Need some help/opinions with my regiment while on cycle.

xxtruxx1

xxtruxx1

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As some of you may know I'm currently keeping a log. The link is in my sig. I've become concerned that I may be overtraining & may not be seeing results for this reason. I want your opinions in the matter. Here's the breakdown.

I run a classic split with no rest days. The breakdown is back/shoulders, bi's/tri's, legs, chest (& start all over again to hit each twice a week). I do about 4 exercises per muscle & do 3 sets per excercise (not counting a warmup set) for a total of 12 sets per muscle group. So say it's bi's/tri's day I'll do the following:

Incline curls 4 sets w/ 1 warmup
Rope pushdowns 4 sets w/ 1 warmup
Superman curls 3 sets
Palm up single grip pulldowns 3 sets
Hammer curls 3 sets
Palm up bench (reverse grip) 3 sets
Reverse grip preacher curls 3 sets
Triangle pushdowns 3 sets

Then a burnout set of curls & dips. That's 12 sets for bi's & 12 for tri's. All of my routines look more or less like this. I switch the workouts the second time I hit the same group during the week to try something new & shock the muscles a little bit.

What do you guys think?
 
warriorway

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Probably overtraining. Try 4 days on 1 day off. Or maybe 2 days on 1 off 2 on one off.
 
Ubiquitous

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no rest days? 12 sets a bodypart, twice a week? That's way too much volume. You're overtraining.. give your CNS a break.

you can overtrain on cycle as well.


A classic split is generally 5 days a week, with 2 rest days, and the 5 day split is devoted to one bodypart a week.

If you start training each part twice a week, you NEED to drop the volume considerably.

Oh, one more thing bro.. it's regimen.. not regiment...sorry, pet peeve of mine.. lol
 
xxtruxx1

xxtruxx1

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no rest days? 12 sets a bodypart, twice a week? That's way too much volume. You're overtraining.. give your CNS a break.

you can overtrain on cycle as well.


A classic split is generally 5 days a week, with 2 rest days, and the 5 day split is devoted to one bodypart a week.

If you start training each part twice a week, you NEED to drop the volume considerably.

Oh, one more thing bro.. it's regimen.. not regiment...sorry, pet peeve of mine.. lol
LOL. Good catch Ubi. It's cool, I'm friend man...been studying for MCATs all day so spelling is the last thing on my mind.

EDIT: see what I mean? I meant fried*.
 
xxtruxx1

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Here's something that was suggested to me (with a little alteration by me):

mon - Bis (12 sets), traps (8 sets)
tues - tris (12 sets), shoulders (8 sets)
wed - legs
thurs - off
fri - chest (12 sets), end with tris (3 sets of my favorite exercise)
sat - back (12 sets), end with bis (3 sets of my favorite exercise)
sun - off

Does this seem like a solid plan? Again I'm trying to get the most out of my workouts, specially now that I'm on cycle.
 

canadian champ

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Looks amazing !! Only a pure genius could have come up with something that propagates such hypertrophy.
cc
 
joeymutz

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if you want to work out each body part 2 times a week i would try something like this:

mon-chest/shoulders/tri's
tue-back/bi's/traps
wed-off
thursday-legs
friady-chest/shoulders/tri's
saturday-back/bi's/traps
sunday-0ff

mon and friday your doing all push movements
tues and saturday your doing all pull movements

your only hitting legs once a week though but for me i feel thats enough.
do like 6 sets for each bodypart so it would be 18 sets total a day.

i've been doing this routine for 2 weeks and i like it alot i dont think i could do it for more then 2 months though. i think its a really good routine for someone on a 4-6 week cycle cause you hit the bodyparts more.
 
Mach .78

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How about?

Shoulders/Tris
Back/Traps
off
Legs
Chest/Bis
off
off

or put one day off between every workout day.
I don't know how anyone can do Bis right after say 12-15 sets of Back. Same thing with Tris after Chest. This hits secondary muscles twice. I hit them with 9-10 sets and they are toast. Throw 75 reps of calves in on Chest and Shoulder days using a weight I can do 20 reps with. 20 burn, wait for the burn to leave 15 sec. and hit them again. Hey, they're growing.:blink:
 
xxtruxx1

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I don't know how anyone can do Bis right after say 12-15 sets of Back. Same thing with Tris after Chest. This hits secondary muscles twice.
That's kind of what I was going for. I like hitting each muscle group twice a week. My problem was, or is actually, that I do 12 sets each time I hit them, totalling 24 sets each week per muscle. I think this was stopping me from growing & putting too much stress on my muscles. So, if I follow this workout, I'm hitting almost every muscle twice/week but with much less volume, which means that on the day that is designated for that muscle, I do 12 hard sets, but on the other day where its just 3 sets, it's more like a burnout to let the muscle know, "Hey, I'm gunnin for ya soon." That was a huge run-on sentence, wasn't it? lol But yea, that's what I'm going for. I'm thinking of maybe even doing 6 sets instead of 3, or just doing 3 & throwing in another 3 for another muscle such as traps.
 

