Am I lifting enough?

[Manny1983]

Ok so I lowered the volume of my training but I don't feel like I'm doing enough if that makes sense? I like training with lots of variations and overall volume so maybe it's just in my head but I just don't want to be slacking

[Manny1983]

Oh by the way here's my log so you can see my previous and current routine lol. http://www.musclecoalition.com/showthread.php?303-First-cycle-log

[bdad]

If you work all other muscle groups as you do legs I would says its in your head.

[Manny1983]

Well my last leg day was still with my high volume routine. I trained hard still with the lower volume now but I just don't feel sore at all. I'm gonna be increasing the weight now and see what happens

[bdad]

Just a suggestion but would lower the reps and up the weight.

[Manny1983]

Just a suggestion but would lower the reps and up the weight.

Yeah that's what I'll be doing

[mondtster]

Yeah that's what I'll be doing

Could do a GVT and decrease volume as you increase weight....ex. week1 10*10, week2 10*8 +20#, Week3 10*6 +20#, and so on for another week or two then repeat starting at a higher weight.

[Terpvtx]

If you do anything long enough your body will adapt to it, becoming more efficient at it, which means your body will not be working as hard and breaking down as many muscle fibers as it did when you first started. That is why you need to keep mixing it up. You could do as Mondtster suggested and gradually decrease the reps and increase the volume over the span of a few weeks, then take a deload week, and start out with high volume again. You could also introduce some advanced lifting techniques like rest-pause, dropsets, supersets and statics to encourage more muscle fiber breakdown. Another technique I like is using slow negatives. For example, when doing barbell curls, after you curl the weight up, lower the weight in a controlled fashion over 3-4 seconds, stop prior to the bottom of the lift where you still have some tension on the arms and power the weight back up and repeat. I get a great burn doing these and you can use this technique on many different exercises.

[strategos14]

form, pace, and intensity.

[Encino_Mang]

Oh by the way here's my log so you can see my previous and current routine lol. http://www.musclecoalition.com/showthread.php?303-First-cycle-log

Question: Why are you doing so much iso lifts before your big movements (squats / deads)?

[Skyling35]

Well my last leg day was still with my high volume routine. I trained hard still with the lower volume now but I just don't feel sore at all. I'm gonna be increasing the weight now and see what happens

I forget what your cycle is bro I'll have to go back and look, but on my last cycle I was working out twice a day 1 in my mma gym and 1 lifting and didn't really feel sore much. Here and there on some of my leg days I would. Other times I'd double up my back workout and want to do it all again the next day

[Manny1983]

Question: Why are you doing so much iso lifts before your big movements (squats / deads)?

Basically to pre-exhaust, I only do it when I'm gonna be doing compound movements. I do it for a month of training every other month. When I do it on chest day though it's also to help get my shoulders warmed up real nice too

[Aryan]

I qualified difficult still with the reduced amount now but I just don't experience painful at all. I'm going to be improving the body weight now and see what happens.....

[Encino_Mang]

Basically to pre-exhaust, I only do it when I'm gonna be doing compound movements. I do it for a month of training every other month. When I do it on chest day though it's also to help get my shoulders warmed up real nice too

I really don't understand the pre-exhaust thing is that just for getting cut....you have to excuse me I've always been a powerlifter never messed around with small movements too much and never before a compound movement

[red crayon]

There are different ways people try and use the pre-exhaust system of muscle building. A good example is with legs. Do seated leg extensions and when that exercise is done go and do squats or leg presses. The Idea here is to make your quads tired so that when you do squats they have to work harder. With any body part do the isolation exercise first followed by the compound exercise. The main two ways people do the exercisees are these, You can do a set of leg extensions immidately followed by a set of squats or finish all the sets of leg extensions and then go and do all the sets of squats. The Idea is to overload the target muscle group so it has to grow, in the leg example thats the quads. I hope this helps.

[NYJACK]

NYJACK here n all I can say is look into the Mike Mentzer school of weight training. I trained for 8yrs n kept getting stuck in every way 90% of ppl would have given up. But once I read his teachings n ordered one of his books I finally broke thru. I confess I did not follow his regimens to the letter cause he advocated 100% healing b4 every workout n the rest to achieve that was the hardest part, but imade it work.