Gym Analysis

[Admiral Huddy]

Anyone ever recorded and analysed your gym workout?

I've always meant to but never remember. Anyway, after a lengthy lay of from the Gym I returned a few weeks back and thought I'd record progress on my shoulders.

However, on looking back, I'm a little confused as to what the figures are telling me.

Although my weights have increases slightly, my reps have lowered. What does this mean?

Here's a sample..

Standing Uni-Shoulder Press (Fwd)

set - date -------- reps/kg - reps/kg - reps/kg - reps/kg
4 -- 28/11/2011 -- 12/25 ---- 12/30 --- 12/35 --- 10/40
4 -- 05/12/2011 -- 12/25 ---- 12/35 --- 12/40 --- 10/42
4 -- 12/12/2011 -- 15/27.5 -- 12/37.5 -- 9/42.5 -- 8/45


Is the 8/45 progress on the week before or not?

Thanks

 

[MoNkeE]

Cheers for displaying that in the most awful format possible

It's hard to say, your loading up weights/reps are all over the place, you don't seem to follow a set routine. Do you just pick up whatever weights you fancy and aim for the same amount of reps?

 

[icecold]

Confusing.

What's your actual routine?

 

[ben90]

Any weight increase is progress in my opinion. Everytime you up the weight your reps are bound to decease.

As the weights get heavier you will rep less everytime you increase the weight as you close into your 1RM, so I would say it's definately progress

 

[icecold]

Not necessarily. Doing the same reps with heavier weight is progress, that's the only thing you can really be certain of.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Cheers for displaying that in the most awful format possible

It's hard to say, your loading up weights/reps are all over the place, you don't seem to follow a set routine. Do you just pick up whatever weights you fancy and aim for the same amount of reps?

What do you mean by set routine? The illustration i gave above is actual, not what i was aiming for.. Is that what you mean? Surely a program suggests that each week you should strive to improve on the previous. I start from a 12 rep set and and work up a 8 rep set on the 4th or to failure..

Confusing.

What's your actual routine?

For shoulders i combine with biceps:

4 x Standing Uni-Shoulder Press (Fwd) superset with Lateral / Forward raise combo

4 x Standing Arnolds (dumbbell) super with Standing Bicep Curls (Dumbbell)

4 x Standing Bicep Curls (EZ) - Wide Grip superset with Concentrated Deep Bicep Raises

I can't sit on a bench at the moment as I've had an operation in a rather precarious place

 

[MoNkeE]

The text in red shows the progressive loading DURING your routine (set by set).

The text in blue highlights the difference in weight between each session/date.

As you can see, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of method here, weight is up and down, progressive increments are just random, and the reps on the last session were all over the place.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

I'm still a little confused sorry

On the 12/12/2011 I performed 15/27.5 then 12/37.5 then 9/42.5 then 8/45

The weight has increased whilst the reps have decreased which is surely to be expected.

edit - I've just noticed an error the entry for the 5/12 first set should have been 12/25 not 12/22.5

 

[MoNkeE]

The weight has increased whilst the reps have decreased which is surely to be expected.

Well yes, but why did you start with 15 reps on the first set? That's 3 more than usual and will have a knock on effect on your later sets. As with any scientific experiment, you should only change one variable at a time to see how it affects the results.

In this case, you've changed your rep amounts AND your weights at the same time. So is it progress? Yes, you're lifting more. Could you have done that anyway? We don't know, as you've not followed the exact same routine each week.

For your next session, aim for your 12 reps for the first 3 sets then see what you can manage on the 4th.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

I think I understand now.. so I'll stick to the same reps.. But going in my previous example of set 4 .. is lifting 8 reps of 45 better than 10 of 42?

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Reading this further.. I guess what you saying is always stivk to the same reps 12, 10 , 8 6 for example, and lift what you can within each.

 

[MoNkeE]

I don't have any experience with that sort of rep range, so someone may be able to comment further. But take what I do with my 5x5 routine for example. I know I'm always doing 5x5. I start my OHP at 40kg.

I do my 5x5 @ 40kg. So I increment the weight for my next OHP session by 2.5kg.
I do my 5x5 @ 42.5kg. So I increment the weight again.
I fail my 5x5 on the last set, only managing 4. So I stay at this weight.
If I fail again, I revert back to 40kg and resume the increments

I know if I'm progressing because the only thing changing is the weight. If I fail lifting the weight, it's not because of the reps I've been using, it's because I simply couldn't perform 5x5 with that weight.

So yes, I'd say either stick to 3 sets of 12 and then the last set til failure (assuming it's less than 12reps) until you hit 4 sets of 12. Then increment the weight.

Alternatively, aim for 12x10x8x6, but only increment the weight if you fail any of the sets by 2 or more reps. For example, I'd stick at the same weight if I hit 12x10x7x5. But if I got 12x10x6x4 then I'd lower the weight and start incrementing up.

Just my two cents!



Edit: I bet icecold's going to come along and condense all of that in two a two sentence explaination that makes a lot more sense!

 

[icecold]

^ I think you've covered everything, I'll just add some jargon

Essentially, without a dramatic difference, it's very hard to tell if more weight lifted at lower rep ranges constitutes progress, so we have to break down what you're doing a little bit.

What seems to be going on is a combination of two things: ramping up the weights with the same reps as you move through the sets, and pyramiding so you have less reps with more weight on progressive sets. For both of these, progress is best measured by keeping the target reps in each set the same for each session and increasing the weight of all sets when you can complete all the reps in the final set.

However, for what you're trying to achieve, ramping isn't very useful. So as Monkee says, stick with the same amount of reps on all sets, using the same weights too, and increase the weight when you can complete all the reps in the final set. Alternatively, you could pyramid all of your sets (as in 12, 10, 8, 6 with increasing weight like Monkee says).

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Ok I think I have you..

So if I maintain the 12, 10, 8 and 6 reps, I should then only increase the weight never the reps. If i can't do the 6, for example, i should lower the weight so that each set is always achieved but not necessarily with ease?

Or if I find the opening set too easy.. I should aim for a weight where 12 is just about achievable.

Thank you both for your input btw

 

[icecold]

I would recommend you just do 4 sets of 12 reps because, as you're discovering, pyramids are more complicated.

For 4x12: just pick a weight you find challenging for 12 reps. Increase the weight when you can do all the reps in all 4 sets.

For a 12, 10, 8, 6 pyramid: Each set requires a weight which is challenging for the required reps. Increasing the weight will involve a little guesswork and intuition, for example you might want to increase the weight in the 6 rep set but not the 12.

This is why I don't like pyramids I'd much rather just get on with it.