Weight training knowledge basics

Snarky91

Bluelighter
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Jun 13, 2011
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I see a lot of people doing ridiculous things in my gym. I think to myself they don't know even basics of weight training. I'll put some points here that I consider basic. I might re post so I don't lose content from page expiring.

1. Only train up to 75 mins maximum preferably 60 mins; longer than this is counterproductive.

2. Understand your level of experience and plan your programming accordingly. What this means in simple terms as a beginner full body workouts may be advantageous. With 6 months proper training, you should consider a "body part split."

3. Understand which exercises are most effective: for chest, this is bench press and dips; for back, this is pull ups, barbell/dumbbell rows, and deadlifts,; for shoulder it's shoulder press and military press; for hamstrings it's romanian deadlift, for quadriceps it's squat and leg press, for calves use seated standing and donkey calf raise. For abdominal hanging leg raise. For biceps use standing curls and seated curls on incline bench that's a little bit lower angle than shoulder press bench. Triceps use skullcrushers and dips.
 
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4. Avoid getting injured this is a big big setback. This might mean you take it easy a few workouts with less weight/volume. Know the difference between soreness that's good and sharp pain that's bad. Understand that soreness usually lasts up to 72 hours max unless you totally annihilate a muscle after a layoff. Know which parts are most prone to injury. Generally knees and rotator cuffs are vulnerable. You don't want to mess up either one it will hamper training and basic movement like combing your hair or bending down to pick up something you dropped.

5. Know the difference between hip hinge and waist/lower back pivot. I can't stress this enough. Hips are made to transfer power. Lower back is not.

6. 3 sets and 10 reps per exercise is very boring but effective.

7. Rest 1-3 minutes between sets.

8. Do not workout back and legs on consecutive days.

9. Latissimus dorsi is hardest muscle for noobs to activate with mind muscle connection. Try using dumbbell pullovers first, then do another dedicated lat exercise. Your arms are hooks and you're pulling from your lats while keeping your elbows closely tucked to you sides.

10. Legs respond well to high reps and medium reps. Veterans know high reps 10 plus accomplish hypertrophy and save the knees.

11. Infraspinatus and supraspinatus part of your rotator cuff liable to get injured if you bench too heavy or use your shoulder brawn recklessly. They don't adapt in same rate to superficial muscles front deltoid in particular; it's a big imbalance that always exists in the body as you develop shoulders.

I'll add more points later.
 
I'll add a couple of things off the top of my head:

(1) Probably the most important yet underrated aspect of training is feeling the muscle. I can't emphasis this enough. People talk about the mind-muscle connection, but it often takes years before trainees really get what that means in terms of sensation, feeling of movement, muscular proprioception.

Once you really figure this feeling out, you often find your max weight will (initially) drop, but also that your tendency to suffer injuries falls as well.

I think one of the BEST methods of improving mind-muscle feeling is by practicing posing. I often attribute the initially superior gains lots of competitive bodybuilders seem to make relative to their non-competitive brethren to their constant practice of posing and developing a superior ability to coordinate, control and employ the muscle. Which then translates perfectly into training.

(2) Get into the habit of performing extended eccentric-loaded reps at the end of a working set. Sometimes perform an assisted-set of purely eccentric-based reps. This will help strengthen and organise the cells that make up the tendon and reduce the chance of injury. It's especially important for any chest or shoulder exercise, given the uniquely complex array of rotator cuff muscles and tendons in the shoulder, and the high frequency of RC issues in athletes.
 
I've gone against a lot of things the OP is saying and seen great results. I don't believe lifting is a one shoe fits all thing, and it also really depends on what someone is going for. Obviously a powerlifter isn't going to train like a bodybuilder, or Olympic lifter train like a powerlifter etc.
 
The title of this thread should make clear this is not about going against the grain. For this reason, i'll add point

12. Advanced lifters have learned the rules. Therefore they can break them whenever, wherever, and however they see fit.

And who is an advanced lifter? Well, this is tough question but as natural the only way to be sure you're really advanced is you're putting up advanced numbers on compound lifts such as bench press, squat, deadlift, military press... this is because as natural strength provides very good correlation with muscle size to a certain point. This thread is mostly about bodybuilding by the way...

So type exrx in Google and see your ranks for your lifts. And use 1 rep max calculator too help you chart your rank.

Or Google 'strength standards' and click first link (nice site by Jim wendler) to place your rank.

If you're not advanced in at least one lift and intermediate in all other lifts (as your natural self), [Mod-edit, please treat other members with respect]
 
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13. Less than 6 reps promotes primarily strength gains. 6-15 reps is good range for hypertrophy.
 
Was it directed at you? It depends... are you intermediate-advanced and pointing out from a position of rule number 12. or are you a smart alecky type who overcrowds the weight training area of LA Fitness gyms and I'm watching and thinking "what's wrong with this person" they've been on this bench lackadaisacally for 20 mins and don't look like they know what they're doing (see combo of rules 6 and 7).

