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Is it time for a change

travisJW12

New member
A little history. My first post. 5'7". 183lbs. I have almost 3 years of training experience( I probably wasted the first year doing BB workouts from magazines). My question is should I focus on some more isolation lifts for size in lagging body parts or keep pounding the big 3 for a while longer. I know from looking back at my training logs that I have made the best gains (both on the bar and body weight) with a full body workout 3 X week. For about the last 3 months I've been doing a 3 day split. I'll post my current workout with lbs. & reps. As I honestly don't know my 1RM.

Day 1
Squats 2 min rest between sets
295 x 6
295 x 6
295 x 5
295 x 5

Front squats x 20 with 135lb for 20 reps x 5 sets. With 30 sec rest.
Straight leg dead lift with 95 with same sets/reps.

Standing shoulder press 2 min rest between sets
155 x 7
155x 8
155 x 6
155x 6

Standing lat raise with 20 lb dumbbell 5/20

Day 2
Dead lift. 2 min rest between sets
335 x 6
335x 6
335 x 6
335 x 4

Pull-ups w/ BW 2min rest
4 x 6 super slow down

Wide grip pull down x 80lbs. 5/20
Seated rows with 80 lbs. 5/20

Close grip bench 2 min rest
215 x 6
215 x 6
215x 6
215 x 8

Tricep push down with 60 lbs. 5/20

Day 3
Bench press 2min rest
265x 6
265 x 6
265 x 6
265 x 7

Incline dbell fly with 25. 5/20

Standing Barbell curl 2min rest
115 x 6
115 x 6
115 x 4
115 x 3

Preacher curl with 65lbs. 5/20

This was last weeks numbers. Here is yesterday's diet, everyday is about the same.
5 egg whites,1/2 cup of powdered milk, 2 tbsp peanut butter,16oz milk,1 scoop whey All in a blender drink on my way to work

Whole wheat bagel a pile of turkey and cheese. Around 10:00

8 oz lean ground beef 2 small potatoes half bag of frozen broccoli
At 12:00

Peanut butter sandwich and protein shake. At 2:30

Pre protein shake at 4:15
Post shake at 5:30

Dinner at 7:00
Chicken and noodles with marinara sauce


Before bed a large glass of milk

So there it is. Do I need to keep working on the core lifts could I get by with little more direct work on smaller muscles for a while. I'm planning to start a new workout in two weeks
 
Why do you feel the need to change? What is your goal?

I don't see the need to do an entirely different workout, there's only so many ways you can pick something up and put it down.

In the end as long as its activating the muscle you want to work than its a good exercise. I do believe the weight or at least reps should progressively change to higher numbers. If they're not then most likely your diet and recovery is not optimal. I recently increased my volume and lowered my weight range. Saw good improvements. I'm now changing to a powerlifting routine and after will go back to volume/ hypertrophy training.

Each time I keep the same exercises I only change my volume/ reps/ weight/ rest periods etc, even if I'm cutting. I rarely do cardio, only cut my rest periods down to keep my heart rate up similar to circuit training... Hope this helps.
 
My goal is just to build muscle and get stronger. It seems to be very hard for me to put on weight and my recovery is slow. I would guess this is due to the fact that my jobs keeps me movin all day and requires some heavy work.
 
travisJW12 said:
My goal is just to build muscle and get stronger. It seems to be very hard for me to put on weight and my recovery is slow. I would guess this is due to the fact that my jobs keeps me movin all day and requires some heavy work.
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I suggest you try 5/3/1 program for strength. I see you track your meals. Do you track your calories? Add up your cals and then add 500 more. If you still aren't gaining strength or waist size add more. If your gaining waist size but not strength then your not allowing sufficient muscle recovery and might want To lower your volume or do a Deload to allow for recovery.
 
Thanks for your advice. I had been looking at Wendler's 5/3/1 with 5/10 for hypertrophy. I might give that one try.
 
Look into 5/3/1 for strength and Periodization Bible for assistance work. Should work for your goals of increased strength + muscle gains.
 
I put on 10lbs from diet and training with 5/3/1, using the Periodization Bible template for my assistance lifts and my compound lifts have skyrocketed (e.g. squat 405x5 to 430x7 in 4 months) Be patient with the program, follow it how it's written, and I promise you will set PRs by the end of your first month.

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Best 20 bucks I've thrown down on weight lifting anything
 
jimbuick said:
That's what I'm sayin! He doesn't have a light squat per se, but its light compared to that bench!
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His calculated 1RMs for bench and squat are only 20lbs apart. I bet he can't squat much more if he applied his training towards it. That's a solid bench for his size
 
I know my squat and dead lift need some work. Im not sure my form is the where it should be. Believe it or not. I don't prioritize on my chest, I train other body parts much harder and if life really gets in my way and I have to sacrifice a workout, it will be the chest workout everytime. It seems to me that most people who can bench or squat in the same range as me have a much stronger deadlift. I've always tried to train body parts equally. Maybe 5/3/1 with some strict form will help me out with this.
 
It will help. Form should always be strict. You don't have to focus on "chest" as bench press is a full body exercise believe it or not.

Check out "so you think you can squat" series on YouTube. There's also one for deadlifting as well.
 
Sean1332 said:
at least he squats, I'll give him props for that lol

wish I could bench my squat weight :(
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He's squating and wants to get stronger. two thumbs up from me.


Plus many young peoples bench press are much higher then their squats. The reson for this is in just a normal weighlifting or p.e. class males focus on who can bench the most, more often then not. So the muscle is worked 3 to 4 times as often and harder. I train quite a few high schoolers and have ran into this year after year.
 
Starting 5/3/1 next week with boring but big assistance work. Ive read the book now, gonna get all my weights calculated and jump into this.
Last week and this week I'm doing full body workouts 3X a week. I'm not pushing any kind of big weight just working on my form. Each training day I have done 50 reps of squat, bench, seated row, military press, then pull-ups for 30 reps, and dips. I would put 2 plates on the bar for squat and bench and I used an empty bar for the military press. The idea was to do 50 reps at a time but I ended up turning them in to rest pause sets. This has actually helped me a lot, by doing so many reps at a time I can see what muscles get tired first and change things on the spot until my form gets right. I may continue to do this 3 or 4 times a year for a couple of weeks at a time.
 
Next week will be my third week of 5/3/1. This is an awesome program. My question is about programming the next month. Do I use the last set of AMRAP with each exercise and calculate my estimated 1RM or do I need to just add 10 lbs to my max for lower body and 5 lbs for upper body
 
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