Do you mean pyramiding? I don’t recall mentioning them or dropping weight. Sorry if I confused you.

Pyramids are what I do for the most part, but I don’t think that’s what you should be doing if fat loss is your primary goal. Pyramid sets are where you start out with a lighter weight for the first set and do higher reps. The next set you put on more weight and do fewer reps and continue that way for five or six sets. The last set you drop a bunch of weight and shoot for a high rep set. A pyramid for me would like this…

Incline press:
Two warm up sets – 135 X 15
Set 1 – 225 X 10
Set 2 – 275 X 8
Set 3 – 315 X 5
Set 4 – 335 X 2
Set 5 – 225 X 8

My goals have changed over the years. I no longer desire to gain size, but just keep what I have and do my best to keep it from turning to fat. I find that pyramiding gives me a well rounded series of sets that hit both fast and slow twitch fibers and also give my joints some time to warm up before hitting them with heavy weight. Ten years ago I could do a warm up set and then throw on a lot of weight for a target rep of two or three. I can’t do that anymore without injuring myself. Leg press is another good example where pyramids work well. Most folks can leg press at least three times their body weight, but that amount of weight is pretty tough on the knees. By throwing a plate on each side for each set, you give your knees time to warm up and you can also gauge when you need to stop if your knees start to pop or grind.

As far as you’re bought of nausea, that is normal for novice lifters, and also for experience lifters when working legs (I still puke). It’s just something you will have to work through. You’ll also be sore as hell for a few weeks as you push lactic acid out of your muscle fibers when first starting to weight train. It is normal and not to worry about too much. Don’t give up and work through it. Within a month to six weeks, that soreness will reduce dramatically. If you are working out with the right amount of intensity, you should be sore, but it will not be as painful as you will be while working the lactic acid out.

If you are talking about when you do a heavy set and pause just long enough for your partner to strip some weight off and then you do another set and so forth it’s called “drop sets.”



If working out on an empty stomach makes you sick then by all means eat something. This issue of whether or not to work out on an empty stomach is very hotly debated just do an internet search and you will see. Everyone’s body responds differently so just do what works for you.

I doubt if drinking a shake before bed will help but you can try it, however probably not the best idea to have to many calories just before bed as your body is resting and more likely to try and store them as fat.

Ah Drop sets thats what they are called thanks. Yeah the eating in the morning thing has always been a problem for me. I've always had a sour stomach in the morning that's why I have to force myself to eat something within the first hour of waking up or else my body won't tell me its hungry until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. It must be hereditary because my daughter has the same thing but i now know how important breakfast is so i force her to at least eat a little something to get the metabolism working. I think if i just stick to cardio when i first wake up i'll be fine with out eating it's more the weight training that puts me over the edge.

Finally found an article verifying the Tanita Body Fat scales are reasonably accurate. It is not the one I originally read from the University of Calgary a few years ago but the same results were found.

http://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/23611/kins474bruflatetalfall2005.pdf?sequence=1

I've always hated doing weights.

1) Cuz I got no upper body strength.
2) I've always found it mind numbingly boring.

I've been doing crossfit for the last 6 weeks and we do a lot of weights, amongst other things. It's amazing how much form makes a difference, in addition to the fact that good form is actually quite hard. Fortunately for me, crossfit adds just the right amount of variety to make it interesting. And painful, in a good way.

I thought I’d resurrect this thread since with the new year approaching I imagine some people will be making resolutions.

Mine came early when I got sick about 2 months ago and lost 15lbs. I decided that since I’m getting up there in the years I had better try to put some muscle on while I still can.

15 years ago I use to powerlift but I figured I should take it easy to start slow so I opted for a program I found called “Hypertophy-Specific Training” (HST) which seems to be just a more programmed way of progressive loading.

http://thinkmuscle.com/

The thing I like the most about doing this is that rather than blasting each body part one sometimes twice a week and sitting on my backside most days I can split up my routine and do a full body workout 5-6 days a week if I want. Most people do 3 days a week and do an AM/PM split if they want 6 workouts a week but I prefer to exercise every day.

Some things I’ve noticed:

I can do a full body workout 5-6 days a week w/o feeling over-trained by spreading out the sets I would normally do on one day for each body part over a whole week.

Though I originally had some DOMS it faded quickly being replaced by only a general tightness and feeling that I had worked my body.

I can do a full body workout in under 30 minutes if I superset antagonistic exercises. Though I have all my own equipment at home so I don’t have to wait for anything at the gym.

