Friday, January 23, 2009

5^3

Wow. Great post on "counting your reps to build muscle" at Testosterone Nation by way of Theory to Practice. I put it into practice today, with 5 exercises.

The idea is, do 25 reps of a weight appropriate for 6 reps to failure. Split up any way you want, putting in rest periods with the idea of getting 25 reps as quickly as possible.
  • Bench press: 24 reps (could not get the last one, no way) in about 13 minutes at bodyweight (145#)
  • T-bar rows: 25 @ 55# in 3 sets. Need more weight.
  • Dips: 25 @ body+25# in 6-7 sets
  • Mil. press: 25 @ 60# in 5-6 sets
  • Cable flys: 25 @ 30# each hand in 4-5 sets

40 minutes total time, and the upper body is wiped. I'll be doing more of these. Jeff came in as I was finishing, and he did 25 reps IN ALTERNATING EXERCISES so as to not waste any time. Ugh!

1 comment:

  1. Hey Richard,

    I really liked this type of exercise. I did it yesterday, as you mentioned. I couldn't "pair up" all my exercises as it would have left weights around in a busy gym, but did pair up the weighted pull ups and dips. All in all I find this VERY taxing(high weight AND lots of reps), fast and enjoyable. I found I was a little light on the weights and got 10+ reps and up for some of the exercises, but that is easily fixed by putting more weight on next time.

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