Various questions from a Dork

[DORKtoDIVA]

OK, here are my dork questions. Help me turn into a diva!

1) Failure - From my reading, I understand it's ideal to do a limited amount of reps (8-12 is one range I've heard, but I've heard others) to failure. Fine.

What I'm not totally sure of is whether that point of failure is supposed to be for the DAY or for the SET? So lets's say I do 8 military presses and I'm crying for mommy when I put the bar down. Am I supposed to be able to do another set after a break? Another full set of 8? How long of a break?

And a related question - regardless of whether I'm supposed to complete multiple sets to failure, how can I do one exercise to failure, and still move on to the next? I mean, I understand that even after I do the military presses I could probably do the triceps kickback, it's really a totally different set of muscles. But what if I wanted to do some bench presses too? Do I do military presses first, then bench presses? (Probably yes, bench press is so much easier). Anyway, I'm just confused about how failure works when you probably want to use that muscle again.

2) Headaches and purple face - Yesterday I did an upper body routine. I was seized with a headache almost right away. Between sets it faded to a mild headache, but the minute I picked anything up, even just a 5 pound dumbell, it would come back in pounding fury. I didn't have a mirror (yeah, probably should get one for my form) so I didn't see my face, but - later I was coaching my DH through a routine (we're in this together, but I seem to be doing more of the research, so I'm coaching him) and on the more intense exercises his face was turning red and even purple sometimes. I am assuming my face was doing the same thing earlier. So what's the deal? Are we doing something wrong? And if you suggest less intensity, how do I deal with less intensity if my muscles and lungs can handle it - just apparently not my head??

3) Routine - Remember, I'm a dork now, the diva title is in my future. I'm doing this routine, does it sound ok to start with, or do I need to figure out a way to strength train the same region twice a week?
Monday - core training
Tuesday - elliptical trainer
Wednesday - upper body
Thursday - elliptical trainer
Friday - lower body
Saturday - elliptical trainer
Sunday - day off
And yes, I know I'll want to vary the cardio, but for now that's the cardio I want to do for more than one reason. The part I'm asking about is just the fact that I'm only strength training a set of muscles once a week - if it's ok to start with, great, but if I'm in the land of "pointless" then obviously I'll want to change that.

[Trusylver]

1. Failure
It is ok to go to failure occasionally but your last rep in each set should generally be the last you could possibly do with good form. Failing in the middle of a rep can be very dangerous.

The break between sets will depend on what you are trying to achieve size? strength? endurance? power?
when i am working on power i have a 40 second rest between short fast sets, when i am working on strength my rest is 6-8 minutes. If i was working on building muscle mass my rest would be 1-3 minutes and for endurance about 30 seconds.

most exercises will have a little overlap in the muscles used unless you are doing isolation exercises. 2 different exercises working the same muscle with minimum rest between them (long enough to change equipment) is a super set. A super set can also target agonist and antagonist of the same bodypart.

Failure is only temporary, your muscles will recove resonably quickly betreen sets and exercises but in general try not to do more than 3 exercises per muscle.

2. Headache

Have you been eating about an hour before you workout ? your body needs fuel to do your routine. Most weight training routines work the anaerobic energy system so lungs have little to do with it. Lifting also puts a lot of preasure on the heart, if you have high blood preasure it would be a good idea to lower the intensity a bit. The fatigue at the end of each set is lactic acid which after about 35-40 seconds of anaerobic activity.


3. Routine

your routine is not pointless but it will not be effective in the long term

i would suggest that for your weight training that 3 days per week full body routine would be better than your split, If you want a split routine to be more effective you would need to be doing it on more days working each bodypart at least 2 days per week and generally at a higher intensity than a full body workout.

[Lazylifter]

If I was getting head aches just a few minutes into a weights session I'd get my BLOOD PRESSURE checked

[stikfigure]

Originally Posted by Lazylifter

If I was getting head aches just a few minutes into a weights session I'd get my BLOOD PRESSURE checked

might just be breathing and hydration too...many people forget to breathe when starting out I think.

[DORKtoDIVA]

Thanks to both. I just did actually a more intense upper body routine yesterday and really paid attention to my breathing. I think I was holding my breath more than I thought.

I also suspect that the other time I must have had a pre-headache to begin with that just got worse.

[Geri]

Thanks for the explanation of 'failure' in this post, it is very helpful.