I can get the same feeling of effort/tiredness in 30 minutes of weights that would have taken me 3 hours of running.

My sleeping has gone from 5-6 hours a night to 8-10.

Dead lifting almost immediately stopped my sciatica. Now not only can I bend over w/o pain I can pick things up w/o supporting my back.

I realized I should have been eating a lot more back when I was powerlifting.

Broccoli, Cottage Cheese, Oatmeal, Chocolate Whey Protein Powder, Liquid Egg White, Walnut, Olive Oil, Coco, and Cinnamon shakes don’t taste nearly as bad as they sound.

I can gain 1lb a week with a reasonable proportion of that going to muscle. Most people don’t know I’ve stopped running and started lifting but have several have already commented that I look like I’m getting bigger (despite having lost the weight) but not gaining any weight. Another customer at a health-food store miss-overestimated my weight at 175lbs and was shocked when I told him I was only 145lbs.

I will probably try this program for another cycle when I’m done with this one and then switch to a strength program, but I’ll see how it goes.

Get motivated to train now if you’re not and good luck with your continuing programs and any new programs for the new year.

Cheers,
Dean

Pathetic by comparison, but I've at least been running home from work every weekday. I told my coworker I would run the Jingle Bell 5k (work-related) with her if she wanted to do it, since she mentioned it, and that was today. So that's why I'd been doing the little running I'd been doing. I've never been good at pacing myself for any significant distance, so in these runs home I would always be gasping like an idiot, and I estimate it's only like 3/4 of a mile. Thankfully, my coworker's pace is a lot slower than the pace I usually try to run at, so the 5k was essentially painless. I wasn't winded in the least, and we both felt like we could have done twice the distance without any strain. She should be a regular running buddy so I don't try to kill myself.

While I don't yet love running, I am glad to know I'm not a TOTAL wuss, even if I'm not doing ultra distance running. I'm going to try to continue to run home every day and see if I can motivate myself to do at least 3 mile stretches of more reasonably paced running on the weekends.

Only 145 lbs? For some reason I thought you were heavier. I don't know why. Right now I'm at around 160, which is about as heavy as I get. I think I've been up to 164. I feel much tighter when I'm about 152. I don't know if I'll try to slim down to that or not.

In any case, nice job on the new workout.

Good to hear you’re running. I found it addicting but for many it’s an acquired taste. Having a workout partner can always be helpful in maintaining any program. You’re already ahead of most Americans who couldn’t do a 5k to save their lives.

Many people think I weigh more than I really do probably because my body fat is so low I tend to look more muscular than I really am. Also people always picture Marines as huge which most are larger than me since I was the smallest guy in my platoon at bootcamp. Out in the FMF the guys use to call me “Adam Ant” because they said my full kit I looked like a little ant carrying a big leaf.

When I joined the Corps I only weighed 113lb (2lb under weight). Eight years later I was only 125lbs when I got out. I didn’t really put on any weight until I became a firefighter. I was strong enough to pick up anything we used but w/o any body weight I didn’t really have enough mass to get the traction to pull a charged hose-line over snowy or muddy (which you find a lot at fire scenes) ground. That’s when I started powerlifting and eventually got up to 165lbs at my heaviest. I’m shooting for 165 again but with a little lower body fat than last time.

Keep it up Charles. Once they get use to it most people like to run or do other exercises. I know I’d go nuts if I couldn’t.

I've been running on and off in the past two years. 5K is the most distance I can tolerate. Buffalo, NY is impossible in the winter of course (27" of snow this week) unless you can find an indoor track.

My sport of choice now is tennis. My younger son introduced this game to me four years ago and find it to be a massive workout for 1 to 1.5 hours. Although, at times, I find it as frustrating as golf, you are able to experience the "sweet spot" feeling most of the time. Like hitting a softball for a triple down the line with the good part of the bat.

BTW Grunt (sidebar)...I'm really getting into Therion. Just picked up "Theli" and now have on the way "Lemuria/Sirius B. Incredible band that has vaulted to my top 5 of all time list. That's not easy to do.

Any exercise is usually good exercise. The only time I’ve liked tennis is when I lived in West Africa and could pay a couple local kits 25 cents to chase balls which at my skill level was way to often.

Actually Therion is something I often listen to when working out. Metal and various EBM are great for workout music. The nice thing about working out at home is I don’t have to wear a “walkman” but can crank my Axioms. Since my one of my M80s and my EP500 are right near the double doorway into my workout room (suppose to be the master bedroom) I can feel the music instead of just listening to it. Much more motivating for workouts.