glenihan

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12 sets a bp?? holy **** i hit a body part with 12 sets over the course of 3 workouts ..

you are definitely not only overtraining and overreaching but frying your CNS

i would recommend trying a much lower volume routine i can give you the one i personally like which i've posted on here before if you like .. if your diet is good i guarantee you'll see MUCH MUCH better gains
 
xxtruxx1

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12 sets a bp?? holy **** i hit a body part with 12 sets over the course of 3 workouts ..

you are definitely not only overtraining and overreaching but frying your CNS

i would recommend trying a much lower volume routine i can give you the one i personally like which i've posted on here before if you like .. if your diet is good i guarantee you'll see MUCH MUCH better gains
Bro, seriously, that would be pretty awesome. My diet is in check. I track it every day on fitday.com & pretty much follow this breakdown as closely as possible: 45% carbs, 40% protein, 15% fat.

I had a feeling I was overtraining & that was why I wasn't seeing results. It all started because I wanted to get the most out of my cycles (considering they are short oral cycles), so I started to hit each muscle twice a week to "get the most out of my cycle." I'm thinking that was a BIG mistake.
 
Mulletsoldier

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I'll give Glen some props on his modified DC routine, it is good stuff..I just started it actually, so it is too soon to responsibly tell you how well it works BUT the week or two I have been doing it has been sweet...
 
xxtruxx1

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Just look at Glen...

JACKED!

If this is the workout he follows, his body definitely serves as exhibit A.
 
Mulletsoldier

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i hit each body part 3 times every 11 days

my workout program looks like this

(i use explosive positives and 5-7 second negatives for everything except deads and squats for obvious reasons)

workout A
each body part gets 2 warm up sets then 3 working sets of 8-12, 4-6, and 2-4 reps with the same weight each set and not a very long time between sets
chest - either incline hammer strength or flat db press
back thickness - deadlifts, rack deads, or rows
back width - reverse grip close grip pulldowns or wide grip pull ups
shoulders - hammer strength machine or db presses
tris - skulls or seated overhead exts

workout B
bis - straight bar curls or preacher curls same sets as "A"
quads - squats or hack squats lots of warm ups and 2 sets of 10-12
hams - SLDL or lying curls same sets as "A"
calves - still trying to find something that works haha

i train monday wed and fri and alternate workouts A and B

i go to failure on every working set and every 5-6 weeks i take an entire week off to let my body recoup

this is similar to DC and Ironman and definitely not the only way to grow ... but it DOES work VERY VERY well and i'm only in the gym 3 hours a week
There it is....Just figga'd I'd save you the trouble Glen, hope you don't mind..
 
xxtruxx1

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Hm. I'm a tad confused. I get the positives & negatives. I just have a few questions:

1. When you say you do your 3 working sets with the same weight each set, does that mean that if you do your first working set of flat db press with 100lb dumbells, you do your other 2 working sets with 100lbs dumbells? You don't go up in weight at all?

2. How long do you take more or less between sets? 1-2 minutes typically?

3. Essentially, you only do 2 exercises per muscle every week, at a total of 6 sets per week where you hit the muscle twice, & 3 for muscles you hit once? This is what I have trouble accepting. How does this help you grow/get stronger? I kind of feel like this might not be enough? It seems too lax. How does it work?

4. When you say you go to failure, I'm kind of lost. If you pick a weight you can rep 8-12 times, say you get 12 reps in, how would you only be able to do 4-6 reps with the same weight in your next working set & fail at 6? The only thing I can think of is that there is very, very little rest time between sets.

Thanks for the help glen.
 
Mulletsoldier

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I am not Glen, obviously, but I think I can answer some of these questions because I read up pretty heavily on DC when I picked up his routine, and just from what I have noticed so far.

1)You'll realize your first set pretty much that 5-7 second negatives and explosive positives leave you pretty pooched. Doing the same weight definitely leaves you done as you take each set to failure.

