Helmsman - thanks for your excellent article Basics of Bigness. I understand the concepts of your article and have followed similar training protocols but I have a couple of questions for you:1) What percentage of 1RM do you recommend for the top work sets on the big 3 and how does this progress over the cycle based on the current 1RM I listed below?2) What changes, if any, need be made for a man 50 years of age?3) My current 1RM in the 3 lifts (in pounds) is BP: 185, SQ: 255, DL: 300 - what are reasonable goals to set for the completion of the 13 week cycle?4) How to guage getting in enough work to grow but not too much to overtrain? I have a tendency to want to train (mentally) whether or not I have recuperated physically if you get my meaning. I don't do well with "instinctual" training - prefer to have a set schedule so I don't have to "think" too much. 5) I believe you are suggesting eating many "smaller" meals every few hours? When bulking up I tend to gain weight around the mid-section, and yet when I lose weight the middle stays and I lose muscle mass - what to do?Thanks in advance for taking the time to help. I plan to follow your program and will report back on my progess.
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Q for Helmsman - Basics of Bigness
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Yup, nice article, whoever wrote it.I agree heartily with warming up before stretching, but I don't think what it says about the importance of stretching is backed up by science. In fact, recent research shows that people who stretch actually get more injuries than people who don't. It's possible that stretching doesn't cause harm when done right, but most people don't know how to do it right (they do things like bounce while stretching), which can cause real problems.
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SteveA - yes, there seems to be some controversy over this, but I believe the key is to perform a general warm-up for the entire body with 6-10 minutes of mild cardio before stretching. From what I understand stretching when cold can indeed cause injuries. Personally I have performed weight workouts using cardio warm-up and stretching before as well as without and have not experienced much difference in regards to prevention of injuries. However I plan to add the warm-up and stretching again as I believe it helps recuperation.I have a series of 7 stretches that are held for 30 seconds, some peformed for each side of the body. but even so it only adds a few minutes to my total workout time.BTW - I picked up the stretching routine from a book by Ed Jackowski called "Hold It! You're Exercising Wrong" - it is an excellent book that focuses on getting fit in general - not only building muscle.
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Not sure about stretching, but I am a very big believer in warming up.Sometimes I see people in the gym doing terrible things when stretching. A lot of people have no idea how to do it right.
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Helms - thanks for the insights. Yeah, I need to get back to taking Arginine/Ornithine supp - one I found to be very effective in the past. I am taking extra Zinc right now - and I think it ups testosterone as it usually makes me hornier than a two-peckered billy-goat! Trouble is - I can't admit to being The Big 5-OH and think I can still work out like when I was 25! I just hate to think I have to lower my expectations!One alternating sets/rep schemes I did recently with some success was:Day 1: 4 sets x 12 reps, Day 2: 8 sets x 3 reps, Day 3: 5 sets x 5 reps - of course adjusting poundages accordingly - it seemed just a bit too much and I reduced each day by 1 or 2 sets.