may strive for. Instead of setting goals that may be too far-fetched, focus on goals that are attainable - be realistic.
8. Extra Weight to Carry
For those athletes out there, remember that putting on mass means that you just have all of that extra weight to lug around as well! Adding mass can be beneficial to some athletes (linebackers, wrestlers, etc.) but weight gain may not be desirable for all. Athletes that rely on speed and agility for success (soccer, basketball, hockey) should focus their goals on speed, performance, and strength rather than size that you can maximize your performance without having to lug all of that extra weight around.
As part of my membership with the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), I am subscribed to the Strength and Conditioning Journal that publishes research studies on varying topics from the health and fitness field.
The article discusses the factors involved in hypertrophy. Progressive overload, specific repetition ranges, muscular "time under tension", as well as interset rest periods. Some research has shown that decreased rest periods increase the metabolite buildup in the working muscles and blood stream, which can further increase the affinity for hypertrophy. By using a 1:1 to 1:2 work to rest ratio, individuals can increase their blood metabolite concentrations and force their bodies to not only adapt to the training stimulus, but to increase hypertrophy gains. The one downside to this technique, however, is that as individuals increase their workload or resistance levels, insufficient rest periods can result in decreased force production.
It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that by increasing rest periods between sets, individuals can therefore increase their force output. However, rest periods should be specifically designed to target a specific training goal, no different than repetition range goals, load goals, and "time under tension" intervals. If you were to do a set of chest presses, then go eat lunch and take an hour off, when you return to do a 2nd set of the very same chest press, your body will most certainly have recovered 100% to return and produce similar force outputs. This is not only an inefficient way of working out, but it is also not beneficial for muscular gains, especially in regards to hypertrophy.
Resistance training is a high-force output style of exercise, therefore most of us would be led to believe that the anaerobic energy systems supply 100% of the energy needed. This is simply not true, as triglyceride (fats) levels have been shown to decrease in muscle cells following resistance exercise (lipolysis - utilization of lipids/fats) indicating the fact that aerobic energy systems are at least part of the energy equation.
Although the aerobic energy systems are partially at work here, majority of the force produced during resistance training comes from anaerobic energy stores. This is the primary reason for interset rest, so that the body can 'top-up' its energy stores with 60-120 seconds of rest. Mohamed, Cronin, and Nosaka have studied and discussed the theory that light aerobic exercise between sets can have a number of positive effects on the human body, increasing the affinity for strength and hypertrophic gains. They present a table with proposed benefits to various systems in the body:
By using very light (50-60% maximum heart rate) aerobic exercise, it is possible to increase the efficiency of rest periods, allowing great hypertrophic gains. If one is to explore this avenue, then you should aim for aerobic exercise that targets the generalized area that has been worked on. For example, if you are training your legs, and have just come off of a set of heavy back squats, some light activity on an exercise bike or jogging can elicit this benefits. Similarly, if working the upper body, using a rowing machine or arm ergometer can improve recovery and circulation to the desired muscles.
This is definitely something that I will explore on my own and test out in my own workouts as the benefits gained sound very plausible.
Last week we discussed the anabolic hormone testosterone. This week, part 2 of 3, will focus on growth hormone.
What is Growth Hormone?
Also known as "somatotropin", growth hormone comes from the pituitary gland. It has many different uses and anabolic effects within the human body which can have direct effects or mediated through the production of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) by the liver and fat cells.
What Does It Do?
Growth hormone is present and very important in the growth and development of children, but has also been seen as a result of resistance training. The tissues that growth hormone interact with include bones, immune cells, skeletal muscles, fat cells, and liver tissues. The main physiological roles are:
-Decreases glucose utilization
-Decreases glycogen synthesis
-Increases amino acid transport across cell membranes
-Increases protein synthesis
-Increases utilization of fatty acids
-Increases fat breakdown
-Increases availability of glucose and amino acids
-Enhances immune cell function
How Does it Work?
As one of the most potent anabolic hormones, growth hormone may me mediated by secondary hormones, but for the most part, it acts directly on target tissues. It interacts with tissues and stimulates the release of IGFs which greatly increase the conditions that promote tissue repair.
Growth hormone is released from hepatic (liver) cells as well as non-hepatic cells (fat, white blood cells, muscle, etc.) and enters peripheral circulation. It is transported in this way so that it can attach to specific binding proteins on cells.
Pharmacological Growth Hormone
Due to the varied uses of growth hormone in the human body, it is still unclear as to why pharmacological growth hormone acts differently than exercised-induced growth hormone. One thing that has been researched and documented however is that injecting growth hormone into an individual may increase muscle hypertrophy (size) but this may compromise the quality of muscle being built. For still-unknown reasons, exercised-induced hypertrophy is a much more favorable technique for gaining mass while also maintaining muscle quality and strength.
Program Design
If an individual is training for hypertrophy purposes, their program design is very important in order to reach their goals. Studies have shown that increased blood lactate concentrations increase the level of growth hormone. One thing to note however, is that when individuals were studied using very light weights and exercising in a much higher repetition range, serum levels of growth hormone did not change. There appears to be an intensity limit for individuals to reach in order to stimulate growth hormone production.
