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lifting_heavy_things2013-02-08 11:04 pm
alexseanchai) wrote in lifting_heavy_things2013-02-08 11:04 pm
Entry tags:
define 'reasonable goal'
Resistance bands? Apparently not doing it for me. However, my development has a gym attached to the community center, and it has free weights. Yesterday I did a ten-rep set each, with five-pound weights, of bicep curls and overhead presses and half a ten-rep set of lateral raises; given how long it's been since I did any strength training at all, I'm calling that impressive.
The goal I am setting is to be able to do at least that much with thirty-pound weights. Appropriate intermediate goals seem to be each intermediate size of weight, five-pound intervals. However, I do not know how long I should stay with any given size of weight before moving up to the next, how many ten-rep sets I should be aiming for with each weight, and also something about more reps with smaller weights for stamina and fewer reps with bigger weights for strength?
Help me set attainable goals, is my question here.
The goal I am setting is to be able to do at least that much with thirty-pound weights. Appropriate intermediate goals seem to be each intermediate size of weight, five-pound intervals. However, I do not know how long I should stay with any given size of weight before moving up to the next, how many ten-rep sets I should be aiming for with each weight, and also something about more reps with smaller weights for stamina and fewer reps with bigger weights for strength?
Help me set attainable goals, is my question here.
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how many ten-rep sets I should be aiming for with each weight,
As a rule of thumb, going for three sets (with breaks between them) is fairly standard and effective.
However, I do not know how long I should stay with any given size of weight before moving up to the next,
There is no "should" -- your body will respond as fast as it responds. What I tend to do is to play with the 8-12 rep range (which, again, is a nice rule of thumb range for reps).
So, for example, if I'd done 10 reps with good form and was feeling like I could do more, I'd see if I could manage another one or two.
When I got to the point of consistently being able to do 12 reps, then next time I'd go for the next highest weight up and see if I could manage 8. Then work my way back up to 12 over subsequent sessions, then try 8 with the next weight up, and so on.
You might also want to try using different weights for the bicep curls, overhead press and lateral raises; they're very different moves involving different muscles, and I'd be surprised if you were equally strong on all of them. It would be more usual to find that you can curl a much bigger weight than you can use for a lateral raise.
Btw, some people find that lateral raises cause problems with stress and impingement in the shoulder joint. If that's the case, the "scapular plane" version is a good alternative:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCsdpHx-nOo
and also something about more reps with smaller weights for stamina and fewer reps with bigger weights for strength?
That's it, basically. *g*
Rules of thumb:
8-12 reps is a nice general strength and fitness range, which is why it gets used a lot.
Above 15 reps, and you're into working muscular endurance (which can be useful and important, particularly with more delicate muscles or ones which have a stabilizing role).
3-5 reps (or even less) and you're working pure strength, maximum power. But it can be very demanding -- and means you're working with weights which are very heavy for you, so you have to be very sure of your form to avoid injury.
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Yeah, I thought it seemed odd that I couldn't do more than five of the laterals. Maybe I should bring a couple Campbell's cans, or figure out where the hell Mom's weight set got to, I think there's two-pound weights in it.
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Oh, and! You might want to add in some back work--rows or pulldowns if they've got machines, or one-armed lat rows if they don't. It's really easy to forget about the back, since you don't see it, but it's important.
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There are machines but I don't know what to do with them.
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You can do them at home if you have a really sturdy table, or at the gym if there's a Smith machine or squat rack with a bar you can use.
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/BackGeneral/BWSupineRow.html
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/11/06/inverted-row-are-you-missing-out-on-this-great-exercise/
It's generally a good idea to add in some exercises that balance out your primary goals a bit, so you avoid muscle imbalances which can make you more injury-prone.
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Thanks!
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On the dumbbell front, you could also consider finding a used sporting goods store and picking up some 8 lb. dumbbells (maybe even 6s or 7s if they're there)--those would save you from having to jump straight from 5s to 10s. It would be a pain hauling them to the gym, but if you carried them in a backpack it wouldn't be so bad. You'll probably find 12s useful as well, when it's time, but once you're at 15s, going to 20s is doable, if challenging.
There's one gym at a place I travel to sometimes that has 2.5-lb increments all the way up to 50 lbs. I love that gym and wish everyplace would do that.
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The thing about lateral or front raises is that a) they isolate fairly small muscles, and b) because your arm's straight, the weight is at the end of a long lever.
As a data point, I can comfortably curl (for the same rep range) a weight that's about four times what I use for (scapular plane) arm raises. And I almost never do curls.
Lateral raises are an isolation exercise that tend to be done with pretty low weights, so (IMHO) unless you have a particular love for lateral raises or reason for wanting to do them (for example, in my case it's antagonist training to balance out my climbing), you might not want to make them a central focus of your plans.
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Maybe you could do one stamina workout (one set to fail, or sets of 20?) for every two strength workouts? When I manage to go to the gym three times a week, I sometimes do that. (Or do extra heavy, three sets of four. But with overhead, I need a spotter for those.)
30 lbs overhead and biceps curls? Wow!
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...is thirty pounds too high a goal? I just, it's the first set of weights on the second row of the rack at this gym, like the five-pounders are the first on the first row, so it seems a good target. And I am so damn sick of being little miss scrawny call-dad-or-brother-to-carry-box.
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I'm doing these side/front lat raises (raise the weights out to the side to shoulder height, bring them to the front, raise them over your head, bring them down to shoulder height in the front, swing them out to the sides, bring them down. That's one rep.) and can do more than ten reps with 5lbs but can't do ten reps with 8.5, which is the smallest increment I can do up from five.) So very different weights for different things -- lat raises use small muscles that don't get used as much so they tend to be harder.
So I second the suggestion to use different weights for the different exercises and if your goals is strength, go heavier and low rep. 8-12 is a good muscle building range if you're eating enough to build muscle -- more than that is good for endurance and 3-5 is good for strength, though I've been told that OHP response well to high rep volume work when you get stuck, probably because it can use the extra muscle you build. Add weight when ever you can complete all of your reps with good form on all of your sets, and 3-5 sets is a good number. Three is pretty standard; if you want more volume or practice, doing extra sets is also good.
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Still going for it, mind.
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Being able to curl and overhead press 30-pound weights is an awesome and inspiring goal (I'd personally not focus on the lateral raises so much, for reasons explained above). If that's what gets your imaginative juices going, GO FOR IT.
But be aware that it's a big goal, so don't get frustrated or think that you're weak or incapable because it's taking you time to get there. You're not: you've just gone for it and chosen a big and exciting goal.
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Highest I ever got overhead without worrying about form or dropping it on my head was two dumbbells at 12 kg each, so about 2*26.5 lbs, and it was shaky enough that I did not dare to go up to 14 kg (13.1 lbs) without a spotter or a hard hat *G*.
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