Workout log: Approach to building 15 lbs of muscle by 2014.

[justdoit40]

Critique me on everything I've been doing! Will take all harsh suggestions. Any suggestions to better myself to get the most out of my regimen would be greatly appreciated. In this thread i will discuss my routine, my nutrition, what I'm struggling with, what i do on a daily basis. So about me i've been working out religiously for the last 6 months seeing some pretty good gains in strength and now I'm ready to add some muscle since my full body routine wasn't doing much. I'm 16 years old, 5"8 150 lbs not sure about body fat but id say about 15% . Just like everyone on here I'm trying to better my physique. My long term goal is to add 15 lbs of muscle by january 2014 with the exception of maybe 10 lbs of fat from eating so much. Looking to gain 1-2 lbs a month.

Training Routine.
I do a 3 day split. Mostly compound movements and train to failure for most workouts that wont risk injury, while keeping sets to 10-14 per workout and keep all workouts under 45 mins. Keep the rep range from 8-12 on upper body and 12-15 on lower body Just started this routine a week ago ! Never trained to failure before but i wanna give it a go for mass gains
Monday: push
Military
Incline bench
Bench
Dips

Wednesday: legs
Squat
Stiff legged deads
Calve raises

Friday: pull
Pullups
Reverse grip bb rows
V bar pulldown
Face pulls

Nutrition and supplementation:
I try to get approx 3500+ calories a day. I don't care much about extra fat since I'm young. So once i get over 3500 calories i stop counting for the day. Im not much of a counter but i have a rough estimate of what I'm getting calorie and protein wise at the end of everyday! Things i love to eat are pb&js with milk. And bananas so i eat a lot of those which is a lot of sugar will this hold back my gains? For supplementation i take creatine 5g a day and thats it besides fish oil and protein powder. I also get at least 4 bottles of water a day

Recovery.
When I'm not working out i have school and work work only 2-3 days a week so my 3 day splits perfect for after school. I get AT LEAST 8 hours of sleep a night. I stay pretty active outside of the gym with work and stuff so i recover a little better. I've definitely seen good results recovering once i started taking creatine with a simple sugar.

ANYTHING SOMEONE CAN ADD OR TAKE OUT OR SWITCH TO GIVE ME THE MOST MUSCLE GAINS IS APPRECIATED THANKS GUYS

 

[herderdude]

The first thing I would do is to lower the reps on the compound movements to 6-8. It will allow you to overload and get stronger. Your mass will tie in closely to your strength at this stage of the game. You have a good goal for your age, 15lbs lean mass is very doable. As you gain weight, you may need to up your calories, so keep that in mind.

 

[justdoit40]

The first thing I would do is to lower the reps on the compound movements to 6-8. It will allow you to overload and get stronger. Your mass will tie in closely to your strength at this stage of the game. You have a good goal for your age, 15lbs lean mass is very doable. As you gain weight, you may need to up your calories, so keep that in mind.

Reason being is i don't have the best knees for t age and i cant go parallel with anything under 8 reps for legs and i also got done doing 5 reps for everything the last 6 months to switch off . I might lower the rep for upper body but im seeing good gains lower body with high reps and they are much more comfortable

 

[herderdude]

If you can't hit parallel with the heavier weight, then lighten up. When growth is desired, full range of motion is important. For your knees, I'd suggest warming up more thoroughly. Work painfully slowly toward the higher weights. This will hammer in technique and lube the joints. I passed up my high school classmates' leg size quickly by squatting 225 ATG while they piled on plates and did quarter reps.

 

[justdoit40]

If you can't hit parallel with the heavier weight, then lighten up. When growth is desired, full range of motion is important. For your knees, I'd suggest warming up more thoroughly. Work painfully slowly toward the higher weights. This will hammer in technique and lube the joints. I passed up my high school classmates' leg size quickly by squatting 225 ATG while they piled on plates and did quarter reps.

I will def go light atg reps with squat when my progress starts to stall with my higher reps. Anything else you can suggest? Or does everything else look good?

 

[herderdude]

I'd definitely put deadlifts in on pull days. Can't believe I missed that the first time. They've gotta be priority #1A (behind squats) if mass is your goal. Maybe more volume overall on pulling. You want balance from front to back, and also most of your potential for size is behind you. Also don't settle for "light" ATG squats. I prefer to think of them as "heavy-ass weight for high reps". That was the Ronnie Coleman philosophy.

