MyFitnessPal
 

Im sure theres already a thread about this but who else uses MyFitnessPal?

Could use the extra motivation in my upcoming goals..

I use it just for tracking food.

Do you use FITOCRACY? Kinda cool for tracking workouts.

right now my workouts are super light weight. cause im trying to cut back down to 185 before i start lifting hard again.

OK so why would you stop lifting heavy(heavy is relative fwiw)? That is counter productive. You don't believe that low weight, high rep is better for cutting do you?

Look into epoc and the effects heavy lifting has on it. Also from a muscle preservation standpoint dieting is not the time to lighten up.

Jmo J.

What are you weighing?

Taking it easy in the gym and doing light weights isnt going to help your weight loss. The heavier the weight, the more the muscle is damaged and calories burned. You of course dont want to go so heavy you can only do 5 reps. Read any fitness book and almost every pro ive read about goes 10+ reps with solid weight

do they have an app for this fitocracy also or just the website?




also care to elaborate on this sir? i thought 5 reps was pretty good?

or maybe its cause i use supersets with other exercises?

ie bench 5reps superset into cable cross 5 (5 sets of 5 reps )
then incline bench superset into butterfly (5 sets of 5)
etc? ( i usually do two more superset routines after)

details guys!

I don't believe they have an app at this point, but do have something that works on a mobile device.

As for the second part, 5 reps can be fine. It just depends on the program as a whole, and the movement.

The over all program is more important than the rep range IMO. You can do fine on 5 reps, or 10 reps, if the big picture is accounted for.

Like you might do 8 sets of 5(40 reps) but you are probably not going to want to do 8 sets of 10 for example.

Just depends.

Spec you already know my health conditions, and it happened again about 2 months ago. but when i say super light weight i mean weights where im doing 10-12 reps but still having to work for the last 2. im not running around with 5lbs weights thinking im doing something lol.

But the weight is a lot less then what im use to but then again i was only doing 6-8 reps before. also working on doing burn sets. And a lot of short cardio!!

i dont get a pump unless im going atleast 10 reps. Im satisfied when I feel a good burn and have to push out the last 4 or 5. Unless going super heavy, I cant see you damaging the muscle much with minimal reps... jmo of course

I just finished a book by Arnold (a bit outdated but I still believe he has credibility) and he said he like to do high reps because it would keep his muscles from getting blocky. He went on to say that his partner, Franco Columbo, had a blocky phsique partly because he would only do minimal reps.

Ronnie Coleman also has been quoted as saying he only did low reps with crazy weight for photoshoots, he would never train and do less than 10 reps. He said high reps for size, low for strength.

Lets not confuse high reps for minimal weight of course. Im a pretty little dude but to give you an example, I can use my last arm day. I used the whole rack for tricep extensions and knocked out 15-20 for my last 2 sets. As long as form is spot on, I go as heavy as possible for atleast 10 reps. Im not pro but Im not a slouch either.

mmmmm so now im confused? ill try posting one of my days as an example so i can get some feedback from you guys on whether i need more reps or less. by the end of the workout im spent but thats not always enough


flat bench immediate followed by flat butterfly (bar never inclusive in weight)
1setx10reps (90lbs ) then
1x10 butterfly 25 lbs

60-90 second rest

1x5 140 flat then
1x5 butterfly 30 lbs

rest

1x2-4(whatever i can push out) 160 flat then
1x5 butterfly 30 lbs

rest

1x5 180 flat then
1x5 butterfly 30 lbs

rest

1x5 140 flat then
1x5 butterfly 30 lbs


then same routine on incline minus 20 lbs



then sitting butterfly 1x5 (2x 50 lbs)
then cable cross immediate after 1x5 (unknown weight)
for 5 sets

then i do a similar setup for back on same day


bust out your opinions guys? what are you thinking

To each their own however I wouldn't hop all around with the weight. Warm up with a couple set on bench and then stay there for 3 or 4 sets. If you can bench 180x5 why the heck would you do two sets with 140x5. Your nor pushing yourself at all.You want to tear drop your muscle and go til it hurts and the plow through the pain and keep going. The numbers are not important at all actually. Sometimes I'll knock out a set of 8. Rest a few seconds and knock out a couple more. If you know you can do 180x5 why stop at the exact number of 5? Why not 6. Weightlifting isn't an exact science of specific reps or weights. It's simply breaking down tissue and allowing it to rebuild then doing it over

fantastic info! ok ill keep that in mind too! my main reasoning is making sure i have enough energy to finish other sets...ive been definitely trying to avoid increasing my strenght only and failing to produce muscle due to too low of reps!

today happens to be chest day so ill give it a try and report back with what i actually do so you can critique that!

