Training by feel

[HDH]

Over the last few years I've had to move away from the heavy lifting and changed my training based on injury prevention. It's a lot of sets and reps as opposed to the 6 to 12 rep schemes a lot of guys use. It was really like undoing what I have done for years and starting over.

When I first started training like this I had to find a middle ground where I wasn't under or over training. It took a little time to be able to know when to stop or to keep going. Of course it will also depend on what's going on in our lives and supps we are taking. GH, insulin, aas, diet, rest and stresses so no different than lifting any other way.

After training for so long you know when you're doing too much or too little. It takes time to see how we respond and then we make the adjustments. As we do this we get a feel for things.

I found the best way for me was to slow everything down, keep everything controlled, use holds at the top and slow on the negatives. It's the easiest way to achieve and maintain a mind to muscle connection for me. Too heavy and too many of the surrounding muscles are used or too little and you don't feel the isolation of the particular muscle being trained.

My training consists of 3 days a week. I use opposite and same muscle super sets, tri sets and giant sets. I train 1 1/2 to 2 hours per session. I do up to 5 exercises at once consecutively.

Here is an example of a giant set consisting of 5 exercises-

Cable isolation delts w/biceps and triceps one arm at a time-

Rear delts / Side delts / Front delts / Biceps / Triceps

Example of 4 exercises-

Chest / Rows / Biceps / Triceps

Example of 3-

Dumbbell Deads / Leg Press / Calves on leg press

Example of 2-

Leg press / Leg extensions

Dumbbell dead / leg curls

Leg extensions / Leg curls

Every bit of my routine is like this. It took some time to get it dialed in but I can grow as much as I can eat. It's more of a technical approach rather than pushing the heavy ass weight. I'm becoming more and more brittle as the years pass and I have no intentions of sitting on the side because of nagging injuries. I've got some problems with back, neck, shoulders and knees and this type of training has been good to me.

I rarely count anything anymore, I don't really feel it's necessary for me. The count can be different each time anyways as I vary on speed with negatives, sometimes long holds sometimes short super hard squeezes, sometime repping it out and I will switch with each set in the same exercise. I do the same exercises but mix it up with everything else.

Moderate weight doesn't mean easy either, I train hard as fvck every session but the difference is I'm good to train hard the next session because I don't have any problems.

The biggest and hardest part for me was using the moderate weights in front of people. I had to put the ol ego in my back pocket for this but once I started getting the results, I didn't give 2 shits.

Anyone else training similar or may be interested in a different approach besides always heavy?

 

[Gadawg]

I train with all weights and rep schemes. All my sets are to failure but my sets might vary between 3 and 25 or so. Using lighter weight, focusing on form, slowing down, and squeezing is actually hard as hell and grows muscle very well.

Ever watch Piana lift? He was all about high reps and it obviously grew a ton of muscle.

I think people get a little too tied up in the 6-12 approach and I have found that for my body, if I am going as hard as I can, I make gains no matter what plan Im following.

 

[Viduus]

I do the same thing with supersets & giant sets unless I’m really taking a something to failure. I’ve been doing more DC style training so a proper rest-pause set completes that body part after the one full “set”.

The idea about not counting has intrigued me. If you’re going to muscle failure, why bother counting? Your body not functioning is the stopping point.

Finishing it with partials or a drop set sounds good to me!

Talking about getting over egos, partials at the end always make me feel like someone is going to come over and explain full ROM to me like I’m an idiot.

 

[stonetag]

Getting away from heavy is just a fact of aging, I'm in the same boat. Besides the obviously lighter weight, I do a lot more sets now with negatives, super sets, and so on. The ego is a thing of the past, we had it, we used it, now its behind us, let the ol' brain do its job now.

 

[Elivo]

I won’t “ego lift” but I still go as heavy as I can on my workouts. But I also tailor it to how I feel. If I’m benching 250 for 4 or 5 reps one week and 240 feels super heavy the next, I won’t put more weight on the bar that week.

some parts of getting old sucks

 

[jennerrator]

lol.....I can't go over 10 reps and 10 is pushing it for me but maybe some day!!!

I've tried so many times and 8 is the highest for me!

Does 10 sets of 8 reps count the same?????!!!!!

 

[Viduus]

It’s not how many you do... it’s how good you look while you’re doing it

 

[jennerrator]

It’s not how many you do... it’s how good you look while you’re doing it

oh it’s all good when you know how to train!!

2 reps...or 20 reps!

 

[Jada]

I've always kept my training the same which is s
3 sets for 6-8 reps , once i go do 10 reps i increase the weight but what I've done different this time around is do 4 sets for the bigger body parts and 3 sets for small ones, thanks snake for this advice. Also what I've done is the last week all I work on is negatives and pause sets. I go light to medium weight that I can push at least 12 reps , very slow on the negative, and when pausing for example I do in squats I pause in the bottom for 4 seconds while under tension. in all honesty I could give a damn how people perceive me when lifting.

 

[snake]

Getting away from heavy is just a fact of aging, I'm in the same boat. Besides the obviously lighter weight, I do a lot more sets now with negatives, super sets, and so on. The ego is a thing of the past, we had it, we used it, now its behind us, let the ol' brain do its job now.

I'm kinda with stone on this when it comes to the heavy weight. Still have a hell of an ego though. PLing is a young mans game but there's absolutely no reason you cant look jacked in your 40's and up.

 

[HDH]

I really like the technical end of training like this. You can do the same exercise many different ways. I'll do rep ranges from 15 to 50. 50 being on the leg press. That's an ego buster all by itself when you load it up for 50 reps x 5 sets. Last couple may be closer to 40 :beaten:

I'm running 5 sets of everything. Some pyramid on sets, some straight weight and some stepping up through the whole 5. Shoulders are the main concern these days so they vary from set to set.

I agree that putting the work in gets the results regardless of what we do as long as we are tearing the muscles down properly.

Part of not counting for me gets me lost in the set with music blasting in my ears.

 

[Elivo]

I messed around doing 5 sets of 10 on everything at the same weight for a couple weeks. Once you can get all the reps in you’ll up the weight by 5-10 pounds. Was a hell of a workout but just took too damn long.

ill do a couple warm up sets now, jump into the heavier weight for a few sets and then do a couple back offs. Reps just depends but I don’t like to go under 4 at the heavier end of it.

This is is what I will do for the bigger muscles with the heavier compound lifts. The more isolation centered stuff I usually just do around 3-4 sets of about 8-10 just adding as much weight as I can and still get at least 8 reps in.

 

[Gadawg]

Im sure the longer you lift, the more you get away from any routines or known rep ranges. I typically walk in the gym every day only knowing what bodypart Im working. The exercises, sets, and reps just get figured out as I go. The body never gets complascent that way and I dont get bored.

 

[Straight30weight]

I don't vary from the exercises, occasionally I'll do something different. The way I lift, rep ranges, weight and all that shit changes depending on how I feel.