I created a weight training schedule and want your opinion | Lifting 101 | Forum

I get what you guys are trying to say… but you have me all wrong.

First off I never read muscle magazines like Muscle Fitness and ABS and all that other nonsense.

I went online, typed in Ray lewis wrokout. Several videos and i guess documentaries are created about his intense workout. Endless amount of articles and more.

During a whole week, he works out 5x a week by himself. He starts with plyometrics and sprints everyday with a 45lb vest on and that takes a total  of 2 hours. After a lunch and stretching he does a FULL body work out each time for 2 hours. He hits all parts of his body.I dont see any muscle loss on his part.

He doesnt use steroids, he just gets the rest he needs and the food his body craves for and hes reeady everyday.

Hershell Walker does plyometrics and basic (no weight) work outs 7x a week. Includes 1000 pushups throughout the whole day and 1000 squats. The guy is 48 and seems not to be slowing down, 2 KO in MMA already.

You get your body tired and in pain and u give it the rest and energy it needs.

For those who didnt believe in the amount of sprints he does… Ray Lewis like I said lifts intense amounts, yet he starts everyday with an hour of sprints in the sand and a vest on.

Tim Tebow at the age of 16 was doing 1 hour of sprints with weight tied to his back. Then later on in the day hed finish his work out with an hour of stairs. The kid put up 350lbs as a 17 year old in High School. Now hes a pro and is doing over 400.

Jaromir Jagr use to do 200 squats a day… EVERYDAY.  The guy is 37 years old now and its still hard for bigger guys to hit him and or knock him off the puck.

Pavel Bure still does 2 hours of cardio every morning, on top of an hour of hockey. 5x a week in the gym, a day of plyometircs and a full day of cardio including an hour of tennis, an hour of basketball, an hour of socccer and an hour of running.

Its very well possible to do the amount of cardio my cousin does with proper nutrition, rest and stretching.

We don't want to take your motivation away; we're just saying these examples are just too much physical stress for most mortals (to steal Darrin's term) to make gains on a continual basis. You're still using champion athletes as examples with fantastic genetics. No they didn't always look or perform the way they do now, but those individuals always had much better genetics than most of us. That's part of the reason they've been able to achieve to the level that they have. Many other athletes have worked just as hard as they have, but could not achieve to their levels. In fact, their genetics are so good, it's possible they are not always training the smartest way for maximum result. They're just so good they can get away with training too much.

The guys you mention don't have secrets no one else has. They didn't get there only because they work harder than everyone else. Yes you must work hard to achieve, but they don't out work everyone else.

I do sprints. I can do five sprints per session giving 100%, or I can do twenty sprints and give 100%, but I'll make better progress by doing five sprints per session, so it's not all about doing more.

I don't know your genetics.  Feel free to try all this work. If you quit progressing or start losing muscle, then you're probably doing too much overall work.

Have you ever read the teachings of Arthur Jones? He trained professional bodybuilders that achieved greatness.  His bodybuilders worked harder and harder each session as they got in better shape, but they did less and less volume in order to maximize progress.  By the time they were in competition shape they were doing only one set to total failure for each exercise and did only about five or six exercises.  He absolutely forebode enhancement drugs. The total routine was about thirty minutes and they worked out only about twice per week. He trained them to work more and more intensely, but, because they had trained their bodies and minds to train so hard, they had to keep reducing sets, exercises, and frequency so that they would not overtrain.

Jones used animal examples to explain his theory. Male lions do not work often to be able to accomplish their amazing feats, but when they do work, it is very, very intense. They mostly lie down and sleep. Very slim animals, on the other hand, excel at endurance tasks and go all the time. He applied those same concepts in nature to the human being. If you want to be big and strong, then train hard, eat alot and rest, then train hard again once you're well rested.  His theories have alot of merit.  It's about intensity, not volume and frequency.