Can anyone advise a routine?

killamac27

killamac27

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I'm new to lifting, 19, 5'10, 160 lbs. My goal is to get more mass and strength. I have been lifting for about a month now with no routine. I am just doing Arm/Leg splits. I am at about a 2300 calorie intake with a good amount of protein. I have looked at the work out starting strength but I have never done a power clean or a dead lift, I don't want to hurt myself. Any advice would be great.
 
Hoopie

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there are several programs out there. what you need to do is read up on them and make a decision on which one to try. a solid workout program that i use is one called power/ rep range/ shock. It was developed by eric Broser. the link for it is

www.prrstraining.com

You can get a ton of info off his forum along with the full workout.
 
dusk

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We have all been the new guy in the gym at one point so i know how you feel. I was the same way when i started lifting. Had no idea what to do in the gym or outside of the gym. I am not going to go into the pin point details but let me try to help out a little bit to at least give you a better foundation.

A muscle is made up of muscle fibers. When you workout a muscle, what you are essentially doing is breaking down the fibers within the muscle. Your body, being the adaptive machine that it is, says "this is no good, the muscle needs to be more prepared". So it works to rebuild the fibers to make them stronger for the next time they are put under the same kind of stress.

With that said, the body needs additional nutrients and rest to rebuild the fibers. This is why no matter what your experience level lifting is, sleep and letting your muscles have a break is very important and diet is the factor that has the most impact on achieving your goals.

Rhyno says up your calories because when you take into account how many calories you burn in a day, 2300 calories is not enough to provide the additional nutrients needed to grow muscle. Your body needs a set number of calories to function properly in a day, this is called your BMR (basal metabolic rate). There are numerous online calculators that you can use to estimate your BMR based on height weight etc. With your height and weight, id guess your BMR is around 1900 calories a day.

On your estimate of 2300 calories, that leaves 400 calories for everything else you do in a day. If you add up the calories that your burn from common day to day activities especially if you are going to the gym, it will be over 400. This number, the amount of calories your burn in a day from everything while maintaining the same weight, is your maintenance level. (this is a number you will have to determine for yourself). In order to grow, you need to give your body additional nutrients above your maintenance level for it to use to rebuild muscle.

There are 3500 calories in a pound. With this in mind, in order to add 1 pound per week, you need to add 500 calories a day; 3500 calories / 7 days a week = a 500 calorie surplus a day. Since we dont know your true maintenance level, all we can do is guess what it would be then add a caloric surplus to that. I would follow rhyno's recommendation in saying try between 3000-3500 calories a day for awhile then assess your progress.

Now to in the gym itself... Your body needs rest to recover from the stress you put on your muscles. That is why people follow different training splits; a training split just being a break down of what muscles they lift on what day. Since you are new to lifting, i would say that the best split to follow would be a 3 day total body routine. This kind of routine will give you enough stimulation to grow for awhile.

For total body routines, you want most of your routine to consist of compound movements, or exercises that work more than just one muscle group. (on the other side, movements that focus only 1 muscle group are called isolation movements). Some exercises look intimidating (deadlift like you mentioned) but they are not hard to learn. Its as simple as asking someone you know, some one in the gym, or reading/watching proper form then trying it yourself with light weight until your comfortable with it. The dead lift especially is an extraordinary lift. It is great compound movement and triggers increased testosterone production.

For starting out, you can keep set and rep ranges pretty basic. 3 sets of 10 should do just fine. I would do something like

Monday:
-Squat
-Bent Over DB Row
-Incline DB Bench Press
-Weighted Decline Situps
-Barbell Curl

Wednesday:
-Deadlift
-Military Press
-Pull Ups (if you cant do at least 5 of them for 3 sets then Lat Pull Downs)
-Leg Press (after doing a set of leg press i would do a set of calf raises too)
-Dips (if body weight is too easy, then start to add weight)

Friday:
-Bench Press
-Upright Row
-Lunges
-Seated Row
-Rope Pull Down

Nutrition around lifting periods can be very beneficial to you too. It would help you to have a workout meal 90-30 minutes before you goto the gym to fuel your body for your lift. Then it would be good for you to have a meal within 90 minutes after your lift that has alot of fast digesting carbs and protein (whey protein if possible, see following paragraphs). Avoid eating fats in this post workout meal as well.

