Belle's Training Log

[DumBelle]

Just thought to keep a log here for some feedback.

I went to the new gym today to go over the program that my PT has set for me.

I brought my notes home then I could put them here. Mainly this workout will be done Monday/Tuesday/Friday and then I'll do just cardio on the Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday mornings. The first few weeks I will be doing my Monday workout in the morning and the other two in the evening as the kids are off school, but once we're over that then I'll switch up to all mornings.

Not sure how long it will take me to work through this workout but Tash had interspersed the cardio with the weight training to keep the heart rate up during the workout to make it a fat burning workout.

Rower - 1500 metres

Assisted Chin Ups (wide grip) - 3x15

Lat Pulldowns (Close) - 3x15

Light Stretch Lats - 3x15

Elliptical Trainer - 10 minutes on Hills Setting

Leg Press 2x10kg plates - 3x15

Seated Chest Press - 2x15

Tricep Pushdowns - 3x12

Bicep Curls - 3x12

Abs

Face down/Arm and Leg Lifts - 3x4

Swiss Ball Sitting Lift Foot - Alternating feet for balance

Stretches Sitting on Swiss Ball, Sides of Neck, Back and Shoulders,

Glutes and Hams strings.

Re assessment is on the 20th May so I'm going to stick with what I've been told to the dot and see how I go.

On the Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday I will do 30 minutes cardio on the elliptical trainer at home first thing in the morning or walking outside for an hour.

So this program starts as at today. I just did one set of each today as we went over the program and checked form etc and now my next visit will be Wednesday night. Have three hours at College tonight (I study on a full-time course at home but have to go in three hours per week to go over units) and that's why I'll get that one workout done in the morning on Monday's for now.

Looking forwards to getting into this routine and seeing how it works for me. I think the abs workout is a little tame for me but I'll integrate some other stuff into . Just have to see what it is like working out when doing cardio during the workout though first to see whether I want to extend the workout with abs.

I normally push x2 20kg plates on the leg press but havnt done a weight based workout for a while and will see how I go.

Pull Ups I havnt done before but they felt good and I had the setting at 66kg for now.

DIET:

For me when I'm training I tend not to eat enough so I am not going to go on one a fussy diet as when I get too fussy (clean), my calories just dont add up to what they need to be. Instead I'll concentrate on lowering salt sugar and saturated fats and raising the EFA's, eating more fruit and vegetables and drinking more water/fluids. Also I'll try raising my proteins. Once I concentrate on those few things, normally I find just those changes work for me. I won't go over what my diet is day in day out because at the moment I am more interested in trying to get back into training and keeping my training regime consistent and if the weight loss doesnt come with that, then i will tweak the diet.

[Growth]

Great to see more journals popping up. Looks like a solid regime you have been given there. Good luck with your goals.

[jono]

best of luck.. good to see a journal

[DumBelle]

Thanks. I thought I'd just let the PT go over a few things whilst I get familiar with the gym and the new equipment. I'm glad she gave me something on the pull ups machine anyway. I had my eye on that when I first walked in there. lol.

The elliptical trainers in there are a breeze to work out on. She corrected my rowing form so I learned something today. I used to do it using my back but she has taught me to use my legs instead.

She did have me on the leg press pressing nothing and I said this will not even touch my legs, so at her insistence I stuck with 10kg plates but when she's not looking I'll slip the 20kg'ers on there.

It's a great leg press as you can have the plate on a wobble setting so you get a prioceptive workout too.

[jono]

Thanks. I thought I'd just let the PT go over a few things whilst I get familiar with the gym and the new equipment. I'm glad she gave me something on the pull ups machine anyway. I had my eye on that when I first walked in there. lol.

The elliptical trainers in there are a breeze to work out on. She corrected my rowing form so I learned something today. I used to do it using my back but she has taught me to use my legs instead.

She did have me on the leg press pressing nothing and I said this will not even touch my legs, so at her insistence I stuck with 10kg plates but when she's not looking I'll slip the 20kg'ers on there.

It's a great leg press as you can have the plate on a wobble setting so you get a prioceptive workout too.

there's so many crappy pts.

ive seen some have female clients do sets of 50 reps with 1 5kgplate on 1 side. talk about a waste of time.

ive seen many pts stand there and watch their client use the worst form on the planet, and do nothing about it.. and to make matters worse at the end of the set they say "good job" LOL .. yeah maybe if you want to be injured.

i think there should be much harder testing to become a pt

[deegee]

Always good to see another journal, I enjoy reading through them, hope you manage to keep regular updates on it.

