Muscle building/conditioning question

I was wondering what people's opinions on trying to build muscle bulk whilst also maintaining flexibility, strength and endurance, whether to start with light weights/many reps, and move up to heavy weights with few reps, or whether to do it the other way around, Heavy first, and then gradually get lighter with more repetitions? I've heard people say differing opinions, and I'm not sure which would be best? The starting light with more reps makes sense to me, as it would warm up you muscles before doing the heavy stuff, but I might be wrong...

 

Hi,

Build muscle, heavy weights few reps

Maintain muscle, light weights many reps.

My personal opinion...

Have Fun.

 

Thanks for that. What about in the one workout session, if doing both, which should come first?

 

Kettlebells. Been using them alot lately and they are great.

The Bear.

 

second that

 

Do 12-week cycles.
First cycle: General fitness for 12 weeks
-4 sets of 10 reps

Second cycle: Hypertrophy/muscle gain for 12 weeks
-4 sets of 8 reps

Third cycle: Strength training for 12 weeks.
-4 sets of not more than 5-6 reps

If you never did weight lifting, start with lighter to get your tendons, ligaments, bones, and muscle used to it. Then switch to heavier.
Flexibility has to do a lot with strength. If the muscle is not strong enough to support a certain movement you won't get flexible much.
Are you training for any specific martial art?

 

Thanks for that. I'm currently doing Krav Maga and Doce Pares Eskrima, but they're my first MA's and I only started this year, so my body has a fair bit of work to do to get up to scratch, I'm pretty skinny, have always been... Granted these MA's don't require huge amounts of flexibility, but at the moment I have very little, so there still needs to be improvement there. I'm also considering doing Wing Chun at some stage down the track. Do you mean in the weeks with lower reps, to use heavier weights?

 

Id recommend anything by Ross over at rossboxing.com/rosstraining.com.

His workouts and programs are designed to increase strength while also increasing endurance and "explosiveness". Pretty much what someone should do if he wants to stay around his same weight while increasing stamina and strength, and losing a bit of fat too

For example, today I did (out of his book Infinite Intensity) a fitness type of workout consisting of:

16 minutes (total) of:

-Heavy Bag work
-Bodyweight squats
-Heavy Bag work
-Push ups

I did these at a 20 second work/10 second rest for 4 minutes each

Basically, you do 8 rounds of the first exercise, then move to the next.

Then after that, I did 3 sets of farmers walks for time.

Tomorrow is my strength day which (i dont have it in front of me) should include something like:

-Dumbbell Snatches
-Dumbbell push press
-Leg work like lunges/squats etc
-Pullups/pushups
-Sledgehammer training


Its great.

---------------------------------

Too long; didn't read:

Check out www.rosstraining.com

 

There's nothing wrong with having a lot of flexibility
Yes, in weeks when you train for strength you would use heavier weights with about 90% of your 1 rpm.

As Banpen Fugyo mentioned, books by Ross Enamit (rosstraining.com) are great and I like his workouts, but I think they are very intense especially for beginners.
If you have the means, get a book called Power Training by Robert dos Remedios (around $25 on Amazon.com). It doesn't focuss on fighter conditioning compared to Ross' Infinite Intensity, but it should get you in a good shape.
Once you're ready to step-up get Infinite Intensity by Ross Enamait ($25 as well). He gets very creative with home made equipment and exercises

 

Thanks for that, I'll check it out. I need more strength, more power, more flexibility, more awesomeness, more, more, MORE!!! haha it's gonna take a while methinks, better get all the resources I can...

 

Turkish getups are the answer to everything- EVERYTHING!
http://www.tacticalathlete.com/57_07_Turkish_Getup_1_DONE.pdf

 

if you want to get big 4 sets is not going to cut it hypertrophy starts at 12-20 sets depending on your metabolism 6-8 reps also you have to work your legs it releases a growth hormone, the bigger the muscle the more it can be stretched, therefore more flexibility but you have to stretch it drink plenty of water and eat balanced meals, thats the secret ,work out put the time in12-20 sets per muscle group

 

er... what?

 

im talking about size not scrawny i think im big size real size

 

maybe he meant... weekly?

Or... total out of all the exercises you do in a day..

Or.. something.

 

Mind you, while he's guilty of an obviously egregious error it's the one I wouldn't normally pick up on that bothers me. Why do people think that strength and hypertrophy are unrelated? Muscular hypertrophy is the process by which muscles get bigger and stronger, not a separate process that's totally unrelated to strength.

 

i do at least 100 sets a day 3 days a week work my legs 1 time a week 30 sets

 

Hypertrophy dousnt mean an increase in strenght per sé, it depends on how you train, eat, etc etc. But saying that all hypertrophy always results in an increase in strenght is not true.

taken from wiki

 

that is sarcoplasmic, not hypertrophy, excessive development of muscle and yes you are wrong it always does develop strength, the muscle is larger, if you work out like a chick, you will look like one, spend some time in the gym, up those sets!

 

Which is why I didn't say it
while you can get stronger without hypertrophy, hypertrophy, as I said, is the process by which a muscle gets bigger and stronger. Plus, it's difficult to see why you wouldn't want to get bigger and stronger.

So all those people doing good old-fashioned 5x5 routines in the gym are 'working out like chicks'? Talk sense, man.

Oh I get it, you're a nutjob. Good luck with that