Mass Building Routine

[ninjarider45]

Critique the **** outta this :thumbsup: I ran this for the last 4 weeks and took the 5th week easy to recover my body. starting back up today looking to see what you guys think of it or if anything needs improvement.

4-day split
Primary goal: Size :duh:
Secondary goal: strength
Setup: 5 sets each exercise. Progressively heavier weights each set. 1st set, 8 reps; 2nd set, 6 reps; 3rd set, 4 reps; fourth set, 2 reps; and fifth set, 50% of the weight of the 1st set to failure.


Monday: Quads/legs

• Squats
• Barbell Deadlifts
• Leg Extensions
• Abs

Tuesday: Shoulders/Traps/Lats

• Military Press
• Upright Barbell Row
• Wide Grip Lat Pulldown
• Bent Over Row
• Abs

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: Lower Back, Hamstrings, Biceps


• Stiff Legged Deadlifts
• Good Mornings
• Leg Curls
• Barbell Curl
• Preacher Curls


Friday: Chest/Triceps

• Flat Bench Presses
• Incline Bench Presses
• Skull Crushers
• Pushups or something?
• Abs

Saturday: OFF

Sunday: OFF

 

[seanlambo]

pull ups, chins???

 

[ninjarider45]

i havn't incorporated them into the workout yet gotta improve on my lats first figure theres enough direct and indirect focus on them on tuesdays. I may do assisted pullups/chins if my body isnt exhausted by end of workout though.

 

[inmymind801]

t-bar

 

[wannabeBIG]

Some kind of shrugs... Like power shrugs , behind the back , seated or standing..
T-bar for sure. Maybe throw in some 21's in there some times for a good burn.
Tricep extensions of some kind . Overhead ropes , v-bar or barbell.

 

[urbanski]

holy cow, squats and DL on same day. depending on what you do first, you wont have any gas to give the second its proper effort. i do DL on pull day, with pull ups, curls, and SLDL.
add dips to chest day, and work weighted chins/pullups in there.

 

[WeakPoint]

Routine doesn't look that bad to me. I mean the guy is keeping the volume pretty good so hes not gonna be able to squeeze in all these back exercises and different tricep exercises. You could try to switch up the shoulder and back exercises every week and the chest and tricep exercises every week. I personally really like your Monday, even though I'm not a big fan of splitting up legs.

I would add a rear delt exercise on your shoulder/back day.
add some sort of fly to your chest/tricep day (flat flyes, incline flyes, crossovers etc.)
add another tricep exercise and do push-ups till you burnout.
add calve raises on Mondays and switch abs to another day.

Heres one of my old 4-day routines:
Monday:
Squats
Hamstring Curls
Flat Bench
Incline Flyes
Skull Crusher
Kick-back
Calve Raises

Tuesday:
Seated Row
Pull-down
Bent-over row
Front Raises
Up-right row
Preacher Curl
Wide-grip Curl
Abs

Thursday:
Incline Bench
Flat Flyes
Cross-Overs
Leg Press
Stiff-Leg Dead
Push-downs
Dips
Abs

Friday:
Deadlifts
Shoulder Press
Reverse Flyes
Reverse Grip Pull down
Hammer Curl
Concentration Curl
Shrugs

 

[REEVESDIESEL]

Hmmmm, well, you DL on Mon, then Tues comes and your working your already fatiqued back muscle again. Not good. You need to work that a different way. Later today I'll send you something very cool my friend.

 

[ripnlean]

holy cow, squats and DL on same day. depending on what you do first, you wont have any gas to give the second its proper effort. i do DL on pull day, with pull ups, curls, and SLDL.
add dips to chest day, and work weighted chins/pullups in there.

THIS^^^, plus I wouldn't do chest and Triceps in the same day, you'll be working similar muscle groups and one will not get worked as hard as the other. Once I switched Triceps to a "ARM" day, my chest and my tricpes started progressing much quicker.

Good luck with your goals bro!

 

[ninjarider45]

Hmmmm, well, you DL on Mon, then Tues comes and your working your already fatiqued back muscle again. Not good. You need to work that a different way. Later today I'll send you something very cool my friend.

I do focus on upper and middle back on tues though. I know that my lower back is still being used minimally as a stabilizer but imo it's not enough to be an issue. Looking forward to what you got though Always open to improvements.

I would add a rear delt exercise on your shoulder/back day.
add some sort of fly to your chest/tricep day (flat flyes, incline flyes, crossovers etc.)
add another tricep exercise and do push-ups till you burnout.
add calve raises on Mondays and switch abs to another day.

i think i'll start doing lat raise on an incline bench for rear delts. used to be one my favorite exercises. that should help even out the shoulder exercises.
i'll consider doing straight-up/down dips for the extra triceps exercise.

Awesome advice guys general consensus seems to be to seperate the DL and squats. Don't know why I didn't realize how bad that is on the CNS :twak: lol. I like the idea of swapping deadlifts and squats every week, should complement each other nicely. So Week 1 would be Squats. Week 2 would be Deadlifts. Any argument against that?

 

[WeakPoint]

Personally, I wouldn't swap it. I'd just work them out on seperate days.
Maybe split up your major lifts better.
Monday: Deadlifts
Tuesday: Squat
Thursday: SLDL
Friday: Benches

 

[BoyFromAus]

what's the rep range on each?

 

[workout18]

i disagree i would say the lower back is taking too much of a battering early in the week. you have deadlift, bent over row and stiff legged deadlift all on consecutive days. this is a massive strain and your lower back wont have time to recover. if i were you i would focus more on each body part rather than mixing them into a blur of what you are training on each day. my 4 day routine would be:

monday chest and abs
tuesday back and bis
thursday shoulders and tris
friday legs and hams

stick to heavy and basic but do your deads and rows on back day and your squats and stiff legs on leg day. this will allow enough time in between for your lower back to recover.

 

[urbanski]

Any argument against that?

yes. do each weekly.

 

[BoyFromAus]

what rep range should be done?... 6- 8?

 

[ninjarider45]

If trying to stimulate muscle growth then a lower rep range should be used. Most studies find 5-8 reps to be the ideal amount of reps. Emphasize the heaviest weight that allows you to use strict form while not being able to complete more then the desired rep range.

For example, my first set I always shoot for 8 reps with just enough weight that when I finish that 8th rep, I KNOW that I will not be able to complete that 9th rep without a spotter. Catch my drift? If I'm able to complete that 8th or 9th rep with ease then I need to up the weight next time. Notepads are very handy for "remembering" this important information during workouts.

 

[BoyFromAus]

cheers for the info man.