Since you are just starting, you have no true need for supplements. Supplements should be used to increase results once you start to plateau without them. However, it could be beneficial of you to supplement a multivitamin, fish oil, and whey protein. Whey protein comes from milk and is the fastest digestible protein. Because of this, it is your best option to supply protein to your muscles after a workout)

Whey protein comes in all diff flavors from all diff companies. It is usually cheapest to buy online. Most servings have around 20g of protein per scoop. Your body can only use so much protein at once though so avoid taking more than 30-40g of protein in one sitting (2 scoop max). I use whey protein from a company called Optimum Nutrition which is a pretty popular choice.

Also try to:
-eat clean foods
-cut out liquid calores
-get calories from foods
-drink lots of water (at least a gallon a day)
-get sufficient sleep

That is at least a starting point for you to build off of. Best of luck to you:wave2:
 
killamac27

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Thanks dusk, gave me good ideas. My current is 205 Bench I don't know my max squat or deadlift yet though I think Im gonna go with sets of 6-8 though. I 'll take your advice about the deadlift start at light weight until i get comfortable.
 

kdpboa

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Starting Strength was designed w/ guys like you in mind. It WILL put mass on you and WILL be very effective at getting your strength numbers up. If you buy Rippetoe's book, he very clearly explains how to do the excercises in his programs. Their are also numerous videos on youtube and Greg Everret's book on Olympic Weightlifting is phenomenal if you would like additional info. on the clean (& snatch).

I wish I would have done the exact thing you are doing when I started. When I started I was 6' 2", 170ish and went straight for advanced bodybuilding routines spending tons of time in the gym doing isolations and gained very little. When I started doing all compounds, as recommended in Starting Strength, my numbers shot up and I started gaining weight with a quickness.

With all that said, diet will be the biggest thing for the long haul. Nutrition is also talked about in Starting Strength.

EAT, Bench, Squat, Deads, EAT, Clean, Row, Pullups, EAT!
 

Matt6969

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Monday
Back
Incline T-bar rows 3 sets x 10 reps
One arm dumbell rows 3 sets x 8 reps
Bent-over barbell rows 3 sets x 8 reps
Lat pull downs 3 sets x 15 reps
Seated upright row machine3 sets x 15 reps
Hammer strength pull downs 3 sets x 15 reps
Seated low cable row 3 sets x 20 reps
Rear delts on fly machine 4 sets x 10 reps
Bent over dumbell rear laterals 4 sets x 10 reps

Tuesday
Chest
Incline bench press 2 warm-up sets and then 3 sets x 8-12 reps
Flat dumbell press 3 sets x 10 reps, drop set on last set
Hammer strength incline press 3 sets x 10 reps
Weighted dips (with chains) 3 sets to failure
Cable crossovers 3 sets x 15 reps

Wednesday
Rest

Thursday
Biceps
Standing dumbell curls 3 sets x 8 reps
Standing barbell curls 3 sets x 12 reps
Preacher curls 3 sets x 12 reps
Triceps
Tricep pushdowns 3 sets x 15 reps
Seated dip machine 3 sets x 15 reps
Rope pushdowns 4 sets x 12 reps

Friday
Legs
Leg extensions 2 warm-up sets x 100 reps
Squats 2 light sets then 2 heavy sets to failure
Hack squats 3 sets x 10-15 reps
Leg press 3 sets x 30 reps
Seated leg curls 3 sets x 15 reps
Standing leg curls 3 sets x 10 reps
Lying leg curls 3 sets x 12 reps

