Wanting to maximize my gains PLEASE critique

[bulldog545]

Hi,
I am 20 and have been lifting for three years. I am a hard gainer trying to fight my string bean genetics, and I feel I have done pretty well so far. I am into the body building stuff and I want to gain size!!! PLEASE critique my routine so that I can maximize my gains (especially with my chest)
I eat right, usually 2000-3500cal a day, lots of protein healthy carbs and greens for vitamins. I take multis and fishoil, and protein powder 20 min after each lift. I do the compound lifts, Squats, bench ect. I have a five day spread that I switch up every six weeks. My spread usually looks like this:
The amount of reps I do is 8-12 but i just put down ten so you get the idea.
sets x reps

Mon: Shoulders:
Behind head press: 3 X 10
Under bench delt raise 3 x 10
Kai greene's 90 degree rear delt raise 3 x 10
Standing side delt raise: 3 x 10
bar shrugs 3 x 15 then a drop set
behind head press again with lower weight as a finisher with negs.

Tue: Back
Bent over bar rows 3 x 10
v grip cable pull 3 x 10
1 arm dumbell rows 3 x 10 ea. arm
vert. row machine 3 x 10
lower back ext. 3 x 10
then bar rows again with reduced weight with negatives

wed: Chest
Dumbell press 3 x 10
cable flies 3 x 10
flat bench 3 x 10
weighted dips 3 x 10

thur: legs
squats 3 x 6
leg ext. 3 x 6
leg curl 3 x 6
calf raise 3 x 15

Friday: arms
EZ bar curl 3 x 10
hammer curls 3 x 10
cable curls 3 x 10
reduced weight EZ bar curls with negatives

V bar tricep ext. 3 x 10
single hand reverse grip ext. 3 x 10
behind the head rope ext. 3 x 10
reduced weight v bar ext. with negatives

sat: rest
sun: rest

 

[bulldog545]

haha it was supposed to be 3000 to 3500. 6'2" 185 lbs. when I started i was 6'2" 140 lbs.

 

[bulldog545]

Ive done that before and I did start to gain i was up to 195, but it was not as lean as I wanted, I was at around 8 or 9 % fat

 

[masonmarin18]

Can only really expect to gain 1-2 lbs LBM a month, slow and steady wins the race. Eat enough calories to grow, you are training enough to grow.

 

[Philshred]

I am also in the same boat as you however I am much taller. What I found has helped me is to really focus on my mind muscle connection especially for my chest but also for all my other body parts. Make sure to do warm up sets to really focus on pressing with your chest and try to minimize the use of your triceps. Once you are done warming up put on some heavy weight on the bar and try not to go past 8 reps. This is due to the fact that us tall guys have a really high ROM which results in doing more work so we don't necessarily fit in with the average gym goer. You could also pre fatigue your triceps by doing some pulldowns before doing your bench if you believe that your arms are dominant over your chest. Otherwise as a tall hardgainer it is normal to have a lagging chest since it takes up a lot of space and requires a good amount of mass to build it up. This will just take time, hard work in the gym and the kitchen. Best of luck fellow tall hardgainer and one last thing, add in some deadlifts!!!

 

[Jiigzz]

Why are you doing the behind the head press? Military press is alot better and more natural

Also on chest day perform the compound movements first, i.e. Flat bench before dumbell presses and do the chest flies last as they are isolation.

I'd also recommend doing more leg work and core training. Good mornings and planks are always good.

Why on leg day do you only do 6 reps of everything but every other day you do 8-12? Just wondering.

 

[bulldog545]

I do core stuff twice a week I just didn't put it on here. I do 6 reps with legs because I feel they unproportionally large compared my upper body. I focus more on building strength in my legs than size. And thanks for the tips guys. I do the "focussing" on the muscle when working, but I didn't know about doing compound lifts 1st.

 

[Sean1332]

eat like a beast and it'll take time. also look around at proven routines when you get bored of yours. people will suggest a million different ones to you, and they're all good. just find the one you like. I used to make my own up but it drove me
crazy trying to figure out the perfect split.

 

[bulldog545]

hah yeah. I heard about this one guy doing a 100 routine? he did, for example, on chest day 100 reps of dumbell chest press constantly increasing his weight while still doing sets of ten reps until he reached 100 reps. then he did 3 x 10 of flies and dips.

 

[ZiR RED]

Biggest mistake hard gainers make is to try to gain muscle while staying at < 8% body fat. 9-10% body fat is the perfect range for most people whereby the greatest gains in muscle can be made without gaining additional fat.

Your shoulder day is a lesson on impingement and destroying the shoulder joint. Standing military press, half kneeling single arm DB over head press, side laterals, rear laterals.

Your leg day lacks hamstring work and unilateral work. Squats, good mornings, split squats, swiss ball leg curls

You should be doing some form of dead lift if you want to grow. A snatch grip rack pull would go great as the first or second exercise on back day in place of back extensions.

IN my opinions an arm day is a wasted day...but to each their own, it won't hurt you if you are doing enough primary work during the week.

