35lbs per dumbbell, per arm?
That’s right about where I got stuck. We have been doing a variation of training on a few exercises based on a couple japanese studies we had been flipping through.
Pretty much do a 15 rep warm up set at 50%, then a 10 rep warm up at 75%, then do 5 sets of 5 reps at 100%…(3 min rest between sets)…then after you kill that off, drop the weight to 50% and crank out as many as you can until you reach full muscle failure (usually around 15-30 reps) This flushes the muscle with lots of new blood right at the end. I have been blowing through all the plateau’s I hit with this.
Now, this is way too many sets to do on a regular basis, it’s pretty much based on the overextending principal. Sort of a planned bout of overtraining, but you only do it for a couple of weeks, and get the benefit, without the negative aspects of overtraining. Should probably only do it for whatever exercise you are trying to move up in weight on, though we have been doing it on all exercises for a bit over a week, and haven’t started exhibiting any negative effects yet, so may tack a bit more time on.
For adding more mass. Consume more calories than you use, use a lower rep range (between 3-8) and rest a full 3 minutes between sets. Make sure you are actually at a weight that you are failing at near the end of the last set (or even before). Many people get complacent and don’t move up in weight when they should. Big mistake.
Do that for say 4-6 weeks, then do a more traditional 8-12 rep range, for 3 sets, and hit rest periods of around 2 minutes, lower if you are trying to build up your endurance a bit as well.
Then alternate back. By doing a strength cycle, and a size cycle, you can keep pushing heavier weights than a size cycle alone, thus more output, and more muscle overall.
