Workout Question [Forum Archive]

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Workout Question

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Posted by: scifisubzero

Hey before you read let me tell you a little about my self.. I'm turning 16 on January 20, I'm 5 ' 7 135 lb, i play soccer all year round and right now I'm doing track (sprinting) for my training for the winter.. i run a lot

Since i have track we have practice everyday after school and we run at the least 20 minutes or sometimes hard leg workouts.. then I go to my school's gym 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

I read a lot of stuff online before seriously starting to workout 8 weeks ago and now i have some questions on my routine.. Also i read somewhere from a personal trainer (not a bullshit one) that running (interval training\cardio) before lifting (resistance training)is bad because it takes energy from your muscles and burns it making you lose muscle.. can someone tell me if this is true? if it is.. does it eat muscle mass (size) or muscle (strength)

now this is 8 weeks into my serious training so yeah.. (this weight is raised from when i first started 8 weeks ago i raise it every few weeks or week)

This is my usual workout.. (in this order)

3 sets Bench Press
95 x 10 reps, 105 x 6-7 reps, 115 x 3-4 reps

OR

3 sets of 10 chest workout (don't really know the name for this sorry)

3 sets of 10 lower chest workout
3 sets of 10 bicep curls (25 lb)
3 sets of 10 triceps pull downs (40 lb)
3 sets of 20 shoulders (5 lb) (i go from in front of my abs hands together to fully extended left to right.. its hard to explain sorry)
3 sets of ? forearms

SOMETIMES i do my back on the machines they have in school since I'm still young i was told i should not do them a lot and i have read online that machines are for body builders because they need isolated training and was told online to stay away from machines as much as possible which i try to do

On all of my workouts i try to go for the best form which i was taught by the coaches

finally at night everyday i do stuff before i go to sleep and after i eat

for example this is my workout one day of this week

(WEEK 7)

3-4 sets of 30 push ups (slow and i try to do the best correct form)
4 sets of 70 crunches
3 sets of timed 6-inch leg raises

and want to do Pull ups and chin ups.. do i need to do it every other day or can i can do them every day or if i do pull ups one day and chin ups the other day

also do packaged foods have a lot more fat in them?

Please tell me if my routine is good and what to change / add and stuff if I'm doing something wrong tell me please

(this routine seems pretty weak probably to you guys but I'm new to this)

also i don't do legs at the weight room because I'm in track and we do our own workouts for legs

1 last thing.. I CAN'T TAKE ANY SUPPLEMENTS.. not even whey protein so just letting ya know that..

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Posted by: Scarface30

this is some stuff that I would change:

I would periodize it better. there are numerous ways you can periodize a program. check out the stickies in the training section to find something that you would think suits you, there are many MANY different ways you can tweak a workout so that you are always progressing.

you have absolutely no pulling motions. you said you wanted to add in pullups which are great, but you need some more type of pulling i.e. DB rows, BB rows, Supine rows...etc.

as for the situps and pushups I'd scratch doing that completely and add some core work i.e. planks, side planks, dragon flags, cable chops (if you have a cable machine to work with) on your workout day.

that is just something that I would change, don't know what others will say, but you'll get some good advice around here.

Posted by: scifisubzero

i don't understand what you mean by periodize i checked the stickies.. if you could show me a link or give me an example it would be great

I'm going to add these to my workouts.. I should only add one type of row (pulling motion) per workout right? for example do DB row on Monday do BB row on Wednesday and supine on Friday.. like that?

also by scratch out do you mean stop doing push-ups and sit-ups? i thought push-ups were the BEST chest workout.. for the sit-ups I'm gonna try planks, side planks, and dragon flags

Thank you!!! I did not notice I had no pulling motions thats a big thing i haven't been doing thanks so much

EDIT: one more question.. Does it matter how much rest you have in between exercises?

Posted by: XFatMan

You should do cardio after lifting mainly because if properly done, you will be pretty exhausted afterwards. Unless you are or want to become a competitive bodybuilder, I suggest you ignore the scientific part and just lift weights. Don’t worry about muscle loss due to cardio because it’s really not that important. Muscle loss is so natural that it even happens to you when you’re sleeping, but you wouldn’t stop sleeping because of that, would you?

