seeking input on my current workout..

xtatic

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goes something like this

Day 1: Chest

Incline Press. 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps
Flat Press. 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps
Decline Press. 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

for the press's i vary from weekl to week between barbell, dumbell and hammer.

Dumbell Fly's (either flat bench or incline) 3 sets 12,12,12
Push Up variations (wide, shoulder, close) 3 supersets 15,15,15

maybe throw in a cable chest excersize

Day 2: Back

about 5-6 different back excersizes 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps
Mostly dumbells and hammer machines.

Wide Pull ups 3 sets to failure

Day 3: Shoulders & Traps

Traps:
Superset frontal smith machine shrugs with laying on an incline bench (face down) dumbell shrugs. 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps each

Dumbell shrugs (hold for 5 sec at the top) 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Upright row 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Shoulders:

Arnolds 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Tri-set front raise, Scapion, and lateral raise 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Shoulder press 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Day 4: Legs
3-4 excersizes on each part (quad, hams, calves) and 2-3 overall excersizes. 3 sets 12, 10, 8 reps

Day 5: Tris & Bis

Triceps:
Cable Pull down 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Holding Dumbell overhead with both hands lowering and raising lol. 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Underhand grip Cable pull down 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Skull crushers 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Bench dips 3 sets 15,15,15

Biceps:
Superset Barbell curl with seated dumbell curl
3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps each

Hammer curls 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Lying on incline bench face down curls 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

Cables single arm curl 3 sets 15, 10, 5 reps

i rest 2 days of the week.


im trying to gain weight. what do you think of the workout what changes should be done to optimize my workout. also i try to do about 5 excersizes per muscle.

any input would be appreciated. thank you. also taking protein and creatine.
 
Beelzebub

Beelzebub

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a simple 4-day split would work well for you, giving you more recovery time and less time spent in the gym. it's a very basic beginner's program that most guys start with before branching off into the more advanced side of the house (DC, HIT, westside, etc.) an example would be :

monday -chest/shoulders
incline barbell press
flat dumbbell press
cable crossovers
military press (either barbell or dumbbell)
lat raises or upright rows

tuesday - quads/hams/calves
squats (full range)
leg press
hack squat
SLDL's or RDL's (straight leg or romanian deadlifts, do a search if needed for pics and vids)
lying leg curls or some sort of leg curling movement
standing calves
seated calves

wed - off

thursday - bi's/tri's
straight bar curls
standing alt. dumbbell curls
CGBP (close grip bench press)
skull crushers
cable pressdowns

friday - back/traps/abs
deadlifts (full range)
barbell or dumbbell rows
lat pulldowns
barbell or dumbbell shrugs
weighted crunches (high rep range)

just an example of something i would assign, not that i'm anybody special but i know a thing or two about a thing or two. you could vary it up a bit and label the above workout Week A, and the following week, assign different exercises for the same bodyparts and label it Week B. keeps it interesting and more fun. and when you come back to the Week A again, either add a little weight, or aim for more reps. just try to improve on what you did the previous workout. progression and consistency.

JMO.
 

axekick

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Allright, here goes. First off, I'm not an expert, but I know your basic build and I had a similar build, except taller, but I know what has worked for me and I know it will work for you. I assume you're no longer satisfied with your progress because you were considering using AS which will not be neccessary right now for you to make gains. I also saw your diet. I think it's good that you want to eat clean, but you don't need to eat that clean. Don't go eat all junk, but do what you have to to eat really big. Thats the top priority!!!

Now to your routine. I like your split. If you have that many days to go to the gym then you have it split up right. However, for someone looking to pack on some muscle, which you can easily do at this point in your life, you don't need to worry about isolating anything right now. IMHO you should drop all excersises for chest that include flys or cables. And your presses should be as heavy as you can possibly do them for the last two sets for as many reps as you want (4-6 is probably best). If you can get one more, you need to raise the weight.

For legs, do squats. If you haven't been doing them, then work into it slowly with the weight or whatever, just do them, and go all the way down. Don't do half squats. Also, stiff leg deadlifts are great for your hammys. Ditch the extensions and stuff. You need lots of mass before you worry about shaping anything. The muscles will be the right shape when they grow.

Your pull ups are great, don't stop doing those. Try out those deadlifts every once in a while. Heavy. You'll be surprised how fast you can get stronger at those. Soon you'll be doing impressive weight. They would be better for you than the machines.

All the other little stuff is just for fun. Don't overdo it on the curls. Believe me, sometimes less is more. That is a hard concept to get as it's not intuitive, but it's true.