[DumBelle]

I'll try to keep it updated degee.

I generally have the type of PT's that pull me up all the time about form. This PT I have at the moment is very down to earth though. The one before that a complete pain in the ass to put it bluntly. I don't mind someone pulling me up on my form, but to speak to me like a 2 yo is another matter. I hated going after a while. In the end I quit even getting programs from her and did my own thing. Possibly one of the reasons that I had injuries at that point was not really thinking about what I was doing and balancing the workouts. Soon learned by my mistakes though...

I think there is a place for High Rep workouts and in fact the leg workout that I gave Tammy can be done up to 50 reps as opposed to adding weight. But on the leg press? Give me a break. It just winds people up no end when they're waiting for the leg press machine.

Mainly I save the high rep workouts for non weight based cardio type workouts which involve squats, lunges and Press Ups as well as Ab's. As I said to Tammy, there is a place for high rep workouts--especially if your looking to develop endurance in the muscle not just size and strength.

Sometimes when I reach a plateau, I will switch from one type to the other...kind of GVT for a month or two and then MAX OT for a month or two. Helps to break through the plateau's no end.

[jono]

I'll try to keep it updated degee.

I generally have the type of PT's that pull me up all the time about form. This PT I have at the moment is very down to earth though. The one before that a complete pain in the ass to put it bluntly. I don't mind someone pulling me up on my form, but to speak to me like a 2 yo is another matter. I hated going after a while. In the end I quit even getting programs from her and did my own thing. Possibly one of the reasons that I had injuries at that point was not really thinking about what I was doing and balancing the workouts. Soon learned by my mistakes though...

I think there is a place for High Rep workouts and in fact the leg workout that I gave Tammy can be done up to 50 reps as opposed to adding weight. But on the leg press? Give me a break. It just winds people up no end when they're waiting for the leg press machine.

Mainly I save the high rep workouts for non weight based cardio type workouts which involve squats, lunges and Press Ups as well as Ab's. As I said to Tammy, there is a place for high rep workouts--especially if your looking to develop endurance in the muscle not just size and strength.

Sometimes when I reach a plateau, I will switch from one type to the other...kind of GVT for a month or two and then MAX OT for a month or two. Helps to break through the plateau's no end.

i would consider high reps like 8-10 :grin:

[DumBelle]

No thats is not high reps jono. :shock:

:grin:

I know a lot of guys that talk about high reps not being effective...until they do them. LOL!

The day after they are definately converted. You should try them one time... I consider high reps anything from 12-50 reps.

Really you need variety.

It's a bit like the swiss ball...a lot of guys avoid it and think its for women, and then when they try it they realise it is better than anything else for ab's.

[jono]

No thats is not high reps jono. :shock:

:grin:

I know a lot of guys that talk about high reps not being effective...until they do them. LOL!

The day after they are definately converted. You should try them one time... I consider high reps anything from 12-50 reps.

Really you need variety.

It's a bit like the swiss ball...a lot of guys avoid it and think its for women, and then when they try it they realise it is better than anything else for ab's.

im making steady progress right now on all my lifts.. generally my working sets are 4-6 reps. if i cant make progress i have a week of 8-10.. and that gets the ball rolling for me again. my abs get worked from heavy leg training/heavy deads/rackpulls. your right i hate swiss balls :grin:

[DumBelle]

The only thing I enjoy such low reps on are concentration curls. I'll do a set with very light weight and high reps to warm up though and then go immediately to something heavy and low reps. Everything else I prefer to do 10-15 generally.

[Growth]

there's so many crappy pts.

ive seen some have female clients do sets of 50 reps with 1 5kgplate on 1 side. talk about a waste of time.

I wouldnt consider it a waste of time, it totally depends on their goals. Perhaps they are training for leg endurance or something, perhaps the person is a rower etc.

Even if your goal is to put on mass i would consider doing some really high rep work, ie 20+, once in a while, just to mix it up a bit, give your muscles something they havent had before. Variation is key.

[DumBelle]

Besides, there has got to be so many people put there training in gyms who just train upper body and who never train legs. I've seen it! They have stick legs!!

I guess high reps is better than not at all. LOL.