Saturday
Lower back
Deadlifts 3-4 warm-up sets then 4-5 heavy sets x 5-8 reps
Shoulders
Military press 2 warm-up sets and then 3 sets x 10 reps
Squats3 sets x 12 reps
Side laterals 3 sets x 8-12 reps
Dumbell front raises 3 sets x 8 reps
Upright rows 3 sets x 12 reps

Sunday
Off
 

kdpboa

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Monday
Back
Incline T-bar rows 3 sets x 10 reps
One arm dumbell rows 3 sets x 8 reps
Bent-over barbell rows 3 sets x 8 reps
Lat pull downs 3 sets x 15 reps
Seated upright row machine3 sets x 15 reps
Hammer strength pull downs 3 sets x 15 reps
Seated low cable row 3 sets x 20 reps
Rear delts on fly machine 4 sets x 10 reps
Bent over dumbell rear laterals 4 sets x 10 reps

Tuesday
Chest
Incline bench press 2 warm-up sets and then 3 sets x 8-12 reps
Flat dumbell press 3 sets x 10 reps, drop set on last set
Hammer strength incline press 3 sets x 10 reps
Weighted dips (with chains) 3 sets to failure
Cable crossovers 3 sets x 15 reps

Wednesday
Rest

Thursday
Biceps
Standing dumbell curls 3 sets x 8 reps
Standing barbell curls 3 sets x 12 reps
Preacher curls 3 sets x 12 reps
Triceps
Tricep pushdowns 3 sets x 15 reps
Seated dip machine 3 sets x 15 reps
Rope pushdowns 4 sets x 12 reps

Friday
Legs
Leg extensions 2 warm-up sets x 100 reps
Squats 2 light sets then 2 heavy sets to failure
Hack squats 3 sets x 10-15 reps
Leg press 3 sets x 30 reps
Seated leg curls 3 sets x 15 reps
Standing leg curls 3 sets x 10 reps
Lying leg curls 3 sets x 12 reps

Saturday
Lower back
Deadlifts 3-4 warm-up sets then 4-5 heavy sets x 5-8 reps
Shoulders
Military press 2 warm-up sets and then 3 sets x 10 reps
Squats3 sets x 12 reps
Side laterals 3 sets x 8-12 reps
Dumbell front raises 3 sets x 8 reps
Upright rows 3 sets x 12 reps

Sunday
Off
Way to much BS in here dude! 5 days a week for a begginner who needs to put on mass? Squats 2 days in a row? Heavy deads the days after heavy squats?

killa- stick to 3 maybe 4 days a week of just compounds just like everyone else has suggested.
 

youngandfree

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Way to much BS in here dude! 5 days a week for a begginner who needs to put on mass? Squats 2 days in a row? Heavy deads the days after heavy squats?

killa- stick to 3 maybe 4 days a week of just compounds just like everyone else has suggested.
Ditto!

It's also probably why matt6969 probably hasn't gained much mass with this program. I don't know, I've been wrong before though.
 

kdpboa

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If you don't like Starting Strength, check out Westside for Skinny Bastards. In my opinion it takes the WS no BS approach to weighttraing and gears it more towards guys who are looking for mass gain not just strength/power gain.
 

jcp2

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If you don't like Starting Strength, check out Westside for Skinny Bastards. In my opinion it takes the WS no BS approach to weighttraing and gears it more towards guys who are looking for mass gain not just strength/power gain.
The oringinal Westside for skinny bastards was written for athletes. It had only one lower day due to athletes high demands. I don't know if it has been revised, but that is why i never liked it.
 

Matt6969

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the routine i showed helped with my strength. not much for mass, but strength still increased.
 

shortstop1616

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I also like doing my legs twice, but I do that every other week.

I used and liked the vastmuscle.com website for beginners. It give you a little muscle hypertrophy and endurance first and then becomes more of a strength and power workouts... plus they always update it so you don't get bored.
 

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