I definitely don't want to trash your routine and that is by no means what I'm trying to do. I hope you'll try out what I say for a while and see the gains you want. Let me know how it goes and if you have questions and I'll give you the best advise I can offer to go along with all the expert advise you will find here.
 

xtatic

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Allright, here goes. First off, I'm not an expert, but I know your basic build and I had a similar build, except taller, but I know what has worked for me and I know it will work for you. I assume you're no longer satisfied with your progress because you were considering using AS which will not be neccessary right now for you to make gains. I also saw your diet. I think it's good that you want to eat clean, but you don't need to eat that clean. Don't go eat all junk, but do what you have to to eat really big. Thats the top priority!!!

Now to your routine. I like your split. If you have that many days to go to the gym then you have it split up right. However, for someone looking to pack on some muscle, which you can easily do at this point in your life, you don't need to worry about isolating anything right now. IMHO you should drop all excersises for chest that include flys or cables. And your presses should be as heavy as you can possibly do them for the last two sets for as many reps as you want (4-6 is probably best). If you can get one more, you need to raise the weight.

For legs, do squats. If you haven't been doing them, then work into it slowly with the weight or whatever, just do them, and go all the way down. Don't do half squats. Also, stiff leg deadlifts are great for your hammys. Ditch the extensions and stuff. You need lots of mass before you worry about shaping anything. The muscles will be the right shape when they grow.

Your pull ups are great, don't stop doing those. Try out those deadlifts every once in a while. Heavy. You'll be surprised how fast you can get stronger at those. Soon you'll be doing impressive weight. They would be better for you than the machines.

All the other little stuff is just for fun. Don't overdo it on the curls. Believe me, sometimes less is more. That is a hard concept to get as it's not intuitive, but it's true.

I definitely don't want to trash your routine and that is by no means what I'm trying to do. I hope you'll try out what I say for a while and see the gains you want. Let me know how it goes and if you have questions and I'll give you the best advise I can offer to go along with all the expert advise you will find here.

thanks for your input. but why would you not do any fly's or cables for chest? you would say to only do push ups, incline, decline and flat banch press and thats it for chest? also im going to seriously start on legs and deadlift

beelzebub thanks for the input. my workout routine was something like that when i started about a year and a half ago. if i try to do that now i feel like i've accomplished nothing. i wake up the next day completely fine. as if ive done nothing...
 

glenihan

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being sore doesn't mean a thing .. i'm rarely ever sore
 

xtatic

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what exactly are the DC, HIT, westside workouts????
 
Beelzebub

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as glen said, sore means nothing worthwhile. only time i get sore now is when i come back from time off. do what you like though, it appears to be working.
 

axekick

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Some guys may disagree, but cable crosses and flys just don't do much for building mass. They may be good for shaping mass, but the most important thing is to build mass and the heavy presses will do it much better than flys or cables. So if you're already doing the mass builders, then there's no reason to do the other stuff. Although I could see a benifit of doing one or the other for a good stretching warmup, but thats all IMO. Does anyone here agree/disagree with me?
 
Beelzebub

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doesn't matter at this point. he ignored everyone and started a workout log. 5 pressing movement for chest alone? yeah, you needed more volume. :rolleyes:
 

xtatic

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doesn't matter at this point. he ignored everyone and started a workout log. 5 pressing movement for chest alone? yeah, you needed more volume. :rolleyes:

what was wrong with that log? i thought it was good i did presses only and pushups for stretching?????
 

axekick

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Cool. That is good. However, you'll make more progress if you do fewer exercises per bodypart. I mean much more progress. Try two or three exercises per bodypart. Your set rep shceme looks good as long as you're going to failure at least on the last set (the 5 repper). Now go out and grow!
 
Beelzebub

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it's too much volume, plain and simple. and pushups don't count as a stretch. axekick did say stick to compound movement but he didn't say cram them all into one session. 3 movements at the most is all you need. if you're doing them correctly with enough intensity, you won't have anything left to perform 2 additional movements. hell, i generally only recommend 2 presses to guys starting out at your size, but 3 is doable i suppose. you're not growing in the gym, it's what you do outside that counts. 80-90% of your gains comes from the diet, the rest is training and supplementation.
 

xtatic

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Cool. That is good. However, you'll make more progress if you do fewer exercises per bodypart. I mean much more progress. Try two or three exercises per bodypart. Your set rep shceme looks good as long as you're going to failure at least on the last set (the 5 repper). Now go out and grow!
oh ok got you. so no more then 3 excersizes per muscle, including bis tris everything? but what about pull-ups, dips, and pushups? would that count as an excersize, i was doing them after my presses as a stretch.
 

