New workout routine

[basketballfan22]

Well despite the fact that I have not been on this site in a couple months, I have been hitting the gym hard and staying on top of my diet. I now weigh 185 pounds. The last time I posted I was at 178; so although it is not much of a weight gain, it is pretty impressive considering my metabolism and the fact that I was having a very difficult time putting on any more additional weight. Anyway, I think it is time to change up my workout routine. In my last routine I went from heavy sets to lighter sets, but now I will do the more common routine of lighter sets to heavier sets. Hopefully, I will log in as often as I used to, as there is a lot of information on this site.

[austinite]

Good call. I do 2 warm ups and one to failure at 3 to 5 reps.

[tigerspawn]

I always like to have my clients do some light warm up sets before we get to work. Light warm-ups increase circulation which helps heat up the muscles, ligaments and tendons in preparation for heavier weight. The chance of injury is reduced. The warm-up increases muscle efficiency, reduces potential for muscle pulls, improves reaction time and improves the speed of movement of muscles and ligaments. They can also help reduce the severity of post-exercise muscle soreness.

[basketballfan22]

Yeah, I failed to mention that I always do a warmup set with every exercise that I perform. I will still start each exercise with a warmup set of around 20 reps of around 45% of my last set's weight.

[tigerspawn]

I would consider your going from light weight to heavy a warm up.

[basketballfan22]

What is your typical workout like tigerspawn? I usually hit quite a few sets. I try to stay within one minute of rest between sets. I go to failure on every set. After each set, I progressively increase by 10 - 15% until I reach a weight where I need help on my fifth or sixth rep. I have historically overtrained, so I find myself still going beyond what I probably should do, e.g. after I reach that last set, I will start to go back down a few times.

Austinite, what is your workout like? I go to failure every set that I do sans the warmup set. Is that bad? I only do three exercises per muscle group. Every week I change the exercises that I do because in the past I used to do around 13 exercises of only 2 or 3 sets! I was advised here to instead concentrate on fewer exercises and doing several sets for each.

[Scottsdale]

If your metabolism is that amazing, you are envied by us all. I would stuff my face all day everyday, and night.

[basketballfan22]

My metabolism is very fast. My whole family has a very fast metabolism. You should see how my little brother looks, and his diet is extremely poor. I wouldn't call it amazing though because it makes it difficult to put on muscle mass. I think the adage of "the grass is always greener on the other side" is apropos here.

[bigsiv]

Good call. I do 2 warm ups and one to failure at 3 to 5 reps.

Austinite is this rep range specific towards a goal I.e powerlifting, mass or hypertrophy etc?