Pump vs. No Pump
For some reason whenever I train shoulders I find the only way to get a pump is through the assisted shoulder press. When I go unassisted whether it is light weight or heavy, I feel like I cannot get a good pump in my shoulders.
I wonder why this is since supposedly going free weight is supposed to recruit more fibers and produce more growth. When I push up on the assisted shoulder press it burns and my muscles are much more sore the next day than when I go free bar.
November 6, 2008 at 9:31 pm
You should give a shot doing some Arnold presses. It doesn’t take a lot of weight to get worn down.
November 6, 2008 at 9:42 pm
The difference between free weights and machine is:
With free weights you need to worry about the balance, and stability. But with the machine you don’t, and therefore you can push more pounds and faitgue your muscle even more. Not saying that free weights are not good, actually it is probably one of the best and should be in your workout plan. But you need to organize it well.
The reason why you get a better pump is that the machine allows you to do more reps that you would usually do with the free weights.
A good advice, start with the free weights, to warm up, and then finish with the machine
Hope that helped
Vshape
November 6, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I fully disagree with Vshape for the simple fact that ARNOLD once said and im pretty sure its in his encyclopedia aswell that he avoided machines as much as possible because it wouldn’t hit his "stabilizer muscles which helped balance the weight". What ever Arnold says goes, dont argue lol.
Then again im the same as you in the fact that the machine shoulder press gives me a greater burn. Maybe its the position in the bench or the fact that you have stricter movement?
November 7, 2008 at 6:57 am
Well as much admiration as I have for Arnold, his encyclopedia has given me a lot of bad advice. The training splits in there are not for people who are natural. I tried and almost drove myself into the ground with overtraining for one of my competitions. I put on no muscle whatsoever because I was doing way too much. I mean, lifting twice a day? A normal natural body cannot recover from that. Supersetting 5 sets of free weight squats with leg curls? That’s crazy and at the time I thought "no pain no gain" and "This is what will make me a winner", when in the end if I had done less I would have looked much better. I know because I look much better now that I’m only lifting 3 times a week.