inconsistent volume / increase poundage,

[imported_dunhoonK]

My volume for isolation excercises like incline hammers, db shoulder press, and rear delt raise has been very inconsistent.. For instance on Monday, incline hammers: i was doing 2 sets of 15lbs...Then for the next workout (Wedsnday) I increased my poundage by 5lbs...thus 2 sets of 20 lbs. Now for my second set I could only finish 10Reps/15 even WITH a spotter. This problem also goes for my DB shoulder press and rear delt raises...is there a reason why this is happening? I can't seem to finish my 2nd set for isolation excercises...Also, even before I start these isolation excerises they feel tigh already..as if I alrdy worked them out...
My order of excercise goes like this: Incline Bench-->Squats/Deadlift-->LegCurls/Leg Ext.--> Bent Over Rows--> Weighted Crunches--> Delt Raises-->Skull Crushers-->Incline Hammers--> DB Shoulder Press--> Shrugs --> Calf Raises--> Dips-->Chins.
Again, why can't i keep up with my volume/increments?

Thanks in advance.

 

[McDee]

I have the samething sometimes, I suspect it might have something to do with my nervous system being stessed by coming close to failure and not having enough time to rest, but this is just an uneducated guess.

I would like to know what someone with more experience thinks though.

 

[Old and Grey]

First off, do your compound exercises before isolations. You cannot expect a muscle to perform at 100% if you have pre-fatigued it. You can't effectively do presses or dips when you have already fatigued your triceps.

Second, you cannot use increments of 33% on any exercise and expect your muscles to adapt. That would be like doing squats at 300 pounds on Monday and then jumping to 400 pounds on Wednesday. Use smaller increments or repeat weights.

Third, you are correctly setting your weight based on set number #1. Therefore, you cannot expect your subsequent sets to hit the same number of reps. Stop when you hit what you can comfortably do or change to a HIT type of workout. Failure and HST are not compatible. You have to balance frequency, volume and effort or you will go backwards.

 

[McDee]

Quote[/b] ]First off, do your compound exercises before isolations

good to know, my plan is like this so far, in this order:

squats: 10r x 2s @140lbs

chinups: 10r x 2s @5lbs

shrugs: 10r x 2s @85lbs

rows: 10r x 2s @130lbs

flatbench: 10r x 2s @140lbs

lat lifts: 10r x 2s @30lbs

arnie press: 10r x 2s @35lbs

tandem cable backlifts: 10r x 2s @30lbs

preacher curls: 10r x 2s @55lbs

tricep extensions: 10r x 2s @60lbs

I accidentally have most of my compounds at the start, except my Arnie presses. My increments are actually 3-5% and I am almost always completing every rep, if I feel like I am strugling I'll just stop and not fight it more.

What might be a big part of my fatigue is I have a new girlfriend

and sleep is a little spoty for the last month or so...like 4-6 hours a night at least 5 days a week.

 

[Al and Hammer]

Girl friend or not...sleep is very important! You need to rest both physically as well as mentally. I'm sure hormone levels/muscle recovery will be altered which will affect gains...
At least u dont have kids (I assume)!!

 

[Old and Grey]

Nothing like a new girlfriend to raise the T production up a notch!

That's a pretty good plan you have there, McDee. My only changes would be to put the arnie press before the lateral raises (in fact, I might even drop the lateral raises as being redundant) and do the shrugs after you have worked the shoulders. You also might want to consider making your bench press an incline press and adding in some dips as well. Then you could drop the tricep extensions and work your pecs and triceps at the same time.

 

[imported_dunhoonK]

What i dont get it is that i AM repeating the weights and i still can't keep up...My incline hammer's for 15s goes: 10-10-15-15-20-20. This repeating workout method also goes for my DB shoulder press and rear delt raise..

OG, so your basically saying to leave the isolation exercises like incline hammers at the end and shorten the increments..?
For ex: Incline hammers would go like 15-15-17.5-17.5-20-20 or 10-12.5-15-17.5-20?
Thanks for the help.

 

[Old and Grey]

Yup. And I would go with the second rep scheme. I think it is fine to go as low as 50% of your 15 RM on isolation movements. Just utilize a slower tempo when you are using the lighter weights. It's a good time to practice proper form.

 

[McDee]

so something like this OG? or should I seperate the Arnies and the incline benches more?

squats:

chinups:

dips:

inclinebench:

arnie press:

rows:

tandem cable backlifts:

shrugs:

preacher curls:

Quote[/b] ]At least u dont have kids (I assume)!!

nope, thank god, no kids (that I know of

)
I may be 30 but I'm still a kid myself...talk about the blind leading the blind...

 

[imported_dunhoonK]

I re-read the FAQ section and now i'm a little more troubled than ever! In what increments to use article Bryan/Blade mentioned that

Quote[/b] ]Your muscle, depending on the size of the muscle group, will not likely be able to sense a small increases in load, such as 2.5 pounds or 1 kilo. Your CNS won't really know the difference either. It doesn't get direct feedback from your muscle tissue about actual tension levels (aside from golgi tendon organs and to a lesser extent muscle spindles). The CNS is more sensitive to the degree of exhaustion, or a given level of output for a given duration. You will, however, because you know what you loaded on the bar last time and you know that you're putting 1 kilo more weight on this time. So aside from a mind game we play with ourselves, we need to try to make each workout a relatively more severe structural challenge to our muscle tissue. The challenge to our CNS and to ourselves is secondary to this. This is and important element that distinguishes Hypertrophy-Specific Training from other methods of training done for other reasons.

I think its saying that increasing poundage by a mere 2.5lbs would only help u strength wise but in order to induce hypetrophy you need heavier increments...
My goal is to get bigger so wouldn't that mean i have to increase poundage by 5lbs anyways?
I'm making this more confusing than it looks  

 

[McDee]

the simple answer?
from "what increments to use article"

Quote[/b] ] The smaller the muscle group, the smaller the increment. It's all relative.

Quote[/b] ]use 5% increase in weight each workout. For curls I would increase the weight 5lbs if my max was 100lbs. However, for squats a 5% increase would dictate that I increase the weight 15lbs if my max was 300lbs. So its relative to your max, which in turn reflects the the size of the muscle group .

from your post

Quote[/b] ]For instance on Monday, incline hammers: i was doing 2 sets of 15lbs...Then for the next workout (Wedsnday) I increased my poundage by 5lbs...

see it yet? the increment from 15lbs to 20 is WAAAAY more than 5%...
sooooooo, your increments are to large!