Is this for losing weight, gaining muscle, or increasing stamina?
When do you increase the volume?
How do you know what to start at?
Is it just one set until you can't anymore or ...?
Do you do this for each muscle group once a week how often?
Sorry I currently only do pull ups and climbing so I'm looking for some quick that'll improve my climbing on my off days
Weight lifting will always be for gaining muscle. If you want to lose weight that's all diet. As for stamina that's more a question of what specifically do you want more stamina at (that seems more sport specific training).
I'll assume you're ba beginner. I wouldn't recommend low volume high weight for a beginner (personally). In the beginning stages I'd find a plan that fits more around how many days a week you want to spend in the gym. 3 full body workouts a week can be just as good as a 6 day push pull legs workout if you're hitting all the same muscle groups with the same amount of volume. Even that may be too detailed for you now.
My recommendation for a full beginner would just be you want to try and do 2 exercises pre muscle group. Each exercise should 3 sets of 8-16 repetitions. If you enjoy heavier weight keep on the lower side 8-12. If you feel more comfortable with lower weight 12-16. The important thing is the weight should be enough that on your last set you approach failure or actually fail. Meaning you cannot complete another full rep. Do this safely though. True failure is perfectly safe on machines, usually easy enough dumbbells (just drop them) but is riskier for barbell movements if you're under the weight (bench, squats, etc.) use a spotter, spotter arms, etc. in those instances. Muscles grow from time under tension and the number of times you approach failure. Your body adapts to try and make the things you do easier. The harder you make it for your body the more it will want to adapt.
There are a lot of ways to make what you do in the gym harder that don't require a lot of weight. #1 is doing the movement in a slow and controlled fashion. Always control the eccentric part of the movement. Meaning say you do a lat pull down, you get the bar to your chest, do not drop/let gravity yank the bar back up top. Slowly over 2-4 seconds allow the bar to come back up. The concentric part you can explode into if you're focused on building power l, but otherwise if you just want the most muscle building stimulus take the same controlled approach of dragging/pushing through focusing on the specific muscle you're targeting.
2 technique is everything. Look up YouTube videos, make sure you're doing the movement correctly and the full range of motion. Half reps do not count and will not help you. The most stimulus happens at the absolute most stretched position of the muscle. For a squat that's when your ass is nearly touching the floor, for a fly that's when your arms are stretched back as far as you can stand, etc.
3 just go. Consistency as everyone points it is really 90% of it. Just make it habit. Once your past being a beginner and you're in a intermediate plateau you can experiment with rep ranges, diet tweaks, etc. because certain people respond better to certain methods, but untill then don't worry about it.
Thanks for taking the time to write all this out man. Do you think I could ask you a couple of questions?
I started a diet around 6 weeks ago to eat super healthy & high protein. As background, I'm 6'3 and started this at 107 kg. I've got broad shoulders but bad posture and a fat belly! Years of shoulder and knee injuries have prevented me, or at least have been my excuse, to not do exercise. a
As such, I'm pretty weak.
My goal is to build muscle and lose weight and I'm worried that doing both at the same time is not that simple, as they seem to be at cross purposes?
I'm down to 103 kilos now whilst eating 150 to 160 g of protein a day and doing full body routines 3 times a week suggested by hevy app in its beginner trainer mode.
I've been eating a 1900 calories a day, but reading this thread makes me feel like I won't be able to gain strength or muscle with such a large deficit. About 4 weeks ago I started taking 5g creatine also, which I think adds a little weight.
Would adding calories to the tune of 2300 a day be a better idea? All of this is extremely confusing to me as well as learning all these movements, I'm extremely worried about injury as I'm 42 and don't want to risk anything which is why your post stood out to me.
Yeah mate, you can absolutely build muscle and lose fat at the same time, especially in your situation. You’re relatively new to lifting, carrying some extra body fat and eating plenty of protein, which is pretty much the ideal setup for “recomp”.
Honestly, what you’re doing already sounds pretty sensible. Losing 4kg in 6 weeks isn’t crazy fast, especially considering creatine can add a kilo or two of water weight, so your actual fat loss may be a bit better than the scales suggest.
1900 calories does sound fairly aggressive for a 6'3, 103kg bloke though. If you’re constantly hungry, tired, struggling to recover or your lifts aren’t progressing, I’d probably bump it to around 2200–2300 and see what happens for 2–3 weeks. You’ll likely still lose weight, just a bit slower, while giving yourself more fuel to train.
150–160g protein is plenty. I’d keep the three full-body sessions, focus on getting a little stronger over time and don’t worry about training to absolute failure, especially with your injury history. Leave a rep or two in the tank on most sets.
At 42, consistency and staying uninjured matter way more than trying to optimise everything immediately.
You dont have to say sorry. My goal was to gain muscle and put on some weight. Start at something you can actually lift. But is heavy enough you dont have to do more than 6-10 reps before failure. I try to do less than 3 sets. And i do this per muscle group about once, max TWICE a week
For losing weight it doesn’t matter what you do at the gym, you just have to do something so your body knows you need the muscle and it burns fat more and muscle less. (Assuming you do eat at a calorie deficit.)
To gain muscle just do Starting Strength.
For endurance you need to do endurance things. Running, cycling etc. Very different. Not advisable at the same time as strength training because you’ll have a hard time recovering from a double load.
I’m not sure what works best for climbing specifically, but maybe weighted calisthenics could complement climbing well. You can do something like 3 sets of 5 for each of the key exercises, not varying the volume but adding a little weight each time.
Doing things per muscle group is what bodybuilders do, if your goal is strength then compound movements are great.
When I wanted to study how training affects our body, he gave me "training for climbing" of eric horst. It may be helpful for your case haha. I recommend it. You can find 2009 edition on archive of lovely anna
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u/Ducky555556 12h ago
Low volume, high intensity. Reach failure as much as possible.
Saved me so much time! Makes the gym easy cuz im not there for hours and hours (im lazy)