In strength training, you up your weight when you can consistently do the sets you’re doing at the current weight. Some muscle groups (legs, chest) can handle more weight than smaller muscle groups (triceps and biceps.)
At my gym, we sometimes do a fitness challenge, which you can find by googling. We’ve done the 30 day hover challenge (hovers are is better than sit-ups for strengthening your core), a 30 day burpee challenge, and a 30 day push up challenge. I did find my push ups improved considerably after that challenge.
Thanks. Is “3-4 sets of 8-12 reps with around 70% or your 1RM in the big, compound lifts” more related to “Low reps to failure = strength” or to “higher reps (to a point) x more sets = size”? Are 8-12 reps considered low? That is, is it building strength, which increases muscle density (or something), which increases BMR more than building size, which increases apparent volume but doesn’t do as much for BMR as building strength?
I will gladly add more squats et al if I can avoid laying on the ground and doing crunches. Heck, I’ll add double all the amount of big, compound lifts above.
I’m certainly not an expert but this is not universally true. I worked up to doing sets of 100 pushups by doing general body-weight exercises, no heavy lifting. I have a good friend who is extremely strong (former football offensive lineman) and his max bench was about 455lbs…while he was absolutely stronger than me he could not do 100 pushups, I don’t think he ever did more than about 60 while I could knock out multiple sets of 100 with a few minutes break inbetween.
FWIW my method for increasing the reps I could do was as someone else noted - if you can’t readily do more reps in a given set, take a break and do some more. I found that what I could do in each set increased, the rest inbetween sets decreased, etc. over time.
All that being said I think there’s plenty of good advice in this thread and keep in mind that the best way to get fitter is to find things you enjoy doing and keep at it, whether it’s heavy lifting or doing pushups and jumping jacks in front of your TV.
Okay, fair enough. I neglected to mention that someone who benches 455 will definitely weigh a lot more than the average person. 60 pushups for a 250-300lb guy is far more impressive than 100 pushups is for a 150lb guy. In either case, the guy who benches more is stronger by definition. And for the same weight, the strong guy will be able to do far more reps.
I disagree with your premise. The body adapts to what you ask of it. If you train it to do lots of pressups, you will be able to do lots of pressups (more endurance). If you train it to lift heavy weights, you will be able to lift heavy weights (stronger).
Sure, it’s not an if else statement. There will be crossover strength gains from training endurance, and vice versa. But generally, the people who trained their bodies to specialise will be better in that specialisation than someone who specialised in something else.
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What if your goal is to increase BMR? From what I understand weight loss-wise, more muscle mass means you burn more calories at rest, complementing cardio-based calorie burning. Intuition says more size is better for that, but intuition and exercise don’t quite meet.
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I agree with Shodan. Fwiw, currently I train the big compound lifts heavy at 5 reps. Even if there is not a huge amount of muscle mass gain (there is still some), it would certainly help prevent muscle loss if you are running a calorific deficit. And it’s nice to be strong. But everyone has their own goals.
Shortest answer: exercise good and biggest impact is to do something, so do things that fit who you are, and that you can and will keep up with.
Short answer is that more muscle mass is a Good Thing for lots of reasons, and that it does increase BMR … but really not by all that much … something like 6 to 12 KCal/pound (depending on the study referenced). The impact of even a comprehensive program of the big compounds on BMR is pretty much swamped, even at the high end of those estimates, by many other variables.
Now the other variables, the slightly longer answer … the process of putting on the muscles (as opposed to their impact just having them) has additional impact … it takes calories to build them (protein synthesis). That gets into the bit you broach about high intensity interval training (HIIT) … how much is differentially burnt over the hours afterwards, referred to “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption” (EPOC). Muscle growth and repair of muscle damage associated with exercise is a large part of that. And also something that is true but usually overstated. The total calories burned over 24 hours? Between a longer session moderate intensity cardio with modest EPOC and a shorter session HIIT session with higher EPOC, pretty much comes out in the wash, and again swamped by other factors. Are you so wiped that you sit around more the rest of the day, or energized and up and about? Do you tend to eat more after one or the other? And your bottom line Shodan, which exercise (or combination of exercises) is an individual more likely to stick with (as everything else is is debatable)?
To the op. For the resistance training portion of your program what unequivocally matters is that it is progressive. If your 15th rep is difficult then you are having impact on your muscles. Do a few sets a session and after a bit doing that 15th won’t be so difficult. Then do something to make the task harder. Which? More reps, more sets, shorter intervals between sets, weighting it, doing other variations that make each rep harder to do? Adding more variety of body weight exercises as well? Yes. Any. All. So long as you keep it progressive.
