• FreeTrainers.com Forums
• Experienced Exercise
• I need some ENDURANCE

Group: Experienced Exercise

I need some ENDURANCE

killakella Posts: 2 Joined: 2004/01/31	2004/01/31, 02:51 AM Hello, Im a 23 year old male. I have been working out pretty consistently since high school.. I have come to realize that I have no endurance whatsoever. I had really fallen in love with the low rep/heavy sets. By low I mean 4-8 reps. I have gained quite a bit of strength the past year or so, but it has kind of leveled out and I have started putting on a little too much fat. I decided to start doing some higher rep workouts, but it has been pretty frustrating. The amount of weight I can do for 6 reps is seemingly way too much more than the amount I can handle for 10 reps. That is no big deal. The main problem is that if I fail on a set of 6 on one bodypart, I still seem to have a lot of juice left for the rest of the workout... If I fail on a set of 10, I feel like I have nothing left. What is the best way to handle this? I feel like I need to start doing higher reps to get some mass, but it is tough going. Should I drop the weight WAY down so I wear down a little more gradually? If anyone happens to be in the opposite situation as myself, it might be useful to explain what I have been doing... Basically I have been doing my heaviest set as my first "working" set. I am sure this is nothing new to most of you, but I really love training this way. I would warm up with about 4 sets before my heaviest set, doing reps of like 8, 4, 2, 1 (approx). My last set of 1 would be about 85% of my heaviest set. Then I would rest a little extra and do my first set, getting 5-8 reps, basically to failure. Drop a little, same thing, drop more (substaintially bigger drop than the first one), same thing. This really worked great for me for about 6 months, especially on compound movements like presses and pulls (I didn't try this stuff with legs). Like everything else, it has leveled off. I never really got a nice pump or burn with this workout, so it is definitely time to switch things up. Sorry for the long ass post, I am a typin fool.
dhurt55 Posts: 93 Joined: 2004/01/02	2004/01/31, 08:40 AM The only thing I know to do is just drop the weight to whatever amount you can handle for higher rep sets-this is the best way I know of to increase endurance...like instead of doing the real heavy low rep pyramid sets like you described...try doing the heaviest weight u can handle for 4 sets of 10-12 reps...and after a few months...i'm sure you will see an increase in your endurance(I said heaviest weight u can handle because on the last few reps of the last set, they should be forced reps) Good Luck!!! -------------- "Without Pains, there come no Gains" -Benjamin Franklin
ioioio Posts: 302 Joined: 2004/01/29	2004/01/31, 06:35 PM I will totally agree with you there dhurt, but make it 4 sets of 12-15 reps. I think that would be better
killakella Posts: 2 Joined: 2004/01/31	2004/02/01, 02:11 AM Thanks for the responses... Do you all cycle between heavy/low-rep and lighter/high-rep workouts? If so, how often? Do you jump right from one to the other for a bit of a "shock" or gradually increase the reps?