To achieve a high result in training, you need to correctly calculate the load. Find out what is the optimal strength load in bodybuilding and powerlifting. In strength sports, athletes need to constantly overload their bodies to achieve their goals. However, if you misunderstand this rule, you can overtrain, and this state does not contribute to the growth of the effectiveness of the training. Often, athletes add weight to a targeted set or overuse different ways to increase training intensity. All these methods can be called in one word - "overload".
However, there are many ways to increase the load, since athletes need to constantly do more work and force the body to move to the next level of development. For novice athletes, this almost always means an increase in the total load. They do not yet have the necessary base to do, say, negative reps.
Using such advanced methods will not bring the expected results, but rather only harm. An example is beginner marathoners who need some training to cover the entire distance.
How to structure your workout for beginners?
At the beginning of your career, you should adhere to the basic principles. It is advisable to work according to reduced training programs, and switch to the use of professional ones after gaining a sufficient amount of experience.
First, you should focus on basic exercises that allow you to develop all the muscles using the classic 5x5 scheme. This is a very reliable and effective training method for beginners, which includes 4 to 6 sets with the same number of repetitions in each. And this program received this name only for the reason that it is easier to remember.
Squats should be included in any training program. This is one of the main strength exercises and for this reason it can be used as an example to explain the concept of training. First of all, special attention should be paid to the execution technique. After that, most athletes can safely use a weight of 85 kilograms in the exercise.
With five approaches, the load distribution will be as follows: 52.5-60-70-80-85. For the first couple of weeks, the athlete should follow this pattern and do the exercise three times a week. This will improve your technique and lay the foundation necessary for future training.
After that, it is already possible to include hard, light and moderate days in the training program. The cycle should start with a hard day performing five approaches with 85 kilograms. Then comes the turn of an easy day, in which, the last approach assumes a working weight of 70 kilograms. In general, the scheme of light days is approximately as follows: 52.5–57.5–60–65–70 kilograms. The last in the cycle is the average day, which has a scheme: 52.5-60-70-75-80 kilograms. If you look closely at each of the days, you will notice that the total load is reduced, and the differences between training days are rather arbitrary. This approach avoids overtraining.
In the second week of using the 3-day cycle, you should increase your working weights on tough days. How much to increase the weight should be looked at according to individual characteristics. For some, it will not be a problem to add 5 kilograms to the bar, and someone will limit it to 2 kilograms.
As weights increase on a tough day, they will increase on the rest. At some point, the athlete will no longer be able to increase weight on a difficult day, and this is quite normal. It is not possible to constantly progress. At this moment, the weights on the other days also stop increasing. This will continue until the athlete is ready to overcome this plateau state. It is necessary to consider the question of how to achieve this point.
First, you should evaluate how the strength indicators have increased over the entire training period. On a tough day, the new set weights are distributed as follows: 60–85–102.5–115–125. Accordingly, weight will increase on other days of the cycle. The easiest way to increase your overall workout load is to increase your weight during moderate to medium days. It is not very difficult for the athlete, but at the same time it contributes to an increase in the overall load.
After this comes the stage when the athlete can use the final sets in his training program. However, it is very important that they are included only on medium to heavy days. It should be said right away that the final sets are quite difficult to perform, but almost all athletes at this level of training can cope with them.
With just one finishing set, you will get more benefit than just increasing your working weight. The essence of the final set is as follows. After completing all five basic approaches, the working weight must be reduced by 25 kilograms, performing from 8 to 10 repetitions with it.
Gradually, the athlete will feel the need to increase the working weight in the remaining two days of the cycle. In this case, you can use the following scheme: 60–85–102.5–102.5–102.5 kilograms. It won't be very difficult and the overall intensity will increase.
It should be noted that not all exercises can be used for finishing sets, for example, lifting the barbell to the chest. This is due to the high technical complexity of the movement. As the main sets are completed, the athlete will get tired, and he will not be able to do the final set correctly from a technical point of view. Pay special attention to this point. So, using the example of squats, we examined how the power load should be distributed in bodybuilding and powerlifting. Using this technique, you will be able to constantly progress, avoiding overtraining.
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