Question about upper power day

[tothesky]

So usually what I do is the exercises I am about to post for 3 sets of 12 and go to failure on the last set then drop down the weight and do til failure again. That’s my hypertrophy day.

I am trying to increase my strength though because it feels like I hit a plateau because my weight hasn’t gone up in a while. I posted a question about all this on this community a while ago and tried to follow the advice when I made this:

Incline dumbell bench press (5 sets of 5 of decreasing and increasing reps):
Flat bench dumbbell fly (3 sets of as many as possible):
Seated cable row (5 sets of 8):
Lateral pulldown (3 sets of 8):
Dumbbell lateral raise (3 sets of 12 failure on each):
Seated incline dumbbell curl (3 sets of 8 failure on each):
Cable Tricep extension (3 sets of 8 til failure on each):

So a couple things:

1. I made all the big compound lifts a 5x5 of starting with 5 reps, then increasing weight and moving to 3 reps then 1 rep then 3 reps then 5, you get the idea. Is that more optimal than doing a normal 5x5?
2. For my lighter lifts I was not sure what to do so I decreased them down from a 3x12 weight to a 3x8 weight except lateral raises because I feel like those are harder to just play around with the weight in, but let me know if I’m wrong about that. I was just wondering if it was a good idea to go until failure on each set as I saw someone recommending that, but I also saw someone saying that was not grounded and didn’t actually increase gains. Is it a good idea to move them to a 3x8 and does that make sense for building strength? Also if it is true I should go to failure on each set should I add that onto each of my sets for my hypertrophy days?

That’s all, thanks for all your help and I’m hoping I can break this plateau soon.

 

[artofmcw]

@tothesky The most modern literature indicates that muscular hypertrophy is most prominent in the 5-8 rep range (for a number of reasons). The most important of which, is in all levels of lifters studied, the higher the rep count, the further away from failure the lifters were stopping their sets. They were also reporting that they believed to be much closer to failure than they were in actuality. So working in the 5-8 rep range has been shown to produce the best stimulus to fatigue ratio in lifters OTHER than untrained individuals (in untrained subjects the stimulus recorded didnt deviate as much as it did in experienced lifters). Mechanical tension is what signals myofibril hypertrophy , which is the largest contributor to muscle growth. Any questions you’re more than welcome to reply here or DM me !

Edit: misspoke. (It’s first thing in the morning don’t hang me !)

 

[tothesky]

@artofmcw So you’re saying my 3x8 is more for hypertrophy than power? Should I change it then? Sorry I’m just not really understanding

 

[artofmcw]

@tothesky Uhhhh, kind of ?
I’m saying that it’s leaning more toward hypertrophic training than power training, yes. But it’s not exactly deemed scientifically “optimal” as far as motor unit recruitment, mechanical tension, and therefor muscle hypertrophy. I can explain a bit more in depth when I’m at my computer !

 

[tothesky]

@artofmcw Okay that’d be awesome thanks for your help. I’m just trying to figure out how to work these smaller muscles better for gaining strength, I think the simple 3x5 for compound lifts should be enough, but you probably know more about that than me lol

 

[artofmcw]

@tothesky You can send me a DM if you like and we can chat about this further in depth. I’m fairly active on Reddit so I get quite a few comment responses etc. I’m only recommending a DM as that way it won’t get lost in the static !