During those 3 months I tend to find that pretty much fries me, and cycling, running ect takes a back seat.
I find this does not negatively affect other exercise too much. Also if I know I have a big week of riding ahead or maybe a race then I would not lift weights in the week beforehand. I am 49 now, and there is no way I can lift heavy and cycle as much as I want to, something has to give.
I also think lifting weights is really good for general health and longevity, since starting back lifting weights I have far less joint and back aches. What muscles are used predominately in a squat is affected by how you squat.
Some are very hamstring dominant with a wide stance and some people do it with a narrow stance and use more quads.
This is somewhat down to hip structure and mobility. My ankles have awful mobility so I box squat to get a more quad active squat without the back stress that limits my squatting. Both these sessions have warm up sets. Less calories for building. I can manage far more, and I feel better if I eat lots of carbs. Sounds like tailsmtb is similar to me.
Combine this with eating more protein and you should gain some mass genetics permitting. The reps you do and number of sets depends entirely on where you are in your routine your routine does include periodisation, right?
Well, every lift ever will be a percentage of your 1 rep max. What percentage depends on your rep ranges read article above. The current thinking is that hitting groups twice a week is most efficient and provides ample recovery time if you give a 2 day rest for each group. This topic has 42 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 2 years ago by empirical.
Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 of 43 total. So the questions I have are.. Thanks Posted 2 years ago. Posted 2 years ago. Maybe not riding the next day is just something that you need to do after a hard leg day?
Your asking the wrong questions. The answer is to space out leg days. Cycling is a leg day. Yes you could lower the intensity but that will lower the effective of the build of muscle. You might find a quality protein shake soon after the workout will ease the doms. Thanks for the replies. If anyone is interested in an evidence based weight lifting program, try this app.
Having said that I still cycled x per week mainly BMX and trail riding of an hour max although it probably made it more difficult than necessary… Posted 2 years ago. This is particularly true when it comes to training big compound exercises such as the front squat or back squat.
The idea is simple: you are going to work up to a heavy double on squats. This process is repeated until you have performed 5 total reps. Charles Polquin recommends that you perform of these drop sets in a single workout. That means if you perform of these drop sets in a single workout you are really performing the equivalent of total sets of squats!
Talk about a high-volume squat workout! Despite the lower rep ranges these drop sets actually create a lot of muscular fatigue which is helpful for increasing muscle mass. The five sets of five loading scheme is easily one of the most reliable set and rep schemes for building a big squat.
The idea is incredibly simple: you perform 5 sets of 5 reps with a given weight. The five sets of 5 reps loading scheme is so effective for building a stronger squat because it represents the perfect compromise between neurological adaptations and muscular adaptations.
In reality there are two main ways that you can build a stronger squat:. The routines that work best for increasing neurological adaptations tend to feature relatively low rep ranges.
By performing a large volume of singles, doubles, and triples your body becomes better at activating the fast-twitch muscle fibers in the legs.
Ultimately this translates into a bigger squat. On the other hand increasing the size of your muscles is also a great way to boost your strength potential. Performing 5 sets of 5 reps on any type of squat is a great way to get the best of both of these worlds in a single workout: neurological adaptations AND muscular adaptations. Some of the most popular 5 x 5 programs include three squat workouts per week. In my experience this type of squat frequency works well for a very small percentage of the training population.
Most trainees get FAR better results squatting no more than twice per week. Here is a 5 x 5 squat workout that you can perform anywhere from once every days. Here are the sample training videos: exercise A1 , exercise A2. For this specific routine I recommend you perform your squats with a safety squat bar. This is an unbelievable piece of equipment! The bar is very comfortable on your neck and shoulders because of all the extra padding in the middle of the bar. There is also a built-in camber in the bar which takes some pressure off your lower back.
Of course there is nothing wrong with performing a 5 x 5 workout with either front squats or back squats. However, the safety squat bar has many advantages and certainly deserves a place in your long-term squat programming. The bar itself has a camber in it which puts the weights further in front of your body than normal. In other words the center of gravity is actually further out in front of your body than normal. This just means that your lower back and upper back are going to have to work harder than usual.
In my experience the safety squat bar works best with sets in the rep range. This makes the safety squat bar a perfect choice when using the 5 x 5 set and rep scheme. The German Volume Training program was originally used by various German Olympic Weightlifting teams in the mids.
