My gym workout routine takes about an hour. It’s neither too hard nor too easy, and is enjoyable. I like to do 10 reps on a small weight and work up by small increments to the max that I can push. On some exercises that can mean 15 sets of 10 reps, on others just 4 sets of 10 and then 1 set of 5.
A few weeks ago I came across some blog post that mentioned that a guy could work out harder if he took pain killers before working out. I’d never noticed any pain while working out, so that didn’t seem applicable. Then one day I had taken pain killers in preparation for some minor surgery, and went to the gym. I worked unusually hard that day. In later workouts I became aware that actually mild pain was limiting how hard I pushed myself. It’s always a surprise when what was unconscious becomes conscious.
Anyone who works out regularly knows that some days we are inexplicably strong. And on other days we just don’t have as much mojo in the gas tank.
Yesterday I tried an experiment. I prepared myself for the gym with stimulants. I drank my maximum dose of tea, my maximum dose of theobromine chocolate extract, and took 1/4 pill of ritalin. By maximum dose I mean the amount that gives me benefit without causing negative side effects, such as being jittery or losing focus or having an upset stomach.
Ritalin is used in conjunction with other medicines for pain management, and is known as a performance enhancer. So it’s both a stimulant and pain killer.
I did my usual 1 hour workout, went to get a haircut, then came back and repeated the full 1 hour, using the same weights. That’s the biggest workout I’ve ever done in my life. It surprised me, as usually my workout leaves me close to spent.
Without the stimulants, I doubt I’d have had the interest or willpower to do a full second workout. With them it was fun and easy.
I had just enough energy to pay attention to one of my girls for a bit before crashing asleep at 8 pm for a three hour nap. Then a few hours work before another 8 hours of sleep. I’m unusually tired today – I assume my body isn’t used to dealing with that much muscle tissue breakdown all at once.
I workout three times a week, as I’ve heard that a two day recovery is essential for maximum growth. If you go every other day you won’t grow as much muscle as if you go just three times a week. So I like to work extra hard on that 3rd workout day before the long break. But at my age and with my workout routine, my weight and what I lift remains within a static narrow range. I’m never that far off from a lifetime peak, even though I’m a small guy. I get a bit bigger if I use HGH, but not that much.
I’m expecting that using low dose Ritalin once a week will make a noticeable difference to how hard I work, and my average weight.
Random Xpat Rantings 
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Ritalin. Dopamine fatigue. Careful.
Ya, I also take Tianeptine regularly, and that increases dopamine output. And I’ve been dipping into the modafinil regularly, and that also increases dopamine output.
The Tianeptine is to manage inflamation, and seems to help, so I’m not going to cut that out.
I hear that Noopept is a stimulant that actually regrows instead of culls those receptors. So I guess I’ll lean more towards tea and theobromine and green tea extract and noopept, and away from modafinil and ritalin.
I also take CDP Choline, which someone told me helps with dopamine receptor regrowth.
Modafinil is fun though; dramatically speeds up my reaction time. Great for playing piano.
There’s been some interesting research out recently, which indicates that performing only one set to failure, per muscle, per week, is just as effective as spending hours in the gym, in terms of strength gains and muscle growth.
It certainly seems counter intuitive and flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but weight training has been an area in which there have been precious few controlled studies.
P.D. Mangan’s blog, Rogue Health & Fitness, is well worth reading in this regard. He’s on the front line of longevity and fitness research.
HGH is not used for growth (despite the name), it’s used to recover more quickly after a workout. If you want to pack on more muscle, then testosterone in the form of injectable or oral steroids would be the way to go.
There has also been research done that shows that people vary considerably in how they react to muscle training.
From my decades of personal experience anything less than 3 times a week leads to muscle atrophy. It’s very obvious and noticeable for me. If I miss just a few days I will be smaller and weaker. Be thankful if your body does not react the same way; that’s been my condition all my life.
Could you cite the papers? Genuinely curious.
I saw a recent show on BBC knowledge. Don’t remember the name of the show. My memory is clear about what he said though; some people are virtual “non-responders” to exercise, and it’s some shape of bell curve, with people responding more or less.
