So what do you do when you get to the gym?

Let me get a bit more specific.

When you get to the gym and begin training, is your natural instinct to go heavy for 6 reps and under?
Do you tend to seek out higher reps and go for a skin bursting pump?
Do you like to like to do your reps fast or slow?
Do you workout with very strict form, or do you cheat a bit... or a lot?
Do you incorporate forced reps and/or negatives into your training regularly?
Do you go more for the High Intensity training/Low sets or do you prefer doing a lot of sets?
Do you pick out one or two movements per muscle group, or do you like to hit a muscle from 3,4, or more angles in a workout?
Do you train with 2,3, or more minutes between sets or do you prefer to only wait 30-60 seconds?

These are just questions that I came up with on the fly. Please feel free to add more detail about your training if it is pertinent. I think a lot of us are curious as to what the "other guys" are doing to spawn muscle growth/strength.

Good question.

My routine is based around basics like Press, Deadlift, Squats, and I usually go for lower reps higher weights first, then higher reps with ancillary exercises after. As my body is older, I take maybe 2+ minutes I between the heavier sets and less between the high rep sets.
I have only a squat rack and free weights to work with, but I find that's plenty and prefer it using machines, etc. Working out at home is Tres cool, IMO. :)
Re form, as my body is older, I feel it's wisest to use the best form possible even if that means I'm lifting lighter weights. Although I am gaining slowly, my goal is just keeping strong and feeling ok with the way I look.

Shame most people don't give a fck about their health / looks, though.

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Originally Posted by burlyman30

Let me get a bit more specific.

When you get to the gym and begin training, is your natural instinct to go heavy for 6 reps and under?
2-3 light sets to stretch and get the blood in there, some days ill pre exhaust with something like pullovers or cable cross overs before i start the bodypart
Do you tend to seek out higher reps and go for a skin bursting pump?
some days ill go heavy as i can for 6-8, but generally its 15+ reps
Do you like to like to do your reps fast or slow?
fast
Do you workout with very strict form, or do you cheat a bit... or a lot?
with age form has been prioritized, full rom, i do cheat for heavy stuff tho
Do you incorporate forced reps and/or negatives into your training regularly?
rarely
Do you go more for the High Intensity training/Low sets or do you prefer doing a lot of sets?
alot of sets, if im feeling an exercise i might do 5-6sets even.....other times im not liking something and ill ditch it after a set or two
Do you pick out one or two movements per muscle group, or do you like to hit a muscle from 3,4, or more angles in a workout?
5-6 usually, lately my workouts are longer with alot more volume, regardless if i started with heavy stuff or not, i seem to get stronger as the workout progresses
Do you train with 2,3, or more minutes between sets or do you prefer to only wait 30-60 seconds?
minutes man, minutes lol

These are just questions that I came up with on the fly. Please feel free to add more detail about your training if it is pertinent. I think a lot of us are curious as to what the "other guys" are doing to spawn muscle growth/strength.

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alot of it is on feel, i know ill do say back, rear delts, traps like today, but dont really have an idea what ill do, i just stare around and think, oh ill do that.....over the years iv accumulated a plethora of exercises i can use for a given part

I have gotten my best results with 5/3/1. That said, I just did escalating density for my accessory work, and it felt pretty good. The more I lift, the more I believe that volume combined with progressive overload is king.

My natural instinct is to lift sets of 6-8 with 75 second rest periods as heavy as I can manage until I'm completely exhausted. I did this for 2 years every weekday at 0430 in the morning. As you can imagine I hit the wall even before the end of the first year, and really didn't make any progress after that. I experimented for a couple of years and made progress in jumps and starts, but really never settled into a groove.

Now I do a lot of volume control, and use de-loads when neccessary. I cut my workout into "Meat" and "Dessert" phases. I always start with one or two big compounds with 2-3 minute rest periods following a 5-3-1 template and then go to dessert with assistance work at 10-12 reps with 60-90 second rest periods. Recently I've been finishing with occlusion work for 6-8 sets, starting with 25-30 reps then to failure each set after that. I take 30 second rest periods when doing occlusion work. I shoot for about 10 minutes occluded total.

