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2004/03/19, 05:08 PM
I am on week 7 of my program and I have been looking through the forums alot over that period and it has brought up a few questions that, althought i tried, could not find straight answers to.
First - The exercises are setup in 4 sets of decressing reps. It says to work with a weight that you can do the # of reps +1. But I think I have seen it said before that the first set or 2 are for warmup and that my weight should be gradually increasing as I work out. As it is now, I just pick a weight that I can do 20 times where 21 is failure, and keep that weight through all my sets as it usually works out that I can just about do all my reps in each set with that same weight. I have read about injury caused my not warming up so this is why I am bringing this up now before its to late for me. So, should I start out at like 50% the first set on the FT workout program, then increase to my max as I go through my sets?
Second - While working out, my muscles always burn at the end and I generally have to use all the will power I have to get that last rep on the last couple sets. The only muscle groups I fall to do this on are the back, chest, and abs. I often times find it hard to isolate those muscles. Well, I can isolate the abs but I never really feel a burn, more on that in a second. For the back and chest, they work secondary muscles like my shoulders or biceps and I always feel it in the secondary muscles but hardly in the primary that I am working at. Am I not doing the right ammount of weight or to much or poor form?
Back to my abs. I am doing the 12 week ab program, also on week 7. I have been doing crunches with weight(25lbs as of yesterday) and find that by the last set, I still feel a crunch but am no where near that far off the ground. As I progess through the different exercises for my abs, I find that I start to not feel it anymore as if they are completely fatigued and I am just going through the motions. Is that bad or counterproductive? Also, at times it feels like my floating ribs are poking my abs as I do the exerices...whats up with that?
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2004/03/19, 05:16 PM
First Q, Yes, increase weight each set. 50% is a decent number for the first set. Maybee even 40%
2nd Q, Form is probably the most important consideration. If your form degrades, lighten the load.
3rd Q The rib thing, beats me. Again, form is all. If your form is bad lighten up. I like to up the weights and lower the reps personally.
Hope this helps.
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A problem ceases to be such when you can laugh about it.
Charlie
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2004/03/19, 05:51 PM
Charlie, you're always there to answer my questions lol.
Another one you made me think of. If I have 4 sets of 20,15,12,10 reps, and i could not do the 12 reps at the current weight, would it hurt to lower the weight down a little for the last set or just push on through at the last weight.
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2004/03/19, 06:51 PM
It won't hurt to push...It won't hurt to lower the weight. The idea is to keep your muscles guessing. Try it a few weeks one way and then a few the other.Glad to help, man.
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A problem ceases to be such when you can laugh about it.
Charlie
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