I Want To Improve My Fitness
Today marks five weeks that I've been trying a new routine. Prior to this, I used to hit each major muscle group once per week, twice for smaller ones. What I'm doing now is putting a big emphasis on lower rep ranges, high frequency, and compound exercises. I do a two day upper-lower split three times a week with one rest day.
The most noticable improvement I've seen has been in my bench press. Over these five weeks, I've gone from from 3 reps of 180 lbs to three of 210, an increase of over 5 lbs per week. That might not sound like a whole lot, but that's 250 lbs per year if kept up. I'm not sure if it was more a result of higher frequency or switching to bench/dips from mostly weighted pushups and flies, but both probably helped.
What struck me as odd is that instead of being more sore, I now almost never feel sore despite lifting heavy almost all the time. What I do notice is that after particularly intense workouts, I'll have a general tired feeling the next day or two. From what I can tell, this might just be my central nervous system limiting how much I can exert myself. The lack of soreness might be attributable to slightly lower volume. What I might try in a few more weeks is throwing in deadlifts more often to see if I see the same high frequency benefits that I saw on the bench.
Overall, this new routine has been more fun and a bit more challenging.
The most noticable improvement I've seen has been in my bench press. Over these five weeks, I've gone from from 3 reps of 180 lbs to three of 210, an increase of over 5 lbs per week. That might not sound like a whole lot, but that's 250 lbs per year if kept up. I'm not sure if it was more a result of higher frequency or switching to bench/dips from mostly weighted pushups and flies, but both probably helped.
What struck me as odd is that instead of being more sore, I now almost never feel sore despite lifting heavy almost all the time. What I do notice is that after particularly intense workouts, I'll have a general tired feeling the next day or two. From what I can tell, this might just be my central nervous system limiting how much I can exert myself. The lack of soreness might be attributable to slightly lower volume. What I might try in a few more weeks is throwing in deadlifts more often to see if I see the same high frequency benefits that I saw on the bench.
Overall, this new routine has been more fun and a bit more challenging.
