All posts by

Forced Restart

by Shane on April 12, 2011 in Progress with No comments

I haven’t updated this site in a long time and there’s a very not-fun reason for that. Workout Experiment is supposed to be the site where I write about various workout routines and related stuff that I try out and report on my progress. Unfortunately, there’s been no progress to report on. In fact, I have never been less fit or less strong than I am right now (except maybe when I was a toddler).

 

What Went Wrong

Right about at the beginning of this year, I caught some virus that had me coughing and lying in bed most of the time for about four weeks straight. That was bad, but it wasn’t the worst of it. Even before that, I had somehoe managed to injure my right-hand pectoral muscle and couldn’t work out properly anymore. Any pushing motion caused pain and made the injury worse. That meant no bench presses, no shoulder presses, no dips, no push-ups or anything similar for me.

I tried to keep up some kind of training routine, but it was all a bit half assed. Then, when that virus hit, I couldn’t train at all anymore and since the chest pain persisted even after that, I stopped working out entirely.

Part of this was because I wanted this thing to fully heal, part of it was because I’d just fallen out of the routine of training and was extremely busy with everything else in my life.

No matter the reasons, the bottom line is that I haven’t followed a proper workout routine in more than four months (which is by far the longest stretch of non-training I’ve ever had since I was about 12 and first learnt about the concept of training). The results of this aren’t pretty. I’ve lost muscle-mass very noticably and gained a spare tire around my mid section. This looks bad and it feels even worse. Seriously, it is no fun at all, living inside a slightly flabby and non-fit body. I have no idea how overweight people cope with that and I’ve zero desire to find out.

 

Time to Get Out of this Mess

Today, as I write this, is the first day in months that my chest is not hurting when I do pushing motions. I don’t know if I can dive back in and start piling on weights to bench again, but it does feel like I’m back to a point where I can do at least light variations of most exercises.

And even if this takes longer to heal, I’m fed up with sitting on my arse, so it’s time to take up a regular training routine of some sort again and get myself out of this mess.

Here’s the action-plan in a nutshell:

  • Find a routine that I can do right now
  • Take size measurements every week
  • Weigh myself every week or even every day
  • Take a snapshot every day

Goals:

  • Lose the spare tire
  • Get back to the level I was at before
  • Then start pushing to new limits

I’ll be updating this site with progress reports again. Stay tuned.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Bodyshock: Alternative Routine

by Shane on May 26, 2010 in Experiments, Workout Routines with No comments

As I mentioned in the outline of my first workout experiment, I want to make use of “muscle confusion” to increase my gains. The idea is to switch up the training routine as soon as a performance plateau is reached. This should reduce habituation and “force” your muscles to keep growing in order to adapt to the new situation.

Here’s the alternative routine that I’ve been using for the upper body split the past week (you can see the original routine here):

 

Exercise: Sets: Weight:
Inclined Bench Press (Barbell) 3 35 Kg / 77 lbs
One Arm Dumbbell Rows 3 15 Kg / 33 lbs
Lateral Raises 3 10 Kg / 22 lbs
Close Grip Pull Ups 3 0 (Bodyweight)
Dumbbell Flies 3 20 Kg / 44 lbs
Upright Rows (Barbell) 3 30 kg / 66 lbs

 

The exercises are all performed as supersets.

I’m only doing this routine for a few times before switching back to the original routine, but with different weights than before.

The Bodyshock experiment will conclude in just a few weeks and I’ll publish a full report and progress pics once it’s done.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Repetition Ranges

by Shane on May 1, 2010 in Workout Theory with No comments
Dumbbells

The question about what rep range to train in is a subject that has lots of rumours and also a fair amount of scientific evidence surrounding it. Generally, the distinction is made between low, medium and high repetitions. In this article, I want to give a quick rundown of each of the rep ranges and their respective benefits and drawbacks.

Low Rep Range

This range is anything from 1 to 6 or 7 repetitions. If you are using an amount of weight for an exercise that you can only lift a handful of times, then this is clearly a high weight-load for your body. In this repetition range, the weights will feel heavy, even during the first rep of the first set.