Not news that some people want to hear. We want to believe that the skinny guys just aren’t trying hard enough, or are doing it wrong.
Did I just read 15 sets of 10? Point of the post aside, I see no benefit to what is, essentially, warming up too much. In fact, it’s a huge waste of time. May I recommend reverse pyramid training? Google it.
Ya, everybody has their expert favorite method. No matter what I said is my routine, someone has a “better” one.
There is research that says that high rep low weight puts on as much muscle as low rep high weight.
I figure that whatever makes me happy and leads to “failure”, or fatigue, is best.
Exercise routines are exactly like religion. There are 10,000 of them, all different and mutually incompatible, and everyone thinks theirs is the best and only way.
I’d really suggest 3×10 especially for people over thirty, since doing ten reps with lower weights helps avoid injuries. Imagine being unable to work out well for three months because of an injured elbow, or worse, imagine getting a hernia from using too many weights when doing deadlifts and squats. People think it is boring to make injury-prevention a major factor, but it is even more boring to have an injury.
Three sets of ten reps is standard; what was advice in my grandfathers time.
I get stronger after warming up, and I don’t believe that there is such a thing as too much warm up. Nor do I believe that warming up is “wasting time”.
I’m of the view that as long as it’s enjoyable and doesn’t cause injury, and you work until you can hardly work any more, then that’s a great routine.
Low reps, high reps, lots of sets, a few sets, whatever. Just work to your limit, and have fun, and don’t hurt yourself.
I’m doing exactly that.
Everybody’s a weight lifting critic.
I’ve experimented with taking two aleve and drinking two shots of espresso. I can honestly say that I had a great workout. The espresso gave me that extra boost while the Aleve allowed me to not feel much “pain”.
I’ve also used Kratom before and it has helped considerably. If you just workout 3 times a week look into Phenibut.
I recommend reading this article about fasted training:
http://www.leangains.com/2010/09/fasted-training-insulin-sensitivity.html
Studies show that fasted training improves endurance, increases muscle glycogen stores and improves glucose tolerance/insulin sensitivity. And more. There are some significant results: “two other important markers for glucose and fat metabolism, fat/CD36 and cpT1, were increased by ~30% in F [the Fasted Training group].”
Interestingly, there was also a lack of a weight gain in the Fasted Training group (only 0.7 kg), while the non-Fasted Training group gained twice as much (1.4 kg) – despite doing the same exercises, and both groups being overfed.
The F group had higher fat oxidation during training (probably because of no carbs before the workout), which meant they could train more – using fat for fuel.
It is true that there are hundreds of different opinions about training. But that doesn’t mean all of them are right, or all of them are wrong. There is a lot of “bro science”, people just saying what sounds good, but on the other hand there are observations based on studies.
Too often you hear something based on, “But I’ve heard this from a guy I know who’s ripped!” Good for him. That usually means he is a young guy who went to the gym a lot. Maybe he’d be even more ripped, and better at avoiding future injuries post-twenties, if he’d not only go to the gym a lot but also listened to research. Research = looking at more people than just one.
I heard recommendations before about eating before or after a workout, depending on what effects you want. Before is for greater muscle gain, after is for greater fat loss.
I’m more interested in weight gain.
I’ll stubbornly say again that BOTH low rep and high weight, AND high rep and low weight gain muscle.
Nowadays I prefer both. I PREFER to do both. I ENJOY to do both.
I LIKE to do both.
Maybe I hadn’t mentioned that before.
I ENJOY my workout routine.
To me, that’s VERY important.
I took the same attitude towards learning the piano. I could have learned it more efficiently. That was not the point. If I didn’t enjoy HOW I learned it, I wouldn’t have spent so much time. I chose to purely improvise for two full years.
A million experts could tell me that was ineficient. So what? What difference would that make? I was motivated to learn inefficiently, and that motivation is what kept me at it. ENJOYING the process was a HUGE part of the process.
I’m still of the belief, that ultimately, work to fatigue, don’t hurt yourself, and do what you ENJOY.
You’re becoming obstinate in your old age.
I suppose. But if someone disagrees and has studies that show that my premise is wrong, I’m open to being refuted.