[Growth]

Although i do aggree with jono that PT's arent necassarily the way to go. I think its because they give clients workouts that are from some kind of "PT's guide to workouts handbook" or something. If i see a PT training someone they all seem to have the same program, like the gym has told the PT, "here is a set program, teach it to all new clients without a thought".

The thing is when the PT themself works out, they do hardly any of these exersises, and infact stick to more conventional workouts that people without PTs do.

[DumBelle]

I have to say here that for a LOT of women the goal is not to thicken legs and gain mass. The goal is to slim legs down and lose body fat.

The only way to do that is to slightly over train legs. So your toning and your not gaining. I am only 5ft 2" and my legs only have to smell the leg press and I gain muscle. They have thickened out a lot since training. For me High Reps is the only way for me to go to keep from gaining size but at the same time make my legs ahve that muscular, trained look.

In all that as I explained to Tammy, there are two types of muscle and I like to train both types for variety.

[DumBelle]

The thing is when the PT themself works out, they do hardly any of these exersises, and infact stick to more conventional workouts that people without PTs do.

This I have seen and it was the first trainer I saw doing it. I saw her doing lateral raises with dumb bells one day and really pushing it way past correct form, but I didnt say anything. lol

[DumBelle]

What cracks me up is, I made more gains in the upper body just doing training and not worrying about form it's not true. The problem was I just stuffed my rotator cuff up for a while doing it.

I did that doing DB pullovers using MAX OT and that was basically a no no. I got a serious case of bursitis in the rotator cuff and instead of going to the Doctor and getting physio, I ignored it for 5 months. It developed into severe muscle imbalance and affected my neck. Most injuries have been from doing routines that were too advanced for me strength wise.

The lesson I learned was to progress a little more slowly. So if I seem to be pushing fiddly small weights, it's because I am concentrating on form and aiming at 12-15 reps.

I didnt think I'd be affected today as I only did one set of all the exercises going over my program but my chest and arms have been hit just doing that much. Been a while since I worked upper body though as I have just been doing legs for the past 6 weeks.

[Tammy]

I was totally sceptical of DumBelles high rep leg workout until the day after id tried it!!! At the time I wasn't really feeling anything except was a bit wobbly, and the heart rate was right up, and the sweat - whew was pouring off!! felt more like doing a cardio session than weight training. But the next day - oh my god I had the sorest backside ever!! So I think there is definitely something to be said for mixing things up. Generally I hate doing high reps too, circuits especially, but this was actually quite fun (I normally get bored doing circuits or very high reps with light reps, so that was quite a challenge to remain focused for that long). For the most part I am keeping my reps low (for me) 8-10 (max) for upper body and 12-15 for lower body. Am doing two leg sessions, one with the lower reps and am also going to through in DumBelles leg circuit with hight reps. I generally find that if I go too low with reps on legs that I gain too much mass, and as that is where I hold the majority of my body fat I am more focused on bringing that area down, whilst maintaining the muscle that I have. Having said that even with the higher reps, I still go as heavy as I can using good form.

[DumBelle]

Cardio today on the elliptical for 30 minutes at moderate intensity. This is how my schdeule will be looking for the next few weeks except I'll chop and change the cardio type as I go.

FITNESS SCHEDULE AND TIME TABLE

Monday Morning:

6.00 - Rise: Drink Cran Cocktail with 1 heaped tsp psyllium husk

7.00 - Cup of hot water with a squeeze of lemon. Dressed.

7.30 - x2 egg Omelette with greens,mushrooms and red peppers with ground fresh coffee

or green tea

8.00 - Walk the boys to bus stop and then walk back to house briskly. Take

bottle of Cran water and drink as needed throughout the day.

8.30 - Take Ty to Kindy and then drive on to the gym.

9.00 - Workout:

Rower - 1500 metres

Assisted Chin Ups (wide grip) - 3x15

Lat Pulldowns (Close) - 3x12

Light Stretch Lats - 3x15

Elliptical Trainer - 10 minutes on Hills Setting

Leg Press 2x10kg plates - 3x15

Seated Chest Press - 2x15

Tricep Pushdowns - 3x12

Bicep Curls - 3x12

Abs

Face down/Arm and Leg Lifts - 3x4

Swiss Ball Sitting Lift Foot - Alternating feet for balance

Stretches Sitting on Swiss Ball, Sides of Neck, Back and Shoulders,

Glutes and Hams strings.

10.00 - Shower at gym

10.30 - Protein drink at the gym and Homework/ Or library/Or shopping

11.45 - Pick Ty Kindy and home or errands and then home

12.30 - LUNCH: This meal is high protein and low glycemic carbs with EFA's

& suppments etc.

