Is combining GS w/ S&H's okay?

[JUJYGRL]

Hi Everyone,

I have been rotating the GS uppers and have been seeing great results in my upper body. I also do P lower and run for cardio. I still want to increase muscle size and definition in my arms so I ordered and just received the S&h's I was thinking of doing one body part per day but combining both segments from the two series eg. Mon-biceps from both Tues. back etc. any special order I should consider for parts and anyone think combining these two is a bad idea?

~Chrissy~

 

[Kit_]

That I wouldn't recommend. S&H are made to stand by themselves as well as the GS series. When you get them and do them you'll notice this. Now of you want to alternate them week by week, that will give you some really good results. IE. This week you do S&H series with cardio, next week do GS series with cardio.

The reason I say this, is you should be using heavy enough weights, that you should be exhausing the muscle by the end of each set of reps, you should feel a nice warm, and a bit of a tingle feeling. Burning badly means the muscle is exhausted and your heading toward injury. That advice goes for GS too, those arms should feel heavy like it's a bit of work to move them by the end of the of bicep & tricep, or your chest muscles should feel tired by the back & chest workout. To push your muscles beyond this is dangerous. Now if your not feeling this by end end of your workout no matter if it's GS or S&H, it means your weights are too light and you need a heavier set. And even with the heavier set you can't do all the reps at first, that's okay. Work up to it, the heavier you can lift, the more it wakes up the muscles and more muscle fiber gets built.

When you get S&H it turns into a whole new ball game, and S & H really builds up muscle quickly if you follow the gudeline and work your muscles until exhaustion. Even at the end of tricep workout you see everyone struggling to get their arm up in the air to do a tricep stretch if your not feeling like your arms is made out of lead, increase the weight on the next go around with the video. As to build muscle it's not really how much you do, it's how heavy you lift. Amount place a minor role, it's exhaustion that is the main player, and you want something heavy enough that on the 10 rep is about all you can do and you can't lift it the 11th, in proper form. That's where you'll build the muscle fiber for bigger and stronger muscles.

Hope that helps,

Kit

 

[Agzo]

Hi There
I'm glad this question was asked because I am curious about something similar. Since 48 hours is needed between working the same muscles can you use S&H and gym style on a 6 day rotation. Instead of one body part per day leave it grouped and 3 of the one series and 3 of the other. Of course I am adding cardio as well, but I'm only on the second day and wondering if this is ok or should I spread it out more as suggested.
Thanks
~Angel

 

[Debra L]

Chrissy, this strength rotation of Cathe's might give you some ideas. Substitute the GS workouts for the PS.

http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=7&topic_id=386&mesg_id=386&page=2

Debra

 

[JUJYGRL]

Thanks guys, I will alternate weekly and bump up the weight. I appreciate the good advice.

~Chrissy~

 

[Kit_]

Hi Angel, do you mean do all of S&H in one day and then all of GS in one day? That's not the best for your body, as Cathe even explains part of this in the intro to S&H, the reason it's split up the way it is, is so your working opposite body parts. Like chest and back, you work your chest, and back together as they don't work off each other, which means you can go longer and make each one stronger faster. Where as if you worked chest and bicep/tricep you working muscles who first stablized the weights then your forcing them to work. You'll lose a lot of strength IE you'll have to go with lighter weights once you start working those muscle who stablized as they already had been worked some.

Like if you do a bench press, your working your chest, but your shoulders, and bicep,triceps, forearms, and wrists are stablizers for that weight your lifting up and down, while you work that chest. Most people who try to do this don't get a very good muscle build, mostly because you work those muscle hard as stablizers they can't do the actual exercises with the same heavy weights and good form, as they could if you seperated them like in both GS, SH, and PS do. Now you can always go for ligher weights and do this, but then your not getting the true benifit of the exercises or the what the workout was created for. You might want to put S&H in again and listen to the intro, as I think Cathe answers your question there as well.

Also the way these exercises are structured and done, makes it so your brain can send muscle fiber to just one or two body parts. If your diet is good you usually got enough store to help build two muscle groups and give them all the muscle fiber they are calling for. But more then two, then everyone has got to fight for that fiber, and no one gets built up like they should. Because you just don't have enough to go around so the ones you work later may be the ones that get worked and don't get any extra muscle fiber for their effort. Just think of it this way, drop a large box of pizza in front of 30 hungry kids, and see who gets a piece. This is kind of what your doing when you work more then two muscle groups to *exhaustion* you only have a limited amount of resources to build muscle fiber, so they either have to share, or it's first come first serve.

Hope that helps,

Kit

 

[jazz]

Can I ask a question regarding GS?

I'm just currently mixing and matching certain GS exercises. I'm loving those dropset pushups - I'm really gaining strength!

Next month I'd like to try a more formal rotation - I was thinking:

1 day - GS Chest - etc.

2 day - legs

3 - the other upper body one -

Then rest and on day 5 or 6 a lighter weight - endurance workout - either a Cathe ME, Power hour or maybe even Karen Voight GWW or something along that line?

Thanks educated crowd.

 

[Kit_]

Hi jazz,

That rotation doesn't sound too bad, but I think a little bit of tweaking would be good too. As I'm not too sure about adding Cathe's ME and power hour in the last couple days of the week. Even with lighter weights your muscles need at least 24 hours to recover, and it's actually recommended to give them a break of 48 to 72 hours. This is because when you work your muscles to exhaustion you make micro tears in your muscles, and depending on your diet, age, and genetics. Your body may not be able to mend all those tears in that short amount of time. And you keep tearing without resting enough, you'll just keep tearing and tearing the muscles until there is an injury. But light micro tearing is good, you work your muscles to exhaustion, which will cause a bit of tearing, they send an SOS to the brain, it grabs all the material it needs to fixed them, and as a bonus, they put an extra layer or two, so you can't tear them as easily, when then causes more muscle and definition. But if you don't let it have enough time to do that. Then your not getting the benefit you want. As it won't have time to make more muscle fiber in that area, so you don't gain the strength your wanting or the muscle definition.

You may want to check out the intro to the workouts you want to do. Cathe usually gives some awesome advice as to how to get the most benefit out of the series and that particular workout your doing. I know sitting there listening to the intro can be boring but her advice really gets you going in the right direction. And she usually tells you how to do the workouts to get the most benefit.

But general rule of thumb you can usually recover enough in a full 48 hours after the workout to work those same muscles again. A tough workout needs a full 72 or more. Every body is different, but there are very very few who can recover quicker then what I've stated above. Also another thing you need to be careful with, is over training. You won't feel it, but you'll be riding on an exercise high, until your body just can't take it any more, or you take a couple days off, and just crash. And then you get to start from step 1 or pretty close to it. Which really isn't fun, and very annoying. I've did that to myself when I was younger, and hate to see anyone go threw what I went through. So do get those rests in, you won't be cheating yourself out of nice strong muscles, but you'll actually gain more strength and muscle this way. As your body has enough time to repair and reinforce the muscle fibers to make them stronger, bigger and tougher.

Hope that helps,

Kit