Weight Lifting | Look At My Muscles
Mar 11

Most gym rats have a chest/tricep, back/bicep and shoulder/leg schedule, or something similar. For the past year, I’ve switched to a back/tricep and chest/bicep rotation to change it up. Changing up your rotations and workout schedule keeps your muscles from getting used to a routine that can quickly lead to a plateau. The back/tri & chest/bi routine was not only to change it up, but to get a stronger tricep and bicep workout since the main muscle group wasn’t fatiguing the secondary group. I really liked this schedule, but for now I’m going to switch back to the more typical schedule of chest/tri and back/bi for two reasons. The first is like I mentioned, that is to just change it up, the second is that my workout schedule isn’t as concrete as it used to be. Back when I worked out with my HB buddies, gym was Monday, Wednesday and Friday, no exceptions. There were three of us, so it would be very rare that at least one of my two buddies wouldn’t make it. Now that I’m working out with my buddy Eric who’s pretty busy at work, and with my wife pregnant, our workouts are a little more sporadic and the chest/bicep workout means that i can’t do two workouts in a row or even every other day since the secondary muscle group would be too sore to support the primary of the next workout. The typical chest/tri and back/bi rotation means I could workout Monday and Tuesday if that’s what worked that week, and my Tuesday workout wouldn’t really be affected by Monday’s.

With a baby on the way, I expect that my gym schedule is going to be more random than ever and I’m going to do my best to get in at least two workouts a week. Hopefully this rotation will make it easier for me to stay in shape despite how busy I plan on being.

Dec 5

I’m not sure if it’s just me and my smaller body frame, but when I’m out sick (and not eating right/taking protein supplements) for more than a week, I lose mass and strength so fast. Like I mentioned, I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth extracted a few weeks ago and was not only away from the gym for more than a week, but I was hardly eating anything. I thought the weight that I lost was just water weight, but now that I’m back at the gym, it really feels like I lost about a month worth of gains. It’s just kind of depressing to know that I have to stay on it so hard and so well to keep the muscle that I have. I know some bigger guys like my buddy Dave, who can take months off at a time, keep his size and most of his strength, but I guess that’s just differences in our physiology.

After a couple weeks back at the gym, I’ve gained back a lot of what I lost, but I’m still not as strong as I was right before I had the surgery. My workout schedule (and my workout buddies’) have been a little off lately because of the holidays with families coming in and out of town. The strange thing is my gym is still as busy as ever. Back when i used to work out in HB, by this time of year the gym was empty. I’m scared to think how busy it will be right after the new year.

Oct 2

I often get asked how much time you should spend resting in between sets, and while what works for different individuals will vary, I’ll briefly talk about the science behind it to help guide you towards a rest period that works best for you and your goals.

I thought about writing this article a couple of weeks ago when Costin, an old gym buddy of mine came up to work out with me and my regular gym buddy, Eric. Costin and I and another friend used to work out together religiously. We spent a lot of time in between sets because there were three of us and to top it off, we’d do a lot of chatting and arguing. We’d probably spend about 3-5 minutes in between any given set. So when Costin was recently talking about 75 second rest periods, it sounded way too short to me, although later when i reflected on it, I realized that when Eric and I work out (while we still do a lot of chatting) we probably rest only about two minutes or less — and with Eric over the last six months, I’ve been making some really big gains in strength. This might just be circumstantial, but it’s definitely food for thought.

When you rest less than two minutes between sets, you are using something called the “lactic acid energy system”. This is a medium duration energy source and is the primary energy source used in most body building workouts. If you rest longer than three minutes between sets, you are using more of the “ATP-PC energy system”. This is the most powerful energy system for short bursts of exercise.  There isn’t a switch that turns off one of these systems and starts the next at the two or three minute mark. These systems overlap and work together to handle the workload.

Taking rests that last longer than two or three minutes will use more of the ATP-PC energy system, and allow your muscles to be almost completely replenished to lift another heavy set and max out the muscle. While this rest time will keep you moving big weight, there are other things to consider. By keeping rest periods under two minutes, the lactic acid energy system is not able to replenish the muscles as quickly, but by training with these shorter rest periods during the workout, there will be increased levels of growth hormone in the blood after the workout to promote muscle growth.

So your rest period depends on a few different things, most importantly what feels right to you and what you see the best results with. I think a two minute rest cycle is a good place to start and you can make adjustments either up or down from there. Other things to keep in mind are that smaller muscle groups take less time to recover than larger ones, and testosterone production drops off sharply after 45 minutes, so you want to keep you entire workout within that time frame.

Sep 23

You need to find a weekly workout routine that fits best with your physical recovery time and schedule. Some people can recover very quickly from a workout and others need 3 or more days per muscle group. Regardless, you need to have a set schedule of workouts to stay focused and on track.

