You Want Me To LIft What? And How Many Times!?

You Want Me To Lift What? And How Many Times?

Whether your goal is to gain muscle mass, improve power or to increase maximal strength, you must adjust your workout accordingly.  Different intensities (relative amount of weight lifted) , volumes (total amount of work performed or weight lifted in a workout) and rest periods must be employed in order to stress the musculature so that it adapts in the way you want it to.  If your goal is to increase strength, as you would expect, you need to lift very heavy loads with longer rest periods in between sets.  The longer rest periods allow your body to recover for the next set in order to complete quality reps at full strength.  To improve power, you again need to use a heavier load with longer rest periods while also focusing on exploding through your reps and try to move the weight as fast as you can.  During hypertrophy training your focus should be on high volume sets/reps  schemes utilizing a moderate load with shorter rest periods in between sets (feel the burn!).  Endurance training should incorporate lighter loads and moderate volumes with very short periods.  Typically endurance workouts are performed in a circuit style fashion moving from one station to the next very quickly.  Below is a chart that summarizes this info.

One common misconception people have is that they can “tone” a muscle group or certain area by performing specific exercises that work those muscle groups.  I don’t know how many times I’ve walked through a gym and heard “I want to just tone my stomach and thighs” or “I do 1,000 sit-ups a day and still can’t get my abs to show!”  The reason for this is because all muscle is covered by layers of fat, no matter how lean you are.  Obviously those who appear to be “ripped” have less fat covering muscle compared to Prince Fielder who has a pretty good jiggle to him while he’s running the bases.  Getting muscles to show is kind of a 2-step process.  First, you must develop or build up the muscles enough so that they are visible, and secondly you need to reduce the amount of fat that covers up the muscles.   Unfortunately there’s no such thing as “spot-reduction” weight loss, or just losing fat in 1 area.  Therefore you need to lose fat and it will start to slowly come off everywhere and your muscles will begin to show.  So after ready all this, now you have the tools you need to get what you what out your workouts. So, get off the computer, get your ass to gym and go big or go home!

Goal	Load/Intensity (%0f1RM	Repetitions	Sets	Rest Periods
Strength	>85%	<6	2-6	2-5 min
Power	80-90%	1-5	3-5	2-5 min
Hypertrophy	65-85%	6-12	3-6	30-90 sec
Endurance	<65%	>12	2-3	<30

Guys vs. Girls

Guys vs Girls

The classic battle, “Guys vs Girls,” who is better? Who is smarter? Who is funnier?  While I can’t (or probably shouldn’t) comment on these questions, what I can comment on is who is bigger, stronger, faster.  Before puberty there is essentially no difference between males in females in height, weight and body size.  Then all of a sudden puberty hits, which typically occurs earlier in females, and the girls begin to tower over the boys while laughing at their small, weak, immature statures.  Eventually the guys catch up and their bodies begin to develop.  When it’s all said and done, Males tend to have less body fat and more muscle and bone mass when compared to females.  Females also tend to be shorter and lighter.   

In terms of absolute strength (total amount of weight you can lift), males typically are stronger due to the higher quantity of muscle mass and it’s estimated that females have two-thirds the strength that males do.  However, in terms of relative strength (amount you can lift per amount of muscle mass you have) females are just as strong as males.  Actually females may actually be able to increase muscle mass at a faster rate than males. 

 

There are several theories or possible explanations for these differences but in the end we really still don’t know why.  From a developmental standpoint, a lot of the differences can be attributed to hormonal differences. For example, during puberty females have higher estrogen levels which promote fat deposition and breast development while males have higher levels of Testosterone which promote muscle and bone development as well as other characteristics.  Some people believe these hormone differences attribute to these differences over time but females athletes and bodybuilders are proof that females can develop muscle to a similar extent as males.  Other possible mechanisms include: gender predisposition, activity levels, styles of training, nutrition, etc.

So, in the end, to answer the question of who is better? It depends ( I know a cop-out answer), but it depends on so many different variables it’s tough to say for sure!