shiznit2169

Well, well, well. Time to start up a journal to keep track of my stats. I have been lifting since the end of february and i'm proud of what i have done so far increasing strength and seen some gains. I took a week off last week and have started a new routine today. My old routine looked like this

Day 1: Chest/Back
Day 2: OFF
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: OFF
Day 5: Shoulders/bi's/tri's
Day 6: OFF
Day 7: Abs/15-20 mins cardio

Repeat

I am currently maintaining right now and will start a serious cutting diet as soon as i get out of school. It's kind of impossible to do during school and i have work after school so i can't eat every 2 hours.

New routine will look like this

Day 1: Chest/tri's/abs
Day 2: OFF
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: Shoulders/abs
Day 5: OFF
Day 6: Back/Bi's
Day 7: OFF

I will throw in some cardio 2-3 times a week on whatever days i feel like doing them.

I started chest/tri/abs today and i went a little easy since it was my first day back. It was a great workout to start off and cannot wait til tuesday. Days off suck.

Chest

Flat Dumbbell Bench

50 x 8
55 x 8
60 x 8

Incline Dumbbell Bench

40 x 10
45 x 8
50 x 8

Flyes

30 x 8
30 x 8

Pec Deck

70 x 8
80 x 8
90 x 8

Triceps

Dips

10 x 1 (The last rep took me like 20 seconds to get up. lol my chest was exhausted after that so i couldn't do another set)

Skull Crushers

40 x 10
40 x 8
50 x 8

2 hand rope cable extension

80 x 10
90 x 8
100 x 8

2 hand rope cable overhead extension

50 x 8
60 x 8
70 x 8

My tri's were really pumped after those workouts. I love seeing the horseshoe look.

Abs

Decline situps

1 x 30
1 x 30 (weighted - holding 25 pound plate)

Weighted Crunches

1 x 25
1 x 25

Swiss ball crunches

1 x 40
1 x 40

My abs were really hard after that last set. A great workout overall and cannot wait to get out of school to start my diet.

Legs on tuesday is next

Pylon

Wow. Nice w/o. What was your total time on it?

On your DB sets, are those weights total or each arm?

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." - R. W. Sockman

ihateschoolmt

Comments in bold. Pretty good routine. Good luck on your goals.

shiznit2169

It's for each arm, if that was the total i would be one weak mofo lol

it took me about an hour to finish

ihateschoolmt, what do u suggest i do instead of pec deck and 2 hand rope cable overhead extension.

CG bench press? anything else?

ihateschoolmt

I meant drop them. That's a few to many sets. Don't add another exercise. I do think CG bench is better than dip though.

shiznit2169

alrighty then

shiznit2169

btw pylon, u look great after seeing your 2 pictures. Big improvement!

Pylon

Thanks, bro. Still some work to do...

For what it's worth, I love pec deck. I love the stretch and the change from presses. But the hater's right. You could do with a few less sets and more intensity.

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." - R. W. Sockman

shiznit2169

Legs

Squats

135 x 8
185 x 8
225 x 8

Leg Press (including calf-pushes)

180 x 8 (calf 180 x 15)
270 x 8 (calf 270 x 15)
270 x 8 (calf 270 x 12) My calves really burned on this, woooo

Leg Extensions

90 x 8
115 x 10 (woops focused too much on the exercise rather than count the reps :/)
140 x 8

Leg Curls

50 x 8
70 x 8
85 x 8 omg, after gettin up after that last set, i almost pulled my left hammy. It felt tight!

I didn't bother with SLDL because i felt tightness in hammy's

Calf raises

80 x 15
100 x 15
140 x 15 These really burned too!

I went a little easy on legs today. It was my first time doing them after taking a week off.

Shoulders tomorrow

DOMS

Strange, you do more on the leg extensions than I do, but you do far less on the Calf Raises. Why is that?

shiznit2169

You mean weight wise or rep wise? If you mean weight wise, i can do a lot more than that. I just went a little easy today just to get my legs back in shape. I could have done more reps too but 15 was enough for 3 sets. I'll be increasing the weight as i start adapting again.

Pylon

Looks good. Keep it up!

I love SLDs. Even if my hams are tight, I'll do a set or two of very light weight. Seems to help loosen and stretch them.

