Age old question: High Strength vs High Endurance etc

E0N wrote:

Ya know Flora says some helpful things sometimes. Maybe just roll with it. But if something works for you, obviously you have the option to just keep doing it no matter what somebody says on a message board.



I'm not much for the heart rate thing either... if my heart is beating "pretty fast" I feel like I'm getting a training effect. But I'm by no means an expert.

sigh sigh sigh

the heart rate stuff is incredibly important.

Visit any nursing home and hear me.

The number is 140. Get to it and get over it if possible.

For weight lifting: 6-12 reps IS a magic number.
The number is just a way of expressing the elements of the body that don't change for any ideas.

Being exact on numbers is what creats the results that makes exercise put pure shame on the medical community.
YES, numbers matter

Holy cow, that's amazing. I always do 10 reps!

Uh but what about sets?

And how much weight?

I mean all that stuff really depends on the person as strength is relative....

I'll give it a try this coming week, Flora. Tomorrow morning during my run if I'm not in too much of a daze from it being early and I actually remember.

As for every workout... I dunno about that. I believe you, but still I never do any of this stuff perfectly and I know that.

As for rep numbers, I tend to do six if it's a superset or 12 if it's normal (but usually I do supersets)... how many times... basically until muscle failure. I heard spacing it out is better, but I don't have half a day to exercise.

I dunno... it is coincidental that seems to line up with 6-12, too.

Also I almost always go with bodyweight... but I need to make a plan and change that up. Seriously.

back when I used to work out hardcore, like 4 or 5 times a week, I kept a workout log of what exercises I did, how many reps and how many lbs I did. And throughout the course of that log, a few months, all the numbers kept rising. At one point I think I'd doubled the weight and reps on certain exercises.

I'll give that a try (keeping a journal) once I know what weight training I'll do. I was thinking of "the X-man workout," but it's kinda silly to pick something more or less just because of what it's called.

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Urban Avenger wrote:

Holy cow, that's amazing. I always do 10 reps!

Uh but what about sets?

And how much weight?

I mean all that stuff really depends on the person as strength is relative....

Because when we hold still, 2/3'rds of the blood goes to it's resting steady-state in the liver,
and,
once you do a set, the body does vein-constriction in the liver
and
vein-dialation in exactly in the muscles that were used,
the first set MUST always be lighter
and
we MUST wait 30 seconds to one minute before the next set.

If we sit still for two minutes we MUST start over.


Therefore, TWO sets is CRUCIAL to cause CHANGE in the muscle fibers
and
the first set MUST be lightish and the second set MUST be a bit heavier or add another rep or two.

The studies that show that one set works are flawed.
They use freshmen at the colleges where the studies are funded, generally
freshmen who aren't exercising and, yes, the first six weeks show
results in ANY non-exercisers.

TWO sets is CRUCIAL as a MINIMUM.

Four to five sets done PRECISELY is a good goal for the vast majority of people
but
TWO sets for the first year or two
and then,
three sets for three years.
Then add a little weight every few seasons.
Then, add the forth set after nine years.

Then, add weight every three years.

As to waaaay in the future, we are still looking.
...covereing new ground.


Strength being relative is a good question but the blood-flow from the liver and progression are universal.

Therefore, we give tiny weight to some people within the above-described framework.

The weights are tailored to each person but the structure that responds to the parts of the body
that we can't change stays the same.

Different weight. Same program.



Skipping, for even 10 days takes you BACK to a lighter weight!!!!!

One of my student was SHOCKED that taking three weeks off
plummeted him down.

I had to give this WHOLE lecture in a yoga class whew!

I took ten days off during the Feb storm of '03 AND i was shoveling a lot and doing trapeze.

It took TEN MONTHS for me to get back to where I was before that storm
AND
I was ON THE CASE from day one without missing

The body doesn't care what we think or say.
it does what it does every night and every day

E0N wrote:

As for rep numbers, I tend to do six if it's a superset or 12 if it's normal (but usually I do supersets)... how many times... basically until muscle failure. I heard spacing it out is better, but I don't have half a day to exercise.

I dunno... it is coincidental that seems to line up with 6-12, too.

Also I almost always go with bodyweight... but I need to make a plan and change that up. Seriously.

"bodyweight" misses biceps and lats but is GREAT for pecs and tris.

The muscles DO 6-12.

it isn't coinsidence.

I get REALLY excited by this stuff because it is so pure and so good for ANYONE
i can give it to!!!!!!

I REALLY love supersets because of time.

I must work one up for you!


"Muscle failure" was abandoned a few years ago becuase it is a path to injury
MOST of the time

Urban Avenger wrote:

back when I used to work out hardcore, like 4 or 5 times a week, I kept a workout log of what exercises I did, how many reps and how many lbs I did. And throughout the course of that log, a few months, all the numbers kept rising. At one point I think I'd doubled the weight and reps on certain exercises.

curiosity question:

how many months did a journal like span?

what else is weird about the body is
that more than 12 reps does a very different thing.

