Plum ...

First of all ... bear in mind that I am old school ... and with my mindset comes a few do's and donts. It doesn't mean that I'm right and you are wrong. It's just the way I do things.

I train a single muscle group per day. I focus on high intensity training. In other words I try to exhaust the muscle as quickly as I can by focusing on forced reps aka (assisted reps), super sets and drop sets every other week with short rest periods between sets.

My aim is to leave the gym within 45 minutes and to get the biggest pump I can get within that time.

I need a partner to do this. Someone who can help me complete my rep when I'm shot.

I focus on three different exercises per muscle group and I do no less than 12 sets per session ... 3 x 4 sets.

Strength comes from going heavy ... and muscle comes from strength.

In the end it's about intensity and not quantity.

Fully agree on the intensity and not quantity

Question...….

First of all

I don't go to a public gym, although nothing at all is wrong with it, and if I had better time, I probably would.......…..I just have my own gym at home, it's a Body Solid G6B, with the original leg press attachment, which I thoroughly enjoy training on, and it gives me an incredible amount of different exercise options and variety...…. and sufficient weight options.....but I don't just gym.....

I alternate every day's training / exercising between my G6B, Cycling 20km - 40km, HIIT training at home, including boxing.... and some swimming laps in my pool at home

The question is..... do you use any apps to monitor, or motivate, or help you with these different muscle groups and sets etc etc

CC is old school, which I think is great, but do you.... or would any of you...... use these modern day  apps?

My shoulder program consists of ...

Seated Barbell Military Press ... which I superset with ... Dumbbell Lateral Raises ... and I finish my session off with seated plate shrugs.

In other words ... I sit on a bench and press a weighted barbell above my head till failure ... forced reps included ... (8 reps) ... and then I grab a set of dumbbells and crunch out a good set of raises till failure ... (10 reps) with no rest between these two exercises.

I do 4 sets like this ... it's also known as supersets. The pump I get in my shoulders is amazing and I can feel them tire almost immediately.

Then I finish my session off seated, with a 20kg plates in each hand, and I do seated shrugs till failure (approximately 10 - 12 reps)

That's me done for the day.

And so I go on from session to session.

Hall Of Fame

8886 posts

DA ... I have a bench with weights under my lapa. I also have a chin bar and a dip bar bolted to my garage wall.

I don't do any weight training for my legs other than run my ass off with my dogs.

I don't use any apps at all. The closest I get to an app is the stopwatch on my wrist when running.

You have the pulley system attached to your gym and so can do lat pull downs ... I use the chin bar. Told you ... I'm old school.

You must be very fit DA.

I didn't realize you were so keen on exercise. Is this a recent passion of yours (since your health issues) or have you always lived an active life?

CC..... I have played sport most of my life.... but not to the extent that it kept me fit

My health issue last year was a very big shock to me and my family, purely because it was totally unavoidable...…. I have never been overweight in my life.... not once...… so it was not fitness or diet related at all..... it was because something I ingested, was loaded with specific minerals which had more than 10 and 30 times the safe human consumption level respectively...…..

It's a very long story, which took many months to resolve..... even involving infectious disease specialists......but I came right in the end, and because of that, it just raised my level of awareness even more, regarding my fitness.....

I have done full contact martial arts and boxing my entire life, so fitness has never been an issue for me..... but taking it that next level up was never really a goal of mine..... but after what happened so unexpectedly to me last year, it sort of gave me the push I needed to step it up a bit more and get more intense in my routines

Just FYI, I am a massive fan of the Nike Training app...… it's 100% free and the downloadable routines are awesome, and they are professionally made...…

They have routines for everything

Geez ... what the hell did you ingest that was so toxic?

The only supplements I take is a good multivitamin and vitamin B.

Yeah ... banging on death's door will do that. It's a second chance at doing things better. I think that most of us will benefit from that kind of wake up call. Pity it has to come to that though.

Life in the physical is fleeting ... and death is a sneaky muddafukka.

I will have me a look at the app. See if I can benefit from it.

Thanks. 