If you're smart alecky type, trust me, sooner or later I'm going to give you a piece0of my mind in the gym in front of everyone - cronies or no cronies - girlfriend/boyfriend or not.
 
Uh, I agree with you on some of your "rules" and disagree with others even for beginners. But clearly you're not interested in having a rational discussion about anything. It's a message board, people are going to have different opinions. Get used to it.

And you're going to give me a piece of your mind in the gym? lol Well have fun trying to track me down and flying across the whole country I guess. 8)
 
It's hard to see how any of these points are not applicable to beginners. But feel free to enumerate which rules you disagree with and your reasoning and I'll try to keep an open mind and see if I should make any revisions.
 
If you're smart alecky type, trust me, sooner or later I'm going to give you a piece0of my mind in the gym in front of everyone - cronies or no cronies - girlfriend/boyfriend or not.

What's with the attitude problem? Perhaps you should take a break from posting for a while.
 
My opinion based on about a decade of my own research and training...

1. Only train up to 75 mins maximum preferably 60 mins; longer than this is counterproductive.

For one this doesn't take into account how many days the person is working out. While I don't think it's an absolute, I would probably agree that about 1hr a day for a 4 day split would be optimal, but what if the person only trains 2 days a week doing a full body work out?

2. Understand your level of experience and plan your programming accordingly. What this means in simple terms as a beginner full body workouts may be advantageous. With 6 months proper training, you should consider a "body part split."

This is more from a bodybuilding perspective, but if the beginner is interested in strength training or powerlifting I see no reason why it wouldn't make sense to stick with a full body workout. Lots of people including myself have seen great progress using it.

3. Understand which exercises are most effective: for chest, this is bench press and dips; for back, this is pull ups, barbell/dumbbell rows, and deadlifts,; for shoulder it's shoulder press and military press; for hamstrings it's romanian deadlift, for quadriceps it's squat and leg press, for calves use seated standing and donkey calf raise. For abdominal hanging leg raise. For biceps use standing curls and seated curls on incline bench that's a little bit lower angle than shoulder press bench. Triceps use skullcrushers and dips.

I would generally agree with this, that compound lifts are the way to go, but I don't believe every exercise is right for everyone. It's not taking into account any injuries or limitations the person may have or to a lesser extent their goals. I.E. the person has bad shoulders and can't do dips... Another exercise may be more beneficial.

6. 3 sets and 10 reps per exercise is very boring but effective.

Again, this is dependent on goals and what exercise it is. Even when I first started out I don't think I ever went above 8 reps at least for the main lifts, but then again I've never been a fan of high reps

8. Do not workout back and legs on consecutive days.

Also dependent on goals. For powerlifting I see absolutely no reason not to do both.

10. Legs respond well to high reps and medium reps. Veterans know high reps 10 plus accomplish hypertrophy and save the knees.

My legs responded best to heavy weight even as a beginner. For bodybuilding isolation movements I would agree that reps should be higher, but I wouldn't say it's set in stone.

(1) Probably the most important yet underrated aspect of training is feeling the muscle. I can't emphasis this enough. People talk about the mind-muscle connection, but it often takes years before trainees really get what that means in terms of sensation, feeling of movement, muscular proprioception.

I guess this is also more of a bodybuilding thing. Some of my best workouts and lifts I didn't "feel" the muscle. I don't believe feeling the muscle and soreness are necessarily indicators of a good or bad workout but I'm coming from a strength training/powerlifting point of view.

(2) Get into the habit of performing extended eccentric-loaded reps at the end of a working set. Sometimes perform an assisted-set of purely eccentric-based reps. This will help strengthen and organise the cells that make up the tendon and reduce the chance of injury. It's especially important for any chest or shoulder exercise, given the uniquely complex array of rotator cuff muscles and tendons in the shoulder, and the high frequency of RC issues in athletes.

More of a bodybuilding thing again. I wouldn't exactly consider this a beginner technique and I would argue that it would more likely CAUSE injury than reduce injury in people that haven't already been training for a while. Especially for bench. Doing negatives puts an undue stress on your shoulders and rotator cuffs, so I'm not sure where it seems you drew the conclusion that it was good for them.

13. Less than 6 reps promotes primarily strength gains. 6-15 reps is good range for hypertrophy.

From what I've learned over the years is that 1-3 reps is generally considered power, 4-6 is a good combination for both power and hypertrophy, but much more than that and you're just getting into endurance imo. Even as a beginner I would say that if you can do 12 reps of a main lift with good form you probably need to go a bit heavier, but as I've been saying all along I've never been a high rep fan.
 
My opinion based on about a decade of my own research and training...



For one this doesn't take into account how many days the person is working out. While I don't think it's an absolute, I would probably agree that about 1hr a day for a 4 day split would be optimal, but what if the person only trains 2 days a week doing a full body work out?