Br

Oh yes, and you should be doing rotator cuff and glute work for lifting longevity purposes.

 

[bulldog545]

9 - 10%? Ok I can deal with that. The behind the head press I was doing hasn't caused any trouble, but I see what you mean. After the rotation of exercises it was getting cycled out anyway. Switching up the leg routine is necessary its been boring and the same for a long time with few changes. Definitely need to start doing dead lifts. I do rotator cuff work in my warm up. all good points thank you a lot. I will definitely apply these principles to my routine.

 

[Jiigzz]

9 - 10%? Ok I can deal with that. The behind the head press I was doing hasn't caused any trouble, but I see what you mean. After the rotation of exercises it was getting cycled out anyway. Switching up the leg routine is necessary its been boring and the same for a long time with few changes. Definitely need to start doing dead lifts. I do rotator cuff work in my warm up. all good points thank you a lot. I will definitely apply these principles to my routine.

Maybe it hasnt yet, but it probably will. Its in my top 5 for shoulder exercises that should be avoided haha

 

[SuperPro]

The problem I think is wanting to stay lean. I recently watched a british bodybuilding documentary with Kevan Wilson where he said "if you want to get big, you've gotta get ugly" and went on to talk about how you aren't going to get really big without gaining some fat, and that's why people usually bulk in winter when they are covered up and cut for summer.

 

[bulldog545]

I see a lot of people stay relativity lean (still have visible abs) and gain weight like crazy. You said that arm day was a wasted day, why is that? is it more efficient to throw in bi's with back and tri's with chest?

 

[SuperPro]

I completely disagree that arms is a wasted day, but if you really want to blast your arms hard for a little while you can do a little while where you have an arms day as well as days like chest and tris, back and bis. I wouldn't recommend a routine that hard on your arms for the long run though, when I was doing that my elbow joint started to get bad after a few months, just wore an elbow brace for a little while though and it straightened out.

What was that you were saying about the shoulder day being a lesson on shoulder injury? Maybe I need help with my shoulder workouts because my shoulder is always getting jacked up. I take time off, it gets better, get back in the gym gets worse. Repeat forever. I do rotator cuff exercises though also.

 

[ZiR RED]

The problem I think is wanting to stay lean. I recently watched a british bodybuilding documentary with Kevan Wilson where he said "if you want to get big, you've gotta get ugly" and went on to talk about how you aren't going to get really big without gaining some fat, and that's why people usually bulk in winter when they are covered up and cut for summer.

I see a lot of people stay relativity lean (still have visible abs) and gain weight like crazy. You said that arm day was a wasted day, why is that? is it more efficient to throw in bi's with back and tri's with chest?

Everyone has a set point whereby they gain muscle optimally. If you try to stay under that set point you run into issues with gaining muscle. If you go over that set point you also will run into issues (though not as dramatic).

Here's what I find from experience with clients:
Hard gainers who have trouble gaining weight (muscle or fat): 8-10%
Mesomorphs: 10-12%
Endomorphs: 12-15%

Some people have the genetics whereby they are naturally very very lean, in which case they can gain muscle while remaining around 6-8%. That is few and far between though.

Br

 

[ZiR RED]

I completely disagree that arms is a wasted day, but if you really want to blast your arms hard for a little while you can do a little while where you have an arms day as well as days like chest and tris, back and bis. I wouldn't recommend a routine that hard on your arms for the long run though, when I was doing that my elbow joint started to get bad after a few months, just wore an elbow brace for a little while though and it straightened out.

What was that you were saying about the shoulder day being a lesson on shoulder injury? Maybe I need help with my shoulder workouts because my shoulder is always getting jacked up. I take time off, it gets better, get back in the gym gets worse. Repeat forever. I do rotator cuff exercises though also.

For most people who are just starting out its not necessary, and an extra lower body or upper body day would provide more improvements. When you get into competitors who need to bring up smaller arms in the offseason, etc., then it can become useful. But for someone who's main goal is to put on 15-20 pounds of muscle, the training day can accomplish more by taxing the larger muscle groups.

As for your shoulder, check out my blogs (the websites in my signature) I recently posted an article about shoulder health.

Br

 

[SuperPro]

For most people who are just starting out its not necessary, and an extra lower body or upper body day would provide more improvements. When you get into competitors who need to bring up smaller arms in the offseason, etc., then it can become useful. But for someone who's main goal is to put on 15-20 pounds of muscle, the training day can accomplish more by taxing the larger muscle groups.

As for your shoulder, check out my blogs (the websites in my signature) I recently posted an article about shoulder health.

Br

I see I agree with you there about people starting out, I think maybe because I started isolation training early on that may have to do with how I injured my shoulder initially.

Pretty good article had some stuff I hadn't seen in shoulder articles before. It's good to know to avoid behind the neck presses as I used to do them a lot because I was told it better isolates the delts. I do pec decks but lately I've tried to stop before my arms go to far behind my shoulders, but I still try to go back far enough to get a good stretch on the pecs.