Hypertrophy Qs

[pnx]

It's my 1st day for Hypertrophy Workout A

DB Incline bench press
125/5 135/5 135/5 140/5 140/5
Cable seated row
85/5 95/5 95/5 100/5 100/5

DB Shldr press (total weight)
60/5 70/5 70/5 80/5 80/5
Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown
80/5 90/5 90/5 95/5 95/5

Barbell close-grip Bench Press
60/5 70/5 75/5 80/5 80/5
High Pull
40/5 45/5 50/5 50/5 50/5

1. In each exercise, i did a warm-up set of 50-75% of the 1st exercise that I DIDN'T include in my journal for 5 reps only. Is this alright or should I go straight to my first load in my journal next time?

2. In my db incline press, my heaviest was 140/5. On my next 5x5, should I change my exercise to ALL : 140/5 for 5 sets? or what i did was fine and just add some weight next time.

Thanks!!!

[Lou Schuler]

PNX, what you did is fine. It's exactly how I use written programs. Sometimes, maybe by the third of fourth week of a program, I'll try to do all the work sets with a particular weight, but in those cases I'm pushing myself pretty hard and not necessarily getting all the reps in every set.

You can use a written workout a variety of ways, and usually you won't decide how to use it until you're in the gym and seeing how the whole thing feels to your muscles.

You're definitely on the right track.

[austintwo]

Pnx, that's one hell of an incline dumbbell press - my gym doesn't even have 140-lb dumbbells (or 1225, or 130 for that matter). Awesome press Bro.

[pnx]

That's total weight of the exercise. for 125 lbs, I used a pair of 62.5 lbs of dumbbells.

[Lou Schuler]

You know, I didn't even notice that those were DB weights. It looks to me like you're much stronger pushing than pulling. I mean, I would probably use 70 lb. DBs for 5 reps of incline presses, but I'd use something like 130 or 140 for the cable rows. Ditto the lat pulls -- those numbers seem low in relation to your shoulder-press strength.

I know different cable machines have different mechanics (Cybex in particular doesn't allow big numbers), but if you're using standard Universal-type cable machines for your rows and lat pulls, you might want to focus a bit on bringing those numbers up.

[pnx]

Our cable machine has only 1 pulley system vs those high end ones that has several pulley, (AFAIK that's how it's called). In my local gym, I can do 110 lbs for 10 reps. While I can do 160 lbs on a 2-3 pulley system on a selectorized high-end cable machine. This high end machine is so smooth to pull the cable & I can control the eccentric (or the descending part of the weights). While on the cheap cable machine, once I pull, it's difficult to control the bar.

Should my PUSH equal my PULLS? I know two options to balance it out: Option A: lower down the lbs of my pushes & start using the poundages on my pulls? Option B: Add another set for my pulls, to equal the Volume of my push.