A word about machines: they are not bad. People who say this are plain ignorant. On the contrary, they can be very good for your progress. I definitely prefer free weights because they work more muscle groups. But at times, machines can be necessary and fun to work with.

You should raise a weight when you can do the current weight for the planned number of sets and repetitions. I doesn’t matter if this takes one day, one week, or one month.

Since you are a beginner, I’d throw out all isolation exercises and stick to compound lifts. There’s no need to work abs, biceps, triceps, and forearms at this point. Perhaps full-body workouts would even be a better choice so you can hit each muscle group three times a week. Have a look at these:
Bodybuilding.com - Mike Mahler - The Steve Reeves Solution For Size, Strength And Health!
Simplify Your Lifting Plan, Supersize Your Strength - Men's Health
Hypertrophy-Specific Training : : Official Home of HST

And I would learn the names of the exercises so that others know what you’re talking about. There are two good places:
ExRx.net Exercise & Muscle Directory
Bodybuilding.com - #1 Exercises Guide - Over 300 Exercises!

The next step would be to read up on dieting. But right off the bat, packaged food is just bad, bad, and bad. However, eating fat is essential. Just read up on diets; that should get you going.

How good you can’t take any supplements. You don’t need them. Develop the first 99.8% of your potential – then take supplements to develop the rest. I think that should take you a few days, right?

Posted by: StanUk

Firstly, Id take XFatMan's advice

Quote:

I'm going to add these to my workouts.. I should only add one type of row (pulling motion) per workout right? for example do DB row on Monday do BB row on Wednesday and supine on Friday.. like that?

It looks like your aiming for a full body workout since your workout is the same each time pretty much. However if this is the case you could probably do with a better excersize selection, as there is no real back/leg work in there!

Quote:

for example this is my workout one day of this week

(WEEK 7)

3-4 sets of 30 push ups (slow and i try to do the best correct form)
4 sets of 70 crunches
3 sets of timed 6-inch leg raises

I would probably ditch this all together, if you include a core excersize in each of your workouts then there will be no need to do the above.

Quote:

also by scratch out do you mean stop doing push-ups and sit-ups? i thought push-ups were the BEST chest workout.. for the sit-ups I'm gonna try planks, side planks, and dragon flags

Push ups are by no means the best excersize for chest, there good IF you dont have access to a bench and barbell, and can be good from time to time for conditioning purposes or maybe weighted push ups to change things up abit.

Personally what i would do, is keep working out Mon,wed,fri, however try your best to include some big compound lifts because they really are going to improve your results a lot. This is the kind of things id recomend:

Mon:
Flat Bench press
Deadlifts
Chin Ups
Planks

Wed:
Squats
Military Press
Bent over barbell Rows
Dragon Flags

Fri:
Incline Bench
Lunges
Pull ups
SKull Crushers

something along those lines, although its a good idea to change up excersizes quite often, as long as you are working your body as a whole (which can usually be achieved with just 3/4 excersizes providing their compounds) then you'll make great progress providing your diet is on track aswell! Plus with compounds like squats/deadlifts you have the added bonus of working your core. Check out ExRx (Exercise Prescription) on the Net for details of the excersizes above, showing you how to do them etc.

Any questions though just ask, good luck!

Quote:

EDIT: one more question.. Does it matter how much rest you have in between exercises?

When your first starting out I would just stick to the flat 2 minutes, there is a general rule of thumb for rest time that depends on your rep range/goals, but I wouldnt really worry about this right now.

Posted by: scifisubzero

First off Thank you both! this is great stuff

Quote:

Originally Posted by scifisubzero

3 sets of 20 shoulders (5 lb) (i go from in front of my abs hands together to fully extended left to right.. its hard to explain sorry)
3 sets of ? forearms

I looked at the recommended sites and for my shoulders i was talking about ABDUCTION i did 3 sets of 20 with 5lb dumbbells and then right after each set i did FRONT DUMBBELL RAISE 3 sets of 10 with 5lb

for the forearms i did WRIST ROLLERS

Quote:

Originally Posted by StanUk

Mon:
Flat Bench press
Deadlifts
Chin Ups
Planks

Wed:
Squats
Military Press
Bent over barbell Rows
Dragon Flags

Fri:
Incline Bench
Lunges
Pull ups
SKull Crushers

Since i have track i cannot do leg exercises or as my coach said it would be very bad specially on workout days..