1.30 - Study

3.30 - DINNER: This meal is high protein and low glycemic carbs here and

drink of cran water or green/herb tea. Start dinner for the boys.

4.30 - Study

5.20 - Drive to Campus

6.00 - Class starts

7.30 - Small apple and drink Green Tea

9.00 - Head Home

9.30 - Supper: Low carb/low fat yoghurt with protein powder and walnuts or almonds.

10.00 - Bed Time

Tuesday:

6.00 - Rise: Drink Cran Cocktail with 1 heaped tsp of psyllium husk and then go

for a brisk walk for 1 hr or do 30 minutes cardio on elliptical/rebounder

7.00 - Cup of hot water with a squeeze of lemon. Dressed

7.30 - x2 egg omelette with greens and mushrooms and red peppers with fresh coffee

or Green Tea

8.00 - Walk the boys to bus stop and then walk back briskly. Make Cran water up

9.00 - Study

10.30 - Protein drink with apricots

12.30 - Lunch: High protein, low glycemic carbs and supplements.

1.00 - Study

3.30 - Dinner: High Protein, low glycemic carbs and start the boys dinner

4.30 - Study

5.30 - Free Time

7.30 - Apple and drink Green Tea

9.30 - Supper: Low carb/low fat yoghurt with Protein Powder and walnuts or almonds

10.00 - Bed Time

Wednesday:

6.00 - Rise: Drink Cran Cocktail with 1tsp Psyllium husk

7.00 - Cup of hot water with a squeeze of lemon in. Dressed

7.30 - x2 egg omelette with greens and mushrooms and red peppers with fresh coffee

or Green Tea

8.00 - Walk the boys to bus stop and then walk back to house briskly. Make up Cran

Water for the day.

8.30 - Take Ty to Kindy and drive on to the gym.

9.00 - Workout for an hour as follows:

Rower - 1500 metres

30 Pliet Squats Unweighted

40 Walking Lunges

5 Minutes on Elliptical Trainer

30 A2G Squats

5 Minutes on the treadmill

25 DB Single Calf Raises

Rower - 1500 Metres

Leg Stretches

10.00 - Shower at the gym

10.30 - Protein drink and Homework/Or shopping/Or Library

11.45 - Pick Ty up from Kindy and home/Errands and home etc.

12.30 - Lunch: High Protein, Low Glycemic Carbs, Supplements, Cran Water .

1.30 - Study

3.30 - Dinner: High Protein, Low Glycemic Carbs and Cran Water or Green Tea. Start

dinner for the boys.

7.30 - Apple and Green Tea

9.30 - Supper: Low carb/Low fat Yoghurt with Protein Powder and walnuts or almonds

10.00 - Bed Time

Thursday:

"Same as Tuesday"

Friday:

6.00 - Rise: Drink Cran Cocktail with 1tsp Psyllium Husk

7.00 - Cup of hot water and lemon.

7.30 - x2 egg omelette with greens and mushrooms and red peppers with fresh coffee

Ir Green Tea

8.00 - Walk the boys to bus stop and then walk back to house briskly. Make Cran water

up for the day

8.30 - Take Ty to Kindy and drive on to the gym.

9.00 - Workout for an hour as follows:

Rower - 1500 metres

Assisted Chin Ups (wide grip) - 3x15

Lat Pulldowns (Close) - 3x12

Light Stretch Lats - 3x15

Elliptical Trainer - 10 minutes on Hills Setting

Leg Press 2x10kg plates - 3x15

Seated Chest Press - 2x15

Tricep Pushdowns - 3x12

Bicep Curls - 3x12

Abs

Face down/Arm and Leg Lifts - 3x4

Swiss Ball Sitting Lift Foot - Alternating feet for balance

Stretches Sitting on Swiss Ball, Sides of Neck, Back and Shoulders,

Glutes and Hams strings.

10.00 - Shower

10.30 - Protein drink here and Homework/Shopping/Library

11.45 - Pick Ty up from Kindy/Errands/Shopping and home

12.30 - Lunch: High Protein, low glycemic and Supplements

1.30 - Study

3.30 - Dinner: High Protein, Low Glycemic Carbs and Green Tea or Cran Water.

Start the dinner for the boys.