DrCube push ups are absolutely strength work. True that increased reps after, sure 20, are not going to translate into a bigger bench (but yes more muscular endurance) but there are many ways to increase the difficulty of push ups such that strength gains can continue, no gym required. Variations (see here for one nice list of links from beginner to advanced), doing the “Bring up Sally” challenge, and doing them with a weighted back pack, for examples.
Moreover, what’s “impressive” to you may not be what is “impressive” to someone else, or more importantly, of any relevance to what the op or any reader’s goals are. Personally I find someone who can do true unsupported hand stand push ups and planche push ups more “impressive” than someone who can bench some outrageous amount, YMMV. Maxxing out on bench, squat, and deadlift, may not be every individual’s target.
That said MHO about sit ups is pretty similar to yours, of limited value. The op’s resistance portion (with the simple goal of just overall getting in better shape) would be better served with a progressive squat program replacing the sit ups if there were to be just two things to do. And yes there are progressive programs that can be done even only with body weight progressions (to pistol squats), let alone with simple things like a weighted backpack (worn on back or held and used for goblet squats).
It’s closer to “higher reps”. 8-12 reps is higher reps.
If you want to build strength, do 1-5 reps per set with 90% of your 1RM, fairly high sets (10 sets of 3 is a traditional beginning strength workout). If you want size, do the 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps with 70%. If you want endurance, you do circuit training, where you do one set of 5-8 reps with 20-30% of 1RM of a given exercise and then do one set of a different exercise without resting at all, and on to another exercise without resting, and then repeat the cycle over and over. Circuit training is HIIT, that I mentioned before, although HIIT can be done with running or cycling or swimming or rowing as well.
BMR is increased by increasing muscle size. Muscles always have a few fibers contracting, even at rest. This is “muscle tone”. Increase the number of fibers contracting by increasing muscle size, and you burn off more calories at rest. But you need to increase the size of the fibers in the muscle. (You cannot increase the number of fibers in a muscle, which is genetically determined, or at least it has not been demonstrated other than in cats, AFAIK.)
Muscles can increase in apparent size in several ways. One way is to pump up the muscle, which increases the sarcoplasmic volume of the muscle and engorges it with blood. This makes the muscle look bigger, and bodybuilders do it before going on-stage. This happens because short, cramping movements overcome the capillaries’ ability to carry blood away from the muscle in question. Practicing pumping will increase the size of the capillaries and the apparent volume of the muscle, but it is almost unrelated to increase in muscle fiber size. That is, you can pump up your arms, but you won’t get much stronger in curls or pressdowns and you won’t change the thickness of the muscle fibers much either.
The idea of using big, compound lifts like squats or dips instead of concentration curls is to spend your training energy where it will give you the biggest bang for the effort. You want to exercise the big muscle groups of the body - the thighs and hips, the back, and the chest/shoulder group. There are more muscle fibers there to be stimulated, and you haven’t exhausted your recovery ability on less results. There is also thought to be a “knock-on” effect especially from squatting, that enables muscle growth even in body parts other than the legs (and lower back). That is, you will get bigger arms from three sets of squats and two sets of palms-in chinups than from five sets of curls. I don’t know if there are studies proving it, but it is traditional gym wisdom, for whatever that is worth.
One more nitpick -
Low reps, yes, Failure, no. You don’t train to failure when training for strength. Leave one in the tank to grow on - if you can do five reps with an all-out effort, you do multiple sets of three-four. Never, never practice missing a lift.
Relish the irony of the simple, effective pushup being debated this way.
**Watch some people do pushups (interwebs and all that!)
Record yourself or get someone to critique. Goal is great form.
DO SOME GODDAMN PUSHUPS.
Try really hard every now and then to get one more in.**
Intense analysis is for advanced athletes. I REALLY mean this, after 30 years of training people: JUST DO SOME PUSHUPS and don’t make it complicated. Good form… try when it feels right to add to the rep count.
The more complex you make this, the less you enjoy the beauty of simple, effective and timeless exercises. When exercise is simple, we tend to do it more and worry about it less.
It’s not that I was trying to make things complicated, just trying to save the OP some time. He’s created a forum thread soliciting advice, so I just tried to warn him against wasting time (you’ll note I also never said my way is right and others are wrong…just warned that some schools of thought suggest big reps will not be effective).
In one sense I agree with you – I think planning can be an excuse for procrastination, and it can be better just to get going. OTOH, I know from personal experience how much time you can waste if your goal is trying to get a good physique and you start on the wrong foot.
were pretty straightforward, even if not immediately answered:
Yes, you should try to increase the number when it becomes easier and so long as the last one is not easy you will be making enough of an impact on your muscles to get to the point that 15 becomes easy. In fact, op, it will likely happen faster than you think.
Pretty much after that is unsolicited (which does not mean not good) opinions about how to do it better: follow this program; more sets; more resistance; and yes even your comments about “great form.” And more general related discussions riffed off the question.