It switches over into a light version of cardio.
who knew?
I just share this stuff!

I was teaching a class just on lifting and I told the people
that the body DOES NOT digest food while we exercise.
A woman got MAD at me, as if made it so!

sigh


we must harmonize with the body.
It will not harmonize with us.

Less than six reps is a sort of trauma if the weight is too heavy
but doesn't cause the repair-phase that lifting does
and the body does next-to-nothing if the weight is light.



The blood-distribution-from-the-liver is inescapable
and tough lesson for people to swallow.


Bays Theorum, people do not learn well

Flora V. Arbor wrote:

Urban Avenger wrote:

back when I used to work out hardcore, like 4 or 5 times a week, I kept a workout log of what exercises I did, how many reps and how many lbs I did. And throughout the course of that log, a few months, all the numbers kept rising. At one point I think I'd doubled the weight and reps on certain exercises.

curiosity question:

how many months did a journal like span?

I dunno, I think like 3 or 4 months. thats about how long I had a membership at that gym. I tried doing it again but just never got around to making another journal.

In my humble opinion, writing interferes with the blood-liver thing
because it takes too much time
and
the body goes into a different pace of change after the first year.

All that you log in the first few months will not apply in later years of steady training
and
trying to get that to happen again is a path to injury.

(Do you see how I worry?!?!?)

If you don't have a gym membership now,
are you working out at home or park or community center?
Do you have wieghts at home or apartment gym or something?

( I'm like a dentist, worrying if you floss or not)

really flora? with as much research and science and numbers you want to use to, you can't find the value in a workout log?

hmm.. bruce lee could, and he was an absolute pinnacle of physical fitness. he lived it, day and night, even lifted weights while driving in his car! its where I got the idea to start a training log.

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I'd made a thread on here many months ago specifically focusing on his book, the art of expressing the human body.

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and yes, I have a golds gym fitness thingy and some free weights. plus my powerbocks for legs and cardio. thats really about it for home equipment.

yah, no log is just my personal thing.

I memorize a lot but that is a musician thing.

Lots of people like logs we like you to use what ever makes yo udo it.


What is the gold's gym fitness thingy, please?

Do you have a door way pull up thingy?

Them are COOOL!

I found the log extremely useful so I could really see where I lacked and where I could take it easy on. as for the equipment, its this thing:

<img src="http://www.governmentauctions.org/uploaded_images/tower-749857.jpg">

that is a cool thingy!!!


I have something similar that has no back pad.
$60 was a decent price.

Also, I like the "perfect push up"

What ever I might have logged in 1994 when I was 35
has no impact on what I do today.



Logs are really for the chapter that you are IN



This stuff for aging and getting stronger is all new ground.

The key is to NOT take any time off.
...just like teeth brushing

oh yeah, I have those too. mine was free, so I can't complain. but I have been meaning to get one of those pull up bars as well, the kind like I think what you are talking about, cuz they are good for crunches too. although I try to never do anything less than inclined crunches, sometimes with a small weight on my chest.

or sometimes I will hold small dumbells in my hands, do butterfly curls and then go into crunches. rinse, repeat. I always found that good for my six pack, whatever's left of it.

Flora V. Arbor wrote:

What ever I might have logged in 1994 when I was 35
has no impact on what I do today.



Logs are really for the chapter that you are IN



This stuff for aging and getting stronger is all new ground.

The key is to NOT take any time off.
...just like teeth brushing

oh yeah, totally agree with you there.

Urban Avenger wrote:

oh yeah, I have those too. mine was free, so I can't complain. but I have been meaning to get one of those pull up bars as well, the kind like I think what you are talking about, cuz they are good for crunches too. although I try to never do anything less than inclined crunches, sometimes with a small weight on my chest.

or sometimes I will hold small dumbells in my hands, do butterfly curls and then go into crunches. rinse, repeat. I always found that good for my six pack, whatever's left of it.

ACES , man ACES!!!

( but it's an eight pack...always was. I just got a whole class full of people to calmly feel each square with contraction only.

it was COOOL!
but then, I get really excited about this stuff after decades of ballet dorkness, yoga-pretending and martial arts secrets)

I know what you mean, but I could never get the lower abdominals as defined as the six above... so... six pack.

sigh
forward I go -pushing info.




Defined, they might ver well be.

"Unpadded" is the word you seek, perhaps.


SHOWING the abs is another story entirely.

It is the tale of the Hero "Cardio" and his true love "Clean Eating".

haha, yeah you are probably right there.

hmm... upon investigation...

yup. you are correct madam.

My teachers are right


We, all, honor them with our efforts
and I
keep paying off my effin debt

Today, I taught a class at an Elementary School.

The fourth grade class made a book of poetry and got it bound.

I was reading one of the poems written by a nice young man
who was describing the beauty of nature ( a favorite subject of mine).

For the last lines of the poem he wrote
that he walked home up hill
and he wrote "huff puff, I need more exercise"



OH!!! what a happy Flora I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!