"Doing more exercise with less intensity,"
Arthur Jones believes, "has all but
destroyed the actual great value
of weight training. Something
must be done . . . and quickly."
The New Bodybuilding for
Old-School Results supplies
MUCH of that "something."
This is one of 93 photos of Andy McCutcheon that are used in The New High-Intensity Training to illustrate the recommended exercises.
To find out more about McCutcheon and his training, click here.
Neodymium magnets would easily be strong enough to do what you want. I buy them off ebay. a 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" N42 grade will have about 12 lbs of holding capacity. A 2x2x1" will have about 250 lbs of holding capacity.
Be careful with the bigger ones or buying them in bulk. They will easily crush skin or even bone if it gets caught between the magnet and iron.
You might want to take a look at www.paceweights.com. 1/2 pound micro weights and also a block for machines. Appears to be less expensive than platemates for the amount of weight your getting.
Tony Williams wrote:
Tony Williams wrote:
larsvonthreat wrote:
put a mini weight plate on the stack's pin.cheap and easy
So easy, I never thought of it. :)
I knew there was a reason I was carrying those little plates in my gym bag.
Thanks,
Tony
For those who use the mini- or micro-weights, how much do you typically add from workout to workout?
Tony
The gym i used to train in had a chrome dumbell rack with 1kg dumbells all the way up to 10kgs.
The leg curl machine went up in 15lb increments which i thought was too high and it reduced reps too much when i moved up, i started putting say a 1kg dumbell across the top of the stack the following week i would add 2kg and then 3kgs and so on and so on till i got around 5-6kgs then i would stick the pin in the next weight level once i finally felt i had built up the strength for it.
EG 210LBS 10 reps week after 212.2lbs 10 reps week after 214.4 lbs 10 reps 216.6 10 reps all the way to 223.2lbs then finally on to 225lbs (no additional dumbells) this works well, though some arseholes at the gym can be quite upset when they see you putting extra weight on the machines even if it is less than what the stack holds
For those who use the mini- or micro-weights, how much do you typically add from workout to workout?
Tony
Around 2% per week for those within 1 year of training. After 1 year, this is reduced to 1% per week.
Darden writes on page 136 of TNHIT that one should double ones starting strength of all exercises in the first year, which roughly translates to around 2% per week. You can see that recommendations for 1% growth after on year, with strength having been doubled, leaves the rate of increase the same, while the percentage increase decreases. But sooner or later even this increase will prove too much as one cannot add 1 pound to the bar infinitely.
On a personal note, I am working on an idea that maybe any cessation of progress in weight training might be due more to attempting increments of progression that are too great as opposed to any need for cycling or periodization. I cannot make any definitive statements on this regard, as I have not yet reached the advanced level of 2 or more years of training where I could effectively test this out on myself. I can only say that when I was more advanced in my training 15-20 years ago, I did run into problems that I now feel were due to the need to add weight too fast and the resulting mental frustration which would, then, contribute to the malaise.
Were the increments of progression attempted too large? I won't know until I get back to that level. This I know: Joe Mullen thinks so. He has written that adding weight too fast is one sure way of halting all progress and creating a sticking point. I remember that adding 5 lbs the bar, which was the lowest increment I could add at the time, always made me actively notice that weight had been added. So if I went up from 185x8 to 190lbs., there was always something in the back of my mind saying, "Hey! This is heavier. I can't get 8 reps with this!"
Was it my mind and the resulting frustration the culprit? I do remember quitting bodybuilding several times when sticking points would occur. This was long before I had heard of periodization or HIT for that matter.
I am hoping that systematic increases can be made on a geometrically declining basis as one advances without the need for periodization (i.e. 1 lb.week for several months, then 2 lbs. every 3 weeks for maybe longer, then 1 lb. every 2 weeks for still longer, etc)
And if periodization is the only thing that can break sticking points, then so be it. This is my own little self-experiment.
Tony Williams wrote:
What is the best way to use micro or mini weights on machines?
Something less than 2.5 lbs. maybe.
Magnets?
If something else, what would you use, and where would you order?
In the past, I have used them on free weights, but never on machines.
It seems that micro-weights could be useful.
Tony
I have access to a machine shop so I just cut some bar stock and made some 1 lb and some 1/2 pound plates. I just lay them on top of the weight stack. I drilled a hole in them so I can use a bit of copper wire to attach them to Hammer machines. 2" x 2" x .5" is roughly .56 lbs.
perrymk wrote:
Platemate makes various magnetic weights to add on. I've never actually seen one but the photos look neat. http://www.theplatemate.com/pr...
Alternatively, get an extra long loading pin for the weight stack and just hang weights off of that.
I've got PlateMates and they work great for stack machines and Olympic BBs. For an Oly bar they fit right on the ends.
I have 2 pairs: One 1.25 total (2 x 5/8-lbs) and one 2.5 total (2 x 1-1/4 lbs).
The only thing they don't work well on is the rubber coated BBs and DBs you see in many gyms these days.
