Good morning - UK-Muscle Body Building Community

The-Marshall · 05-06-2008, 08:55 AM

G’morning guys, the name’s Paul and just thought I’d introduce myself to you all.

I am in the process of applying for the armed forces and as such, getting myself into shape. Cardio-vascular wise, I have always had a pretty good base as I do a lot of running – about 10-13 miles 4 times a week. I’m thinking of mixing that up a bit and adding some strength training exercises on those days. Now, as far as my upper-body strength goes, particularly the arms and shoulders, I’m fairly weak. I’m about 5’10, and weigh in at 64kg (140-150lb I think?) and can manage to throw down about 15 press-ups before exhaustion hits the arms, as well as 1 or 2 full arm extension pull-ups and being able to lift about 35kg from floor to 1.4 metres.

I’ve done a fair bit of searching about these forums so that I hopefully don’t bombard you with questions that you probably get everyday, but there are still some things I am confused about. Here goes:

- A couple of my friends who are complete gym nuts have told me different things about strength training. One tells me that high repetitions (12-18) of a lower weight will develop endurance, a ‘medium’ amount of repetitions (8-12) of a ‘medium’ weight will develop strength, and low repetitions (4-8) will develop size, but the least gains in terms of strength. My other friend tells me the complete opposite. Which is correct? I have a rough training plan I’m putting together, but I want to focus on improving my overall strength (don’t particularly care about getting big) and not sure if I should be focusing on raw strength, raw endurance – or is it possible to combine the two? Is it disadvantageous to train for endurance but not raw strength, or vice versa?

- Requirements for the armed forces are a minimum of 5 full arm extension pull-ups, being able to lift 55kg from floor to 1.4 metres height, and somewhere within the region of 50-60 press-ups in two minutes. Now, I completely understand that there are 1,001 factors in how a person improves, and no two people are ever the same, so this may be a bit of a stupid question. However, I have set myself an overall goal of being able to lift 60kg from floor to 1.4m, do 8 full arm extension pull-ups, and 50 press-ups, in 3 months time – if I can improve further than that in 3 months, then great. Considering my current standard of physical fitness, am I setting myself ridiculously unattainable goals? Again, I understand that different people will improve at different levels – however, I’m wanting to make sure I’m not setting myself a goal that is completely unattainable by human standards, such as saying “I will lose 40kg in 3 days!”. :p I’m a little naïve as to improvement rates. I’m not expecting overnight results, don’t worry! In the past, I have found it hard to build muscle – however I had never fully dedicated myself to a training programme, and my diet was very poor.

- Is it advisable to train on the same days as I run? I am thinking about 3-4 times a week strength training before/after running but I’m aware the heart is also a muscle, and don’t want to be working too many muscle groups at once if it’s not a very efficient way of training.

Diet shouldn’t be an issue, I’ve looked at a lot of information on this site so far and I’ve taken a lot of info away, so thanks for that.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Paul

05-06-2008, 08:55 AM	#1 (permalink)
The-Marshall Newbie Trainer Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 1	Good morning G’morning guys, the name’s Paul and just thought I’d introduce myself to you all. I am in the process of applying for the armed forces and as such, getting myself into shape. Cardio-vascular wise, I have always had a pretty good base as I do a lot of running – about 10-13 miles 4 times a week. I’m thinking of mixing that up a bit and adding some strength training exercises on those days. Now, as far as my upper-body strength goes, particularly the arms and shoulders, I’m fairly weak. I’m about 5’10, and weigh in at 64kg (140-150lb I think?) and can manage to throw down about 15 press-ups before exhaustion hits the arms, as well as 1 or 2 full arm extension pull-ups and being able to lift about 35kg from floor to 1.4 metres. I’ve done a fair bit of searching about these forums so that I hopefully don’t bombard you with questions that you probably get everyday, but there are still some things I am confused about. Here goes: - A couple of my friends who are complete gym nuts have told me different things about strength training. One tells me that high repetitions (12-18) of a lower weight will develop endurance, a ‘medium’ amount of repetitions (8-12) of a ‘medium’ weight will develop strength, and low repetitions (4-8) will develop size, but the least gains in terms of strength. My other friend tells me the complete opposite. Which is correct? I have a rough training plan I’m putting together, but I want to focus on improving my overall strength (don’t particularly care about getting big) and not sure if I should be focusing on raw strength, raw endurance – or is it possible to combine the two? Is it disadvantageous to train for endurance but not raw strength, or vice versa? - Requirements for the armed forces are a minimum of 5 full arm extension pull-ups, being able to lift 55kg from floor to 1.4 metres height, and somewhere within the region of 50-60 press-ups in two minutes. Now, I completely understand that there are 1,001 factors in how a person improves, and no two people are ever the same, so this may be a bit of a stupid question. However, I have set myself an overall goal of being able to lift 60kg from floor to 1.4m, do 8 full arm extension pull-ups, and 50 press-ups, in 3 months time – if I can improve further than that in 3 months, then great. Considering my current standard of physical fitness, am I setting myself ridiculously unattainable goals? Again, I understand that different people will improve at different levels – however, I’m wanting to make sure I’m not setting myself a goal that is completely unattainable by human standards, such as saying “I will lose 40kg in 3 days!”. :p I’m a little naïve as to improvement rates. I’m not expecting overnight results, don’t worry! In the past, I have found it hard to build muscle – however I had never fully dedicated myself to a training programme, and my diet was very poor. - Is it advisable to train on the same days as I run? I am thinking about 3-4 times a week strength training before/after running but I’m aware the heart is also a muscle, and don’t want to be working too many muscle groups at once if it’s not a very efficient way of training. Diet shouldn’t be an issue, I’ve looked at a lot of information on this site so far and I’ve taken a lot of info away, so thanks for that. Any help would be much appreciated. Regards, Paul

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