Does anyone else feel they need very heavy weight?

[jww13]

I can't say for sure, but throughout my experience working out, it seems that my muscles require a relatively VERY heavy weight to respond. (This is even after long periods of not working out, up to a month&#33

For instance, I feel that I don't get any growth from weight lower than my 10RM. I don't get that tight feeling in the muscles after a set. Also my measurements don't seem to increase until the 8's and 5's.

Does anyone feel the same way?

Should I eliminate the higher reps and lower weights from my workout? Instead of starting with such low weight, should I repeat each workout twice?

I still intend to incorporate progressive load, of course, but I'm wondering if I'd benefit more if I didn't start with such low weight.

Thanks for any comments/advice!

 

[krenshaw]

you really shouldn't just eliminate the low weights in the workout because they aren't there to help you get big.. the 15s are basically to get you to progressivly work up to the heavier weights and to get your muscles accustomed to the load you are going to put on them.. i've never tried elimintating the low weights, but i know i would sustain an injury in a cycle or two just because it would be too much of a shock to my system.. it is also best when you do lighter weights to concentrate on tempo and form.. i'm sure if you took them slow you would feel a burn towards the second week of the 15s.. IMHO you muscles will like you much more if you keep the low weights in the cycle..

 

[imported_dkm1987]

Naturally the increased tension would be more beneficial but as krenshaw points out unless you can remain injury free, which doesn't always happen when always working heavy, it doesn't do much good, because you won't be working out at all.
But anyway,
Once upon a time in a land not so far away, a Young Sage named, let me see.... Bryan yeah that was his name, when speaking to the folk upon his land (known as Hypertrophyland), did speak of foresaking the 15's, as they were known in that time, in lieu of working with the heavy weights. Bryan did speak favorably of this but imparted two phrases of wisdom.  "If thouest ever feel the strain of overuse upon thy joints whilst working heavy, then thoust should add in a cycle or two of the 15's." He also let it be known that "thine muscle will still groweth even when following subsequent workouts with thy same load, but thoust should be aware of the eveilist of foes, whose name we mention only by initials and in whispered tones, ....RBE. For thine more often thoust work with the same loads the less effective thy work becomes as far as our beloved and desired hypertrophy effects are concerned."

So beware to you whilst you consider this strategy for this hour of doom is nigh and our foe RBE can only be vanquished by thy pureness of progressive load and upon thy further resensitising nature of thy little known mystical art, SD.

The End

 

[baby a]

hahahaha.......did you just watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail or something, Daniel?

 

[Mother Goose]

Quote[/b] (dkm1987 @ April 17 2005,7:17)]Naturally the increased tension would be more beneficial but as krenshaw points out unless you can remain injury free, which doesn't always happen when always working heavy, it doesn't do much good, because you won't be working out at all.
But anyway,
Once upon a time in a land not so far away, a Young Sage named, let me see.... Bryan yeah that was his name, when speaking to the folk upon his land (known as Hypertrophyland), did speak of foresaking the 15's, as they were known in that time, in lieu of working with the heavy weights. Bryan did speak favorably of this but imparted two phrases of wisdom. "If thouest ever feel the strain of overuse upon thy joints whilst working heavy, then thoust should add in a cycle or two of the 15's." He also let it be known that "thine muscle will still groweth even when following subsequent workouts with thy same load, but thoust should be aware of the eveilist of foes, whose name we mention only by initials and in whispered tones, ....RBE. For thine more often thoust work with the same loads the less effective thy work becomes as far as our beloved and desired hypertrophy effects are concerned."
So beware to you whilst you consider this strategy for this hour of doom is nigh and our foe RBE can only be vanquished by thy pureness of progressive load and upon thy further resensitising nature of thy little known mystical art, SD.
The End

That was the most interesting post I've read in a long time (anywhere )

When I did my first (and only) HST cycle, I found that I grew in mass during my second week of the 15s. What do you guys think of cutting the 15s short into only 1 week, so you can start working with some decent weight?

 

[savagebeast]

Quote[/b] (Mother Goose @ April 17 2005,8:27)]When I did my first (and only) HST cycle, I found that I grew in mass during my second week of the 15s. What do you guys think of cutting the 15s short into only 1 week, so you can start working with some decent weight?

If you find that cutting the 15s short into only 1 week works for you, then it's a great idea (for you, at least). There's certainly no reason why you can't do this in HST.

 

[imported_dkm1987]

Quote[/b] (baby a @ April 17 2005,8:37)]hahahaha.......did you just watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail or something, Daniel?  

No, "The Life of Bryan"

"Bring out your Dead...." THUNG

"wait I'm not dead YET, THUNG

 

[imported_ejones]

What I've done this cycle is to cut the 15s and 10s to one week each with double the increment I would usually have.  This got me to the heavy part faster and probably stimulated more growth due to the larger increments, while still not sacrificing some of the ligament strengthening and not jumping straight into the heavy stuff from SD.  I basically made a normal HST setup using the HST calculator, then did only workouts 2, 4, 6 for the 15s and 10s.  Then when I got to the 5s I did workouts 2, 4, 5, 6 and am now on my second week of negatives/5 rep maxes and plan on finishing this week and then playing it week by week seeing how I feel.  I may stop after this week or I may continue to do negatives up to 2 more weeks giving me 4 weeks total in the negative range. It has been working very well. I am using e/c to cut and am the leanest I've been in two years while holding on to all my muscle and perhaps even gaining some.