Not exactly toxic, in my opinion...… because we all need and ingest these minerals at some point in our lives...... but obviously if it is excessive levels, then that changes everything... and this was very excessive levels

There were 2 specific minerals in particular which were identified that took me down

To be more precise...… the iron content that I ingested was exactly 33 times over any safe human consumption level, and the magnesium was 12 times any safe human dose

The Nike app has many different routines, including weights and other equipment as well...… ranging from 10min - 45min.... from beginner to advanced level..... I have probably downloaded about 15 to 20 completely different and free routines...… just to work all the other muscle groups...….all videos are expertly made with voice timing and coaching if you want it...… you can also play your music as well.....

I get bored very quickly, and that is precisely why I switch exercises and routines every day, because not only does it help when the weather is shit for outside activities, it also keeps me interested, because it changes my gym routine  every day....and it is not monotonous...… I have honestly tried 20 - 30 different apps, and I stand by this Nike app

If it helps you, awesome, if not, all the best with your old school routines..... absolutely nothing wrong with it

Nice post and replies guys. I'll give a full response a bit later when at my desk.

DA ... It's one thing to overdose yourself a little with something that benefits you in say a training session ... but 33 times? ... wow ... that's madness. You obviously did that with something in mind.

I boost my energy levels from time to time with an extra dose of vit B. I work it off though within the hour.

Any way ... you seem a little hesitant to tell me what it was you took and how that amount got into your system. I presume it was deliberate. How else could it happen?

No matter I won't press you.

Yes I agree ... old school training works for me ... but if I can tweak it a bit with something new then why the hell not.

CC, it was not done intentionally by me at all, I don't or didn't mean to come across as hesitant, it's just a long exhausting story for me...... which took months to resolve

I was unknowingly drinking water daily, and neither I or the business that the water came from, knew that the water was coming from a borehole..... the short story is as follows.

I used to always get my intake of a lot of water / coffee very early in the morning before work started, not knowing that the worker at this premises where I was getting my water / coffee, had changed the in house water system to borehole water.... so that he could water their expansive garden, and plants and trees whilst it was still cool in the early morning, before the shop opened.

He would then switch back to municipal water when the business opened up

I unknowingly was ingesting this heavy based mineral borehole water over a period of time, until my body said no ways, and shutdown suddenly

My entire lifestyle was analysed by 3 different doctors, to determine how I could get these high mineral levels into my system, and after every single test came back negative, the only regular routine I knew that I had daily, was getting this water..... so I eventually got the water tested..... and there was the culprit 

Simple.... yet potentially deadly

Borehole water?

I would never have thought of borehole water being the cause. I didn't know that iron levels could get so drastically high in borehole water.

Didn't you pick up on it's distinctive taste?

Did any of yo ur colleagues get poisoned?

That'll teach you for going in to work early. What were you thinking?

Well ... you've come away stronger for it and I've learnt something new.

CC

I'm as pretty much doing the same routine as you. Only more volume at 18 sets per day.

Crazy first year. Picked up 26KGs only muscle. Then 8Kgs the second year...then it tapered off with few and fewer gains. I know this normal, but if i'm gonna do it then i want above average results.

So this is my view/experience.

Training a single one or two muscle groups a day worked well for me at the beginning. I'd do five days per week. 2 days were only chest(18sets). 3 days were two other muscle groups per day (9sets each). Drop sets to fail, because I train alone. 

So always 18 sets per day and five days per week.

I feel there are probably two reasons outside of the usual slower gains over time graph why i slowed down.

1) I never changed up my routine enough.

2) I now come to understand that around 40% of my time in the gym was wasted.

Everyone preaches changing up routine and I'm certain that there is a reason for that. Problem for me is home gym. I have a lot of stuff, but not enough to have numerous sets of pre-stacked weights ready to go. 

Ideally, I'd do 6 different exercise per day...3 sets each. Instead, i was doing 3 exercise at 6 sets each. 

Then i decided to cut on weight for six months so I downed the weight and upped the reps by double. Did that for six months and realised that it was not really working and i was also becoming lazy. 

So started doing some reading. 

As i understand it; 20 sets per week per muscle group is ideal.

Going beyond 5 sets on a muscle group in one session overshoots the peak of the returns graph. 

This means that if one does between 15-20 total sets at 5 sets per muscle group per session, one gets more muscle groups done per day while shredding them the right amount. 

It adds intensity because you are splitting the workout into 3 or 4 muscle groups and so you move from set to set tired but fresh in the muscle that you want to train, since it has had a 5 minute rest.