On the other hand, individuals who were training with heavy resistance (10 rep maximum) with short rest periods between sets (1 minute) saw greater growth hormone concentration increases when compared to individuals training in the 5 rep maximum range with longer rest periods. This has been studied and documented before and should be of no surprise as strength or power training (very high reps, 5 or fewer reps) works very well to increase and individual's overall strength, but a 6-12 rep range is ideal for muscular growth.
Growth Hormone in Women
Studies have shown that women have higher blood levels of growth hormone throughout their menstrual cycle compared to men. This not only proves that growth hormone plays many different physiological roles within the human body, but also that it is not the single limiting-factor when it comes to muscular growth. This may be due to the fact that women generally have lower levels of testosterone, but other factors must also be at play when determining what causes muscular hypertrophy.
Summary
Although there have been many studies done on the effects of both exercised-induced, as well as pharmacological growth hormone, there are still many variants and observations that need to be done. It is understood that there are multiple interactions that growth hormone plays a role in that determines muscular growth and strength as it has been shown that simply increasing concentrations does not necessarily increase muscle size/strength. Also, understanding how growth hormone concentrations change throughout not only an individual's day to day life, but also over long periods of resistance training can help us further understand the full role this anabolic hormone plays in our bodies.
-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS
Sources:
Baechle, Thomas R. and Earle, Roger W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Third Edition
Load is the most critical part of a resistance training program. I will detail ways in which fitness professionals define and use loads in a well-rounded resistance training program.
Terminology Used to Quantify and Qualify Mechanical Work
Mechanical Work - force and displacement (distance) an object or weight is moved. A quantifiable way in which you can measure mechanical work is like in Olympic weight lifting when you multiply a weight lifted by the number of times lifted.
Load Volume (or Volume Load) - Basically a measurement of weight (units) multiplied by distance (distance units) and repetitions. To note however, that certain repetition quantities alter the quality of the work being done. For example, 1 set of 15 repetitions is not the same as 3 sets of 5 repetitions.
Relationship Between Load and Repetitions
Repetitions is and should be inversely related to the load lifted, especially when calculating correct loads for specific repetition amounts. For example, the higher the load, the lower number of reps an individual should be able to lift.
Calculating 1-repetition maximum (1RM) and 10-repetition maximum for individuals is a highly effective tool to structure a proper resistance training program. Depending on an individual's goals, their resistance exercises should remain within a specific rep range to meet such goals, which will be discussed later.
Keep in mind that an individual's 1RM (or calculated 1RM) on a weight machine may be significantly higher than doing a similar action with free weights as more synergistic muscles must be involved, potentially lowering the overall strength capacity of the user.
Below is a chart that can be used to determine 1RM based on percentages of weights lifted. There are many exceptions to this chart however based upon what muscles are being worked as well as the individual's comfort and skill level.
There are few different ways you can calculate a 1RM for a specific exercise for an individual. For starters, a test can be conducted in which an individual can progress through a few "warm-up" sets and then, using a hypothetical 1RM, attempt to lift their heaviest weight possible for 1 repetition. Another way to calculate is by using the above chart to have an individual complete an exercise with a desired weight for as many repetitions as they can (preferably below 10 reps or so) to then calculate a theoretical 1RM.
When attempting an accurate 1RM test, where the individual is attempting to lift their heaviest weight for 1 repetition, a few things should be considered. First of all, only those individuals who are considered intermediate or experienced weightlifters who have a lot of experience at the specific exercise should attempt a 1RM test. Also, only power or core exercises that involve large muscle groups and multiple joints can withstand the large forces placed upon the body.
Assigning Load and Repetitions Based on the Training Goal
Once a strength and conditioning specialist has made a well-judged assessment based on an individuals needs (Step 1: Needs Analysis), as well as tested for actual and theoretical 1RM's, a training program can then be designed based upon the trainee's goals and therefore load and repetition quantities.
Generally, there are 4 main categories of resistance training goal sets.
1. "Strength" training is when an individual stays in a 1-6 rep range or so (85-100% 1RM). Strength training has minimal muscular growth, but very large potential for very strong muscles. Strength training should primarily be kept to "Core" exercises (large muscle groups, multi-joint).
2. "Hypertrophy" training is the training mode that creates the most muscular growth with added strength as well. Here, an individual should aim for a 6-12 rep range (85-70% 1RM).
3. "Endurance" training is to teach your muscles to be as fatigue-resistant as possible. Not a whole lot of strength gains are found here, nor much muscular growth, but muscular endurance training certainly has its place in training many individuals and athletes alike. Here you would want to push your repetitions higher than 12 (67% 1RM).
4. "Power" training is similar to strength training but slightly different. Due to the fact that the muscles are trying to displace (move) a weight as fast as possible, the muscles can not generate as much overall force, therefore slightly lowering the power weight goals to stay within a specific rep range. Here, you would be aiming for approximately 80% 1RM in order to stay in a 2-5 rep range.
Variation of the Training Load
Although an experienced weightlifter or athlete may mentally feel prepared to lift "heavy" 3 times a week (M,W,F), the heavy strains placed on the body can quickly lead to overtraining. Instead, a 3 day-a-week training schedule involving power and other core exercises should be split into a "heavy", "medium", and "light" day where the light day involves lifting 80% of the loads lifted on the heavy day, while maintaining the same repetition counts as the heavy day. -Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. PTS