Dude you will NOT fail to produce muscle with low reps...lol

Have you ever seen a powerlifter? Believe me, they have no shortage of muscle mass.

Know what produces muscle? Eating enough calories, and lifting heavy shit.

Every set and rep go for broke. Push the whole time and dont save anything in the tank, as you get stronger youll naturally be able to push out more and have more enduarance

You will fail to produce muscle if there is not adequate stimulation. If you do every set holding back, you and I both know no gains will be made worth talking about. I prefer high reps and do a mix up with low and medium reps as well but the whole point is that when I leave the gym Im exhausted and I didnt hold back unless it's a warm up.

140x 5 180x5 and 140x5, clearly he's basing his workout off of a set number and not pushing himself. if it said 140x5 180x8 180x7 180x5 140x9 I'd for sure think he's really pushing it.

Going for 5 reps when you can do 10+ at that weight isn't low reps, it is retarded...lol

Just like doing 10 reps with a weight you can do for 40 reps would be retarded.

Well said. Don't get all caught up in high and low reps. Spec and I train a little different but everytime were trained together we worked our asses off high weight low rep and medium weight high rep In The same workouts. He did 225 box squats like 20 times where I could only do 5. Point is we did the most we could

That's riggggght!

On a side note there is certain movements that are better suited for high/low reps.

For example. Compound big lifts you are better doing in the lower rep range IMO.(except for say high rep squats).

From starts to break down on these movements, before your reach muscular failure, and you put yourself at greater chance for injury.

But you aren't going to want to do a heavy 5 rep set of flies, or rear delt flys, or tricep pushdowns, etc. Those type of accessory movements are better served high reps.

Additionally things like direct bicep work, and shit are better done high rep.(ie say 8-12+)

yup i tried it out yesterday and was kind of befuddled by the results....in short i think i need to catch like a full week of routines with one of you guys; so who is closer to 85202?!

took your advice trying it out first time on chest, heres what i came up with:

incline:
10x 90 lbs (not including bar) - warm up
9x 140
5x 140
4x 140
5x 140
1x 160

flat
10x90 -warm up
10x140
4x 140
5x140
4x140
1x160

and i was toast. i had more planned but could barely budge.

feedback on that set?

Good point. A great example is SOHP. The problem is, form is paramount to avoid injury. When your form start to fall of, you can easily get injured so low rep is key. The get a decent workout, you still have to exhaust the muscle or you're simply wasting your time so that's where the high weight low rep comes in.

Some exercies work great for low and high reps like squats and bench so mixing it up with high and low reps is great for muscle confusion. Like I said, I like to stay at 10+ reps for most lifts but I still throw in heavy low rep sets to keep the body guessing. some guys are the oppsosite but again, you wont tear the muscle if you're not busting that ass with each set.

That's a whole lot better. Alteast you're trying each set which the numbers show. Just make sure to not limit yourself, if you can do 6... do 6. That's a whole lot of sets. Unless you have a great mind muscle connection and you're totally in the zone, I'd stick with 3 solid lifts for that body part. In the beginning you want to stick with the compound movements then eventually you can incorporate pec flys and the movements that are more isloated. Concentrate on the muscle, picture it growing and block out the rest of the world....

JMO, every lifter trains a little different so take nothing as gospel

You should give the "juggernaut method" a shot.. Shoot me an email and I will send it over with a spreadsheet.

IMO you will be MUCH better served with some REAL programming like that. I guarantee you strength and size gains will be leaps and bounds better.

I am doing a modified version right now and am at my strongest by far.

Or even Weldlers 5/3/1 either the standard version or "boring but big" which has a bit more hypertrophy,

sounds good! as for three solid lifts you mean three different types of sets? IE flat incline decline? or what exactly

and id much rather take everything as gospel until i progress far enough to weed out what works best for me ya know!






im still a total noob at this; granted ive been in the gym for a while, ive never really been under any coaching so ... cant wait! email sent!

There is actually a method to proper programming. It is beyond just doing reps/sets with random weights. This will ramp up based on % of your 1rm. You will gain a good deal of strength and size if you do it.

IMO ANYONE and EVERYONE can benefit from a program like this or 5/3/1 before worrying about any sort of bodybuilding/hypertrophy training. This will give you a solid strength base, and teach you how to saftely do REAL lifts.

Not all of us have Phil Heath or Arnold genetics and can grow doing a million sets of 35lb DB curls. For the person with AVG genetics it is about moving some fucking weight.

A set training program is a good idea. I havent read this one yet but the good part is it will give you a solid structure for your workouts. There lots of different training methods out there like HIT, Dog Crapp, German volume training. The list can go on and on but the cool thing is, if you stick with this 5/3/1 program, you have no choice but to grow.