lifting to failure

[gatsby]

wasn't challenging indeed! my legs were sore for two days at least. they haven't been in a long while. so i decided to go with
1- legs
2- back and bis
3- shoulders and calves (never worked out my calves before)
4- chest and tris
repeat
i do 3 types of exercises at each workout
1- genaral (like squats, leg press)
2- specific (like bicep curls)
3- balance (using bosu)

i'm looking forward to this and so far it's going great.
thanks ladies,
gen

[Mel]

Gen,
Glad you a so excited about the new routines. THey look great! Have fun on leg day
Mel

[Ilene]

That workout looks great Gen, good luck with it, and let us know how it goes...

[gatsby]

it's going well thank you. even though we do the same number of exercises it goes much faster.
the routine is broken into four days so we only exercise each body part once a week (we go to the gym four days a week) but we are doing several exercises per body part.
question:
i was doing dumbell curls with 12 lbs 3 sets of 15. now i do them standing on the bosu right side up (it's funny alright!). now i can only do 10lbs and that's it. really struggling at the end. so the question is: is the decrease in weight more likely due to bosu or that instead of working the muscle twice a week, it's only getting worked once a week and losing strength?

also i'm doing calf raises now on the edge of the step thingy. i keep tipping over though. is there another exercise for the calves? i would like to do more than one.

thanks
gen

[Mel]

Gen,
if you use a gym, ask for the donkey calf machine, or the seated calf machine.
There are two types of seated calf machines, one is pin and stack weighted, the other you put plates on. You can also do calves at the very bottom of a leg press sled.

Mel

[srmb60]

Remember I'm only me, and really an amateur but I do my calf raises on the stairs at home. I need the bannister!

[goeatanapple]

Some Dumb Questions:

1) What are "Charlie Horses"?
2) When you ladies say I can "squat x pounds" what exercise is that?

Thanks

[gatsby]

a charley horse is a cramp in your leg
a squat is when you: stand with your legs about shoulder width apart (you can vary your stance however), and then pretend your sitting back into a chair that isn't there (or you could put a chair behind you to practice) and then stand up again. if you want to try this get someone to show exectly how though, form is really important or else you wont get full benefits and could hurt yourself. it works you legs, butt, back, abs. you can do it with or without weights and you can also you exercise bands. you can use dumbells held in each arm or put a barbell across the top of your back. when people say say the squat a certain amount they usually mean how much weight they can put on the barbell. of course how much you cansquat also depends on how many repetitions and how many sets you do but often people will say their one rep maximum weight.

mel, thanks. we have a sitting calf machine (i guess i could have thought of myself ) but i don't know about the donkey, i'll find out. as for the bench press, do i do those like calf raises but sitting down, meaning just push with my toes?

gen

[Mel]

LOL! bench press? I had to read that one twice. I think you meant leg press. Use the big sled type and just put your toes on the very bottom edge. You can do it both feet together or one at a time.

Here's an example of someone using a donkey calf machine:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...CalfRaise.html

Here's how to use the leg press sled for calves:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...CalfPress.html

[gatsby]

uh, yeah, i definitely meant leg press otherwise it could be pretty dangerous not to mention the visual of it!
thanks for the links

gen

[goeatanapple]

Heh. Speaking of lifting to failure, I've been doing that alright ... I lifted some hefty weights on Saturday arvo, and my arms are REALLY hurting. What I do is I do my 2 x 12 reps at the weight that I am comfortable at, then I do another six reps at that weight, then six at the next weight up. If I need to do more to lift to failure, I do a few more reps. This seems to work well for me - and I've noticed that, using this tecnique, I've been able to go up in weights for my upper body muuuch faster than I used to. I've moved up in ALL my exercises, in fact, after only 3 weeks. On my last program it took me more than six weeks to increase weights on all exercises (upper and lower) so that's something!