So on Monday I cannot do deadlift, Wednesday i cannot do squats, and Friday I cannot do lunges. I can't do these according to what my coach says because track sprint workouts are tough and then these leg workouts right after would be overkill right?

one thing.. I have to work my abs I am trying to get a very strong 6-pack and going for even an 8 pack

should i continue doing ab workouts EVERYDAY? instead of the crunches and leg raises i should go for more CORE ab workouts right? also for the reason that i am going for an 8 pack i need to do a lot more lower ab workouts if you could tell me a couple of lower ab core workouts also it be great.

so this is ALL i need to do in the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and I will be working all the muscle groups everyday?

Monday

BENCH PRESS
CHIN UPS
PLANK

Wednesday

MILITARY PRESS
BENT OVER BARBELL ROWS
DRAGON FLAGS

Friday

INCLINE BENCH
PULL UPS
SKULL CRUSHERS

I can only do 4-7 pull-ups and 3-6 chin-ups, so do 3 sets of however many i can do?

Thank you!

Posted by: Scarface30

that looks really good. straight forward, simple and gets the job done. one thing I might change is to do dips (if you have the equipment) instead of skullcrushers. dips are a great upper body movement that invloves many different muscle groups.

as for the periodizing here is CowPimp's sticky on a few different types of it, along with many other variables you can tweak to change things up from time to time. http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/tr...g-routine.html

something straight forward like progressive overload is a decent way:

week 1-2: 3x10
week 3-4: 5x4
week 5-6: 3x8
week 7-8: 6x3

something like that. I don't know how good that above periodizing would be, but it's just a simple example. take a look at that sticky though, it's a great help.

and as for the pullups/chinups, the only way you're going to get better is to keep doing them, no matter how many you can do to begin with

Posted by: XFatMan

Quote:

Originally Posted by scifisubzero

Aaaah, now we have some essential info here! If you seriously deadlift, squat, or do dumbbell lunges, you won't be able to train track and field. I would train legs afterwards in that case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scifisubzero

I have to work my abs I am trying to get a very strong 6-pack and going for even an 8 pack

What you need is diet, diet, and diet. Your abs get hit pretty hard with the compound lifts, especially deadlifts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scifisubzero

should i continue doing ab workouts EVERYDAY

Now, that is something I would call overkill. No need to do that every day. Let the compound lifts take care of that for now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scifisubzero

so this is ALL i need to do in the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and I will be working all the muscle groups everyday?

Looks pretty good to me for the beginning.

Posted by: scifisubzero

ok thanks again.. my diet is good at least i think it is because i currently have 8% body fat and since I'm growing i don't want to get any lower to 6% yet.. now it's 8% because i don't eat ANY junk food at all.. I think I have a slow metabolism i can get fat easy if i don't exercise..

ok last question.. I'm really trying to get strong abs fast so if i do it everyday would it be better then just 3 days a week?

Posted by: XFatMan

Quote:

Originally Posted by scifisubzero

ok thanks again.. my diet is good at least i think it is because i currently have 8% body fat and since I'm growing i don't want to get any lower to 6% yet.. now it's 8% because i don't eat ANY junk food at all.. I think I have a slow metabolism i can get fat easy if i don't exercise..

If you are at 8% body fat, then you're pretty ripped and your abs should be clearly visible. How did you measure this? If you had a slow metabolism, you wouldn't be there right now. Your metabolism is pretty fast, believe me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scifisubzero

ok last question.. I'm really trying to get strong abs fast so if i do it everyday would it be better then just 3 days a week?

In my opinion, focusing on abs is a waste of time. Compound lifts should mostly take care of it. I work abs in isolation only once a week. But they get worked three times a week with compound lifts. More than that is overkill.

Posted by: scifisubzero

Quote:

Originally Posted by XFatMan

we have a thing that measures it in our gym the coach takes it out every month.. hes going to take it out this month so I can see it then.. Ill also check it when I go to doctors and measure it there also if he has one.. my abs are somewhat visible but really visible when i flex.. so maybe the fat thing is inaccurate?

Quote:

Originally Posted by XFatMan

Ok, Thank you

Posted by: Metallibanger

I'd pick three exercises per bodypart, 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps each. For exercises such as benches and biceps/triceps low reps (6-8) work better. Do cardio after weights

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