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Advice. Training again. Only upper body ?



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Old 04-19-2007, 03:56 AM
gong gong is offline
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Default Advice. Training again. Only upper body ?

Hi,

I've just started training again after a long absence from the game. I'm 30 now and used to train as a teenager and in my early 20's, and only off and on since then. I've recently injured one of my knees and the other one isn't that crash hot either. So my problem is, for the meantime I can't train my legs, maybe for another few months. Can I still expect to make reasonable gains in my upper body ? I've heard that exercises like squats are pretty important to overall growth. I'm doing a full body workout. For now I've only been doing twice a week, as I feel that I haven't recovered enough to go a third time. Maybe I'll work up to training 3 days. My workout is as follows:

3 sets Bench Press
3 sets Chin ups
1 set 1 arm dumbbell rows
3 sets either dumbbell or military press
1 set upright rows
2 sets dumbbell bicep curls
2 sets lying barbell tricep
Crunches

Session lasts about 45 to 60 minutes

All sets done to failure
Usually do heaviest set first for 6-8 reps, then lighter and lighter (is this OK)

Only warm up with a couple of light sets of Bench Press (this is my first exercise). Don't do any other warm up sets.

Is this a decent program ?

As for nutrition I've only just started upping food intake this week and been trying to eat as much good stuff as I can get my hands on. No supplements. Been feeling a bit bloated and full. Have already put on about 2kg, but I'm thinking most of this is just food sitting in my gut. LOL. I hope a bit of it is muscle.

So what do you guys think ? Am I on the right track ?

Cheers, Peter
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Old 04-19-2007, 06:38 AM
Scorcher2005 Scorcher2005 is offline
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You could run the 5x5 and just leave out the squats for now, or try going really light and building up your tolerance (not necessarily squats, but any leg exercises you feel comfortable with). Sorda like physical therapy while smashing the rest of your body.

Last edited by Scorcher2005; 04-19-2007 at 11:25 AM.
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Old 04-19-2007, 06:54 AM
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ChinPieceDave667 ChinPieceDave667 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gong
3 sets Bench Press
3 sets Chin ups
1 set 1 arm dumbbell rows
3 sets either dumbbell or military press
1 set upright rows
2 sets dumbbell bicep curls
2 sets lying barbell tricep
Crunches

Session lasts about 45 to 60 minutes

All sets done to failure
So what do you guys think ? Am I on the right track ?

Cheers, Peter
training to failure all the time will not give you the results you want. Train to near failure, i.e., 1-2 reps still in the tank, will give you better results. As for your knees, what did the doc. say about exercising your legs.
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Old 04-19-2007, 01:17 PM
gong gong is offline
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Originally Posted by ChinPieceDave667 View Post
training to failure all the time will not give you the results you want. Train to near failure, i.e., 1-2 reps still in the tank, will give you better results. As for your knees, what did the doc. say about exercising your legs.
I've been reading the forum and other sites for a few days now, and it seems that some people swear by going to failure and the HIT method, but others don't. I'm just trying to understand. Buy going to failure you're totally exhausting the muscle. I thought this was good. By leaving a couple of reps in the tank, I think the muscle isn't fully trained to it's potential. Thats just my thoughts. Whats your logic behind not going to failure ?

Still haven't gone to physio, but just by the way I feel I wouldn't train them in the near future. I just got back on the bike (literally).
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Old 04-19-2007, 01:23 PM
gong gong is offline
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Originally Posted by Scorcher2005 View Post
You could run the 5x5 and just leave out the squats for now, or try going really light and building up your tolerance (not necessarily squats, but any leg exercises you feel comfortable with). Sorda like physical therapy while smashing the rest of your body.
I had a look at 5x5 and rippetoe's. They look alright. I've been a bit confused by them. So you pick a weight that you can do for 5 sets of 5 reps. Is that right ? So the first 3 sets would be pretty easy, with the 5th set going to or near failure. Is this correct ?
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Old 04-19-2007, 02:50 PM
austrailia21 austrailia21 is offline
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id sujest if ur worried about your knees. why dont you get a personal trainer to train you, that way they can give you a solid analisis of how far to push and what your ready for.
btw your first question was funny . the one about working upper body and getting gains without working lower body, it funny cause 80% of the guys in my gym dont work lower body cause ' they dont want there legs to be huge like those body builders' hahaha
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Old 04-19-2007, 11:02 PM
gong gong is offline
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Originally Posted by austrailia21 View Post
id sujest if ur worried about your knees. why dont you get a personal trainer to train you, that way they can give you a solid analisis of how far to push and what your ready for.
btw your first question was funny . the one about working upper body and getting gains without working lower body, it funny cause 80% of the guys in my gym dont work lower body cause ' they dont want there legs to be huge like those body builders' hahaha
nah I've got a simple home gym that's good enough for now. Plus I don't have money to spend on a personal trainer, nor is it my scene.

Yeah I know heaps of guys only train upper body, but I think training the legs with the big movements like squats and dead lifts and so on is beneficial for the whole body.
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Old 04-20-2007, 04:46 PM
austrailia21 austrailia21 is offline
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Originally Posted by gong View Post
nah I've got a simple home gym that's good enough for now. Plus I don't have money to spend on a personal trainer, nor is it my scene.

Yeah I know heaps of guys only train upper body, but I think training the legs with the big movements like squats and dead lifts and so on is beneficial for the whole body.
read the tread fom 0311 (why arnt i growing ) that will give u alot of info on legs and training in general.
also 2 yeas ago i never thort id be the type of person to get a personal trainer , but i have one once every 2 weeks now and have never looked back. id highly suggest atleast having atleast one section , no matter what it costs.
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Old 04-20-2007, 06:39 PM
Scorcher2005 Scorcher2005 is offline
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Who needs a personal trainer when you have these forums? And look at trainers, most em are skinny guys who don't know a thing about lifting weights, but they have a piece of paper that says otherwise.
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Old 04-22-2007, 03:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by austrailia21
read the tread fom 0311 (why arnt i growing )
did you see what it said about training to failure? Second post, #5

Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Reynolds

5) Training to near muscular failure has shown to induce identical hypertrophy gains than training to all out muscular failure. The reason you guys can’t train a muscle more than once per week is because you are destroying it when you do train it. Learn to hit or miss that last rep and then call it done. Don’t do ridiculous amounts of forced reps, negatives, etc. until you literally can’t move the muscle. Take it to near failure and then your muscles will recover enough so that you can train them again in 3-4 days.

Understand that there is a huge difference in training to near failure and not training hard. I would never advocate to not train hard. Actually, quite the opposite – try to squat for 5 sets of 5 reps using only 10lbs less than your five rep max. That’s absolutely brutal. But when you get done, don’t go to the leg press machine and keep pounding out sets and stripping off weight until you literal can’t do a single leg press with only the sled. That’s absurd, and you can’t recover from it in 3 days.
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