How hard should i be lifting?

[Krassus]

I'm 20, 177# 6'2 15% and currently cutting on a keto diet, with a target of 10%. I currently lift 3 days a week and do HIIT on the other 4. I have 16 exercises that are split up between those 3 days at 4 exercises / day. I usually do 4-5 sets per exercise, and bump up the weight for the last 2 sets to fail at <10 reps, while always doing 12 reps for the first 2-3 sets.

Does this sound good, or does it need adjusting? How many reps should i fail at for the last two sets? Or perhaps i should fail for 1, or 3? And how hard should i go on the first sets? To half failure? To 3/4? Do i need a really light warmup set in the beginning? And whatever else you can think of - throw it my way!

 

[DIESEL]

read the CUTTING GUIDE..all your exercise answers are there.

 

[DJLiquid]

In my opinion I think that you shouldn't lift to failure every time you work out...that's not healthy....I am also on the keto diet and I usually do a light weight warm-up set before the first exercise usually around 15 reps...and for exercises that work your large muscles, e.g. chest, quads, etc....I usually do 1X10, 1X8, 1X6, I decrease the reps but add more weight...has given me good results...for exercises for small muscles....biceps, tris, etc...I do 3X10....

-DJLiquid

 

[Krassus]

Diesel, a sentence stating that "high rep is bullshyt" is hardly the answer to all my questions Unless i'm supposed to be looking at some other post within the thread.

Liquid, what exactly is unhealthy about lifting to failure? It's not like i don't give muscle plenty of rest inbetween failure.

 

[Soshyopathe]

You are lifting too often.

The only difference between cutting and bulking is diet. You train the same. Heavy, 4-8 reps, 1-2 times a week per body part. Every time you train, train as hard as you can. But not every day. If you are sore, don't train it. If you are cutting, make sure you get your 1 gram/pound of bodyweight of protein, and the only carbs you eat should be the fruit before your workout and some starchy carbs with protein after a workout.

 

[Krassus]

HIIT is cardio. I lift 3 days/wk.

 

[DJLiquid]

Originally posted by Krassus

Liquid, what exactly is unhealthy about lifting to failure? It's not like i don't give muscle plenty of rest inbetween failure.

Maybe we have different definitions of failure...to me working out to failure means that you lift so hard on your last set that you can't do any more sets after that...you used up all of your energy....now on the other hand if you are lifting to the point where your last couple of reps are difficult to complete...then you are ok...make sure you work out every body part only once per week...reason being that you actually grow when resting...not when lifting....working every body part more than once a week will not give the body enough time to recuperate...and you will start to get fatigue...also...try to have a day...where you don't do any exercising whatsoever....this gives your body time to recuperate....

-DJLiquid

 

[Krassus]

Yeah, i meant that my last few sets are to the point where i can no longer lift DURING THAT SET, but not AT ALL I can always lift after 30 sec rest, at least a couple of reps. But yeah, i already do exercise each body part only once weekly. The day off sounds great though, perhaps i'll let myself rest on sundays.

 

[gym addict]

Originally posted by DJLiquid
Maybe we have different definitions of failure...to me working out to failure means that you lift so hard on your last set that you can't do any more sets after that...you used up all of your energy....now on the other hand if you are lifting to the point where your last couple of reps are difficult to complete...then you are ok...make sure you work out every body part only once per week...reason being that you actually grow when resting...not when lifting....working every body part more than once a week will not give the body enough time to recuperate...and you will start to get fatigue...also...try to have a day...where you don't do any exercising whatsoever....this gives your body time to recuperate....

-DJLiquid

I'm gonna concur with DjLiquid to an extent here, you shouldn't go to failure on every set because it causes to much stress on the CNS and overtime will lead to overtraining.

 

[DIESEL]

Originally posted by Krassus
Diesel, a sentence stating that "high rep is bullshyt" is hardly the answer to all my questions Unless i'm supposed to be looking at some other post within the thread.

high rep is bullshyt for the purposes of cutting, despite popular gym lore, if anything you should be lifting heavy during cutting (not that "heavy" is a relative term, as your strength goes down a bit when you restrict calories - so heavy for our purposes = failure at 4-7 reps)

the point of heavy lifting during cutting is to stimulate your muscle, so it doesn't get eaten up by the caloric deficit - THAT'S IT. You eat up muscle mass doing garbage sets of 12-15 reps....what do you think the body is burning for fuel? Not fat.

You are not supposed to be lifting for gains while cutting, rather lifting to preserve as much of what you put in the bulking cycle as you can.

this means:

shorter, very intense workouts, to stimulate the muscle.

Your fat loss comes from cardio and diet. Primarily diet. Cardio is there to boost the fat burning effect and insure a caloric deficit. period.

It isn't rocket science, when you think about it.

hope this helps,
D

 

[Soshyopathe]

Originally posted by Krassus
HIIT is cardio. I lift 3 days/wk.

Oops, I only saw HIT. My mistake.