Spotters

[Rex]

I know people say unless you really struggle and work your muscles to failure during your last reps, you won't see results, so sometimes without a spotter you can't finish that last rep completely or need to cut it out to avoid injury.

So how important is it to have someone spot you during lifting?

 

[Telstra]

you can post your video lifting and i will be spotting, pointing out what you did wrong.

 

[KaraBulut]

I know people say unless you really struggle and work your muscles to failure during your last reps, you won't see results,

There's a lot of misinformation out there about workouts.

Working yourself to failure is just setting yourself up for joint damage. Guys who are power-lifters do stuff like this but it's not necessary to do this over-exertion if you want to build muscle.

The process of building muscle is time-intensive. It is repeatedly working your muscles over time- tearing them down with repetitive lifting to force your body to rebuild them. This can be done with a reasonable amount of weight and in fact, sometimes it's better to repeatedly increase and decrease your weight to continue to stress your muscles into rebuilding themselves up.

So, if you're doing a reasonable amount of weight in a reasonable number of sets, you shouldn't need a spot.

 

[Rex]

I was always taught that to gain mass you need to use heavy weights and struggle for your last rep of each set and that you need to increase the weight of your workouts every week or so so you can keep seeing results because once your body gets used to the weight it adjusts and you won't see changes if you stick with the same weight.

 

[versatastic]

In order to build mass, you need to do increasingly heavy weight for several sets but very few reps per set. At the end you will have done both high reps and high weight. For instance do a warm-up set or two of 5 reps at 50-60% of your max. Then increase the weight by about 3-5% doing 3 sets of 3-4 reps until you get to 85-90% and then do 1-3 sets of 1-3 reps at 85% on lighter days and then going up to 95% on heavy days.

You might need a spot for the last round of weight, but the idea is not to go to failure. By slowly ramping up the weight, you allow your nerves and muscles the time to adapt to the increases in weight. Then you should be able to do the higher weights by yourself. But again, the idea isn't to do the higher weights to failure. The whole routine is meant to tear up your muscles slowly so that you can continue to lift for a longer period of time and maximize the number of muscle fibers that tear.

You really just have to go by your previously established max for about 3-6 months and then max out again. You'll see results by how much easier it is to get through the whole routine by the end of the 3-6 months and not really during that period of time because your strength will vary from week to week depending on your other activities, diet, stress, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Some days/weeks you will feel a lot better and quickly run through a workout and then the next week will be hell. At the beginning you might not even make it to 80-85%, but at the end before you max out again you should always be able to go up to 95% with just a few reps.

 

[KaraBulut]

Versatastic is correct.

Everyone has a different routine that works best for them but most people don't need to go to failure to build muscle.

Think of it this way: there are three approaches to weight lifting- body building, powerlifting and strength training.

The powerlifters and strength training guys are the ones who need to really push themselves with high amounts of weight. But if you look at a powerlifter's body, they are just big and bulky and have poor balance and definition. And they usually have to stop lifting in their 20s because this style of lifting damages their body- particularly their joints.

The tone, definition and balance for body building is not achieved by doing high weight and working to exhaustion. It comes from stressing your body with a fraction of your maximum strength (max strength is the highest weight that you can lift for just one rep with a spot but no other assistance), allowing it to repair itself and stressing it again. For most people, this means doing less than your maximum weight and increasing the weight until fatigue- not exhaustion.

For building, most people respond to higher reps with moderate amount of weight with increasing and decreasing the weights to stress your muscles. The high weight, low rep guys are the strength trainers who are interested in strength, not muscle definition and balance.

 

[opinterph]

If you can afford the expense, you might consider adding a spotter rack or smith machine to your equipment. Having a fail-safe is a good idea, regardless of your routine.

 

[Rex]

Thanks for the advice but I'm trying to put on muscle and gain some mass/weight. Are you sure that you don't need to work your muscles to failure?

I was always taught that you should barely be able to finish the last reps in your sets and really struggle to do them. I had a personal training session years back and he told me this is the only way you'll see results, by really pushing your body to the limit.

 

[versatastic]

This is a case of "less is more".

Actually, depending on your current routines, if you do what I've outlined above you likely will go to failure at least for a few weeks starting off. You have to already be in shape to hack that workout. I've seen many, including myself, who end up vomiting halfway through because of how intensely anaerobic it is. You're only supposed to take ~30-90 seconds between sets. It's classic methodology, tried and true. It's not well-known anymore for various reasons including the need for quick-fix faster results in our current culture and the lack of patience and dedication it requires for long-lasting results.