Low repetitions with lots of weight are ideal for building strength. The emphasis here is on “strength” not “volume”, in other words, for pure body-building, a higher rep-range is the better choice.

Training with low repetitions takes less time than training in a higher rep range. This can be a positive or a negative aspect: On the one hand, it saves you time, but on the other hand, a shorter workout can mean overall less stress on your system and therefore a weaker growth impulse.

Another downside of a low repetition range is that with the kinds of huge weight-loads you’ll be using, there’s a higher chance of injury. Obviously, you have to be especially careful when lugging around these kinds of weights (especially when doing free-weights exercises).

Medium Rep Range

This rep range is between 8 and 12 repetitions. This is the bodybuilding repetition range, as 8-12 is ideal for stimulating hypertrophy (muscle growth). You won’t see the strength gains you get from doing lower reps with higher weights, but you’ll certainly look like, you’re growing stronger.

The benefits and drawbacks here are pretty obvious: If you’re after bigger muscles, this is the rep range to go for. If actual strength increase is more important to you, then this rep range is not ideal.

High Rep Range

This means anything above 12 repetitions. Doing more than 12 reps of an exercise will usually take longer than 30 seconds and that’s about where the threshold lies for what can be called “strength training”. If an exercise lasts longer than that, you’re already entering “cardio” territory, from a biological perspective, at least.

This doesn’t mean that a higher rep range has no merits, of course. If you are using low weights and doing more repetitions, your body simply has to recruit different resources to keep you going.

One thing that needs to be addressed is a common misconception: High rep ranges do not build “lean muscles” rather than “bulky muscles”, as is often claimed. High rep ranges simply stimulate less muscle growth, but you can’t really influence the shape of your muscles with a particular way of exercising.

In conclusion, for most people, low to medium repetition ranges are ideal. In any case, mixing things up and changing rep ranges from time to time is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself.

Incoming search terms for the article:

HIT: High Intensity Training

by Shane on April 29, 2010 in Advanced Workout, Workout Theory with No comments
Hardworkout2b

I briefly mentioned in a previous post that HIT, or High Intensity Training is a training method I followed for more than a year, ending not too long ago. It’s a very peculiar and in many circles a much-debated workout method. In this post, I simply want to go over what HIT is all about and share some of my experiences with it.


High Intensity Training: The Basics

I guess the main thing that sets it apart is the fact that when you are doing HIT, you only do one set per exercise, per week.

Yes, I’m serious. You do one set of, say, bench presses today and then don’t do any more bench presses until the same day next week.

The idea here is that with high intensity training, you put your muscles under absolutely extreme stress, creating a huge growth impulse, and then you give the muscles a loooot of time to recover and build.

How can you get such a strong growth impulse with just one set? High Intensity Training has two factors to it, that make it extremely intense:

  1. Perfect Execution
    You do each repetition of an exercise with meticulously perfect form and you do the repetitions very slowly. This means: Absolutely no cheating or yanking the weights, no excessive tension in any body parts not directly involved in the lifting and lots and lots of pain in your muscles.
  2. Going Beyond Failure
    Following most training methods, repetitions are done to failure. I.e. you keep pushing until you just can’t move the weights anymore, no matter how hard you try. That is the point of muscle failure and the point where a set ends. In HIT, you go beyond that point.

That second one needs some extra explanation. After all, how can you go beyond failure?


Going Beyond Failure

There are several techniques used to help you go past failure in HIT. Here are some of them:

  • Human Assistance
    For some exercises, this is quite a simple option. Everyone knows the spotter can help out a little on that last rep, when you’re doing bench-presses. With HIT, the spotter will wait until you reach the point of failure and then ever so gently support you for another two to three reps.
  • Pyramid Training
    Another method is to immediately lower the weights after failure is reached, and do a few more repetitions with the reduced weights. With machines, you can have a spotter who removes one or two plates for you and with free weights you can prepare one heavier and one lighter set and then switch between them as quickly as (safely) possible.
  • Very Short Breaks
    This final one is a method you can even use on your own: Once you’ve reached the point of failure, go back into a neutral (non-tense) position, wait for five seconds and then have another go at completing as many sets as possible.


