As you have no doubt been aware, if you have been reading my blog over the past few months, you know that I have dropped an enormous amount of weight by incorporating a few key changes into my lifestyle… it isn’t a diet, it isn’t an exercise blitz, it is a permanent change that I have made and, with the help of my family and a trainer of mine, I have had rousing success!
The first part of my four part series on my weight-loss success today deals with the weight-training program I am currently working with, as well as with information on how the program was set-up and a few more advanced pre and post exhaustion techniques I use to make my workouts more efficient and intense.
Some Basic Definitions Before We Start:
Reps - a pre-defined number of times that a weight is being manipulated, (i.e. “do 7 reps means lift the weight 7 times).
Sets - a pre-defined number of times that
reps will be performed, (i.e. “do 7 reps 3 times with rest in-between each, or do 7 reps in 3 sets).
Muscle-Exhaustion - The point at which the muscle can no longer lift the weight being manipulated. The ultimate goal of most weight-lifting.
Muscle-Recovery - there are two types of muscle recovery.
- The time given between sets that allows the muscle to recover enough to do the weight but not enough time to cool down.
- The time given between exercise periods of a given muscle group, usually 2-4 days.
Super-setting (Rotation) - a slightly more advanced method of lifting that involves rotating between different muscle groups, (generally two opposing muscle groups), with the point of fatiguing the muscle faster and more efficiently… we will discuss this further below).
Spotter - another person who supports the lifter, and stands ready to assist the actual lifter in case of premature muscle fatigue.
The Basics continued: Muscle Groups
One of the very first things I had to learn when I walked into the gym to start lifting was the major muscle groups to work on, and how each of them related to one another. The 6 major muscles groups of the body, (open to interpretation, these are the six that my trainer and I use). Quick Link to Chart.
- Shoulders
- Biceps
- Triceps
- Chest
- Back
- Legs
If you are unsure where any of these muscle groups are located, first kick yourself in the butt for not paying attention in school during anatomy class, (ESPECIALLY if the group in question is “LEGS”) and click here for a quick chart.
Now, before we go any further, let me explain that each muscle group naturally corresponds to one other muscle group… the correlations come from approximate muscle movements. For example… if your chest muscles push things away from the front of your body, the back muscles tend to pull them towards you. This leads to these following pairs.
- Biceps (Pull UP) vs. Triceps (Pull DOWN)
- Chest (Push AWAY) vs. Back (Pull TOWARDS)
- Shoulders (Lift ABOVE) vs. Legs (Push BELOW)
We need this understanding to help with two key areas of weightlifting… super-setting and muscle training schedule.
Scheduling
We have already spoke a bit about super-setting above, but specifically speaking, super-setting is the rotation of alternating exercises between 2 opposing muscle groups for a pre-defined amount of sets, allowing less muscle recovery (less time between sets) and better and more efficient muscle fatigue.
Having this goal of super-setting our exercises in mind, a Training Schedule is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a weekly schedule that hits all muscle groups at least once and gives adequate rest, or “recovery” time before the next lifting session for said muscle group. Here is the schedule I use below.
|
Monday |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
|
Shoulders Biceps/Triceps |
Legs |
Chest Back |
Biceps Triceps |
Please notice the muscle groups that are being hit each specific day, and the amount of rest that is given before the next time the muscle group is hit again.
(A Note: You will also notice that the two opposing muscle groups Shoulder/Legs are not supersetted… this is a personalization for two reasons:)
- The legs, being the largest muscles in the body, fatigue my body quicker that other lifting, and I have found it beneficial in this training schedule setup to train legs separately.
- With shoulders being free to super-set with another muscle group, I was able to work on alternating days on either biceps or triceps, allowing me to target two muscle groups I feel are lacking in comparison to the rest of my development with more
reps per week.
Exercises
I do not have the patience or energy to describe the exercises I do for each of my muscle groups… so suffice it to say I got most of this information either from my trainer or from a great website called http://www.bodybuilding.com/, a great free resource that has a ton of different exercise lists… check the actual resource here for a list of great exercises for each muscle group.
