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Tomorrow is my last Stage 6 workout from NROLFW. I start Hyp II on Monday. I still have some reservations. There are 3 different workouts - A, B, C. It is recommened you do three workouts a week, resluting in doing each workout once a week. A and C concentrate on upper body, and only B concentrates on Lower body. I don't like the idea of working my legs only once a week. My legs need the most work. I also don't like the idea of 25 reps. Workout C calls for chin-ups. I will never be able to do 2 sets of 25. Currently I'm maxed on 6 reps. Tues was my best day ever and I did four sets - 6, 5, 5, 5. One more thing, workout C calls for towel bicep curls. They involve dangling the dumbbell in a towel and lifting with the towel instead of gripping the dumbbell. It looks very odd and it also looks like you could easily drop a dumbbell on your foot!!
I think I will still give this program a try, but my workouts may end up looking very different from the way Alwyn designed them. I think I will throw in a lower body exercise or two each time, I will skip the towel curls, and I will not do 25 reps of anything. I'll let you know how it goes!
It is exciting to start a new stage! Personally, I would actually like only one out of 3 workouts being lower body! I hated the lower body in HYP I.
For the 25 reps, sure you don't want to try just with really light weight? Melkor recommended doing the workout as written. I was worried because I could never do 25 bench presses with just the oly bar. He said it would be better to use the curl bar and do 25 than do less reps with the oly bar.
As for the chin-ups... I am doing them in the advanced basic starting strength . I do one set to begin with normally, but I only get 3 in before I poop out. Then I switch to doing them with my legs on a bench far enough away so that they still feel hard. Also, you could do lat pulls instead.
Not sure how those towel curls will work out as I have never tried them!
I have 2 more SS workouts to do and then I will need to decide if I am moving to HYP II or not. I am enjoying the SS so far.
sorry to interrupt this thread but interested in the 25 reps thing- whats the idea behind so many reps? fat loss? im confused...
my problem right now is that i have ALOT of muscle now...like if I flex its alot. My arms look kinda big but if i could just get some fat off them they would look really defined...
will Stage 7 in NROLFW help me with this? i dont want to build anymore muscle...just now reveal it. I dont want to lose anymore weight, im now at my goal- just body fat % needs to drop I guess.
sorry for the hijack.
No problem - not a highjack. Yes, stage 7 is designed for fat loss. But the main thing that will get the fat off at this point is your nutrition. No matter what program you are doing, you need a caloric deficit to lose fat. If you can run a deficit and do stage 7, you will definately see some fat loss. That is what I struggle with constantly. And I don't want to lose scale weight either. I am already pretty small. But I am seeing slow and steady progress even with my weekends sabotaging my weekday efforts. One thing that I think has helped is I have increased my water consumption drastically and cut back on sodium. That flushed away some water I was chronically retaining and I look a lot better.
I think Alwyn throws 25 reps in there to shake things up. He never allows your muscles to adapt and get more efficient. We'll see how it goes. Unlike you Yogagirl, I love the lower body workouts. I think I can bang out 25 reps of stepups, not sure about the chins and bench presses. Maybe I'll turn it into AMRAP and see how far I get.
Thanks Laura. Ya im at goal weight now and I just want to SHOW my muscles more.
I think I'll up my water intake too. Any progress is good to me!
I am like Yoga, I could do 25 reps of any upper body exercise but lower body- NO THANKS (and my lower could use the most work)
I'm getting to the place now where I am finnnnnnalllly starting to be able to get back to doing some decent leg work - the physical therapist basically kicked me out saying I've progressed so much it would be a waste of time. (Yay, but gee whiz.) I haven't really picked up the NROL book yet to see where/how I want to start back up again, so I'll be interested in hearing how you like this program. One leg day a week might work OK.
It will be good to have your presence back on these boards Meganr. I find NROL more challenging than NROLFW so it is a good next step. Also, since we have completed NROLFW, I think we feel comfortable modifying workouts to better fit our needs. I know it is discouraged, but if I avoid a workout because I just don't want to do 25 reps, I think it is better to modify it to 12 reps rather than skip it entirely.
So I did the first workout in Hyp II this morning. It took a loooong time. 6 sets of 3 with 90 seconds rest in between. I needed most of the rest because I lifted as heavy as I could. It didn't seem worthwhile to do 3 reps if the bar wasn't as heavy as possible. The only thing I could have gone heavier on was the bench press. I again found myself too shy to ask the muscle men for a spot and I was afraid to push it really heavy without a spotter. I walked around the gym to see if I could find a trainer that wasn't busy and I did not. So, I maxed out the bench press on 75. I think I could have done 80 with a spotter. Dips were fun. I was supposed to do 6 sets of 3 and only completed 4 sets. I am definately going to be sore tomorrow. I think this is going to be a good stage. If I can get my weekends under control and eat properly, I will get those Linda Hamilton arms I am after.