4.30 - Study

5.30 - Free Time

9.30 - Supper: Low carb/Low fat Yoghurt with Protein Powder, walnuts or almonds

10.00 - Bed Time

Saturday:

8.00 - Rise: Cran Cocktail with 1tsp Psyllium husk/Walk for 1 hr or 30 mins

cardio on elliptical/rebounder

9.00 - Cup of hot water and lemon. Dressed

9.30 - x2 egg omelette with greens and mushrooms and red peppers with fresh coffee

10.30 - Protein drink

12.30 - Lunch: High protein, Low Glycemic Carbs, Supplements

3.30 - Dinner: High Protein, low carb and Green Tea or Cran Water. Start meal for

boys

7.30 - Apple and Green Tea

9.00 - Supper: Low fat/low carb yoghurt, protein powder and almonds or walnuts

added

9.30 - Hot Epsom salts bath and bed. (Detox)

Sunday:

9.00 - Rise: Drink Cran Cocktail with 1 tsp Psyllium husk.

9.30 - Cup of hot water and lemon juice

9.30 - High Carb and Low fat breakfast = Oats and Skimmed Milk and Toast with

Diabetic Jam

12.30 - Lunch: High Carb with low fat lunch = Baked Potato, mixed beans, low fat

cottage cheese and deli meat etc etc

3.30 - Dinner: High Carb meal with low fat = Wholewheat Pasta with a low fat sauce

and Veggies/Meat

7.30 - Apple and Green Tea

9.00 - Supper: Low fat/Low carb yoghurt, Protein Powder with almonds or walnuts. here

10.00 -Bed Time

[Growth]

So I think there is definitely something to be said for mixing things up.

Everyone whould mix up their workouts once in a while. You muscles get use to donig the same thing over an over and begin to resist new growth, doing something like really high reps for a workout or too will give your muscles a new form of stimulation. It also gives your mind a break from the same monotous routine.

[DumBelle]

Yes the mental side of it does come in. Nothing worse than doing the same old thing over and over.

To be honest the condition my legs are in, I'd like to be able to run without tiring and for my joints to be able to take the shock of that. My legs were seriously out of shape when I started two or so years ago. Thats something that just heavy weights and less reps cannot fix.

A lot of the reason I developed knee problems was because I spent about 6 months doing heavy weights and then started running on my legs before I had even conditioned them.

I still can't run hard out now... and thats why I have been doing the high reps. I just need to get my legs into good shape before I start to build.

Does not make sense to build thick legs, when your joints and such are weak and need conditioning first. Not only this but flexibility and endurance in the legs to me is far more useful than size.

[jono]

Yes the mental side of it does come in. Nothing worse than doing the same old thing over and over.

To be honest the condition my legs are in, I'd like to be able to run without tiring and for my joints to be able to take the shock of that. My legs were seriously out of shape when I started two or so years ago. Thats something that just heavy weights and less reps cannot fix.

A lot of the reason I developed knee problems was because I spent about 6 months doing heavy weights and then started running on my legs before I had even conditioned them.

I still can't run hard out now... and thats why I have been doing the high reps. I just need to get my legs into good shape before I start to build.

Does not make sense to build thick legs, when your joints and such are weak and need conditioning first. Not only this but flexibility and endurance in the legs to me is far more useful than size.

(with respect to out of shape legs)

i don't agree on this. heavy weights on legs will build up muscle.. and if you want to get rid of the fat.. then diet and do cardio. once you have done this (if you do it right) you will be left with muscluar lean legs.. whereas if you dont have any mass there to start with the end result will be much less impesssive.

edit: getting sore joints doesnt mean you legs arnt conditioned. it means you joints are messed up. i cant run flat out.. my joints cant take the weight.. so i would just pick a form of cardio with less impact on the joints

[DumBelle]

Hi Jono,

All I can say is I'm not new to this...I've done heavy weights and low reps...believe me, I've done em to death! MAX OT was something I did a lot of last year...one of the reasons my knee stuffed up as I said. You create muscle imbalances when not doing stuff balanced. The problem with joints is, they're like anything else. You don't use it, you lose it. Very sedentary people don't have enough shock on their joints and havn't for a long time. Contrary to what people think, shock on joints does not do the damage. It's the shock on joints and weak bones that are out of condition that does the damage. Joints and bones are like muscle in the sense that they need stimulus to make them stronger. Like muscle you can't go from lifting nothing to benching or squatting 200 lbs overnight. It's the same with joint and bones. You can't just get up and run a bloody marathon or go to lunging 100 reps overnight either. Takes time and endurance to build up to that.