Pyramiding
One thing of note, beyond super-setting, is something we call pyramiding, which is a pretty basic idea: usually each exercise gets 3 to 4
sets for a pre-defined number of
reps… the weight for each of these exercises is predetermined with (usually) the help of a trainer or other person who has lifted before. You would then break the sets into the following:
|
|
Set 1 |
Set 2 |
Set 3 |
Set 4 |
|
Percentage |
85% |
100% |
100% |
110% |
|
Example |
85lbs per rep. |
100lbs per rep. |
100lbs per rep. |
110lbs per rep. |
|
|
Warm-up |
Working |
Working |
Extended W. |
Again, the whole idea here is to not only allow for good, working sets, but also to hit partial (if not full) muscle fatigue by the end of the exercise.
(Note: For the working and extended sets, It’s ok if you can’t do the whole set completely… as long as you do it to failure, you are working the muscle. I find that if I am only able to do 7-8
reps. on a set, I drop the weight down by 5-10lbs, wait 30 seconds, and then do another quick set to failure, kinda a “cut-set” in the middle of a regular set).
Recovery
We should now say a word about muscle recovery. After each set, there is two things you should be doing:
- Resting
- Hydrating (often)/ Fueling (rarely)
You have to be VERY careful during this time period, because (IMHO) this is where a great workout becomes a “meh” workout if not done right… the time between lifts should give you enough time to recover enough to be able to do your next set, but not enough time that you cool down and lose your “burn” (or building muscle fatigue).
This is where alot of people go wrong… either taking too long (or too short for that matter) to recovery, or not doing what they are suppose to be doing during their recovery. This is also where you get THESE PEOPLE (<–one of my oldest posts, a classic!)
A quick note on hydrating and fueling – it is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY important to hydrate! Muscle without water will not fully fatigue, but will simply stop lifting if not hydrating, (see Creatine on my supplements page for more info on this). So drink water… even a few swallows after every super-set is great!
As far as fueling, (eating), you need to keep it simple and, for the most part, I try to avoid it… the body really isn’t capable of doing heavy lifting and digesting at the same time, (think how you feel after a huge meal… all the blood is working in the stomach which makes you feel weaker, lethargic even). Only eat as a last resort, (i.e. you forgot to each a good meal an hour or so before lifting), and if you do eat, grab something that will give you a quick boost like an apple to keep you going without weighing you unnecessarily down.
That’s about it. Other than going and actually lifting the weights over your head, this is a good basic primer of what I’ve been doing…
Bonus
The only two things I would offer as a bit of a bonus are three slightly more advanced techniques I have only recently started using to do a bit more to FULLY and COMPLETELY fatigue the muscle, (WARNING, doing these will give you better muscle growth, but it will HURT the next day!) Also, please make sure you have a spotter to help, because this will DEFINITELY fatigue the ol’ muscles.
* Cut-Sets – on the last set of the last exercise of the day, generally I do a cut-set… this is almost like a reverse pyramid with very little muscle recovery allowed between weight changes. You start by doing your working set weight as long as you can, (usually, if you have been working hard, this isn’t a full set)… once you can’t go any further, immediately stop and take the weight of the lift down 5-10 minutes… (cable machines are great for this because of the quick weight switch-out)… without much of a pause, immediately do more
reps at this slightly lesser weight until exhaustion again… rinse and repeat pretty much as long as you can stand it… funniest thing to see someone a 5lb curl and crying XD
* Negative (or Forced Sets) – this type of set generally only works with free-weights. I haven’t really done a lot of these, so I feel more comfortable having a professional tell you about them 
Go Negative: Lift 30% More Weight Tonight
* Time Sets – I have also just started doing these… KILLER! Again, a link for more information! LINK here. (Just a note, I don’t use anything called Reyometrics… that is just the name this guy calls it).
No, this isn't me... yet!
Thanks for reading part one of my fitness series! Part 2, (coming tomorrow) will deal with the second part of my exercise routine: Cardio! Please feel free to comment or ask questions about anything I write about here, I am still learning alot about all this, and welcome the comments/discussion 
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3 Comments
July 7, 2009 at 5:12 am
[...] I have about 6 different movements I use to work this muscle group, (usually in conjunction with the opposing muscle group, the biceps <see my write-up on this idea on Journey to Fitness – Weight Lifting>). [...]
July 11, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Hey, thanks for mentioning REYOMETRICS in your column. I am the guy who started it, have been using it for many years now. Thanks again!
July 12, 2009 at 2:19 am
Sweet! Like I said, we don’t necessarily call it that, (I’ll be sure to now
) but it definitely works!! Thanks for dropping a note!