xtatic

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it's too much volume, plain and simple. and pushups don't count as a stretch. axekick did say stick to compound movement but he didn't say cram them all into one session. 3 movements at the most is all you need. if you're doing them correctly with enough intensity, you won't have anything left to perform 2 additional movements. hell, i generally only recommend 2 presses to guys starting out at your size, but 3 is doable i suppose. you're not growing in the gym, it's what you do outside that counts. 80-90% of your gains comes from the diet, the rest is training and supplementation.
so lets say for chest ill do the three presses and thats it.
back what would you recomend?
every muscle no more then three excersizes including pull ups and calistenics.

thank you for the input beelz. ill alter the workout to only 3 excersizes.
 
Beelzebub

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back -
1. deadlifts OR rack deads OR good mornings
2. barbell rows OR dumbbell rows OR close grip cable rows
3. lat pulldowns OR BTN pulldowns OR rack chins (BTN is a variation as well)

BTN = behind the neck

3 movements is enough for each bodypart, trust us on this one. hell, the smaller muscle groups can easily get by with 2, such as bi's. but for simplicity (and your sanity, lol) stick with 3. ;)
 

axekick

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Xtatic, have you watched any of Beelz's vids? Although he uses more weight than humanly possible, go for that kind of intensity. If you drop it during the last rep because your muscle turned itself off then you're doing the proper amount of weight.
 

xtatic

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back -
1. deadlifts OR rack deads OR good mornings
2. barbell rows OR dumbbell rows OR close grip cable rows
3. lat pulldowns OR BTN pulldowns OR rack chins (BTN is a variation as well)

BTN = behind the neck

3 movements is enough for each bodypart, trust us on this one. hell, the smaller muscle groups can easily get by with 2, such as bi's. but for simplicity (and your sanity, lol) stick with 3. ;)

check out my log guys and let me know what you think about my progress. i think my back workout today and my diet so far is pretty good.

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/workout-logs/52961-xtatics-back-into.html#post632755
 

tomall2

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a simple 4-day split would work well for you, giving you more recovery time and less time spent in the gym. it's a very basic beginner's program that most guys start with before branching off into the more advanced side of the house (DC, HIT, westside, etc.) an example would be :

monday -chest/shoulders
incline barbell press
flat dumbbell press
cable crossovers
military press (either barbell or dumbbell)
lat raises or upright rows

tuesday - quads/hams/calves
squats (full range)
leg press
hack squat
SLDL's or RDL's (straight leg or romanian deadlifts, do a search if needed for pics and vids)
lying leg curls or some sort of leg curling movement
standing calves
seated calves

wed - off

thursday - bi's/tri's
straight bar curls
standing alt. dumbbell curls
CGBP (close grip bench press)
skull crushers
cable pressdowns

friday - back/traps/abs
deadlifts (full range)
barbell or dumbbell rows
lat pulldowns
barbell or dumbbell shrugs
weighted crunches (high rep range)

just an example of something i would assign, not that i'm anybody special but i know a thing or two about a thing or two. you could vary it up a bit and label the above workout Week A, and the following week, assign different exercises for the same bodyparts and label it Week B. keeps it interesting and more fun. and when you come back to the Week A again, either add a little weight, or aim for more reps. just try to improve on what you did the previous workout. progression and consistency.

JMO.
I think I might try this myself. I've been looking to change my workout a little bit and this looks good to my liking. And not to intrude on xtatic's thread too much, but what would you recomend for sets and reps? If you don't mind me asking. :think:
 

tomall2

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I did the first two workouts of the above plan and have to say I like the change. I tried 4-5 sets of each exercise on day one to get a feel of where I am @ 15-20 reps. It worked out pretty good. By the fourth or fifth set I was at a weight that really challenged me to get 5-6 reps.

Going into the second day and not having so much as looked at my legs in the past 3 months I started real light and only planned on doing 3 sets regardless of the reps. But, I did increase the weight with each set. I think my legs will be sore for a month as they were jelly when I finished. I was totally relying on bone on bone balance to wobble out of the gym.

My prior workout plan I had been dropping weight on the last set for a burnout set, usually set #5. I shot for 8-12 reps every set and I never thought of doing more than 12 reps except on the last set. I hardly ever did legs and I had been doing a back/bis, chest/tris, and shoulder type of workout rotation with some cardio thrown in from time to time. I was keeping it at 5-6 exercises a session, 2-3 exercises a body part.

Just wanted to share (IOW: bored out of my skull). :wave: Comments and critiques always welcome and appreciated.
 

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