You cannot push heavy weights and expect your bone density and joints to cope with that. Pushing heavy weights, whilst it stimulates some increase in bone density, does not increase it as much as shock on joints and bones. They did a study a while back and found that women jumping up and down on the spot increased their bone density in leaps and bounds. So by shock I mean running and jogging or jumping and explosive movements. Like anything, you have to build up to that also. All you are doing when pushing heavy weight sorry is building muscle and strengthening ligaments some. Your not conditioning them for shock absorbency.

There is more to cardio than smooth movements of an elliptical or cycle unfortunately.

By doing walking lunges at high reps, with each step you take your not just hitting the muscle, your whole body is poised against the shock coming up your leg to the body as your foot hits the floor plus the momentum as you push off with the foot at the front--you use you body and core in all of that too. Some folks do the lunges in a stationary position but all that's doing is building muscle and does not address balance properly or the shock ability of your joints.

Many people don't want to build muscle on the legs jono until they have addressed this type of conditioning...you may have been doing it a while and have possibly always been fit. Others need to ease into it and condition themselves first before they start to build. They just want the endurance and strength together with fat loss in the first place--THEN the muscle gains can come. That only comes with high reps and moving. Yes... muscle burns fat, providing you move your ass when you've built the muscle that is. But for some if your cardio vascular strength is not up to par when you are heavy with muscle it can really put a lot of stress on your heart. So the trick is to build cardiovascular strength and endurance in joints and bones and balance all at the same time as muscular strength. Especially when your as sedentary as I was! I practically had osteo I had been that sedentary and its a big deal when your build muscle in places you dont need it and stuff the functioning of joints up. You can build all the muscle you want but it wont burn off the fat unless you move...and high reps are one way of building muscle and moving at the same time. Instead of criticising it, go do it and see what it does for you. I'll bet your ass you can't walk tomorrow after doing em. That'll show you how out of shape you are on one level anyway. To me, being in shape means in every challenge that could possibly be put to me, not just the amount of muscle I have. As long as I get out of the door and hit the gym three times a week and do my cardio, that's all I give a damn about really.

On to my workout:

All I can say is..I didn't realise how bloody unfit I am... cardiovascularly and endurance wise. All I have done is build muscle and wound up chunky and fat basically, my lifestyle needs to change to get my metabolism back the way it was as a 20-30 yo.

I explained to Tash that I had to break my workout up and just to legs on Wednesday's as my arms hadn't had time to recover and when I'm hitting upper body really hard and doing 3-4 sets, there is no damn way I want to hit them every other day. So legs today and I feel absolutely wiped out with that workout. My legs feel like jelly now, but tomorrow no doubt I will not even be able to lower myself on the bloody toilet. lol. THAT's what it's all about at the end of the day...how I get the DOMS is another story--high reps or low reps, as long as I have DOMS tomorrow, who gives a stuff how I achieved em?

Soo much for high reps not being much cop! All I can say is -try it! You don't know what your missing! LOL!

[DumBelle]

I'd like to note here that I have more mass now than I have ever had in my life. I was skinny as 20yo. It's not the actual mass I am short of at this junture, it's muscular endurance and ability to stick it out. Without building that up, I am always gonna be whining that I am bloody tired and copping out.

I personally have goals to build endurance and fat loss is just something that will occur as a side line to that. There are two ways to burn fat. By building muscle which burns more fat per day and by building endurance so that you can keep up with the pace and burn fat. One I have done...the other I am about to do...

I'm not here for an debate in my journal about the best way to do it. I know where my weaknesses lie and I'm working on them out of instinct.

[Marcus]

Firstly I have to say that everyone is different. What works for one person may not necessarily work for the other & vice versa.

I've trained hard & heavy for the last 3 years, every set to failure & low reps. I'm more flexible than I ever was & have not suffered from any muscle imbalances. My joints have also been fine (apart from wrist problems - damn skinny wrists!).

I don't quite understand what your point is about lifting heavy & low reps? This style of training combined with a solid protein rich diet is proven for building muscle. This is a bodybuilding forum, that is what we are trying to do - build muscle. The more muscle you are carrying, the easier you will lose fat as muscle burns a decent amount of calories at rest.

I do agree it is good to mix things up & I do a mixture of high & low reps with my leg workouts.

The more I read this post the more confused I am becoming. :cry: