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Current routine critique?

Atty

Atty

Golden Member
All workouts are three sets, at least 8 reps, usually going for 12. One muscle group a week is changed to strength, low rep, high weight, no more then 5 reps, maxing at least once on major workouts.

Monday - Chest/Tricep
Barbell Flat Bench
Barbell or Dumbbell Incline Bench
Barbell Decline Bench
Flat bench dumbbell flys or machine flys
Two handed Dumbbell, behind the head, tricep extension
Skull crushers
90 pull downs
Reverse curls

Various other Tricep routines are substituted in based on my fatigue, I usually do at least three, trying to target all three parts of the tricep.

Tuesday - Back/Bi
Dead lift
Seated dumbbell curls
Lat pull downs (close grip) (can't do lat pull ups yet)
Wide grip barbell curls
Seated machine low rows
Overhand curls, close grip
Barbell Row
Wide grip lat pull down
Dumbbell rows

Wednesday - Shoulder/Traps
Military press
Shrugs
Dumbbell shoulder press
Arnolds

Really need new shoulder and trap work outs...

Thursday - Legs
Squat
Calf raises and leg press
Stair runs (up a 26 set of stairs with 45lb weights in my hands, 2 times up and down for 1 set)
Leg curls (foward and back, forget their proper names...)

Friday-Saturday-Sunday - Off, although sometimes I'll do chest again on Friday and Bicep/Tricep on Saturday, with sunday off, or do legs on Sunday, I know it's not good but...I don't know, I like over training I guess.

Then that's it, usually I'll throw in some ABs on one day a week at least, depends on how I feel after my work out, I run the lake I live on 3 times a week (3 mile's) and on days I don't run I do 10 minutes of cardio at the gym after the work out.

Really need better Shoulder/Trap workouts and want to add something rather then have three off days, I get bored lol. Want to do something.

 
What are your goals here? It pretty much seems you are doing a poor idea of a bodybuilding routine. 12 reps does nothing. 6-8 is usually for muscle growth, 3-5 is for strength gain. Really though, state your goals and then we can help.
 
Currently looking to build up some muscle as well as cut down some fat. After I'm at an ideal weight go back to purely strength training for a while, but for now I just want to build some muscle mass and cut down the fat.

Current weight is: 210, started at 230 (0 muscle mass, honestly, stayed at home, played video games, didn't do anything really...), cut to 190lbs, and have gained back up to 210.
 
Originally posted by: iAtticus
Currently looking to build up some muscle as well as cut down some fat. After I'm at an ideal weight go back to purely strength training for a while, but for now I just want to build some muscle mass and cut down the fat.

Current weight is: 210, started at 230 (0 muscle mass, honestly, stayed at home, played video games, didn't do anything really...), cut to 190lbs, and have gained back up to 210.
Click to expand...

As KoolDrew said, you're gonna have to pick one to do first. Either bulk or cut. Also, you can gain more functional muscle if you do something that doesn't revolve around isolation exercises. If you maintain a program that revolves around compound lifts for the mostpart, you can continue gaining strength AND mass (or gaining strength and losing fat). One is done in caloric surplus; the other is done in caloric deficit. Decide which is better for you. There are plenty of other threads on the subject in here that can help you so if you need more help, lemme know.
 
I realize I can't build muscle while on a cut but I can still do 8 rep work outs simply to maintain my size and strength? I thought when cutting it's better to do higher rep work outs, even if you're not gaining anything, simply to maintain, because it's more of a work out, burning more calories, keeping your heart rate up, etc.

And, Brikis, I've always been under the assumption there is no proper routine, everyone is different, and I've had a lot of strength gains working with my own routines.
 
Originally posted by: iAtticus
I realize I can't build muscle while on a cut but I can still do 8 rep work outs simply to maintain my size and strength? I thought when cutting it's better to do higher rep work outs, even if you're not gaining anything, simply to maintain, because it's more of a work out, burning more calories, keeping your heart rate up, etc.
Click to expand...
The most effective way to maintain muscle mass while cutting is to lift heavy. To go heavy, you have to go lower reps, with sets of 3-5 reps typically being a good choice.

