Feels too easy....am I doing it wrong?

Naja

New Member
I think I did a pretty reasonable job of working out my max lifts for 15, 10 and 5 reps. Certainly now that I'm on the 5 rep part of the cycle, I can barely complete one set and I definitely can't complete two sets if I don't rest for a few minutes in between. I fail at the second set if I rest less than a minute. And that's just at the beginning - I may have overestimated what I'm going to be able to do 5 reps with at the end of this cycle. That's okay, I'm still going to try pretty darn hard, and maybe raise my weights every other time instead of every time.

But still I feel at the end of a workout that I have not worked hard enough. I feel like I could lift more and harder. I feel like I should be doing more sets.

My prior training philosophy was balls to the wall, all out to failure and exhaustion, all the time, no pain no gain. That bought me some injuries and a lot of downtime being sick with the flu or a head cold or just plain overtraining. So I figured that training scientifically was better than just training hard, and started an HST cycle.

The 15's and the 10's, well, I could make those burn. Two sets of slow, precise reps did make me feel like I was doing enough work. But the 5's....well, even though I'm pushing about as much weight as I can possibly push, I still feel like a wimp. Does that mean I'm doing something wrong? Should I be cranking out three or four sets to feel more like I've been doing real work? Or should I just chill out and try to cultivate a less masochistic attitude in the weight room?
 
um well why force yourself to "crank out" 3 to 4 sets when you can't even finish 2?

have faith in the system
 
Oh, I can (and do) perform two sets of all the exercises. I just need slightly more rest between them when doing 5's than I normally take. My current progression goes like this:

Flies followed immediately by benching followed by triceps pushdowns. I usually stop supersetting on the latter part of a cycle and take a little more rest in between.

Military press followed by heavy barbell shrugs, then lateral raises and front raises with db's.

Then on to rowing and then one arm dumbell rows. Later in a cycle I take more rest between sets, but early on I try to take less than 30 seconds between some sets of exercises.

Both squats and deadlifts in the beginning of a cycle, later in the cycle I alternate and do either squats or deads.

Various types of curls, 2-3 sets.

Just for stretching and flexibility, I do 15 or 20 good-mornings with an empty bar and some unweighted calf raises.

Some days early in a cycle I add leg extensions, hamstring curls, leg lifts and ab work. Later in a cycle when the weights are heavier I drop the ab work or do it on "off" days along with some cardio.

I just feel kind of wimpy since I'm not always dead tired and sore immediately after a workout. That's how it used to be when I was working to failure all of the time. The science behind HST looks amazingly sound, it just *feels* like I shouldn't be able to grow while taking it easy like this.
 
It sounds to me that your need to add some weight.
<span style='color:red'>Wrong !</span> I misread your post.

You should be about one or two reps from fatigue.
Moreover, no one said you had to drag out your exercise routine.
(Not that I recall.)
Intensity is still a good thing. (Don’t waste time between sets)
Don’t take an hour to do a 30-minute routine.
Thanks from .........
The &quot;idiotic imbecile who is out of it &quot; :)
<span style='color:red'>DKM is correct read his post below</span>
 
Naja, just my two cents, try as Calkid already said add more sets.

If you are at your rep max and you can't add weight your options are.

1. Add volume (more TUT)
2. Add frequency (again adds more TUT)

This way you get the &quot;feeling&quot; (I'm assuming this is what you are looking for) of having a good workout. Just don't increase volume so high that you have to cut back on frequency.
 
i usually rest for at least 2-3 minutes between sets when i get to the 5's. you'll probably have more strenght for the second set this way
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Naja @ Oct. 19 2004,8:07)]The 15's and the 10's, well, I could make those burn. Two sets of slow, precise reps did make me feel like I was doing enough work. But the 5's....well, even though I'm pushing about as much weight as I can possibly push, I still feel like a wimp. Does that mean I'm doing something wrong? Should I be cranking out three or four sets to feel more like I've been doing real work? Or should I just chill out and try to cultivate a less masochistic attitude in the weight room?
Hi Naja,

As I'm sure you are already aware, getting the tissue to hypertorphy isn't really about how you subjectively &quot;feel&quot; after your workout. How you feel is an indicator of your energy level. This is more a measure of your nervous system state than anything having to do with growth signals. Remember, exhaustion isn't what causes a muscle to grow.

If you are loading the tissue chronically, with sufficient weight, duration, and frequency, you will grow and grow until you have reached your natural limits.

I personally would not suggest you do more work for the sake of feeling tired. You could always do some cardio or something if you just want to feel tired when you are through.

Now, if you indeed aren't getting enough time under load, then you need to do more sets. My first suggestion would be to move to a 6 day per week schedule of an upper body/lower body split. If that isn't possible you can simply reduce the number of exercises and double up on the number of sets per exercise. Using two alternating routines works well for this.
 
Back
Top