 

[justdoit40]

I'd definitely put deadlifts in on pull days. Can't believe I missed that the first time. They've gotta be priority #1A (behind squats) if mass is your goal. Maybe more volume overall on pulling. You want balance from front to back, and also most of your potential for size is behind you. Also don't settle for "light" ATG squats. I prefer to think of them as "heavy-ass weight for high reps". That was the Ronnie Coleman philosophy.

Was gonna add deadlifts after a couple weeks. Def will do that! And you know what i forgot to mention! I can't do narrow squats cause of my knees but i can def try low rep squats with wide stance! Will these be as effective you think? And since I'm starting wide stance whats another quad workout you suggest since I'm going to be neglecting them a bit!

 

[herderdude]

Wide(r) stance involves more posterior chain and will allow you to become stronger. Pay attention to how your hips feel if you want to go really wide. I work one day with a full sumo stance (as wide as I can go while my knees still track over my feet) and one day with my "narrow" stance (about shoulder width). As far as more quadricep-involved movements, you could use leg presses, hack squats, front squats, etc. Leg extensions will probably bother your knees or make them worse. I'm kind of drawing a blank on good quad exercises at the moment, I always used really narrow Olympic squats and leg extensions, but I think there are smarter ways to work around your knees than that.

 

[justdoit40]

Wide(r) stance involves more posterior chain and will allow you to become stronger. Pay attention to how your hips feel if you want to go really wide. I work one day with a full sumo stance (as wide as I can go while my knees still track over my feet) and one day with my "narrow" stance (about shoulder width). As far as more quadricep-involved movements, you could use leg presses, hack squats, front squats, etc. Leg extensions will probably bother your knees or make them worse. I'm kind of drawing a blank on good quad exercises at the moment, I always used really narrow Olympic squats and leg extensions, but I think there are smarter ways to work around your knees than that.

Thanks so much man you've been a great help! Im thinking in gonna change my leg routine to this
Wide stance squats 3x15x10x5
Leg press 3x15x10x5
Stiff legged deads 3x15
Calve press 3x25
Sound good or should i keep all in one rep range?

 

[herderdude]

I like to use different rep ranges throughout the workout. For an example:
Squat 3x6-8
Leg Press 3x8-10
RDL 3x10-12
And you can make them different each week, if you'd like. I encourage you to get good at programming your ranges and also going by feel. I like higher reps for leg press and hamstring work, and lower reps for all the other compounds.
Calves are a whole different animal. If you get yours to grow, YOU tell ME how you did it!

 

[justdoit40]

I like to use different rep ranges throughout the workout. For an example:
Squat 3x6-8
Leg Press 3x8-10
RDL 3x10-12
And you can make them different each week, if you'd like. I encourage you to get good at programming your ranges and also going by feel. I like higher reps for leg press and hamstring work, and lower reps for all the other compounds.
Calves are a whole different animal. If you get yours to grow, YOU tell ME how you did it!

Mine have grew a little in 3 months by doing extremely high reps! Like 30-40 someone once told me calves are endurance muscles cause you're on them all day and they respond well to high reps!

 

[vassille]

It looks good Im actually suprised how well you set this up. Stick with higher reps 8-12. Strength is really irrelevant in this scenario and since you chasing size not strength, stick with 8-12 range. THis will allow you to train at a steady pace for months to come. Low reps can in some cases just suck the life outta you. Main thing is to stress the muscle enough that you feel it the next day without being wiped out, tired a little is ok but not totaly exhusted. If the weight gets too easy then add a little to the bar and keep on going.
Good luck

 

[herderdude]

It looks good Im actually suprised how well you set this up. Stick with higher reps 8-12. Strength is really irrelevant in this scenario and since you chasing size not strength, stick with 8-12 range. THis will allow you to train at a steady pace for months to come. Low reps can in some cases just suck the life outta you. Main thing is to stress the muscle enough that you feel it the next day without being wiped out, tired a little is ok but not totaly exhusted. If the weight gets too easy then add a little to the bar and keep on going.
Good luck

You don't think that as a young lifter he should also build a foundation of strength in the compounds? I stand by the 6-8 range for the compounds, as they are still going to achieve hypertrophy. Also, I think as a younger guy the weights he'll be using aren't going to be enough to crush his CNS, especially at the volume he set up for himself. I know when I was 16, I was taking it to the limit 6x/week and not having any issues making gains in size or strength. Not that I recommend it.