 

[KaraBulut]

Thanks for the advice but I'm trying to put on muscle and gain some mass/weight. Are you sure that you don't need to work your muscles to failure?

I was always taught that you should barely be able to finish the last reps in your sets and really struggle to do them. I had a personal training session years back and he told me this is the only way you'll see results, by really pushing your body to the limit.

That philosophy is really more of a way to build strength. Same is true of forced reps. The problem that you run into with this "exhaustion" technique is that it is actually a form of overtraining that doesn't really trigger muscle build-up.

You don't have to lift to you max capacity and exhaustion to add muscle. Muscle building takes time and it's more the repetition of exercise over time alternated with periods of rest/low-intensity that triggers your body to add more muscle capacity and to store more carbohydrate in the muscle tissue.

Also keep in mind that you're building strength in your connective tissue (in the muscle, as well as with your tendons and ligaments) which is an even slower process. So, overexertion puts you at risk for connective tissue injury.

My guess is that you're probably going to see more results by going to alternating routines that stress your body with variety. This is called periodization.

Here's something you might try to see if it changes your workout- do 2 weeks of alternating cycles:

Weeks 1-2: do your usual 3 x 16 type weight set. Lower your weights and use these two weeks to push yourself in cardio. This sets a base weight level that your body will adjust to very quickly.

Weeks 3-4: Go lighter on your cardio and do weight routines that vary the weight and number of reps.

First, find your max capacity- the highest weight that you can complete 1 rep on.
Weight option 1:

• Increase your sets to 4 sets.
• In your first two sets, do a full set of 12-16 reps at about 60-70% of your max capacity.
• In your last 2 sets, do a short set of 6 reps at about 80-90% of your max capacity.

Weight option 2:

• Do your normal 3 set routine but start with a first set of 60-70% in your first set of 12-16 reps.
• In your second set, increase the weight by 10-20% and do 8-10 reps.
• In your last set, increase the weight to 80-90% of your max and do 6-8 reps.

What sometimes happens is that your body adapts to doing the same weight in sets of 3 times the same number of reps. Your maintain tone, but don't add bulk. The findings coming out of some of the exercise capacity research is saying that the body needs to be pushed harder in variable and constantly changing exercise alternated with periods of rest/recovery. So, when doing the treadmill, using the "hill" setting is more effective than using the constant setting. And in weight lifting, varying the weight and number of reps will push your body to adapt by stressing both the fast twitch and slow twitch fibers.

If you're interested in reading more about the theory behind this, here's a couple of articles from the American College of Sports Medicine that talks about periodization and overtraining:

Periodization (page 12):
http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm...EMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=1273

Overtraining:
http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm...emplate=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=8647

 

[archive]

im surprised no one mentioned diet

but ive seen both work

my supervisor lifts to failure...(diet is ridiculously strict however) and he puts on (and loses) size quickly

me..i use the method verse stated....it works well (but my diet is ehh)

u need both to put on weight

you just need to find the method that works for you...just make sure your diet is at least decent

 

[Rex]

I don't have a good diet. I'm not eating enough. That's probably one of the reasons why I'm seeing minimal results.

 

[archive]

I don't have a good diet. I'm not eating enough. That's probably one of the reasons why I'm seeing minimal results.

that is more than likely why....

it honestly depends on what you want to do....do want results right away.....or do you want to get bigger cleanly (minimal fat gain)?

 

[Rex]

I'm really confused by KaraBulut's post.

First, find your max capacity- the highest weight that you can complete 1 rep on.
Weight option 1:

• Increase your sets to 4 sets.
• In your first two sets, do a full set of 12-16 reps at about 60-70% of your max capacity.
• In your last 2 sets, do a short set of 6 reps at about 80-90% of your max capacity.

That's pretty much what I was doing, except I don't know the percentages of my max capacity and all that. I usually would go 12-10 reps in the first set, 10-3 in the second, 8-6 in the third, and 6-3 in the last.

Now I've changed this to do more heavier weights and less reps. I don't really understand the other stuff you're talking about and why I should do that.

I talked to staff at the gym and one of the guys said he used to do 10 sets of bench presses of the max he could lift but only 2 reps in each set.

Should I try something like that, like instead of doing my usual 4 sets with 12-4 reps each set, do like 8 sets with only 2-3 reps each but with a much higher weight?

I'm also going to try and eat everything I can. Before I would worry too much about trying to eat lean meats and healthy but that just doesn't cut it I don't think. I have a high metabolism so gaining weight really isn't a problem. I want to gain weight, so I guess I will just try and eat as much as I can and use protien shakes.