For the longest time, I did a standard Monday: chest/tris, Wednesday: back/bis, and Friday: Shoulders/Abs/Legs (I’ve always neglected legs). For the most part this routine worked fine. Each muscle group had a full 7 days to rest (except for shoulders which gets hit pretty hard on Mondays, but because I did them on Friday had an extra day to rest). I made big gains in my chest and my back, but not proportionately as big in my tris and bis. I realized that by the time i got to my tris after my chest workout, and the same for my bis after a back workout, they were so tired from supporting my chest/back workout, that their own workout was relatively weak.

After being away from the gym for a few months, I’ve changed up my schedule quite a bit. Instead of being on a day-of-the-week routine, I’m on a day-on/day-off schedule, so I hit each muscle group every six days instead of every seven. I’ve also changed the combination of my workouts to hit each muscle group individually. So on a Monday, I’ll workout chest/bis, Wednesday: back/tris, Friday: shoulders/abs/legs, and on Sunday I’ll start the rotation over again with the chest/bis.

Breaking the workout into chest/bis and back/tris means that when I finish my chest workout, my bis are completely fresh to do isolated weight that’s much heavier than I could’ve done if they had just supported a back workout. And while my physiology requires at least 3 days for my chest or back to recover, my bis and tris are usually good to go to play a supporting role the day after they were worked individually. So far I’m seeing good results with this routine.

Another key, and likely reason that I’m seeing good results so quickly with this routine is that it’s important to change it up every now and then. Your muscles can get used to being worked out in a certain way and without shocking the muscle, it will adapt and not need to grow to move the same amount of weight. This type of plateauing can be broken by changing the order of your exercises, and also the type of exercises you do to work out a muscle group.

Thanks Dan, for the suggestion on the topic.

Sep 16

I’ve seen and tried lots of different approaches to maximize muscle growth in every workout. While everybody has a slightly different physiology, it seems for the most part there’s only one way to maximize muscle growth: lift heavy.

I’ve tried starting light in my first set and adding weight every set, starting heavy and getting lighter as I fatigue, and even doing a pyramid combination. Over the years I’ve realized that the only time that I’m building muscle is when I’m lifting as heavy as I can in every set. Any set that I do that is too light for me is a waste of my time.

For every exercise, you want to do 2-3 sets of 4-8 reps of the most weight you can do, with decent form and no assistance. If you can’t do 4 reps, the weight is too heavy, if you can pull out 9, you were going too light. If you have a spotter that’s helping you with every rep, they’re taking 5-20lbs off your weight even with minimal assistance. Of course it’s good to have a spotter in case you completely fail, and there’s no harm in having you struggle a bit on your last rep on your last set with a light spot, but if he’s doing all the work, there’s no point in you being there at all.

I always see guys doing bench press workouts doing very light weight trying to “tone” (whatever that means), and guys doing 3 plates with a spotter that’s doing his back workout at the same time. Keep a log so that you’re familiar with exactly how much weight you can do. This way you can track your progress and never waste time and energy lifting the wrong weight.

Sep 5

Stretching is an important and often overlooked aspect of weight lifting. Most of us only have time to hit the gym after work, where we’re in a hurry to get home, to the girlfriend’s or somewhere else. With time often short, many people head straight into their workouts without a good stretch routine.

Stretching is important for two reasons. The most important reason to properly stretch before lifting, is of course to prevent injury. Most people only work out a couple of muscle groups per session and it’s important to stretch not only the primary muscles you’re about to stress, but the other support muscles as well. Shoulders should be stretched every time you do any upper body workout, whether it be chest, back, bi’s, tri’s, and of course shoulders themselves. The three heads that make up the shoulder are the smallest muscle groups in the upper body, and the most prone to injury.

For stretching and warming up my shoulders prior to any upper body workout, I do weighted (5lb) large arm circles forward and backward. I stretch my deltoids by holding a 5lb weight, and with my elbow at a 90 degree angle and against my side, rotate my weighted arm out towards the side of my body. Finally using a dip machine, I use my body weight to get a good overall shoulder stretch.

The back is the other set of muscles that you need to stretch even if aren’t going to directly work it. Shoulder exercises, leg exercises, and just about every thing you do can put some pressure on the back. Standing with your feet shoulder width apart, bend down to touch your toes, don’t bounce, and get a good deep stretch. Finding a secure pole (or piece of gym equipment), securely planting your feet, and pulling on the pole is also another good stretch. Using the same position, you can do individual sides of the back, by holding with one arm, and rolling your body up towards the pole.

Stretching isn’t only important to prevent injury, but it also opens your muscles to let them absorb water and protein. You should spend about 10 minutes stretching before you begin your routine, and then stretch the primary muscles you’re working between sets to keep them open and loose throughout the session.