What am I doing wrong?

[joeohlandt]

Hello Everyone,

I'm only lifting for a couple of weeks with dumbbells and I must be doing something wrong. I appreciate your help and thank you in advance.

Friday was biceps day. I did 3X10 sets of 60% of 10 rep max as a warm up, 1 set of 10 rep max, 60 second break, then max +5 to failure. From there I reverse pyramid down 5 pounds at a time till failure for another 5 sets.

definition of failure is when I can not longer lift that weight without breaking form big time, like almost having to swing it up.

Now for problem if it is.... I don't feel it the next day. By time I'm done with the above arms are totally spent, but I'm not even the least bit sore the next day or today. I feel like I can do it over again, but I am only doing each part like this once a week. This used to hurt for a couple of days, but now nothing. Can anyone tell me why or is this ok???

[swanso5]

for optimal results, with only a couple of weeks of training under the belt you shouldn't be going near curls, they just won't allow enough wt used to make any sort of a change...choose exercises that allow you to use the heaviest wt you can...not sure what wt your db's go up to but maybe some bodyweight type exercises are in order such as inverted rows, chin ups, 1 legged squats, push up rows mixed with traditional wt exercises such as deadlifts, shoulder presses and rows...may be of interest to get a bb and some large wts to allow for these to be challenging...to answer your question, i think you have severly overtrained (i have trained for 10yrs and never done an arm workout like that...well maybe once or twice) and now your getting diminished returns meaning your going backwards (lose size and strength)...organise a program based around the above lifts and train 3/week with full body workouts..i have plenty of examples on here and posted one yestaurday and friday i'm pretty sure so check them out

[joeohlandt]

swanso5 and all,

I'm following the Weekly Dumbell Workout Plan to give me some basic muscle that is provided on this site before I start doing other things. http://www.shapefit.com/workout-questio ... kouts.html
The plan has been working for me as I have increased the weight by over 50% since I started. The increase does not surprise me as I have never been a weakling, just out of shape. The only reason I have enhanced the work out was because I am no longer getting sore, just a lot stronger.

Now questions are:
If I'm doing a body part once a week can I be overtraining?
If so, how long can it take to repair itself between workouts?

Today I did presses with 20 lbs more than I did 3 weeks ago. I would not call that a diminished return. Would that be possible if I was overtraining?

swanso5, I have read every post in these forums and see you are a knowledgeable person. I respect your opinion, but I also need to understand the why's so I can learn too. Your sharing your knowledge with me would truly be appreciated.

I truly welcome all opinions.

[swanso5]

it's no so much overtraining because of no recovery between workouts more so than just being too much for a small muscle such as the biceps to handle in 1 session...more is not neccesarily better and if doing such high volume as that and nothing's happening then doing more won't help it...strength increases will come very at first even before muscle growth increases which will come about 6 - 8 weeks into your training if nutrition is good...1 muscle a day isn't real efficient in book either...the aim should be do be as efficient as you can in the sense that the more muscles you can use per exercise such as squats and deadlifts will return better muscle and strength increases than single joint exercises such as curls that will only allow so much wt to be used and therefore gains will cease soon...this also allows each muscle to be trained multiple times a week indirectly (think bi's during rows and curls" which for a beginner is more than enough stimulation...isolation type exercises are best added in once appreciable mass has already been achieved...whatever else you need to know just ask and i'l do best