My Experience With High Intensity Training

Doing HIT training is a pleasant experience for about six and three quarters of the week and then an absolutely excruciating experience for the rest of the week, starting with the beginning of the workout and ending an hour or two after it’s finished.

I was surprised at how much strength I gained during my time doing High Intensity Training. I sort of assumed that doing only one set a week would have me stagnating, at best, but I made as much, if not more, progress as I did with volume training before. Another thing is that while the training itself is extremely intense, my body felt good and undamaged during the non-workout days of the week. With volume-training, I always feel some kind of an ache or pull, even during the rest-days.

The most interesting aspects of High Intensity Training are probably the psychological ones, though. For one thing, it’s simply extremely difficult to train as hard as is required. Without someone spotting for you, spurring you on, correcting you and shouting in your face to do one more rep and not be such a whiny little bitch about how much it hurts, I don’t think it’s even possible to get there. On the other hand, your attitude towards an exercise is quite different if you know that this is the one and only set you’re going to do all week. You always go in determined to “make this one count” – and you come out wondering why the hell you are doing this to yourself.

Bottom line for me: I think High Intensity Training is an interesting and effective method. At least to mix things up a little, I recommend anyone to give it a try.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Cut Down on Gym-Time, Build More Muscle

by Shane on April 27, 2010 in Blog, Workout Theory with No comments
Arthur Saxon performing a bent press.

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like spending too much time at the gym or working out at home. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy working out with weights. But it’s something I like doing for 30 to 45 minutes at a time. Any longer and I start to get fed up with it.

Here are three workout techniques that help you save time while also ramping up the overall intensity of your workout. In other words: More sweat, more muscles, less time. :)

1. Split Training

This is a really simple one and many people split up their exercise days. You can do split-training simply by working out certain muscle groups on one day and other muscle groups on another day. For example, in my current workout, I train my upper body on Mondays and Thursdays and my Legs and lower body on Tuesdays and Fridays. This way, each muscle gets worked twice a week, with enough rest in between workouts. At the same time, splitting the exercises up like this keeps each individual workout short.

Of course, this type of split training means that you’ll be going to the gym more frequently, but staying for a shorter period of time. This might seem like a disadvantage, but I prefer it for two reasons: First, I find it easier to do something every day or almost every day than doing something twice a week. I work out five days a week (Saturdays I do a “bonus” workout) and that’s quickly become a habit. If you go to the gym only once or twice a week, it’s much more difficult to form a habit.
Secondly, shorter workouts fit into your day more easily. You can probably fit a split-workout into your lunch-break and still get lunch. A full body workout? Not so much.

2. Supersets

I’ve already written a post dedicated to supersets, so I’ll make this one short. Instead of waiting for your muscles to recover between sets of an exercise, simply do a different exercise (targeting a different muscle) between sets! This means you’ll be doing set 1 of exercise A, immediately followed by set 1 of exercise B, followed by set 2 of exercise A and so on…

With supersets, you can do two exercises in roughly the same time as it would normally take to do just one. And of course, it also ramps up the overall intensity of your workout.

3. Circuit Training

Circuits are similar to supersets, but here you do sets of a whole series of exercises, all in succession. Let’s say you’re workout routine consists of eight different exercises: You can do these exercises in a circuit by starting with the first exercise, doing one set and then immediately moving on to the first set of the second exercise, followed by the first set of the third exercise and so on until you’ve completed one set of each exercise.

When you’re done with that, go back to the first exercise and do the second set. Again, with this training method, each muscle group gets enough recovery time between exercises, but the overall intensity is anywhere between tough and insane! (depending on the exercises)

No rest between sets means a harder workout in less time.

Do you have experience with any of the methods mentioned above? Which is your favourite? Any other tips on how to reduce workout time? You comments are welcome!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Incoming search terms for the article:

← Older Entries