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Deciding what workout is best

7707mutt Posts: 7,686 Joined: 2002/06/18

2004/08/29, 07:53 AM Ok been a LONG time since I posted something like this. A lot of newbies always ask how to decide what type of workout is best for them. After lifting for 10 years I have found the answer that all long time lifters know Trial and error. LOL I know you are saying that does not answer my question! WEll lets see if we can help out a little. Most know the basic time tested workout, 3 sets of 10 reps. Does that work? YES! I used it for many years. I thought that it was the only way the gospel of lifting if you will. Is it the only way? NO! There are so many ways to workout that it would take hours to go over them all. Here are a few things to consider when making your workout. One and first is the place/equipment you have. Obviously if all you have is a bench and some weight then you are not going to be able to do exercises that a gym might offer you. While this limits you to a degree it in no way hinders your over all develpoment. Second is what you goals are. Even if all you want to do is lose weight lifting will help out more that cardio in my opinion. That said lets talk about various reps schemes...I touched on the 3 sets of 10 reps. That is a great way to get into the lifting thing. In fact I suggest to all newcomers to start that way for at least a month if not longer. This helps you get used to lifting. As time goes on you will see that you need to change up your work out. So you have choices high resp/low weight....high weight/low reps and all combos in between. The thing is that we can suggest one or the other but in the end you have to try them out to see what your body likes. One thought about reps. Like I said earlier I used the 3sets 10 reps thing for years. It was just in the last 2 years or so that I found out something that takes time to learn. That you can set a rep goal of 10 reps, but if during that set you only get 8 you are ok. I made more progress when I let go of the thought that I HAD to get 10 reps or I was failing. What happens is that you stay at a weight level longer to get that 10 reps. What this causes is you to spin your wheels. However you have to be careful to not let you drive for weight to cause your form to suffer. As you can guess it is a fine line between the weight you use and the reps you go after. A example is this: I had a goal of 260lbs on my bench I wanted it at least 6 reps I would perferr to hit 8. Over the course of 3 months I worked to reach that. On my last set I wanted to hit 8-10 reps at what ever weight. If I missed it I lowered the weight and hit 10 reps. I kept my form and really looked to raise the weight each work out. what I found was that while it took me longer to reach my rep goal I did make it and my weight went (max set for bench) from 225x10 to 260x8 in 3 months. Hope this makes sense and helps! -------------- LIFT HEAVY! BECOME STRONG, LIKE BULL! 7707mutt@freetrainers.com