weight lifting

trimbo

New Member
I have been lifting heavy weights for at least four years now. I have been trying everything I can think of to try to gain more muscle mass. I feel I am trying very hard, but am not seeing the visible results I would like. I recently got the Slow and Heavy series and Pure Strenght series. I really enjoy them. My question is, how long and how often do you do weight training to see the results you do? I lift usually 5 or sometimes 6 times a week for at least an hour. What do you suggest for better results? Thanks for your time!
 
Hi,
I am absolutely not an expert, but I would ask yourself the following questions:

1. When I am lifting heavy, am I lifting as heavy as I can so that I can hardly complete the last set? Am I reaching failure/truly challenging my muscles?

2. Am I allowing my body time to recover between sessions?

You say you are lifting 5 to 6 times per week--I wonder if your muscles are getting a chance to recover. You HAVE to let your muscles rebuild themselves--every time you lift you are breaking them down, and they don't have a chance to repair and gain strength. Cathe's suggestions on the PS series are to use them each once per week, going as heavy as you possibly can. I think it is the same fro S&H.
So....I hope that helped.
Wendy
 
You are lifting 5-6x/week? I agree with Wendy, you are not giving your muscles time to recover. When we lift, we are causing tiny microscopic tears in our muscle fibers. During recovery days (meaning not lifting using the same muscles 2 days in a row) our muscles heal those tears we created. This is when our muscles grow in size & strength. If you never allow your muscles to recover, you are actually breaking them down and defeating the purpose of lifting. You will not see any gains. I use PS, S&H or MIS (I cycle through every 2 weeks, alternating total body & split). I give my muscle groups at least a day to recover, so I'm lifting 3-4x/week. For instance, I'm doing PS last week & this week. I'll do back/bi's/abs Monday, chest/shoulders/tri's Tuesday, cardio wednesday, legs/abs thurs, cardio friday, and maybe legs/abs again saturday. If it's MIS week, I'll do this total body routine every other day, alternating with cardio. I've seen fantastic gains in size & strength with this rotation (total body/split, recovery days in between muscle groups). Some bodybuilders lift very heavy but only work muscle groups one day a week.

Try to increase your recover days & see what happens. Good luck!
 

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