2)It is pretty hard and fast, which is another reason why the same weight is used, you aren't recovered as much as you would normally be. I was doing a minute, maybe a minute-and-a-half tops.

3)It is anything but lax, you are fvckin worked after these workouts. That is the point of hitting it more often, because the volume is down, intensity is up, you are actually giving your body more time to rest.

4)Like I said, this is TOTAL failure, when you take your first set to the point where you cannot lift the weight at all, then wait 1 minute to do your next set, you will see why. And conversely the next set after is done with even less reps.

Like I said, I'm not Glen, but this is what I got out of it. He can correct me if I am wrong on any of this
 
xxtruxx1

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Damn mullet, thanks for clearing that up. I think I'm going to give it a run starting next week. I know I can use the extra time from not being in the gym so much.

Here's a dumb question. Would this kind of a workout also work for a girl looking to tone/add definition? My gf wants me to get her on a program in the summer & I want her to tighten up a bit. I was wondering if something like this would help her achieve these goals. Obviously, cardio will be involved.
 
Mulletsoldier

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Well, sort of, accept maybe not to failure and such. Possibly introduce her to a type of circuit, with cardio intervals in between. Nothing too heavy on the weights, but keep with the three times a week. If it is really light maybe even hit all the parts 3x a week, as she isn't gonna be going anywhere near failure. Just google circuit resistance training, and something will come up. Usually they just focus on maintaining target heart rate, so it is like an extended cardio session with resistance thrown in for tone. That way she won't think she is gonna get huge, and will probably take to it more as you aren't making her completely bust her ass throwin around iron
 
xxtruxx1

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Who says I don't want her to get huge? LOL! You're right, though.

I'm thinking maybe a 3 day split for her since she doesn't like doing full body workouts. Something like what glen suggested with 2 workouts which alternate, each hitting about 3 body parts or so with three sets per body part. Then throw in cardio on off days along with ab & oblique workouts.

I'm definitely going to google circuit resistance training though & see how it matches up against this kind of workout. Maybe I'll even throw in a little fat burning stack for her. I'm thinking camPH/Melting Point/sesamin/fish oil along with Lipoderm Ultra+Cap Hp or something along those lines.
 
Mulletsoldier

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Yeah, usually the circuits are somewhat similiar, they have a workout a and a workout b...But the focus isn't on muscle building, persay, at least not in the terms we think about it..More on overall fitness..Think of the stupid circuit things you did in gym class, to us they are pointless because they only work everything a little bit, and nothing alot..But to some people that is perfect..
 

glenihan

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it would work for a girl .. but if she wants to be toned and tight that's more about diet and cardio

and mullet thanks man! saved me a lot of typing haha

i can't take credit for this though its just a DC routine slightly tweaked

oh and i don't do lying leg curls any more, its now glute ham raises

also when i start back at this (been doing westside for something different) i will likely increase my time in between sets to around 2-3 minutes and go up in weight

the other way i used to work absolutely great .. this is just to vary it up
 
xxtruxx1

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Well guys, thanks a lot! I owe you boys. I will be starting this on Monday. Check my log in the anabolics section if you want to see if I had any success. Thanks again, bros.
 
xxtruxx1

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Hey glen, what would you think of this:
Mon-Workout A
Tues-Workout B
Wed-off
Thurs-Workout A
Fri-Workout B
Sat-off
Sun-off

Would I be able to get away with this without overtraining?
 

glenihan

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people do that .. beelze does something similiar to that

can you get away with it .. maybe .. there's only one way to find out .. its certainly not out of the question .. i don't like it personally as i find it to be too taxing on my body .. but that's just me
 
CROWLER

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I do that workout, basically, myself as well.

BTW Ubiq do you think he was over training his bicepts?


CROWLER
 
Ubiquitous

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lol.. yessir.. I do. :) I know my arms won't grow on such high volume.. And my CNS would be burnt.

I do a 5 day classic split.. haven't changed in years.. but stupid Glen and stupid BumbleBeelze have me really thinking about switching.
 
xxtruxx1

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Amazing. Thanks for the help boys. I'll keep you posted on results if your little hearts desire lol. Thanks again.
 
Mulletsoldier

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Yes, please do..Have you tried it out yet?
 
xxtruxx1

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Yes, please do..Have you tried it out yet?
Nope, not yet. Tomorrow marks day 1 of workout A. Wed. Workout B. etc. Check my progress on my other thread (the log in anabolics). Can't wait to see how things go.
 

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