I change the exercises per muscle group once per week and also rotate in a new muscle group and drop out one of the others. I train to fail from set 1 and use drop sets on some of the more dangerous exercises.

Thats what i've been doing.

BUT...

I'd rather workout twice a day than take supplements. It just feels unnatural. 

Protein - Want to hurl every time. Every single time.

Pre-workout - Enough caffeine to kill an Italian. No way raising one's heart rate artificially like that is good for you.

Creatine - There are a whole list of debated side effects. Just the fact that it's even debated makes me worry.

The rest are all fine in my view. Aspartic Acid and BCAAs vital to the cause.

The routine of taking them is a big part of why i dislike about supplements. Training without them is useless though. 

My view is that a good supplement routine can disguise a poor workout routine until relatively high tiers.

I'd like to say that this was the core of my problem but in reality that would'e be a lie. 

All i know is, the routine i have been doing lately has caused the most change that i've seen in a good while. 

 Perhaps it'll naturally stagnate but for now its making me feel jacked.

Yes, simple borehole water..... and no, I never ever suspected the water until the very very last resort...… and only after every aspect of my life was investigated...…..nor did I ever realise or suspect that borehole water could do this to a person

This did not just happen once to me, this happened multiple times over a long  period of time...… hence why so many doctors got involved, including a infectious disease specialist from Cape Town who even tested me for Listeria, which was affecting people about the same time that I had these issues.

I still have the detailed water report, which I actually looked for earlier today...... and I realised that I had made a mistake in my earlier post, it was not magnesium, as I stated before..... it was manganese

I did have strange tasting coffee sometimes, but not unpleasant enough to question it

I later heard that 5 other people were sick, with similar and different symptoms, with one ending up in hospital, the rest were booked off work, but as I said before, the switch over to borehole water was mostly done before the business opened, and it was switched back to municipal water when the business operating hours arrived......so most people were not around to get affected that early....

A hard life lesson was learnt

Have you guys ever followed a calorie / keto / carb program to get ultra lean?

We have a borehole DA!

I'm afraid to look into the holding tank.

Plum ... there is the misconception that for you to lose weight you need to lighten the load and do more reps. I don’t know where that nonsense came from.

Your bodyweight is determined by two things and two things only ... what you do in the kitchen ... and whether you have cardio in your program or not.

It’s the same as people thinking they’ll get rid of their beer bellies by doing situps. It’s not going to happen. Controlling what you put in your mouth is the key to it all. You can train yourself into a comatose state but if your diet is wrong you are wasting your time.

Gaining so much muscle in a year is unheard of. Are you sure it’s not fat? The best body builders in the world are very happy with 5lbs of muscle in a year. Muscle is hard come by. It takes the right combo of exercises and diet to make inroads here.

Your body has different sized muscle. Hitting your bicep with 20 sets will kill your gains. You will hit a plateau and no further growth will be possible. Your bicep is very sensitive to overtraining.

Your bicep is active in every exercise you do that pulls weight towards your body. The tricep is active in every exercise that pushes weight away. That is why it’s so easy to over train these two muscle groups.

An over trained bicep will need to be rested for at least 6 weeks. I would recommend no more than 8 to 12 high intensity sets.

Rest is a very important part of weight training. That is why a split routine is recommended. I take it you’ve heard of the push / pull routine? Every muscle needs 48 hours to recover properly and so it is ill-advised to do back to backs pull or push sessions.

The best gains you’ll get for your chest is not bound to the quantity of sets or exercises you do. I guarantee you massive gains in strength and in size if you drop your rep range to around 4 – 6 reps per set ...  failing on the 5th ... and forcing the last two with assistance.

Personally, I think you’re over training. 

Lol @ Plum

After this happened to me last year, I decided to look a bit more into it

Surprisingly, excessively high levels of iron in borehole water is a very common occurrence and threat, which needs to be treated and filtered  in a specific way.

Yeah CC, I was afraid I was over training. So I dropped from 18 sets 15 per day.

My bad, I mean dropped to lighter weights so as to do more reps. Not to lose weight. I thought switching up to high reps would shock growth back into action. Haha it didn't work.

For real, I got jacked in the first year. I trained hard and took supplements religiously. Perhaps because I started quite underweight. Always been a lazy eater. Have ever had a belly of any sort. Yeah 4lb per year is normal from year four onward. The dreaded plateaux. That's when weaklings start juicing. Can't say I've ever been tempted despite countless offers.

