Pains from the gym...stop or continue?

[Jamisjockey]

Be careful and take it easy.  Doing light weights high reps will build endurance, and down the road when you're feeling better you can crank the weight up again.

[280plus]

yea, what Jamis said. Very light weight x 10-12 reps per set. The problem is as you get older (and especially if you're not exercising regularly) your muscles become less durable(?) but retain enough strength that you can inadvertantly injure yourself by simply using them to max capacity, like opening a tough jar for example. Lou Ferrigno was talking about it yesterday in terms of his training MJ. He said around the age 35 your muscles begin to "atrophy".

High weight low reps builds mass (which you don't want at your age) and strength. Low weight high reps builds endurance and strength which should be what you are shooting for. Also if you're running, I suggest you stop and either walk, ride a bike or swim. The pounding you recieve when running is too much stress on all your joints, especially if you're carrying extra poundage.

[Strings]

>especially if you're carrying extra poundage<

Obviously, you've never seen Monkeyleg.

While trying to get CCW up here in Cheeseland, Dick was our secret weapon against legiscritters. If one tried blocking us out, we'd slip Dick under the door. There is NO extra poundage there...

[Monkeyleg]

The instructors at the gym (and others I've talked to) have said that skinny people need to lift maximum amount of weight with low reps. I explained that, with my back, that wasn't possible. I don't go anywhere near maximum, but instead lift what is comfortable yet challenging after two sets.

When I move the weight up 2.5 pounds, I'll usually do eight reps on the first set, and by the third, fourth or fifth rep on the second set, I can tell when I'm going to be straining, so I stop before I do. Then I keep working very slowly to where I can do two sets of eight reps comfortably for about two weeks before increasing the weight again. This means that I increase the amount I'm lifting about five pounds a month.

I don't run, as my knees won't take it. I walk very briskly.

As for "extra poundage," I'm down to 158 pounds, which is a few pounds more than what I weighed in senior year of high school. Before I stopped drinking in October '07, I was at 192. Now the only fat I have is a small paunch at the waist.

Even trying to lose that is a battle. As I said, I'm trying to gain weight, but not in the gut area, but that's where the calories go. I'm trying to find a balance between calorie intake, exercise and keeping the paunch in line.

208plus, why is mass something I don't want at my age? I'm not looking to get body builder arms, just some visible muscle. I see guys my age with normal looking arms all the time, instead of these sticks that I've had.

Very funny, Strings.

[Strings]

I know I am. Unfortunately, looks aren't everything in life...

[El Tejon]

I still say yoga in the way to go.  All the young guys want to be huge, but I just want to be healthy.

If you cannot run, have you tried jumping rope?

Have you tried Ross workouts?  We use them in Wing Chun, burpees, throw the sandbag, hit the tire with a sledge hammer, inter alia.  His book Never Gymless I highly recommend.

Ross Boxing:  http://www.rossboxing.com/

The only way I could ever pump my biceps was with preacher curls.  I used to do 21s until I got sick.

[280plus]

More mass means more strain on your heart. Fat or muscle, it makes no difference.

[Iain]

ML - none of this stuff is as simple as it is generally portrayed to be.

For a long time I did all my strength work in the 85+% zone (5 reps or less). Recently though I've gained a great deal of strength, particularly on my squat, working with lower percentages and higher reps than this.

I've also seen good chest and tricep size gains from sets of 20 dips (5 sets, so a lot of volume).

Crudely speaking you need to take into account volume in addition to reps per set. For example a popular set up is 3 sets of 10, you'd need approx 70% of your 1 rep max. 30 reps in total. You can however flip this on its head and do 10 sets of 3, and use a higher load, say 80-85% of 1rm.  Speaking in generalities, you'll get more out of 10x3 size wise than you would out of keeping 3 sets and dropping the reps to 3 (so 3x3).

There are endless arguments about this stuff, and I find that some of these out there things work and some don't and some work on certain movements/bodyparts and not on others. I get good chest gains out of a volume based approach, but make progress on chins with much less volume.