Hello,
I made the leap 2 weeks ago to start resistance training and be in better health overall.
I lost 25 pounds since October and it motivated me to start training as well. So here I am.
I bought the Renaissance Periodization 3 days full body workout with dumbbells only to start my journey. I have young kids, so starting at home is giving me the best chance to stick to a program.
With that said, over the 2 weeks, a few questions popped up and I don’t know the terminology well enough to answer them and my google skills weren’t good enough, so I am trying my luck here.
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I have been sedentary for a long while, even though I did a lot of sport when I was younger. Mainly competitive volley ball, so my legs are decently strong still, but my upper body, not so much. For many upper body exercises I do, it feels like my strength is really uneven, and different muscles are activated, though I make sure that the targeted muscle for the exercise is activated too. Should I stick to the same weight I use if I can reach the targeted reps with good technique (to the best of my knowledge)? Or should I drop the weight a little bit until I am strong enough?
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The program calls for myo reps. Each week, a new set is added. For each exercise, the target is between 5-30 reps. Does that mean that I should target at least 5 reps for each sets? Or if I do, let’s say, 7-5-3 reps, is that good enough? Should I drop down some dumbbells weight until I can do all the sets to at least 5 reps? For push ups particularly, I don’t use a dumbbell, so I could switch to knee push ups, but my first two sets are over 5 reps, but the subsequent sets are under 5.
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Today while training, I ramped up intensity a little bit and really pushed myself more than before. For certain exercises, even though my targeted muscle wasn’t burning and feeling exhausted, I couldn’t do more reps and the overall part that was trained was shaky after the set.
For example, I did some sumo squats. It didn’t feel like my quads were toasted, but I could not push more and my legs really started to shake (it went away after a bit of rest). Is that a good/okay thing? Or does that mean I pushed myself too much and other parts of my legs weren’t strong enough for what I tried? After my training, it felt like my knees worked a lot, so I think this is what limited my sumo squats.
I am aware that other muscles are solicited when doing an exercise, but I feel like the targeted muscle should do most of the work.
Thank you for your time.
Without going into the specific program you use because I’m not familiar with it, I’d say the most important thing is good technique and posture. All exercises’ are much easier if you don’t do them correctly (other muscles start helping out). So don’t pump reps like crazy. Do it a little slower but be mindful about the muscles that should be working out. And if you have correct technique all of the sudden it becomes much harder because intended muscles are activated.
Look on youtube for how to do workouts correctly and WRITE IT DOWN because you’ll forget. And before every exercise remind yourself about the correct posture.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
The program has small videos on how to do each exercise, so that’s great for that.
I am mindful on the eccentric movement to go slow, and I hold the eccentric position at least a second. Depending on if I am comfortable with the movement or not, I go faster on the concentric movement.
The issue I had yesterday wasn’t that the exercises were easy, but that “auxiliary” muscles (don’t know how to call them) were limiting my reps even though my targeted muscle wasn’t fully exhausted. But my targeted muscle are tired though and I feel them this morning.
I mean, for squats for example, you need to use the muscles in your legs, you can’t isolate only the quad, right? Same thing with side raise with hold, the weights are away from my body, so I need to engage my forearm only if to hold the weight away from my body. So I am not sure in those cases if I should go down to 5lbs or stay at 10lbs. Mind you, the reps are still within the 10-20 for the first set and 5-10 and the subsequent sets.
For all my exercises, I use 10lbs dumbbells, so I warm up by doing 8 reps without any weight, 6 reps with 5lbs and 3 reps with the 10lbs. It helps me prepare for the movement before doing the sets.
Sounds like your doing a good job.
You can try different exercises for the same muscle to see which ones target the specific muscle the most if that’s what your into. On the other hand it’s good to do exercises that actually involve multiple muscles so that everything grows bit by bit simultaneously. That’s the bast case scenario IMO. Machines that work out a single muscle are nonsensical for 99% of people. Ok, if your a world class tennis player, you need extra strong specific hand muscles, but most of us aren’t so we don’t.
And it’s true what you say, sometimes a muscle starts hurting like hell two days after the actual workout so you think you didn’t do a good job when all of a sudden you have trouble sitting down 😄
In my opinion - consistency and form are the most important things.
Do what you can do, safely and regularly - that’s the most important thing, and is more important than whatever the program thinks. Listen to your body and focus on keeping the habit.
And seconding what was said - you do not need to go to failure. Feeling tired after or sore the next day isn’t bad, but isn’t required to be doing it right. If things feel too easy, do more reps or more resistance/weight next time