Oh, and unless you are doing crossfit style workouts, do not worry about "burning calories" when discussing resistance training. The difference in calories burned between sets of 8 reps with lighter weight and sets of 5 reps with heavier weight is most likely TINY and far outweighed by the benefits of lifting heavy. If you're worried about burning calories, adding some cardio (running, biking, swimming) after your weight lifting or on off days would be MUCH more effective than a couple extra reps.

Originally posted by: iAtticus
And, Brikis, I've always been under the assumption there is no proper routine, everyone is different, and I've had a lot of strength gains working with my own routines.
Click to expand...

Of course everyone is different and there is no "perfect" routine. In fact, for beginners, just about anything - even a routine very far from "perfect" - will produce results. However, when evaluating these results and evaluating a routine, it's worth considering at least the following points:

Will you continue to see progress in the future?
Like I said, almost any routine works for a beginner for some ~6 months, but what happens after that? Without a clearly defined progressive overloading and deloading strategy and without a clear understanding of reps, sets, overtraining, etc, most beginners plateau on most of their lifts before the first year is over. I'm sure you've seen that guy that comes into the gym day after day, does the exact same exercises, with the exact same weight, for years.

Are you training in a safe way or setting yourself up for injuries?
I did a routine like yours for a while and I can tell you from personal experience that you are most likely setting your body up for some serious pain. For example, it looks like you are doing a TON of "push" exercises for your chest (even twice a week as you said) but not nearly enough overhead press or "pull" exercises to compensate. Without a proper balance, the front of your shoulder becomes much stronger than the back. The result? Rotator cuff injuries which I still deal with to this day. Many guys get them from over-emphasizing bench press and I wouldn't be surprised if you did too. Similar types of injuries can develop all over the body from focusing too much on isolation exercises, not doing exercises with a full range of motion, and focusing too much on certain muscles (typically: chest, abs, biceps, quads) and not enough on others (back, hamstrings, etc).

Are you developing functional strength?
In other words, how well does the strength you build from your routine transfer to the real world? Simply put, free weight, compound movements transfer very well to the real world: the strength you build by doing the barbell squat and deadlift works real well when you need to move a couch, tackle a football player, jump for the basketball, etc. However, the strength gained from doing isolation exercises on machines is not nearly as transferable. Not only do machines not allow you to build the stabilizer muscles needed for real world movements, but you also don't develop the balance and neuromuscular coordination that is crucial to applying your strength in real life.

I'm glad to see your routine includes the squat, deadlift and bench, but you should really cut down on the isolation and machine exercises. In fact, the whole split routine thing is often a bad idea: in the real world, your body works as a single, whole unit. Why should you train it as a series of separate parts?

Are you getting the most "bang for the buck" from your workout?
Have you gone through and really thought about why you are doing each exercise you're doing? Do you really think you'll get better results from doing three tricep exercises *in addition* to three types of bench press? Do you really think you'll get stronger by doing military press, shoulder press and arnold press all in the same day? Do you have a good reason for doing 8-12 reps per set? Do you know how many sets you should be doing per exercise? Do you actually understand what overtraining is?

Now, you could sit down and work out the answers to the above questions and improve your routine accordingly. If you were an expert strength trainer, you'd be able to tailor a routine that works perfectly for you. But you're not. You're a beginner and, quite frankly, you don't know any better.

That is why I recommend using Starting Strength. It was developed by professional strength training coaches, it has years of experience and research backing it, it answers all the important questions, it teaches you how to do all the lifts properly, and it is widely endorsed by the weightlifting community. No one routine will work perfectly for everyone. But this routine works extremely well for the vast majority and it's almost guaranteed to be better than anything you could come up with on your own.
 
What are your 1 rep maxes like? If you are in the novice stage (e.g. less than 1.5 bodyweight below parallel squat, less than 2X BW deadlift) I HIGHLY recommend starting strength. As a novice you do not need to spend all the time doing those other exercises, you will gain strength and muscle mass (and look better) just going heavy and squatting a ton. Once you get to the intermediate stage you can add in more accessory/bodybuilding work. I used to do a BB split routine like that (with many of those exercises) as a total novice and it took FOREVER to get any results, doing SS yields results in strength and size very quickly.
 
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