Adarq.org

Hey Lancests. Thanks the other day for giving me some tips and letting me know i need to work on my hams. I was reading this article that you wrote.

http://www.adarq.org/forum/lancests-performance-blog/effective-and-time-effecient-upper-body-*(and-lower)-training-for-athletes/

Im thinking that this is what I am going to start doing. It seems a lot more time efficient and effective.

I strained my right ham slightly yesterday, so i wont be doing squats or leg work until it goes away fully.

My workout plan will be as follows:

Sun: Off

Mon: Core

Tues: Bench: 3 rest pause sets
recline pull-ups:3 rest pause sets
parallel dips, etc (same workout you wrote above)

Wednesday: Squats: 3 rest pause sets
-Glute ham raises: 3x6-10 (Should i do rep pause sets with these too?)
-single leg calf raises 3x15

Thurs: Off

Fri: Same workout you wrote in the article above but for Thursday (Standing press, Pull-ups, close-grip bench press, seated dumbbell curl)

Sat: Squats-3 rest pause sets
glute ham raise-3 sets of 6-10 (Should i do rep pause sets with these too?)
single leg calf raises 3x15

Im wondering about the following:
1) How do Wednesday's and Saturday's workouts look? Should I have some single leg work in there also? Any advice would be appreciated

2) For the past couple months I have been squatting 3x per week. Should I cut it down to 2 now that I am adding ham work in? 3x a week has been pretty tough on my legs with all the single leg work I was doing.

 I would do upper body twice a week, the exercises you have are fine, one vertical push like a push press, one vertical pull like a pull up on one day, then one horizontal push like a bench press, one horizontal pull like a recline row on the other. 

On lower body days I would stick to something like squats, ghr, lunge, calf raise, done 2 x a week.  On the squat do 3x5 on one day, 3 x 8-10 on the other with a lighter weight.  You can change the hamstring exercise to something like rdls on the 2nd day, and single leg exercise to bss if you wish.

This will allow you more time to jump and play basketball, you need to be jumping at least 3 x week if improving jumping is your goal. 

3) Should I do that method you indicated in the post below about singles? You say to only do one exercise per session (like only squats in one session). Does that mean no ghr's or assisted work? I'm not sure if i should do this but I would appreciate your input greatly.

absolutely not, that is not something you will need until much later on in your training.  Right now you need to take advantage of being able to progress workout to workout in literally every lift.  Milk those gains until they run out, it will never be that easy again.

Sorry for all the questions, I am trying to make my workouts the most effective possible. Thanks for your time Lancests.

Sincerely,
Dwang

no problem man, just keep it simple, train upper 2x a week and lower 2 x a week, jump 3 x a week and recover.  try to add a little weight each week and you will do well. Good luck!

Cool thanks Lancests. I did today's tuesday workout and it was finished in only 30 minutes.

I did rest pause sets (15 deep breaths about a minute rest)
 
Bench 135 lbs: 7,7,6
Recline Pullups: 12,11 (single leg on ground)
Standing bicep curls :55 lbs (5,5)
One arm dumbbell rows: 3x10 w/ 45 lbs (No rest pause sets)
Dips: 2 rest pause sets (these hurt my pecs and shoulders bad-and i was only going to parallel and not leaning forward)
Shoulder work: band pull aparts to chest and overhead shrug at 50 lbs

Questions:
1) Adarq said I should add in those one arm dumbbell rows to make it a 1:2 push pull ratio. Should I? I did basically no rest betw sets.

 First of all, do at least 3 RP sets of the MAIN LIFTS, you have 2 sets of recline rows and the reps being 12 and 11 are too high, you need to load them.  that wouldve been a better workout with bench as is, a loaded recline row, something like 8, 6, 5, doing the band pull aparts, and then a set or two of bicep curls are fine. If you did bench already rest paused, dont do dips, same movement pattern and youre just cutting into recovery time. 

Youve got some extra junk volume on there that you dont need imo but if you feel better doing more work in the same movement pattern have at it, just make sure you can still progress the lifts that matter (your push/pull main lifts of the day) the next time you do them.  Rest pause is a game of beating the numbers, thats the magic in it, it makes it very easy to improve either the total reps done, or the weight lifted because youre not doing a bunch of other busy work/ assistance/not needed to improve work.

 You can load the recline rows with plates on your chest very easily, elevate your feet, etc., they are easy to progress if you look around youtube there are tons of videos showing different ways to do this.

  If youre worried about your shoulder the lats are internal rotators too, so do something like a face pull or dumbell external rotation for a couple of sets, but dont add a bunch of junk volume, focus on progressing your main lifts.  If you add weight to the main push/pull exercise everytime you do the workout, youre already going to improve, get stronger, and grow, doing a bunch of other exercises is just going to cut into your recovery and make it harder to progress the lifts that do you the most good the next time you train.

2) Im thinking of removing the dips cause I dont want to injure my shoulders. They have caused pain before too when I did them with a coach...they just seem to hurt even when I do them correctly.

 I didnt put dips on the list earlier, you have a horizontal push in bench press, so if you want more tricep work just do some tricep extensions or something that doesnt tax the shoulder joint.  You dont need to do either, drop the dips, focusing on the bench and the recline row would likely do you more good in the long run.

