When to Stop?

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bgates1654

New Member
I am planning on ending this cycle when my joints give me issues. I want to keep the cycle going as long as possible, but I dont want to injure myself. What is a good point to stop in terms of joint pain? When you get slight tweaks when lifting? When your joints ache after working out? When they ache in the morning after? When they ache for a week?
 
Yes, stop now. 1 cycle is not what's important, working out over months and years is what's important, and risking injury now for a few weeks of extra growth may cost you weeks or even months of growth.

In his articles Bryan talks about working out over 25 years, and how he's abused his body over those years to get results, and its costing him now. Guys like Quad (old guys?
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">When your joints ache after working out?</div>

To me that is the guideline, once they start hurting after a workout sometimes during, to me then it is time to stop, but Peak is right...don't push it unecessarily.

I know its tempting
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I plan my SD's before I start my cycles and stick to them. Usually it is after 3-4 weeks. If I get a joint pain, I will already have done the damage. You can't workout if you get injured. It is better to over-rest than under-rest and your long term results will be much better.
 
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(bgates1654 @ Jan. 23 2007,22:48)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I am planning on ending this cycle when my joints give me issues.  I want to keep the cycle going as long as possible, but I dont want to injure myself.  What is a good point to stop in terms of joint pain?  When you get slight tweaks when lifting? When your joints ache after working out? When they ache in the morning after? When they ache for a week?</div>
It's also very important to work around your joint issues. When I do 1/4 ROM close grip bench presses my tris explode, they respond great to skullcrushers also, but I won't do either exercercise because I know my elbows will be killing me in a few weeks if I do them. So, I settle for &quot;inferior&quot; (for me) tri pushdowns and some dumbbell extensions. Better to work out for a long period with substandard exercises than it is to ruin your joints.
 
I'll fly in the face of popular opinion: If you're in your early twenties to mid thirties, push hard then some ...otherwise you'll get to your forties not really knowing what could have been.
It's better to regret something you've done, than to have never tried it in the first place.
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(the_dark_master @ Jan. 24 2007,11:08)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">It's better to regret something you've done, than to have never tried it in the first place.
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That is a very strange statement.
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If you can effectivly SD after 4 weeks of 5's and start making gains again on your next cycle then I don't see any benefit in pushing a cycle until you start to ache. All you are doing is setting yourself up for injury. I mean seriously, why hammer your body any harder than you have to to make it grow?

After doing a couple of cycles I know that I will never push a cycle longer than 8 weeks. The small increase in growth you may get by extending the 5's just doesn't seem worth the risk of injury to me.
 
Hate to flame ya DM, but that sounded like teenage advice if I've ever heard it. I'm 53 and would have a bigger chest, still be benching and several other issues if I'd only lifted smart instead of constantly heavy and stupid. Injury sux, and you'll grow a lot more without it, since it can STOP you. Okay, that's my rant.
Mr. Bgates, joint pain is a really poor way to mark the end of a cycle. Overtraining can be factored in a lot of other ways if that's what happens, without waiting for injuries. Regardless, overtraining isn't necessarily a marker either. I go by the poundages. When I can't keep progressing; I'm done. The body is done with this growth spurt, if you will, and is in need of a break, regardless of how painless you may be.
Of course, it's not over 'till tha curtain closes...you have negatives suggested for a reason (if you can do them) and I'm planning on experimenting with the 3x10's this cycle until THAT plateaus.
If that doesn't work, I'm gonna blame Dr.Pierre; he suggested them...
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Besides the forearm pain, which is actually fading, my left elbow ached a little after rows. I dont know if its just your normal phantom ache or a &quot;your joints are worn&quot; out ache.

In terms of working around issues, joint or otherwise, I certainly wont be doing underhand close grip chins anymore. I also noticed that straight concentration curls were remarkably painless in terms of my forearms. I guess I should mention that I go rock climbing on occasion too, which could have contributed to it
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I had planned on pushing this cycle until the poundages stopped moving up like Quad suggests, but they just kept going up... except for my incline bench
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This cycle I am up these poundages since my last bulk.
Squat - Dunno since my knee issue, but my 10RM was easier than before (I've only progressed to the 10RM so far)
Deadlift - Dunno but my 10RM was cake
Pullups - +15lbs
OHP +20lbs
Row +15lbs
Incl Bench -5lbs
Dips +5lbs

I was stuck at -10lbs on incl bench for 3 workouts. It pissed me off so bad I went up 5lbs anyway and did it with room to spare. Must be some mental issue.

I had planned on pushing the 5s until 3 workouts in a row I could not get a new PR then move to negs for 2 weeks and call it a cycle.

I am interested in seeing how the 3x10s work out.
 
I stop when I am overtraining. The weights get so heavy at the end of a max-stim cycle that I am doing near PRs every workout. I usually have to cut frequency down to twice/week, then I just get so worn out I feel I need at least a week off just to recover, at least 2 weeks to SD.

This cycle the loads are totally preplanned to end up at week 20 doing my previous 1 rm for 20 reps each lift! That will be time to stop! (right now only at week 4).
 
I'm like SM...I just can't add any more weight, way before joint problems set in. My form is total these days also, so that helps. No point in cheating myself.
I just don't understand what you mean when you say your poundages keep going up (nice problem to have, bud) but then you say your dips are only +5, others only 15+ or less...since your last bulk. Are you cutting? I think of a cycle as increasing at least 5 lbs. per workout for small muscles, up to 20 for compounds. Until I hit the ceiling and have to repeat a workout. Perhaps you started too high? Just trying to understand.
 
QD - I wasn't advocating HIT; what I meant to say was that you should at least try to push the envelope once or twice, whilst still young, but at the same time - NOT to the point of injury
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I really want to perfect my form but I think my OHP form suffers a bit when I get tired, but I usually start push pressing by that time. I started using the Riptoe form for OHP in the middle of my cycle so maybe I need a bit more light weight practice although I always practice with no weight on the bar and with my warm up set of about 65% of working weight. I cannot seem to placec the weight on my shoulders like they show in the book. It ends up on top of my sternum. I do notice that when I hit the form right the weight just flies right up.

Well my first cycle was a eat-everything-in-sight bulk, followed by 2 cycles of cutting. The first one was very successful, but the second one I seemed to lose interest and it was a pretty crappy one. It was more like a slightly less than maintenance cycle. After 2 cuts in a row I lost 5-10lbs on my lifts so you can add 5-10 more lbs for those stats going from cycle to cycle. I forgot to acount for the fact that I am now 13lbs heavier this cycle so you can add that to the pullups and dips too. I was comparing added weight instead of total weight. Also I am doing an extra set compared to my last cycle as well.

I was able to do 3 sets: 5,4,3,3 for my previous bulk 2x5RM I am not so pissed at that now. I start my cycles at 50% (rounded up) of my 5RM so starting too heavy wasnt an issue. Row is up another 10lbs too.

My lifts are still actually pretty low. I have 160lbs of LBM (3-5lbs may be creatine) at 5' 10&quot; so I am still a noob and should be making good gains in strength as well as size. I guess I am just expecting more.

I had no joint pain today. My elbow felt pretty good as did the rest of them. I am debating on ending it this saturday or pushing my luck for another week and another increment.
 
I hesitated to point this out as I don't want to seem picky or anything , but to avoid confusion I believe the 3x10's refered to above by several posters are actually 10x3's , quite a different beast entirely.
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