This template is perfect for me right now and currently I'm stronger than I've ever been. I feel it's pretty balanced. I get strength work done right up front when I'm strongest, and then finish with a massive occlusion assisted pump in the extremities without having to lift heavy.

The only real downside is how ridiculous you look struggling to curl 20 pound DBs on set 4 when occluded.

Yeah, so for me it's all about being disciplined enough to know when to stop, and keeping the weight light enough to maintain form and avoid injury.

I use those all, I'll try to go a month with one mindset and then change. I do have my fav's but try to give the muscles time to adapt so I'll be disciplined using even exercises I hate just cause I need to mix it up. so I'll use all of those in different combinations in roughly 4 week intervals.

When you get to the gym and begin training, is your natural instinct to go heavy for 6 reps and under? Do you tend to seek out higher reps and go for a skin bursting pump?
Depends on the exercise. If I have stalled on a given weight I may increase the weight/decrease reps to gain strength and hopefully lift more next time. But generally 6-12 range. This might be psychological but I feel fewer reps doesn't do the job. I like a good pump on chest and arms sometimes, but generally my weights are heavy enough that by rep 10 I am failing, and it's not super high volume so not pump-focused.

Do you like to like to do your reps fast or slow?
Controlled form. Usually try to lengthen the eccentric portion. The concentric can be explosive but not so much that the form gets terrible.

Do you workout with very strict form, or do you cheat a bit... or a lot?
Again, if going for an increase in weight or reps, some light cheating. but no "whole body curls" with ridiculous 45 degree backbends.

Do you incorporate forced reps and/or negatives into your training regularly?
never. no spotter and i find that squeezing out the last, painful rep leaves me sore enough that i wouldn't want to do negatives or forced reps. too much possibility for injury, too.

Do you go more for the High Intensity training/Low sets or do you prefer doing a lot of sets?
I like high sets. usually 3 or 4 exercises per bodypart, 4 sets per exercise. always super-setted with another antagonistic muscle.

Do you pick out one or two movements per muscle group, or do you like to hit a muscle from 3,4, or more angles in a workout?
usually 3 or 4 exercises per bodypart.

Do you train with 2,3, or more minutes between sets or do you prefer to only wait 30-60 seconds?
1.5-2 minutes is good for me, any shorter and I have to go too light, any longer and the workouts get too long and I cool down too much.

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Originally Posted by burlyman30

Let me get a bit more specific.

When you get to the gym and begin training, is your natural instinct to go heavy for 6 reps and under?
Pretty much, i tend to go heavy for 4-5 sets of one big compound lift per day then hammer the hell out of everything with 10-15 rep sets afterwards.

Do you tend to seek out higher reps and go for a skin bursting pump?
always disappointed if i dont get a good pump.

Do you like to like to do your reps fast or slow?
medium, i mix it up though

Do you workout with very strict form, or do you cheat a bit... or a lot?
pretty strict on some stuff, i always round my thoracic on deads... but squat, pullups and bench very strict, rows decently strict until 225. for stuff like deads and bench i tend to use a bounce off the floor or chest when im about to fail

Do you incorporate forced reps and/or negatives into your training regularly?
at least once a week, frequently on leg press and bench

Do you go more for the High Intensity training/Low sets or do you prefer doing a lot of sets?
hella sets.

Do you pick out one or two movements per muscle group, or do you like to hit a muscle from 3,4, or more angles in a workout?
way more than 4

Do you train with 2,3, or more minutes between sets or do you prefer to only wait 30-60 seconds?
90-120 sec usually

These are just questions that I came up with on the fly. Please feel free to add more detail about your training if it is pertinent. I think a lot of us are curious as to what the "other guys" are doing to spawn muscle growth/strength.

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i lift longer and harder than most of my training partners, usually they wanna give up on me. if i lift alone i have no drive and it almost ALWAYS ends up being a shitty workout.

Do you tend to seek out higher reps and go for a skin bursting pump?
Both, as long as your squeezing you'll have the pumps. To me they are associated together.

Do you like to like to do your reps fast or slow?
Medium, I find that you need to follow whats smoth for you. However throwing in change of pace is good every once in awhile.