How did you find the different tempos in that program? I'm also interested in your feedback on the second workout, which looks like all lower body. I think I'd just "have" to sneak in a couple sets of pushup or something if only to give my knees a rest for that workout.
Glad you are back Megan!!
Laura - yes, I'd like to hear feedback too! I just finished my last starting strength workout for the two weeks I set aside. It has been a nice break from the really long workouts. I may opt for one more week before diving back into NROL.... but HYP II is where I am going to jump back in.
OK - I'll let you know how the lower body routine goes. I think I am going to do it tonight in my basement because I won't have time to get to the gym tomorrow. I know it is written to have 48 hrs rest between workouts, but I think 36 hours will be enough since I did nothing for my legs yesterday.
Lower body workout today was 5 sets of 6. I wasn't sure on the dynamic lunges if it was 6 on each leg or 6 total. I ended up doing six on each leg, but I can't imagine doing 25 on each leg when 25 reps are called for. I didn't pay much attention to the tempo. I just went at my own pace, which is sort of slow.
It was a fantastic workout. I loved it. I went as heavy as I could - 125 on the dead lifts, and 95 on the lunges. The downside is, it makes me ravenous. There is no way I can do 1500 calories on this program. I consumed 1900 yesterday and 1800 today. I think I am going to go with it for now and see how my body responds. If I start putting on a little fat, I will have to back off the heavy lifting a little so I can go lower cal. If I maintain my current fat levels and add a little muscle, I will be happy with that. I can always do a cut later.
Now you've really got me itching to get started again. I guess I'm just bored with what I concocted on my own to get me through the knee issues (which wasn't bad, I'm just ready to change it up.) Even 25 reps isn't putting me off, ha ha, I may regret saying that later.
Hmm, ravenous. I've been on a bit of a fat loss thing the last few weeks, and I think I'm ready to not be. This is a hypertrophy program, so hypothetically you're supposed to eat more than your burn - I have to admit I'm having a little bit of difficulty giving myself "permission" to do that so I probably won't.
So I think I'll do one last regular workout, then start in.
The only real downside - the dreaded step ups.
Ladies, I have officially started back on the program. Did my first Hyp II this morning, and I am totally jazzed. My arms were pumped when I was done!
Glad to have you back, Megan! I will be joining you soon in HYP II. I decided to do a couple more weeks on starting strength, of which I have 1 more left. Then back to the longer workouts of NROL! It has been a nice break.
Original Post by meganr:
Ladies, I have officially started back on the program. Did my first Hyp II this morning, and I am totally jazzed. My arms were pumped when I was done!
I agree. I love this program. I am at the beach this week so I haven't been able to do it since Fri. I get home Sat, then leave for California on Mon. I don't know when I will be able to get back to it. But I think once I can committ to it fully, it will definately have the hypertrophic effect it is designed for.
I did my first 2 x 25 rep workout today. I thought I did pretty well in picking my weights, I was able to finish the sets, with the last five or so reps being done praying to the Dieties of Lifting to please let me finish this set!
My knee is acting up again at the moment from overdoing it moving last weekend, so I'm probably going to wait an extra day and then do a very low weight (and probably abbreviated) workout for lower body next time.
I did my second HYP II workout yesterday - lower body. I have to say it was much easier than the lower body in HYP I. My legs are pretty sore today though.
Glad you are back to it, Laura! Megan - what did you use for your weights? 25 reps is ALOT!
I did workout C for the first time today - my arms are very sore!!! Chinups and shoulder presses were hard and that was only 12 reps. I only could do 4 chinups and then did negatives for the first set and then the last 2 sets I did just 3 reps and no negatives - that was enough for me!
Sounds like you put in a good workout Yogagirl. I do the same thing with the chinupus. I just do as many as I can for each set and call it a day.
I did the 25 rep leg workout today. I went out of order again because I worked out at home and I thought that would be the best one to do given the equipment I have.
I thought it was very tedious. Part of the reason I enjoy weight training so much is that I don't have time to get bored. The workouts are designed so that you are always moving on to something else. Not so with 25 reps! I think I went a little to light on the deadlifts - 55#. But 55# felt about right for the dynamic lunges. Then I think I went too light on the stepups - 10# each hand. 12 or 15# would have been better, but the next size available to me at home was 20#, and I was too much of a wuss to do 25 reps on each leg with 20# dumbbells. I don't think I am going to do 25 reps with the longer upper body workouts. Just too tedious for me.
Have fun!
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