3) Could I do sitting rows instead of recline pullups? Reason im thinking of switching is sitting rows are horizontal pulls and I can judge how much weight to use better

see above.

4) Is a 30 minute workout too short? lol it went so quickly and I had a crazy good pump in my upper body.

nope, 30 minutes of focused work is great for you right now, its not about how long you stay in the gym, its about the quality and intensity of the things you do while youre in there.

Thanks again.

np man, pc.

Cool Lance. My bad, I thought the assisted work was part of the workout.
It will be even shorter if i make it just main lifts, and bicep curls+shoulder work. Overhead shrugs are still good? (They felt a little awkward when I did them today)

And clarification. Am I doing everything with rest pause sets then? Even the squat workouts and bss workout tomorrow at 3x5?

overhead shrugs are fine, just dont do more than a couple of sets.  on the squats, dont rest pause them, do 3 x 5-10 with as much rest as you need in between sets.  Total how many reps you get with what weight you use, and beat that number the next time you squat.  If you get more than 25 total reps, up the weight next session.

I am only going to do 3x5 on squats and 1x5 on bss tomorrow with ghr at 3x6-10 if my hams are better (Should I do rest pause with all these). What I am understanding is that since I am lifting less, I will just jump/sprint more right before I lift and have more time to do that. I haven't been able to jump as much cause my legs have been so fatigued.

Is this how I should be doing my squats? Please comment on my form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtyAT8E5iXI&feature=channel_video_title

Peace.

I would do 2 x 8-12 reps with bss.  Ghr works well with rest pause, just do 3 rest paused sets, as many reps in good form as you can, total it.  If you get over 12 reps your first set, hold a plate at your chest.

Those squats looks great.

  Thats why i said

"  on the squats, dont rest pause them,, do 3 x 5-10 with as much rest as you need in between sets.  Total how many reps you get with what weight you use, and beat that number the next time you squat.  If you get more than 25 total reps, up the weight next session. "


 So if youre using 200lbs for your squats, youre target rep range is anywhere from 5-10, and lets say you get 8 on the first set, 7 on the second set, and 7 on the third set, thats 22 total reps with 200 lbs.  So the next squat workout, your goal is to either a.) do 23 or more reps in 3 sets with 200lbs OR do 3 x 5-10 with 210lbs.  If you can always get 25, you put more weight on the bar so that you cant get 25, in good form/ not grinding.

  And yes, rep speed is important, the key being not to "stick".  You should be able to stand up without grinding your reps and try to be as explosive as possible every rep you do, should be challenging though and you should constantly be beating your previous pr's if you follow this correctly.

You can rest pause the bss or do straight sets, doesnt matter.  Rest pause works well because you can go leg to leg through all the sets.

 If you think you INJURED your hamstrings, then no, but if its just some deep soreness, foam roll and stretch really well tonight, then make sure to warm up good and feel it out tomorrow, you should be able to tell during your warm up sets if its going to be safe to go heavier or not.

How does this workout look for friday lance?


Standing press: 3 rest pause sets
Pull-ups: 3 rest pause sets
Close-grip bench press: 2 rest pause sets with moderate weight
Seated dumbbell curl- 2 rest pause sets with moderate weight

looks much better, add in face pulls or band pull aparts for 2 x 15-20 at the end though.

and should i use thursday and monday (core days) as jumping/sprinting days too??

thats a good idea, just do maximal jumping and sprinting 3 x a week however you set it up, submax hops, starts, etc. can be done more frequently.

That workout above for friday looks like it will be only 20 minutes haha. Because of the rest pause sets, there is little rest between so the workout goes really fast. Should I fully rest between exercises? or for example: should i move right from standing press straight to pullups with no rest.

Thanks

  Definitely recover fully between exercises, the goal is not to go fast, its to fatigue as many motor units as possible while providing a solid way to progress from workout to workout on the lifts that matter the most.

Okay cool. I did glute ham raises today and they felt easy. I dont know if im doing them right though. My hams did feel like they were going to pull off...so tight. I did 12 my first set, 12 second set with 10 lb plate and 5 reps 3rd set with a 25 lb plate.

I adjusted the footpads to the closest position. Am i not supposed to be putting my knees on those pads?

This girl uses a similar machine as I have but she can put her knees on the pads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM4fcVP4hHo

These are my ghr's. Please comment lance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvSLBl2ROeo

If I did these wrong did they even help? my hamstrings still felt like they were gonna pull off lol.

P.S. I did squats at 225 lbs today with rest pause at 8,8,10. (I think I may have held back a little on the first couple sets and gone all out on the third one. Is that okay?)
 I got 26 reps...so that means the weight is not heavy enough . I have definitely been improving strength. But how much should I move up the weight on saturday when I go lift legs again and do squats? (since im doing squats twice a week and rest pausing them)

on the ghr, make sure to full extend the knees, youre not fully extending at the end of the rep there, leaving out some valuable rom.  watch that video i linked you yesterday on the chat, he describes it in detail.

on the squats- move up to 240lbs, dont hold back on the first couple of sets tho and why did you rest pause them?  Its fine as long as your form doesnt break down but you need to be extra careful with them if youre going to use that form of rp with squats.