They used it with back squats because it was one of the fastest and easiest ways to add slabs of muscle to the quadriceps. The idea is simple: you are going to perform 10 sets of 10 reps with a single exercise. The quadriceps have a large percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers and respond extremely well to higher rep ranges. Charles recommends that you start off with a weight that you can perform for reps.
Here is what a typical 10 sets of 10 workout might look like:. You would simply use the same weight at your next workout and try to get 10 reps each of your ten sets. As soon as you are able to perform ten sets of ten reps with a given weight you would increase the load at the following workout to continue challenging yourself. Here is a sample lower body German Volume Training workout that you may want to try.
The back squat is an excellent choice for a 10 sets of 10 reps workout. However, the front squat would be a very poor choice. As a general rule of thumb you do not want to perform more than 6 reps per set with the front squat. Your upper back muscles such as the rhomboids and middle-trapezius have to work very hard during a front squat to stabilize the barbell and your upper body. These muscles actually have to produce a very strong isometric contraction throughout the set to prevent your upper body from literally collapsing forward.
If you perform more than 6 reps per set on front squats your scapular retractors will fatigue faster than your legs. For this reason it is best to stick to sets of 6 reps or less when training the front squat. The back squat, on the other hand, does not have this limitation.
It is commonly trained for anywhere from reps per set. The Japanese drop set is a powerful bodybuilding training method that can be paired with either front squats or back squats to build muscular hypertrophy.
This drop was invented by a team of Japanese researchers in the early s. The Japanese scientists were actually baffled at how quickly their subjects were packing on muscle mass! Here is the procedure for a Japanese drop set:. As you can see the Japanese drop set is really a quadruple drop set performed with 5 reps on every single attempt.
This is a brutally effective way to build muscular hypertrophy. In my experience it works particularly well for individuals who are trying to build functional hypertrophy, or hypertrophy specific to the fast-twitch muscle fibers. The Japanese drop set protocol is so severe that you only want to perform one of these drop sets per exercise.
One of my favourite ways to use this drop set with my online coaching clients is to pair it with a 5 x 5 set and rep scheme. Your first five sets are performed as usual. On the fifth and final set you would perform your Japanese drop set.
The Japanese drop set works so well because it maximized both the load that you are lifting AND the total time under tension of the set. Here is a sample Japanese drop set drop set workout:. One of the more difficult aspects of this routine is actually figuring out how much weight to take off the bar on each part of the drop set. Of course these are only rough estimates.
You are just going to have to give this routine a go before you know for sure how much weight to take off the bar. Mechanical advantage drop sets are one of the most effective ways to build muscle. In fact they are probably one of my all-time favourite high-intensity bodybuilding training techniques. The normal protocol for a drop set involves training to failure and reducing the weight on the bar so you can continue pumping out additional reps.
Mechanical advantage drop sets are also designed to allow you to train beyond the point of failure. However, rather than dropping the weight on the bar to bust out additional reps you are going to change exercises. Specifically you are going to pick variations of the same exercise and progress from the weakest variation to the strongest variation. Here is the strength coach Christian Thibadeau giving a great overview of mechanical advantage drop sets:. A great way to structure a mechanical advantage squat workout is to superset front squats and back squats.
Specifically you are going to perform a set of front squats just shy of failure, rest 10 seconds and perform a set of back squats with the same weight. By performing a set of back squats immediately after your front squats you can push your muscles beyond the point of near failure and create a powerful hypertrophy training stimulus.
One of the downsides to this training method is you are somewhat limited in the rep ranges you can use.
It is not a good idea to perform more than 6 reps per set on the front squat because your scapular retractors will fatigue faster than your legs. For this training method I recommend you perform anywhere from total mechanical drop sets. I recommend you aim for reps on your front squats and simply perform as many reps as you can on your back squats.
Most trainees find that they can get total reps on their back squats but this depends on your ratio of fast-twitch to slow-twitch muscle fibers among other things. Here is a sample workout you may want to try. See the video below for more details. Again your goal with this workout is to perform reps on the front squat and then perform as many reps as you can on the back squats. Most trainees will be able to bust out an additional reps on the back squat. I highly recommend it if you are looking for some rapid strength and size gains in your quadriceps and the rest of your lower body!
I am going to introduce you to one of the most brutal strength training methods of all time: isometronics. There are three different types of muscular contractions:. You are probably already familiar with concentric and eccentric muscular contractions. Concentric contractions occur any time your muscles shorten while contracting.