The study that was mentioned was not in any disagreement with my premise.
And besides, have you ever met a Gym Nazi? Some dude at the gym who is convinced that you are doing it wrong? Either he is annoyed that you are not isolating the muscles enough during a curl or reverse curl, or he is concerned that you are isolating a muscle too much during rowing.
Tell a Gym Nazi that you don’t WANT to isolate, and he’ll be offended. I’ve seen it happen more than once. Tell him that you WANT to isolate and he’ll still sniff his nose.
I’ve been lifting for over 33 years, and I come across people who warn me that I’m about to hurt myself. “Experts” like that are annoying. Gym Nazis who get off on telling other people what to do.
If you lift for a while and try lots of different things, you get to learn how YOUR body reacts. And our bodies are proven to react quite differently to exercise. So ya, I don’t suffer Gym Nazi’s gladly.
I think one reason some Gym Nazi’s can’t help but poke their unwanted noses into my workout is because I tend to lift heavier weights than the bigger guys at the gym. That seems to annoy people, so I keep getting told not to hurt myself. I don’t know why my small muscles seem to outperform larger muscles, nor why they they don’t grow as large in size as other guys. I’m wiry, atrophy very fast, and have a limit to how big I get, now matter what routine I do. People are different. But our body adjusts to blows and weights through bone density,tendon thickness, and cartilage. Size alone won’t show all that. It’s not hard to know when you are straining yourself, and it’s child’s play to avoid muscle tears, strains, or back injuries.
The study that was mentioned was not in any disagreement with my premise.
Not intended to disagree with your premise, I just think it’s an interesting study. The guy who owns that website has a lot of interesting information. Not eating before working out also helps to avoid sore muscles and helps recuperate faster, though I don’t remember where I read that – maybe in the article I linked to, hah. It’s a long piece.
Of course, enjoying the training is also important. Otherwise you’ll quit eventually. Also important to find a gym you like. But I go to the one that is closest, knowing I wouldn’t go as often otherwise.
And I go early in the morning or late in the evening when the gym is empty or nearly empty. There are many hot chicks who go to the local gym, but that’s one place I wouldn’t do cold approach in, and the only place where I’m not interested in seeing hot chicks.
Now if I could only figure out a way to disable the “music” things would be perfect.
I saw a guy chat up a girl at my local gym, starting from cold approach. Seemed like he was on her for nearly an hour. I had to tip my metaphorical hat to him, as I’d been eyeing the same girl for weeks but never said hello. She seemed into him enough. But I’ve heard from a lot of guys that in general they find girls not so receptive in gyms.
I like hot girls to be in the gym because I tend to get more excited and work a bit harder.
I’ve approached a handful of girls over the years in gyms. Some receptive, some blatantly not. With my age, hair, and looks though, approaching any girl in public is not always seen by her as a compliment. I do so much better when the girl is isolated from peer pressure, so I have time to seduce her, and eventually to get her addicted to “The Master” as my girlfriend recently nicknamed the dick. By then she’ll proudly introduce me to her friends. The other way around doesn’t always work as well for this wrinkly bald 50 year old.
I’ve had interns out here who could “open sets”, and start conversations with strange crowds of girls, on the street or in shopping malls. Of course the more handsome the man the more titilated the girl, but it’s also more validation for the girls sex appeal and socio status. If I approach, it’s similar to if a fat or old woman would open me. I would think “how dare you underestimate my socio-sexual value and rank! I’d never date the likes of you!” It’s insulting to be approached by someone to far below your rank. And the insult is compounded if all her friends are watching. In private no one is judging the girl.
And by now it’s a huge long shot to get any hot young girl to meet me from any form of online dating.
So to continue to work my magic, and to improve on my situation, I’ll need new pipelines. The plan is that my businesses will give me access to private meetings with the girls who are my type, and put me in a position of power and social proof.
Ramble ramble ramble…
Xspalt,
Did you ever consider starting an ineluctable testosterone regimen since you are in your 50s? Also perhaps taking 2iu of HGH daily as well.
I know here in Thailand I can buy both over the counter, not sure what it’s like in Indo – but since you have Ritilin I’m sure you could procure testosterone and hgh.