This is more from a bodybuilding perspective, but if the beginner is interested in strength training or powerlifting I see no reason why it wouldn't make sense to stick with a full body workout. Lots of people including myself have seen great progress using it.



I would generally agree with this, that compound lifts are the way to go, but I don't believe every exercise is right for everyone. It's not taking into account any injuries or limitations the person may have or to a lesser extent their goals. I.E. the person has bad shoulders and can't do dips... Another exercise may be more beneficial.



Again, this is dependent on goals and what exercise it is. Even when I first started out I don't think I ever went above 8 reps at least for the main lifts, but then again I've never been a fan of high reps



Also dependent on goals. For powerlifting I see absolutely no reason not to do both.



My legs responded best to heavy weight even as a beginner. For bodybuilding isolation movements I would agree that reps should be higher, but I wouldn't say it's set in stone.



I guess this is also more of a bodybuilding thing. Some of my best workouts and lifts I didn't "feel" the muscle. I don't believe feeling the muscle and soreness are necessarily indicators of a good or bad workout but I'm coming from a strength training/powerlifting point of view.



More of a bodybuilding thing again. I wouldn't exactly consider this a beginner technique and I would argue that it would more likely CAUSE injury than reduce injury in people that haven't already been training for a while. Especially for bench. Doing negatives puts an undue stress on your shoulders and rotator cuffs, so I'm not sure where it seems you drew the conclusion that it was good for them.



From what I've learned over the years is that 1-3 reps is generally considered power, 4-6 is a good combination for both power and hypertrophy, but much more than that and you're just getting into endurance imo. Even as a beginner I would say that if you can do 12 reps of a main lift with good form you probably need to go a bit heavier, but as I've been saying all along I've never been a high rep fan.


Do you have a personal agenda against snarky? I thought what he posted was more or less accurate in a general sense. I never got the feeling he was making any absolute statements.
 
(1) Probably the most important yet underrated aspect of training is feeling the muscle. I can't emphasis this enough. People talk about the mind-muscle connection, but it often takes years before trainees really get what that means in terms of sensation, feeling of movement, muscular proprioception.

I'm probably going to be crucified for this, but this is exactly why I like training after smoking weed. The mind-muscle connection is insane for me in this high state.
 
I'm probably going to be crucified for this, but this is exactly why I like training after smoking weed. The mind-muscle connection is insane for me in this high state.
I know a guy who trains on low dose kratom. Says it improves his focus and drive. Not my cup of tea (pun intended) but I don't see how it's any different than loading up on stimulants? Different strokes for different folks.
 
What's with the attitude problem? Perhaps you should take a break from posting for a while.
agreed. How ya gonna cobble together some generic advice that's worth no more than any article from a muscle-mag, and start acting high&mighty and defensive? lame thread :\
 
14. Consistency is CRITICAL. Consistent proper training will see you move mountains in terms of progress. Don't quit. Everyone has a bad workout. Everyone has a bad day stressed out. Drop the weights, cut the volume, take a day off and make it up in your rotation logically. Extended layoffs will derail progress. Muscle memory means you'll still have an advantage because you've paid your dues, but you'll soon hit the same plateau that demotivated you. If you're making progress even on a monthly basis that's still progress. Consistency conditions your motor skills to a high level. Eventually you will have to incorporate periodization, but keep consistent. It doesn't take a lot of stimulus to maintain existing muscle mass if that's all you want to do time being. Hard part is consistency.
 
Mr. Nuttynutskin, if one has limited time on one's hands (s)he would be better off doing four workouts a week of half an hour rather than one workout of 2 hours. Bodybuilding, even powerlifting, is a process. It takes time for the body to build new tissue and as much as you like spending 3 hours in the gym will be excessive catabolism leading to a deficient waste of time. I don't think I have time to address your other points but this is one of the serious breaches of progress to "cram" all your training rather than hit short time but more frequently. Latter is much more preferable will always lead to better gains.
 
Neon black, I'm sorry you feel this way. Feel free to use the text editor to post as many "comment cards" as you'd like though.
 
Do you have a personal agenda against snarky? I thought what he posted was more or less accurate in a general sense. I never got the feeling he was making any absolute statements.

No. I don't even know him outside of this thread, do you have a personal agenda to defend everything he says? All I said was that I disagreed with some of the "rules" that he posted. He's the one that chose to cop an attitude even tho I agreed with some of the things he posted.

agreed. How ya gonna cobble together some generic advice that's worth no more than any article from a muscle-mag, and start acting high&mighty and defensive?

Exactly. Acting like you're the authority on lifting after posting extremely generic bodybuilding advice just makes you look like a know-it-all and less like you're actually interested in what works for different people. If someone wants to give set in stone advice inaccessible to debate it's probably better to post a blog or write an article.
 
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