Are you talking about sets per session or sets per week when you say 20 sets will kill your gains? I think you're saying 20 sets per session is bad. I fully agree.

My problem with low bench reps is training solo. I'm at 135kg now in terms of a 4 rep set. I knock it down to 115kg and rather smash out 10 safe reps. I keep worrying an elbow or muscle go. Probably won't but if it does, well I won't be posting here anymore :) 

I'm ashamed to say that it's only in R he last six months that I've started using correct bench technique. I always had my upper arms forming a straight line with my shoulders. Then I was told that my arms should be 45degrees. I noticed the difference immediately. Oh well, at least it built m y shoulders nicely haha

CC some Coleman interviews release this week.

Check his response to the gap in eras. He actually laughs and wants to know if the interviewer is serious.

This channel does some good interviews.

https://youtube.com/user/patrickbetdavid/videos

Thanks Plum.

Ronnie is special. His work ethic is inspirational.

He had the genetics and the will to take this sport to a whole new level. Pink thong and all.

Absolutely amazing. He stands alone.  

Really? ... wow ... with that kind of weight you could easily have blown an elbow ... or even worse your shoulder. That can end your gyming days permanently.

45 degrees is a bit much. Slightly off center will do just fine.

Getting the right technique down for every lift is vital, especially if you're pushing heavy.

Safety first, Plum. Your joints are fragile and need to be looked after.

Your bench is very impressive. I've never come close to 135kg. I use 50kg dumbbells with a rep range of 6 - 8 reps. I seem to have reached my peak. It gives me a great work out though.

I would recommend you use dumbbells for bench press when training alone. Not advisable to be caught under a 300lbs bar with no-one about to help.

I train alone most times as mys sons are busy with their lives so dumbbells have becomes a big part of my routine.

There are a lot of ways to wake the muscle up from it's slumber ... upping your rep range is one of them. My bad ... I misunderstood you.

You seem to have the basics down. Nice to chat to another gym rat.

It's not a complicated sport. Get the technique down and stick to the meat and potatoes of the sport and you'll do well.

Some folk tend to complicate things with an assortment of weird exercises ... weird angles.  It always amuses me when I see this, as the range of motion for each join is very specific. Basic compound exercises like the bench press, dead lift, military press and squat (meat and potatoes) will always be the heart and soul of weight training.

Chest - Flat Bench Press / Inclined Bench Press / Flat Fly

Back - Deadlifts / Barbell Rows / Chin Ups / T Bar Rows

Shoulders - Seated Military Press / Lateral Raises / Upright Rows

Traps - Shruggs / Plate Shruggs

Bicep - Barbell Curls / Spider Curl / Seated Dumbbell Curls

Tricep - Lying Skull Crusher / Narrow Grip Bench Press / Seated Dumbbell French Press

Quads - Squats / Leg Press / Hack Squats

Hammies - Stff Legged Dead Lifts / Alternate Leg Curl

Calves - Cave Raises

I can't see a scenario where I would stop lifting. Unless it was for some reason physically impossible. 

Always preaching to friends how they should get off their arses and get in the gym. It's just an all round fantastic hobby.

It's only lately that I've started to get more into the science and I think it's a good thing since it has kept things fresh. It does look like a rabbit hole of note though. 

Just some background. My gym is in a large wood cabin on the property. Problem is, it's under the highest tree in the entire area and my gym time is late afternoon(bad I know). So when there Gauteng thunderstorms are overhead I'm not able to get in the gym. We have had about 6 strikes on trees over the last two years. 

So ya, when there is a thunderstorm on the West Rand, ret assured I'm sitting in my living room, gloves on and pretty frustrated.

I tell my girlfriend that Thor is jealous of my progress. Haha I wish

Well ... the last I saw, Thor had a beer belly and looked terrible ... so you should perhaps look for another to compare yourself to.

Besides .. fat bellied Thor can gather Mjölnir in one hand and stride off with out effort ... can you?

Haha we allow ourselves small lies to get by.

Started doing haunched concentration curls today. Is an awesome change up.

Do you take testosterone boosters CC?

Haaaaahahahaha!! No definitely not!!

