Thread: need some advice please?

I would say one exercise is more than enough for direct arm training. They get worked enough in things like rows, pullups, bench, military etc.

For isolation exercises remember to make sure you keep the weight low enough so you don't go below 10 reps. The reason for this is that isolations generally use one joint, and a heavy weight on a single joint is pretty risky. In the case of arms, you don't want an elbow injury or tendonitis or something.

thanks, its just that i am quite confused, i keep geting told to change exersises everynow and then and change routine and reps ranges every cople of weeks but i have researched on the internet and it says it is counter preductive to change your rep range set sceme etc too often?

This is true.

You need to stick to a particular program for a while so you can actually give it a chance to produce results. Otherwise it becomes a nightmare to know whether you're progressing at all.

Thats one of the big reasons you really need to include some sort of planned progression in your workout programs - it allows you to keep things fresh, without the above drawbacks of just randomly changing everything.

For example, if you were to do this:

Week 1+2 - 3x10
Week 3+4 - 4x10
Week 5+6 - 5x10
Week 7+8 - 3x6
Week 9+10 - 4x6
Week 11+12 - 5x6

Not only are you increasing the volume by adding an extra set every two weeks, but you're actually using the volume to overload before cutting back and increasing the intensity for the second half of the program.

Right there you have two things that will allow you to make progress - overload (doing more work) and variation (avoiding stagnation). You KNOW you're progressing on a scheme like this because you can see it right there.

This isn't a great plan, i just made it up off the top of my head, but you get the idea.

Ditto to all of Gaz's points.

Also, you can periodize other training variables to increase/decrease intensity:

(1.) Relative Effort (i.e. 3 sets of 10 @ 10 RM (rep max) vs. 3 sets of 10 @ 14 RM -- the second is less "intense"). This is where it gets interesting because you can increase volume but decrease relative effort (see German Volume Training). Or, you can decrease volume and increase intensity. Or, you can decrease intensity and volume but cut rest intervals drastically. Or, you can have decent rest intervals with low volume/intensity and use this as an active recovery phase. The possibilities are endless. Hell, even failure training falls under this category.

Your volume and relative effort will determine how often you need to deload (planned periods of complete rest). Incidentally, rest is a major part of training -- and not just the whole "24-48 hours between sessions" bla bla bla. Rest and CNS overloading is something you'll learn to play around with. There are exceptions to the generic rules you read in magazne and on the internet. If you learn to incorporate rest strategically you'd be surprised what you can do with your body (see block training -- good example of breaking the common guidelines of rest).

(2.) Rest Intervals (RIs)

(3.) Tempo

(4.) Supersets/trisets, etc

(5.) Training style (e.g. hypertrophy, powerlifting, plyometrics, olympic lifting, neural efficiency, endurance). You could have a phase dedicated purely to muscle development followed by a mixed phase of muscle work, heavy submaximal loads, and a day of explosive GPP lifts (general physical preparedness)...exercises like box jumps, power cleans, etc.

(6.) Lift-specific training: you can do phases centered on a particular lift you want to improve. Say you want to improve your deadlift. You could use deadlifts 3 times a week, escalating your loads to the end of the week for a max attempt, and use deadlift-specific accessory work like cleans, back extensions, shrugs, rows, core stuff, etc. You might then just do some low volume maintenance for other stuff like chest presses, sqauts, pullups, etc.

thanks im liking this site already good advice and very quick response, well basicly im nearing a two week start into my routine and i want to grow into proportion, i have nailed my chest reps and back reps etc for the last 2 weeks running, but have kinda fuked up in my tricep and bicep days twice so far,

shud i drop my upcoming chest day (once or twice) etc so i can nail my tris and biceps rep range correctly with the right weight so my muscle groups can develop evenly as its probaly going to take another sesion to match up the right weights with the right reps, or should i carry on training the muscle groups that are 2 weeks ahead

sory for sounding so specific i just want to get it right

Originally Posted by nutta

thanks im liking this site already good advice and very quick response, well basicly im nearing a two week start into my routine and i want to grow into proportion, i have nailed my chest reps and back reps etc for the last 2 weeks running, but have kinda fuked up in my tricep and bicep days twice so far,

shud i drop my upcoming chest day (once or twice) etc so i can nail my tris and biceps rep range correctly with the right weight so my muscle groups can develop evenly as its probaly going to take another sesion to match up the right weights with the right reps, or should i carry on training the muscle groups that are 2 weeks ahead

sory for sounding so specific i just want to get it right

Let's forget about arms for a minute here.

What are you doing for your lower body? What about your diet?