Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I've been using free weights a lot lately, and at first I was using heavier weights with less set and repetitions. My workouts were very short and I wasn't able to use proper form due to the heavier weights at times. Now I switched to lighter weights but I greatly increase the number of sets and repetitions I do. My workouts are a lot longer and I feel like I'm doing the right thing now but I just wanted to ask, should I stick with the lighter weights with more sets and repetitions or go heavy? I'm 6 feet, 14 years old and 134 pounds.

_________________
"Pay now for healthier food, or pay later to treat the symptoms of disease as a result of poor nutrition" Whole Foods to Thrive, Brendan Brazier.

It depends what your goals are...

_________________
Darth Vader from Sandlot once said, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Then he later died.
https://www.facebook.com/BigMeeeeech

Well I play Basketball so I just want to get stronger to improve my performance on the court. I`m not looking to add on fat though to get huge, just nice and toned.

_________________
"Pay now for healthier food, or pay later to treat the symptoms of disease as a result of poor nutrition" Whole Foods to Thrive, Brendan Brazier.

Well I am entirely clueless about basketball. But you're young and tall and very active so I wouldn't worry about gaining fat, it would probably be really hard for you to do that. How many reps are you doing that you consider them high? Are you going close to failure? It should at least be somewhat hard....I think everyone should lift heavy and do 8 reps but that's just me, you might want to ask your coach or something.

_________________
Darth Vader from Sandlot once said, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Then he later died.
https://www.facebook.com/BigMeeeeech

Thanks, I`ll keep going light for a week and see if I make any progress with that. If not I`ll try going heavier and doing that 8 reps.

_________________
"Pay now for healthier food, or pay later to treat the symptoms of disease as a result of poor nutrition" Whole Foods to Thrive, Brendan Brazier.

You get what you put in. Higher reps and lower weights is endurance training, lower reps and heavier weights is strength training. A noteworthy example is the tendency for people who do 5 reps of heavy weight to be able to lift a heavy amount, but can't for a very long amount of time. One other aspect worth mentioning is that muscle size is partially dependent on reps. In other words the muscle gets trained to hold more energy in it so it can move more often, and thus becomes larger. Strength still increases size, but so does plain old endurance.

I was put to start on a 3x8 program, where 3 sets of 8 reps is a moderate average of strength and endurance with an emphasis on strength. 5x5 is pretty much 'hardcore strength' and something like 3x15 is 'hardcore endurance'. Don't expect to get strong as fast doing more reps, but if you're talking about doing something like basketball as your sport, it's a good idea to do both.

_________________
facebook.com/awaken375

Sup, great to see someone who's 14 too And as awaken375 said, it all depends on whether you want strength or endurance, or whether you want a short workout or a long one.. I do a 4x8 program though, so I guess thats kinda moderate as well...

And for basket ball shouldn't you be working more on plyometrics? oO

Thanks for the answer awaken373, I'll switch my workouts around so I can get a balance of strength and endurance. Kira I'll defiantly start working on plyometric exercises, but now I'm just focusing on gaining muscle mass.

_________________
"Pay now for healthier food, or pay later to treat the symptoms of disease as a result of poor nutrition" Whole Foods to Thrive, Brendan Brazier.

Just because you play basketball and focus on that doesn't mean you can't build some crazy strength in the meantime! Chris Hickson's a guy who is only around 19 years old now, started strength training to help his game, and ended up being one of the best deadlifters for his age at any weight class - here he is pulling 800 lbs. with just a belt, amazing stuff!

http://youtu.be/YQi8xUZ0V90

_________________
"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

I don't think that dieting is the good idea to loose weight. Perhaps it will lower down our energy because to have control on food is not so easy. Instead one can practice yoga, meditation, walking, drink lot of water, exercise daily to lose weight.

Supersets, Pyramids, Drop sets would all be good methods of training to get that toned look. Incorporate these with a split routine and i think you would be good to go! Also look into volume training routines (i.e. 5x5, 8x8, and GVT). These will build lean body mass and if you stay at a reasonable weight you won't overgrow or 'gain fat'.

All the best.

_________________

"Obsessed is a word the lazy use to describe the dedicated." -Arnold


My Training Journal:

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=26321

Thanks for the answers everyone. I've been doing 3x8 now and I've been getting good progress, I gained 6 pounds so I'm up to 140.

_________________
"Pay now for healthier food, or pay later to treat the symptoms of disease as a result of poor nutrition" Whole Foods to Thrive, Brendan Brazier.

That's cool to hear bro.

There is a big misconception when it comes to reps, sets and duration. Having went to school for exercise physiology, this was a topic that was the most controversial. The fact of the matter is 1 set to failure is all you need in order to improve muscular strength/endurance. The two are one in the same and go up simultaneously. There is no such thing as lifting for strength or endurance. Lemme be as specific as possible from my notes in front of me to avoid confusion because I know there will be 1000 post underneath this telling me I have no clue what I'm talking about.

Muscular Strength: Initial increase is due to CNS (central nervous system). Chronic response is the ability to move the same load at less energy cost/motor unit recruitment or ability to move a greater load than previously.

Anaerobic Muscular Endurance is proportional to strength with chronic adaptations resulting in the ability to move a previous load more times/longer.

Ex: 1 RM=100 lbs
If one can perform 50% of 1RM 10x
After 12 weeks of training one can now 1 RM 120lbs.
That same 50% is still moved 10x, but is now with 60%.
The previous 50lbs will now be able to be moved more than 10x hence the two increase proportionally.

Now getting on to the sets...ready....now as I said before 1 set to failure (momentary muscle fatigue) is all you need to get results in strength/size. Yes, you use type 2a/2b muscle fibers and do not need to do multiple sets to do so. Repturation range should be between 3 (anything under 3 reps is 90% neurological) and 12 (anything more your just wasting your time lol). Slower reps are always better then faster reps. Benefits of going slow are decreased risk of injury, increase actin and myosin interaction, better neurological adaptations, and improves form. Going faster more or less does the opposite of what I just said.

NOW....what if you do multiple sets to failure? Drop sets to failure? Everything in between? Multiple sets to failure will increase your strength more then just doing one set. The thing is that studies show the increase of your gains on average have only a 3% difference. Meaning if your new max is 100lbs with one set, your new max would be only 103lbs with multiple sets. Multiple sets increase your strength/endurance/size, but also increase your risk for injury, stress on the joints, synovial membrane and fluid loss, among other things. Injury also depends on form, genetics, etc.

Frequency should be at least 3 days a week. Full body workouts or split routine show no difference in gains. Personally I like to split it into upper and lower body days, starting with different major muscle groups every session to mix things up.

What I advise people is when you are making an exercise prescription program for yourself or others, do it depending on what your goals are. Do you just want to be fit? Orthopedic issues? Body Building etc. Hope everyone takes what I said into consideration and maybe try it for yourself. If you have anymore questions about the specifics of what a typical workout might look like feel free to ask. And just to be clear I don't mean to say to anyone what you are doing is wrong by any means what so ever. Everything works, just expressing what I was taught in school over the years.

Feel free to google Henneman's Size Principle and Dr. Robert Otto and Ralph Carpinelli. Pioneers in the exercise physiology world.