i have to head to work soon so i cant really get into this in great depth. for now i’ll do the strength guy and the bodybuilding guy. i may not be able to explain everything cause i’m pressoed for time.
this does sound interesting. here, i’ll take a stab at it
- A guy who wants to become as strong as possible. Just so no one b.itches about semantics, by “strong” I mean “able to lift the most weight possible for 1 rep” ie. a powerlifter.
for this person I would recommend some very intense lifts. i, personally, avoid doing any 1 rep max lifts and, for safety reasons, wouldn’t advise someone else to do them either. before any workout i would advise that they stretch and do some very light warm up motions with the weight/ bar. say for one session, about 3 sets of 4 to 5 repetitions at 70% of their 1 RM (max weight). followed by 2 sets of slightly more weight at only 3 reps (till near failure), with little rest between sets.
workout each muscle group once every 5 days or so
- A guy who wants to get as huge as possible (bodybuilder).
for this guy i would suggest a combination of low rep and high rep sets. for example: on bench press:
do one set of 5 repetitions (85% max weight)
rest
do another set of 8 repetions (about 75 % max weight)
immediately drop 20 % of the wieght and continue doing reps until near failure,
drop 20% more and continue doing reps till near failure,
now drop 50% of whats on there and rep till near failure
after you he may rest and try to repeat the above described “drop set”, or, simply do another light weight set till near failure (about 35 reps would be a good amount)
this method works a muscle group once every four days. or… as I have been working it, only once per week. I suppose it depends on an individual’s healing time.
this may seem unorthodox for building mass but if you pay attention to some of the latest research on what causes hypertrophy - some of which is posted on this forum by others (such as the study on gymnastic strength training), also the latest muscle mags are boasting similar methods. working both fast twitch and slow twitch muscles
anyways it’s been workin for me so i whatev. its all good