posted Sun, 12/23/2012 - 01:11
1950
Lifting too much weight = Injury?
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One thing that never occured to me and something I just read now leaves me with more questions. I understand that just because I may feel stronger, I should NOT be adding weight that my body is not yet ready for. By doing so, my tendons/joints are at a greater risk of injury. Correct?
My question is, is there a standard amount of added weight per week I should strive for and never exceed? Lets say I bench 100 this week ,should I not even attempt to do 115 the next? Is a 5 to 10 pound increase per week safe? I typically try for a 2.5 to 5 lb increase.
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Anonlifting too heavy too quickly can increase the risk of injury. beginners or deconditioned individuals should start off light and work their way up to moderate weights within the first couple weeks. this will aide in conditioning thru mitochondrial re-education, as well as add a progessive strengthening factor to the connective tissues. this will also allow the person to overcome the initial soreness with more moderate tissue damage as opposed to extensive damage when the cellular components are not yet ready to deal with as much repair.
there is no magic number, no. start off light. find a weight that is just heavy enough to do 20 reps to unassisted failure. use this load to familiarize yourself with the movements, focusing on perfecting proper form technique. without proper form, the risk of injury in drastically increased. after a week or so of this weight, increase to a load just heavy enough to get 12-15 reps to unassisted failure. this will add a strength conditioning factor. post workout carbs will aide in your overall conditioning during these two weeks by re-educating the mitochondrial components; thereby, preparing your body for future work and repair.
for the more conditioned athletes, you will want to incorporate proper warmup periods. this should be a two-phase process. first phase should be light cardio prior to activity to increase the HR and raise the core temp of the body. following the cardio, light sets should be incorporated prior to building up to the heavy sets. these light sets will provide for increased blood flow to the muscle, which will - in a sense - prime it for what is to come. after the warmups, i like to do a teir to get to my target weight. lifting too heavy too quickly can easily cause damage to the tendons. get that blood flowing first.
contrary to popular belief, stretching SHOULD NOT be done prior to activity. stretching a cold muscle does nothing to improve flexibility and will actually increase the chance of injury. after the HR and core temp is elevated and the muscles blood flow has been increased thru warmup sets, LIGHT stretching may be incorporated at this time. just remember to NEVER stretch a cold muscle.
outside of this, the load will depend on the overall goal. in terms of motor unit recruitment, the following is a guide for incorporating the appropriate load for the respective goal. these loads must be applied so that the lower end of the rep ranges are achieved with unassisted failure. as the muscles increase in strength, stamina, or endurance, and the higher end of the rep range has been reached, more weight should be added to drop back down to the lower end. this is called the overload training principle.
strength/size: 4-6 reps
strength/stamina: 12-15 reps
endurance/weight-loss: 20-25 reps
Thanks that is helpful but now I have a question on stretching. Typically I do cardiovascular using the elliptical to get started, I get warmed up and stretch after that I will then do warm up light weight sets. Is that a bad thing to do. Seems to be working good for me but I'm always open to new technique
AnonThat would be more beneficial to stretch purely cold. Getting blood flow to the target muscles prior to stretching would optimize the benefits. I'd do your cardio, then light sets, then light stretching, then go into your workout.
Anon+1 brotha...good stuff
That's some detailed and useful information right there, think this answers his question very well!
AnonWhy thank ya sir!
Firstly, yes! Your joints will not keep up at the same pace as your muscles unless you are using a good quality Deca or HGH (some people also find anavar and boldenone to help joints, but personally hasn't worked for me). I would recommend about 5000mg fish oil daily, glucosamine, shark cartilage and anything else for joints all year round!
Secondly, if you feel good, like you can lift a certain weight then listen to your body and lift the damn weight, don't be scared of your joints because of some theory! If your not feeling good and unsure of how you will perform with a certain weight then listen to your body and do a lighter weight that you know you will do well with and avoid injury. I would recommend doing at least one light week per month, as lifting heavy constantly all the time is not good for your joints, muscles and will eventually wear you out. During the light week do everything the same as usual, except half the weights and double the reps! This will also build on endurance, which is probably slacking if your always lifting heavy all the time.
Thirdly, in my experience I've found that setting yourself strict 'targets' is an easy way to demoralise yourself! You cannot expect yourself to make steady gains week by week. It doesn't really work like that in the real world. You may have had a bad sleep the night before doing a big workout, you may have only got 4 meals the day before a big workout, you may have not had enough carbs, you may have been under a lot of stress recently, all of which could cause you to fail hitting your weekly target!
It's not a bad idea to make long term targets/goals. For example: in 4 months I want to weigh 125kg with 10% bf and consistently be able to do X amount of reps, lifting X amount of weight on the bench... Doing it this way will allow for the ups and downs you can expect along the way. You have to remember that AAS are not a magic potion (I know some of you will LOL at this), you can't think that just by merely taking such compounds will ensure you reaching your targets. They won't!
Make long term goals to avoid disappointment and do it like big Jay says: "Train smart, eat right, sleep 10 hours a day"
Sleep 10 hours a day... Yeah riiiiight the one thing that I hate about myself is my sleep habit 6 hours is my magic number I couldn't sleep 10 hours even by drugging myself to sleep lol
I have done it both ways. Lifted to injury and taken it slow. I like to lift until my sets become easy. For instance lets say you bench 200 for 5 sets 8-10. If by the end of the 5th set you can still do your full rep range and you can do it without a spotter then see if you can do that next week. Than add more weight. I add twenty pound increments. You will know on your first set if you will be able to do all the sets and you need to drop a few pounds.
You don't become stronger overnight on gear, it allows use to use more if the strength you possess. Slowly adding weight means less likely to injure yourself. Listen to your body and don't be one of those fools that tries to lift big weights to impress others.
56tooReally I believe the answer lies in your own statement. Im in my late fifties and I always take great care in warming up. But one thing I never do is try to add a bunch of weight to impress anybody. Always use the right form and yes you have to increase weight but 5-10%, depending on movement is more than adequate for this. You also have to remember, when you are on gear your muscle fibers are becoming stronger but your tendons are not, you try a Godzilla on them one too many times and you are gonna pay
AnonThere is no standard increase as every cycle and every person will be different in one way or another. Remember your personal bests and train round them. If your feelin good throw that extra 5lbs on if not drop it down. AAS will give you a false sense of power so slow and steady in the gym will reap the best rewards.