7MB weights

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Permalink Reply by JBF Mentor Tom Mortensen on October 17, 2011 at 10:59pm

In general you should always choose a weight that you "struggle" with for the last few reps. If you sail through all reps without an increased effort at the end of the set, the weight is too low or the reps too few. In that case you will not see great progress. This also means that you must challenge yourself at regular intervals. Increase the weight from last time you did the exercise and see how it works. If it destroys your form or makes it impossible to reach your goal reps, you've gone too far. Take another week at the same weight and try to increase next week. All in all it sounds as if you're doing fine!

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Permalink Reply by Markku Niilo-Rämä on October 21, 2011 at 12:51am

I would add to this that if you find that you cannot do rep because your form would hurt, don't do it.

However it is better to add weight and do fewer reps if needed.  Just challenge yourself to keep a perfect form and to add more weight.  You might also try to increase the rest period and see if you can do more reps then.

 

Personally I have calculated the total amount of weight I have lifted in 5 minutes (weight times the reps).

That way you know how you have improved.  I am not sure if Jon Benson does it that way but Jon wants you to be creative so..

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Permalink Reply by JBF Mentor Tom Mortensen on October 21, 2011 at 2:52am

Spot on Markku, it's all about progression and challenging yourself every time you do a workout. When you step into the gym, or do it at home, you must have one goal in mind, which is to do better than last time. This can be done in many ways. You can increase the weights, you can vary number of sets and reps, you can reduce rest intervals, you vary the tempo in your movements, you can increase the total amount of time spent working out, etc., it's all about finding a game plan that works for you and then stick with it for a while and see where it gets you. Jon Benson's 7 Minute Muscle is an excellent base for such work, I have used it extensively myself, and will always keep it in my toolbox.

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Permalink Reply by JBF Coach Sarah on October 22, 2011 at 3:13pm

Bonnie, just a woman's input here for you - I don't know what your goals are, but if you want to shed excess body fat by exercising, trust me, you want to push yourself and use heavy weights.

 

Now heavy, that's a relative term. What you find heavy might be too light for someone else and vice versa. This is why we never ever compare our efforts to the other people in the gym but compete against ourselves.

 

Let me just take a number off the top of my head for the sake of example.

 

In 7MM/7MB you want to start with a weight you can do for 5 reps at the beginning of the 5 minutes, no trouble at all. As your mini-sets progress through to the last minute, you do not want to be able to do 5 reps anymore!

If I use a shoulder press as an example, I'd take a 20-lbs Db in each hand and do 5 presses, wait 15 seconds, press another 5, 15 seconds rest and another 5, 10 seconds rest and another 5 reps where the 5th is a bit of a struggle but the form is still good.

10 seconds rest again, and I'll get 4 reps, probably twice more. Then I would have to drop to 3 reps in order to keep the form, maybe as low as 2 reps when the 5-minute period is done.

 

The same goes for the 2-minute 10 reps part. I always start almost at the heaviest possible as 2 minutes is not a long time to exhaust the muscle. Yes, it is pre-exhausted from the 5 minutes, but with a different exercise you also target a slightly different angle of the muscle so it's almost as if you're starting over.

To stay with the shoulder, I'd go to a 8-lbs Db in each hand for L-lateral raises, only 10 or even 6 second rest periods, and get 10-10-8-6 reps or something like that.

 

Each set does not, and should not, have the same number of reps. Even if you were to switch to a more traditional 3-sets-of-each program, don't aim for 3 sets of 15 reps with 10 lbs (example). Prefer 3 sets of either:

1) 10 lbs for 15 - 12 - 10 reps if that's all you can manage with proper form

2) 12 lbs for 15 - 10 - and 10 lbs for a last set and get 10 or 12

 

What we want is to work the muscle, make micro-tears that will heal and make the muscle grow. More muscle will burn more fat. You will also be able to eat a bit more ;-) eventually.

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Permalink Reply by Ess Three on October 25, 2011 at 7:35am

If you can do 5 reps in the last set then the weight's too light.

Sometimes, just after I've upped the weight, I'm doing single reps for a set towards the end of the 5 minutes. . .
So I'll start out doing 5 and might get that for 3 sets, but then the reps start to become fewer and the rest periods become longer.

When I get to the stage where I can drop the rest to 10 seconds and still manage something like 40+ reps (nearly 10 sets of 5), it's times to up the weight.

Sometimes with a new weight I'm lucky to get 25 reps. That's mainly because some of the dumbbell increments are a bit steep. E.g. I had to go from 10kg to 12.5kg. That's a 25% increase and you should only be doing 10% . . . so ofcourse my reps went way down. . .

But as long as I can do one more rep than last time, I consider that to be progress. . . until I up the weight again.

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