Assistance lifts - good or bad??

lilawolf

I'm doing something similar with StrongLifts. I couldn't feel the biceps or calves either, and posted a similar question. A very beautiful young lady showed me a picture of her awesome calves that she got ONLY using SL. Also, once my overhead press got to 45 lbs I started feeling my biceps. My guess is that when the weight is lighter, your big muscles (shoulders, chest etc) handle it, but as you progress the smaller muscles have to pitch in as the large muscles fatigue. Here is what I posted so that you can see the awesome calves:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/931832-what-do-you-add-to-sl

contingencyplan

The bottom line is this: Regardless of your goals you are better off sticking to the big compound lifts exclusively until you feel ready to tackle a program aimed more at advanced lifters. Whether you want to build strength, burn fat, add muscle, or whatever, you WILL see better results focusing on compounds 3x a week. Working in splits with a heavy emphasis on accessory lifts (they're called accessory lifts for a reason) will yield relatively little as a beginner. There's a reason all the lifting programs aimed at beginning users have you working mainly on the compounds 3x a week. You can switch to something that has you working in a split, but there's absolutely no point to it at all until you reach the level needed to tackle these more advanced programs? Are you ready for them? If so, great. But don't try to put your own together. The fact that you're asking this question says you don't know enough to.

The question here is this: WHY do you think you would get more out of a program that has you working in splits and placing heavy emphasis on accessory lifts?

CarlKRobbo

TBH if it's only 2 weeks, stick to it as prescribed for now, at least a few months.

Have you considered that at this point your biceps\Calves are already strong enough for what your doing? Give it a bit more time then if you still not feeling it.

If your going to add anything, Pullups\Chins will hit the biceps, Plus, htey'll have a great carry over to Deadlifts, and even Bench Press although to a lesser effect.

Calves are a nightmare, they respond to different things for different people, in my case I have to hit 100 reps each time i train them directly.

jhc7324

The bottom line is this: Regardless of your goals you are better off sticking to the big compound lifts exclusively until you feel ready to tackle a program aimed more at advanced lifters. Whether you want to build strength, burn fat, add muscle, or whatever, you WILL see better results focusing on compounds 3x a week. Working in splits with a heavy emphasis on accessory lifts (they're called accessory lifts for a reason) will yield relatively little as a beginner. There's a reason all the lifting programs aimed at beginning users have you working mainly on the compounds 3x a week. You can switch to something that has you working in a split, but there's absolutely no point to it at all until you reach the level needed to tackle these more advanced programs? Are you ready for them? If so, great. But don't try to put your own together. The fact that you're asking this question says you don't know enough to.

The question here is this: WHY do you think you would get more out of a program that has you working in splits and placing heavy emphasis on accessory lifts?

I'm in a similar position to the OP. I'm at my goal weight, I've been doing Starting Strength (practical programing version) for a couple months now, and have started doing some accessory lifts at the end of my workout.

In my case, I'm lifting as heavy as I can, not necessarily "following the program" (not eating 4000 calories/day so my gains are slower buy the changes in my body have been very noticeable so far) and increasing my strength, but even going as heavy as I can, my workout takes ~ 35-40 minutes tops and when I'm done I feel like I want to do more. Given the choice between hopping on a treadmill for a half hour or lifting some more, I'll lift. I've been adding one of Rippetoe's noted accessory lifts at the end of my workout.

Following a 3x/week schedule, I do weighted dips on wednesday, barbell curls on friday, and bent over rows on sunday, and on occasion I throw in something else (maybe something for the abs if I have time).

I don't think that small amount of extra accessory work is hurting my recovery any...

Leadfoot_Lewis

My conclusion after reading the replies is that there are really two different groups of people on here, which is fine. I can see the benefits to sticking with the compound lifts, and why people choose to do so. But it's not for me. Like you, I think there's benefit to incorporating accessory/isolation lifts and making a program that covers it all. Thanks for validating this.

Agreed.

As long as the majority of your program is compound lifts, I see absolutely nothing wrong with incorporating isolation lifts into one's lifting program.

It just seems like around here if you do compound lifts then you're anti-isolation lifts, oh, and definitely anti-cardio! A balance of all of this is what makes an adequate fitness program.

cwolfman13

I'm on week 2 of Starting Strength and the author is big on just keeping it to the 5 compound lifts (squat, deadlift, press, bench press, power clean). He does given some assistance lifts but recommends sticking to the compounds for quite a while. I get that compound lifts are the shiznizzle and have no intention of stopping those. But the target audience for this book is 18-30 y/o males who he expects to eat 3500+ calories - not me. The book is a great starting point but I'm wondering how to make a bit more well-rounded of a workout. Biceps and calves in particular seem under represented.

So - thoughts? Should I split into more traditional days of chest & tris, back & glutes, biceps & shoulders? Anyone have a routine they really like?

It really depends on your goals. Starting Strength is an excellent program for people who are new to weight lifting and need to build a good strength foundation. Even at a deficit, you can make excellent strength gains.

You wouldn't know it from pretty much anything you read on this site, but, while SS and SL and other such programs are really great, they are not the be all end all and they are not forever. Once you get a good foundation of strength, you're going to have to move on to bigger and better things anyway. There are any number of ways to go after starting strength...i.e. power lifting, body building, etc. That said, those compound lifts should pretty much always anchor your workouts.

I did SS for awhile, and have moved on to more body composition type of lifting, but those compound lifts are still the central focus of my routine...but I do quite a bit of accessory work as well now and I do 3x8 rather than 3x5 at this point...though I still do 1x5 heavy for my deadlifts and 3x5 heavy for my squats.

contingencyplan

The bottom line is this: Regardless of your goals you are better off sticking to the big compound lifts exclusively until you feel ready to tackle a program aimed more at advanced lifters. Whether you want to build strength, burn fat, add muscle, or whatever, you WILL see better results focusing on compounds 3x a week. Working in splits with a heavy emphasis on accessory lifts (they're called accessory lifts for a reason) will yield relatively little as a beginner. There's a reason all the lifting programs aimed at beginning users have you working mainly on the compounds 3x a week. You can switch to something that has you working in a split, but there's absolutely no point to it at all until you reach the level needed to tackle these more advanced programs? Are you ready for them? If so, great. But don't try to put your own together. The fact that you're asking this question says you don't know enough to.

The question here is this: WHY do you think you would get more out of a program that has you working in splits and placing heavy emphasis on accessory lifts?

I'm in a similar position to the OP. I'm at my goal weight, I've been doing Starting Strength (practical programing version) for a couple months now, and have started doing some accessory lifts at the end of my workout.

In my case, I'm lifting as heavy as I can, not necessarily "following the program" (not eating 4000 calories/day so my gains are slower buy the changes in my body have been very noticeable so far) and increasing my strength, but even going as heavy as I can, my workout takes ~ 35-40 minutes tops and when I'm done I feel like I want to do more. Given the choice between hopping on a treadmill for a half hour or lifting some more, I'll lift. I've been adding one of Rippetoe's noted accessory lifts at the end of my workout.

Following a 3x/week schedule, I do weighted dips on wednesday, barbell curls on friday, and bent over rows on sunday, and on occasion I throw in something else (maybe something for the abs if I have time).

I don't think that small amount of extra accessory work is hurting my recovery any...

Never said adding accessory lifts in was bad. However the OP implied (did not exactly state, but implied) that she wanted to, instead, go to a split format (that's what I got from it anyway) and until you've reached a more intermediate to advanced level, you simply won't get NEARLY as much out of a split workout as you would a compound-based full body 3x/week one, regardless of your goals.