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weight increase and difficulty


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In the last three months I have increased by 10 kgs. Mostly muscle, especially an inch and half on my arm. But pushups and dips have become hard...is it due to increased body weight? I though only fat gain would do that...in my case there could be max. 3 kg of fat gain, at least 7 kg is muscle. So why am I finding bodyweight exercises difficult now?

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Its not as simple as weight vs weight, its weight distribution, the muscles that you are using can vary in different exercises as well as how you are using them.

I think body weight training is very important to over all muscle conditioning.

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  • 3 weeks later...

If you started lifting in the last three months, you probably gained more mass in the legs than anywhere else. Second largest muscle group would be the back. So your body is adjusting to those proportions.

 

If your are currently doing ten rep sets, try going to five reps with more sets, and heavier weight to blast through your plateau. Negative dips do well in this area for me.

 

You could be over-training but that is impossible to tell through the internet.

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If you started lifting in the last three months, you probably gained more mass in the legs than anywhere else. Second largest muscle group would be the back. So your body is adjusting to those proportions.

 

This may be true for most people depending on their athletic background. I grew up playing soccer and lacrosse, lots of running and sprinting. In junior high I started running cross country and track. I neglected building upper body strength and became very very powerful in the lower body. I then started training kung fu and tai chi, and became even more powerful in my legs due to daily horse stance! So now, my weight routine is mostly upper body to make up for this imbalanced training.

 

I do a ton of calisthenics, but have yet to build the upper body structure I'm going to be happy with. I have definitely gained upper body mass due to all the compound movements of the calistenthics, but now in order to really to fill out my upper body I think that heavy compound weight exercises are needed.

 

The calisthenics may be getting difficult for you because what you have been building is not FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH. This type of strength is the strength we see on gymnasts and pro athletes. Gymnastic strength conditioning for example promotes the ability to do the exercises you are having difficulty with. Wrestlers lift weights, but they also do a shit ton of dips, pull ups, pushups, and rope work. These guys are some of the strongest people out there.

 

Stop training solely for aesthetics and mass, and start training like a pro athlete is my advice. Form follows function, meaning you will reap an adonis physique by training for functional strength. Train just for mass and aesthetics, and you won't have functional strength.

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  • 3 weeks later...
If you started lifting in the last three months, you probably gained more mass in the legs than anywhere else. Second largest muscle group would be the back. So your body is adjusting to those proportions.

 

This may be true for most people depending on their athletic background. I grew up playing soccer and lacrosse, lots of running and sprinting. In junior high I started running cross country and track. I neglected building upper body strength and became very very powerful in the lower body. I then started training kung fu and tai chi, and became even more powerful in my legs due to daily horse stance! So now, my weight routine is mostly upper body to make up for this imbalanced training.

 

I do a ton of calisthenics, but have yet to build the upper body structure I'm going to be happy with. I have definitely gained upper body mass due to all the compound movements of the calistenthics, but now in order to really to fill out my upper body I think that heavy compound weight exercises are needed.

 

The calisthenics may be getting difficult for you because what you have been building is not FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH. This type of strength is the strength we see on gymnasts and pro athletes. Gymnastic strength conditioning for example promotes the ability to do the exercises you are having difficulty with. Wrestlers lift weights, but they also do a shit ton of dips, pull ups, pushups, and rope work. These guys are some of the strongest people out there.

 

Stop training solely for aesthetics and mass, and start training like a pro athlete is my advice. Form follows function, meaning you will reap an adonis physique by training for functional strength. Train just for mass and aesthetics, and you won't have functional strength.

 

Hiroki,

Thing is, any exercise that promotes strength throughout the body improves functional ability, its simply not necessary for exercise movements to mimic other activities to improve one's ability to perform them. The premise behind today's "functional" training trend is simply false.

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http://baye.com/dark-ages/

http://baye.com/conversations-with-crossfitters/

http://conditioningresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/revisiting-this-idea-of-functional.html

http://www.exercisefraud.com/dysfunctionaltraining.html

http://www.highintensitynation.com/2010/08/the-fallacy-of-functional-training/

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-fallacy-of-functional-training-part-1

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-fallacy-of-functional-training-part-2

Body by science book 1

Body by science book 2

 

A Drew Baye statement the sums up the point...

 

"The specific skill of exercise movements does not transfer to other movements even if they appear similar. Whether you perform so-called "functional" or more conventional barbell or machine exercises the strength you gain will transfer to other activities, however many of the so-called "functional" exercises are ineffective and less safe due to the unbalanced or unstable nature or because they attempted to mimic some activity or skill rather than efficiently loading the targeted muscles/muscle groups."

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