Do you workout with very strict form, or do you cheat a bit... or a lot?
I cheat, everyone cheats. Form is highly overrated because it's toally subjective. Throwing an arch in a curl is bad form no matter what but to squeeze out a rep or two at the end isn't going to hurt anyone. Squats and things everyone has different techniques and someone may have better success doing it one way and that form won't work for someone else.

Do you incorporate forced reps and/or negatives into your training regularly?
Not really, I'd be more likely to use forced reps as long as I trust the person spotting me.

Do you go more for the High Intensity training/Low sets or do you prefer doing a lot of sets?
Volume is king

Do you pick out one or two movements per muscle group, or do you like to hit a muscle from 3,4, or more angles in a workout?
More angles, doing the same movement will kill the muscle in one way but when you leave the gym other parts of the muscle may not really have been touched. If you want a complete physique it's better to get it at different angles to make sure the whole muscle grows. For example doing all flat chestwork is going to really destroy the lower and middle chest but you need upper chest development or you won't look flawless. Attack each muscle from different angles.

Do you train with 2,3, or more minutes between sets or do you prefer to only wait 30-60 seconds?
45 seconds rest period. Keep that heart rate and intensity up. If your spending too much time between sets you'll be at the gym all night long. 45 seconds works for me to get a drink catch my breath and get ready again.

This is great stuff guys. Keep it coming. While we have our differences, I definitely see some similar themes to our training that we all seemed to come up with apart from one another.

I'll add in my .02.

If I go heavy (6 and under) on a given day, I do that at the start with a compound movement and then work into other compounds or isolation movements with much higher reps (12-30). If I am not going as heavy, then my reps tend to stay in the 8-12 range through the whole workout.

I love to get a good pump, but I get a decent pump no matter what I do. I don't seek it out. It just happens. Maybe the last couple of sets I'll burn it out to just gorge the muscle with blood, but overall the pump isn't my goal.

With the big 3 lifts, I rely on form and technique, so I try to maintain strict form. However, when I'm burning out high rep curls or other less critical movements, I don't mind using some body movement on the last couple of reps to fry the muscle.

I mix up the rep speed. When I do high rep stuff, I tend to go faster. Heavy stuff, I slow it down, and medium reps are medium speed. In fact, I didn't realize that until I just had to think about it.

I do not have a workout partner, so I never incorporate negatives or forced reps. I do drop sets as an alternative to this.

Volume-wise, I'm somewhere in the middle. 9-12 work sets for chest and back, 5-6 for quads and hams, 6-9 for arms and delts, 12-15 for calves. I lift pretty intensely, so any more that this would be overkill unless I reduced my intensity, my weights, and went for higher reps and more pump.

Chest and back I usually like 3 movements, arms only 1 or 2 and change up movements each workout, legs 1-2, delts 1-4 depending on day.

Rest periods for the big 3 lifts are long, 2, 3, even 5 minutes between. Heavy rows is in this category. Other lifts for big muscle groups, 1.5-2 minutes. Rest periods for delts and arms and calves is 30-60 seconds.

I seemed to have his a nice routine that works well for me:

Warmup:
Stretching
10-15 mins on treadmill, slightly above walking pace, but at a good angle. I 'push' into the handle bars so that it really gets the blood going.

Lifting:
Depending on the muscles being worked, I'll warm them up with a few light weight sets. For example, if I'm doing chest and back, I'll bench just the bar for 30-40 reps, and then add about 20 lbs for the other sets. Then I'll do rows with little weight like with the benching.
After that, I'll roll into the heavier weight.

I've tried 5/3/1 but GODDAMN it burnt me out fast.
I like doing a 12/10/8 rep setup and get wicked pumps doing it. I go up much more slowly in weight, but the muscle is much more dense.

If I'm on a cycle and trying to get bigger/stronger, I've found 5x5 sets work very well.

I always love to mix it up though. Running 12/10/8 for a while and then throw a 5/5/5 in there with much higher weight really feels good.

I think this is good question and informative detail for those who recently joined gym. And if they follow this information then they quickly make their body healthy. I also this kind of exercises daily in the gym and it is also very helpful for me and thanks for sharing it. So keep it up.