I have a friend who also pushed 135kg barbell bench at one time, but he needed all the boosters he could get to achieve this. On top of that he ended up bringing his shoulders into the rep, destroying his technique and his pec.

I have seen what a pec looks like after it's been torn from the bone. Not nice. He's never been the same since.

These boosters up your strength dramatically ... so much so that tearing muscle from bone is rather easy. Tendons and ligaments are put under tremendous strain. The weight you train with while juiced is not legit in my opinion. I would rather do a 100kg bench knowing it was all me than 150kg juiced.

Just not worth it.

I only take a good multivitamin, all the Vit B's and fish oil for my joints every other week.

Gym is an incredible sport. It will always be a part of my life. I use it as a tool to gain a little strength, to control my weight and to maintain muscle tone. Feeling like a million bucks everyday is good enough for me ... and ... meeting an old mate I haven't seen in 20 years feels good ... especially if he's let himself go, which is usually the case.

I'm talking about Aspartic Acid.

It's basically just a natural test booster, available at Dichem/Clicks.

Just helps guys over 30 to get some ground back.

Cool, I'm gonna do your routine today. Always game to try other people's workouts.

Will give you some feedback. 

Only change I'll make I'd t that I'll follow it with 6 x chest sets.

Indeed man. Show me a better feeling than walking out the gym and diving in the pool after.

And it never wears off. 

Having to throw out all your old shirts be cause they've gotten too small. That's just a bonus 

You guys are in a different league to me

I am finding all of this interesting though.... may start giving it a try

I see ... ok ... you can find small amounts of it in avos and an assortment of other fruits and veges. The tablet will contain a much higher concentrated dose no doubt.

Problem is that most gym rats don't stick to the recommended dosage. Their sole reason for taking any kind of booster is to help improve their training sessions. In other words they overdose.

Yes ... 6 sets of chest shouldn't be difficult at all, as it brings well rested muscle into play (triceps an pecs) ... why not give the chest a proper workout with 12 sets?

Enjoy.

To bring an even greater intensity to the above bicep routine, you can incorporate super sets and have someone help you with forced rep.

Ran that program for 7 sessions over 10 days, CC.

I subbed the seated hammer curls for haunched concentration curls though.

Man those 30 second breaks are short. 

My heart rate was a constant 140-145 throughout.

...and i did cheat, since the workout is faster than i normally do. I added in and rotated between 4 sets of Bench and 4 Sets of Lat pull-downs at the end of the workout. Surprisingly, I could go near max weight as those muscle grouse were fresh.

Concentration curls? Good choice!

I include them too whenever I change my program up a bit.

As you said earlier ... keeping the muscle guessing is a good thing ... and besides, a change of routine makes the routine interesting again. Sticking to the same routine can be rather boring after a while.

How was your pump?

Do you do anything for forearms?

What?

How about your grip? Anything for that?

Sorry, I only saw this now.

Pump was pretty epic, CC.

Those shorter breaks meant having to do less weight than I'd normally do. 

For firearms I only do wrists curls. Do you have anything else?

For grip I don't do anything. Do you mean grip technique or grip strength?

One thing I've started to notice is that as I move up through weight, on some compound exercises my hands tire before I feel the muscle is fully worked. I take it this is where grip training comes in?

I'm starting a fresh two-weeks tomorrow.

Feel free do do me another routine if you like have the time.

Grip strength is vital. Apart from crunching some stranger when you first meet (which is always fun) it helps you hang onto heavy ass weights.

All push routines (chest, shoulders and triceps) don't need a strong grip as the weight rests on your palms ... and your range of motion is always to push the weight away from you and then to control the descent. No grip required.  

It's the pull routine (bicep and back) that demands a strong grip from you, especially if you want to go heavy. A closed hand is essential for these exercises but sometimes easier said than done.

Things like Heavy T-Bar Rows, Dead Lifts, Wide Grip Bent Over Rows, Weighted Chins, Pull Ups and even Barbell Curls will put a lot of strain on your fingers, your forearm and subsequently your grip.

Nothing worse than not being able to complete your set because you can't hang on to the damn weight.

I would recommend 3 different exercises ... Barbell Reverse Curl ... Behind Back Barbell Wrist Curl and Farmers Walk.

Look like decent warm up exercises. 

Two sets before a session.

Man I need a smith-machine.