In other words they occur whenever you are lifting a weight up. Eccentric contractions are just the opposite: they occur when your muscles are lengthening while contracting.
In other words they occur when you are lowering a weight down under control. This is especially true when it comes to training the squat. T here is nothing wrong with this approach. However, isometric contractions have many benefits that the average trainee is missing out on. Isometric contractions occur when your muscles are contracting without moving! A great example of this is if you tried to lift a 1, pound barbell off the ground. Your muscles will be working very hard but the bar will remain still.
In other words you will be performing an isometric contraction! The main benefit of isometric contractions is they increase the number of motor units that you can recruit in your muscles. This has enormous implications for building maximal strength and muscular hypertrophy. One of the best ways to use isometric contractions is with isometronics. In order to perform this training method you are going to need two pairs of safety pins. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. There's more than one type of muscle mass, and training different rep ranges emphasize one over the other:.
The key word in each of these bullet points is " emphasizes ". You won't have any rep range that is exclusively myophibrilar or sarcoplasmic. Next, it's important to understand what myophibrilar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy do in terms of muscle mass.
Folks who train for mass emphasize the sarcoplasmic hypertrophy range because it takes up more room. Whether you want to be bigger or you want to be stronger, you will need to emphasize both over time.
If you decide to include sets of , do a lot of sets and keep the intensity the same as if you were doing sets of High weight with few reps will primarily result in adaptations to your central nervous system. That is, you become better at contracting your muscles and wont necessarily add any significant amount of muscle mass.
If you do a lighter weight, with a higher rep routine one of the things that will happen is that you will deplete muscle ATP, which the body then super-compensates to by hypertrophy. Squat is an excellent exercise for various reasons hormonal, strength, balance etc. I would base my program around this exercise. Make sure to perform it properly - which means proper depth upper thigh should be parallel to the ground.
Don't get caught up in chasing numbers. Adding mass or hypertrophy happens at higher weight and lower reps. Try to pick a weight that has you struggling on 6,7 and 8. To put on mass you need BOTH. Load up the squat bar with your normal 10 rep max weight. Then do 20 reps. Eat and sleep a ton for 2 days. Increase weight on the bar 10 pounds. Wash, rinse, repeat. You will put mass on everywhere.
Assuming that you're eating plenty of food, particularly plenty of protein, and assuming that you're getting enough sleep and aren't terribly stressed, the best way to add mass to your legs is with a small number of exercises--certainly squats and deadlifts, plus additional exercises like leg press and so on if you are sure that you're getting enough sleep and food. If you're not squatting over 1. If you are already squatting over 1.
One good way to do this is with two sets of five or six, then a final set of as many reps as possible with good form. Another way is to do one to three sets of twenty-rep squats. As this post describes, the best rep scheme for mass is probably between 8 to 12, but it's important to make yourself strong enough to work with heavy weights before focusing on mass. To build muscle mass and to increase strength, lower repetitions try to shoot for about 2 to 6 , are more effective.
So yes, do low reps to gain mass. The squat is especially important, and work at least half of the major muscle groups on the body legs, abdominals, back , but still primarily lower body muscles. I hope this helps and good luck with increasing your leg growth. Follow Supercompensation :. Do reps until you cannot do more, multiple times a move.
So body notices that you need more strength. The best squat rep range for those training with the primary goal of developing as much strength as possible is between 1 to 5 reps. This rep range is not set in stone, but is usually recommended because this rep range will allow us to lift weights that are challenging enough in weight to produce high amounts of force production.
While hypertrophy training is increasing muscular size, strength training is refining the processes for the muscle to perform better. For this reason, we typically program strength training with a higher number of sets than reps to get more experience teaching the muscles how to refine their processes under heavy loads, without pushing past our abilities and performing reps to the point of breakdowns in technique. When programming squats for max strength we will have more variation in the total volume week-to-week than if we were training for hypertrophy, because we will be increasing load and sometimes sets, but we will most likely be decreasing repetitions.
Therefore, it is common for total volume to fluctuate when training for strength, with the ultimate goal being to increase our performance under heavy loads. To continue progressing our squats and to avoid plateauing we need to challenge ourselves enough to stimulate our body to adapt — without pushing too hard and impacting our recovery.
Once we stop presenting enough stimulus, our body will stop adapting and it will result in a plateau where minimal to no progression is happening. When a plateau arises, despite our best efforts to continue to challenge ourselves, it is often best to change our approach. Best way to switch up the stimulus? Switch up the rep ranges.
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