It's getting crazy in the gym

[RedBaron38]

Hey guy's I was curious of when you worked out while cycling if you had to change your work out 'cause of the increase strength and endurance? I'm currently kind of clueless on this issue 'cause I'm not getting that butt-kicking feeling anymore when I leave the gym, so I switched it up. Here's the post I left in the work-out Forum Could I be overtraining?. Take a look and some feed back would be nice. Just a little lost on what to do 'cause my Deca /Test are starting to kick in and it's getting insane in the gym. thanks in advance

[Dozerd]

OMG thats a $hit load. What are your goals?

[Str8wca]

you are hugely over trianing what are your goals. In all honesty u do not need to waste hrs in the gym. I spend between 30-40 mintes and have been making solid goals without gear so i can only imagine how well it would be if i was on gear. If i was you i would follow the Max- OT training guide in my opinion it cant be beat. http://www.ast-ss.com/ it will not do u wrong

[Soup]

You are training to much, which can cause the reverse of what you want. try to keep the number of sets between 16-20 per day tops. Why are you doing 10-15 reps? I would stay in the 6-8 range. stay in the gym tops an hour. get in and out. you are only there to break down the muscle, you get big at home sleeping.

[Gear]

Just go by how you feel.

-Gear

[RedBaron38]

I'll try the rep's at 6-8 this week and see how it feels. MOST likely weight will need a big increase to feel for a work out, but I'll take Gear's advice and train with the way I feel. I was just kind of lost with what to do when the strength went up 'cause I know you add weight, but I was curious of you had to add more lifts to your routine so you could benefit from the gear? Then I started to think I might be over-doing it, but my gym time is still an hour to an hour and a half tops, so that's why I posted this up. Oh yeah, the 15 reps is for the first set as a warm-up only. And calves I have a hard time finding to grow but lately this leg routine as been sweet, so most likely won't be changing that one, but might change the numbers on the leg curls and leg ext. Dozer, my goals are like everyone else on here and it's to get HUGE. I suddenly realize that I might have blindly gone in with out remembering that muscle fibers tend to get bigger on higher weight and lesser reps, but the again everyone is different

[RedBaron38]

Do you guy's think I should stick with the first routine but drop the reps down and pump up the weight?

[Gear]

If you feel you can lift more, add more weight and keep the rep # the same.

-Gear

[The Baron]

I do one or at most two sets of an exercise, and no more than two exercises for any particular muscle. Failure sets, 7-9 reps upper body and 8-11 reps lower body. I am in and out in 20 minutes.

[RedBaron38]

No offence but that just seem's crazy.....20min. work-out? Mentally and physically I don't know if I would call that a work out? I think I'm just going to try the 8-6 reps this week and see if that does anything, but I have heard of a routine like that...you are done in like half an hour tops and it's just blasting each muscle group...but if it works for you then it works for you, ya know? But thanks for the tip I might try it out one day.

[Gear]

Everybody has different methods of training. Not everybody trains for 1hr, and not everybody does the usual 6 - 8 reps. Arnie used to train for hours and hours p/day, and are you going to say that he was wrong? Well anyway, that many hours in the gym is probably wrong regrads to a lot of things, but it worked for him. So I say experiment and find what suits you best.

-Gear

[GrantC5]

My opinion is you are overtraining. I do workouts like this for 2-3 weeks every once in awhile to shock my body. I would cut your sets and reps down to 3x6 and stay heavy for all your movements. Calves, Traps/neck and shoulders I would do 3x10,12. All of your bodyparts I would do 1 warm up set prior to your 3x sets. Abs are also 3x20. This is my opinion it works for me and I see alot of people over train and don't get strong or big. Everybodys body is different though it may not work for everyone.

[RedBaron38]

yeah it seems that I'll have to exp. around and see which one works for me. I'll try them out for a few weeks or something, and see if it's a good work-out. But thanks for all the advice you guy's have given me, and yeah Arnold did train like a mad-man but one of the golden rules in BB or lifting in general is to NOT copy a work-out routine from some prof. BB. They spend there lives in the gym while I only an hour or so in the gym. But again thanks for all the advice, I'll just have to play around with some idea's and go from there.

[The Baron]

Here's the thing... if you are going jap-slap to absolute failure, with good form, and extending that state of imminent failure for as many reps as possible by calculated cheating, really recruiting the hell out of the muscle, how many sets do you need? If you get it right the first time, why do it all over again? That seems silly to me. Hit it hard, then start recovering. Don't keep punishing the poor muscle when it is all-in. Let it start healing. FEED it and REST it.

Almost any program, if applied with focus and intensity, will bring you gains of some sort... even your program will give you results, if you are really into it. Sometimes we split too many hairs, and ignore the obvious, that some guys with crap training still manage to grow. The mental state and level of dedication are at least as important as the precise number of sets and reps. So if it is working for you, no need to change it. If it isn't, then what the hell... may as well try it my way. This DOES NOT WORK, if you diddle around at sub-failure levels of intensity. If you just play around with the weights, if you have never puked or crapped your pants in the gym, you aren't there, yet, focus-wise. In that case, higher volume might be preferable.

[RedBaron38]

yeah my ab routine is lower,mid/obliq/upper, with 3 sets at 20. I just didn't want to write that down in my thread

[RedBaron38]

While I'm in the gym...COMPLETE focus is used on the muscle group so I understand what you are saying Baron. Most of my training partners are half-a**er's so I find it hard to keep them. Most of them like the way I am in the gym 'cause it's an a**kicker to lift with me. I general hate most of the guy's that just talk in the gym when I need to use that weight/machine...whatever, so like I said I'll play around again and see what happens but I do like my routine and was just curious of overtraining. Agian thanks for the input, and sorry if it sounded like I was bashing your routine, I really was just saying in my mind it would be hard to go in and out of the gym in 20min.

[j martini]

I think that any routine will work as long as you put the effort into it, i have always thought diet is more important than training after all without proper nutrition you could have the perfect routine and still not grow.
If you look at the most succesful pros they all had vastly different training styles, but their dietary principles remained very similiar eg high protein, high calories.

[Trackman 37]

IMO you're overtraining but everyone is different and generally speaking guys who haven't been working out as long do more sets because their intensity isn't at the level of advanced bodybuilders. If you can go at maximum intensity you should be able to make good steady gains with no more than 8-10 sets per body part (preferably less than that) at 6-8 reps per set not including warm up sets. However, like Gear has said different people respond to different programs.
One thing you definetly need to change is working your triceps the day before you work your chest. Triceps are generally the weak link in chest workouts, by working them the day before they are already fatigued, there is no way you can go as heavy as you need to for the chest with the triceps having been worked the prior day. Again, just my opinion but one based on 20 years of training and I'm benching 405 pounds at 190 pounds at 38 years old so I have some idea about training methods. Good luck with whatever program you decide on.

[RedBaron38]

Actually some good advice there Trackman....might start thinking about physiologically about my routine now....might make some changes to both routines and combine what fit's best for me....thanks