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." - R. W. Sockman

shiznit2169

Shoulders

Military Press

50 x 8
70 x 8
80 x 8

Seated Dumbbell Press

40 x 8
40 x 8
50 x 5

Lateral Raises

15 x 8
20 x 8
20 x 8

Reverse Flyes

12 x 8
15 x 8
15 x 8 (Didn't really like these)

Abs

Twisting Crunches

1 x 25
1 x 25 (weighted - holding 25 pound plate)
1 x 25 (weighted - holding 25 pound plate)

Swiss Ball Crunches

1 x 40
1 x 40
1 x 40

shiznit2169

Back

WG Pull-ups

2 x failure

CG pull-ups

1 x failure

Deadlifts

135 x 8
185 x 5
225 x 5
245 x 3

Dumbbell Rows

50 x 8
60 x 8
70 x 8

WG Lat Pulldown

60 x 8
70 x 8
90 x 8 (Remember it's not the weight, it's the form)

CG Lat Pulldown

60 x 8
70 x 8
90 x 8 (good form)

Biceps

Incline DB Curls
25 x 8
30 x 8

Concentration Curls

25 x 8
30 x 6 (failed...my arms were dead)

DB Wrist Curls

15 x 8
20 x 8

I had a great back workout. Absolutely tortured it. Bicep workout was ok. Deadlifts is improving (especially the grip)

Pylon

Deads are looking great, as is the rest of the w/o. Way to go!

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." - R. W. Sockman

shiznit2169

thanks pylon!

shiznit2169

Chest

Flat DB Bench (each hand)

50 x 10 (warmup)
60 x 8
65 x 7 (last rep failed)
60 x 8

Incline DB Bench

50 x 8
40 x 8
40 x 8

Incline DB Flyes
25 x 8
30 x 8
35 x 8

Triceps

Dips

bw x 8
bw x 8
bw x 8

CG Bench Press

135 x 8
135 x 8
95 x 10 (my tri's were hammered after the second set, had to decrease weight)

2 hand rope cable extension

70 x 10
80 x 10
95 x 10

Abs

Twisting Crunches

1 x 25
1 x 25 (weighted - holding 25 pound plate)
1 x 25 (weighted - holding 25 pound plate)

Knee Raise
bw x 12
bw x 12
bw x 12

Swiss Ball Crunches

1 x 30
1 x 30
1 x 30

Cardio

Moderate pace - 10 minutes

Today was a great workout. I felt pumped after chest and my tri's are getting stronger. The reason why i always do DB Bench Press is because i lift alone and i dont trust most people at my gym to spot me. There arn't a lot of strong people as most of them are old or women. Not too many guys my age. The most i can do without a spotter is 135 x 10 but when i do 185, i dont feel confident enough doing it alone.

Pylon

There's nothing wrong with doing DB presses. I use them as a change up. If not, I do presses on hammer strength or smith machines. Better safe than sorry.

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." - R. W. Sockman

shiznit2169

Legs

Squats

135 x 8 (warmup)
275 x 8
275 x 8
225 x 12

Leg Press (including calf-pushes)

270 x 8 (calf 270 x 20)
270 x 8 (calf 270 x 15)
360 x 8

Leg Extensions

90 x 8
115 x 8
140 x 8

Leg Curls

50 x 8
60 x 8
70 x 8

SLDL's

95 x 8
115 x 8

Calf raises

100 x failure
140 x failure

I had an intense workout today. Pretty close to a 'shock' type but i moved quickly. Felt a good pump afterwards. Also, i felt very tired today. I was yawning a lot because school is very tiring and had little trouble sleeping last night.

ihateschoolmt

Nice work out.

shiznit2169

thanks

Pylon

Looooooove leg day! Good w/o!

"The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." - R. W. Sockman

shiznit2169

Shoulders

Military Press

65 x 10 (warmup)
95 x failure
85 x failure
75 x failure

I did this exercise doing dropsets

Arnold's Press

45 x 8
35 x 8
30 x 5 (my shoulders were dead from military press, had to decrease weight a little)

Lateral Raises

15 x 10
20 x 10
15 x failure

Upright Rows

65 x 10
75 x 10
85 x 10

Abs

Twisting Decline Crunches

1 x 25
1 x 25 (weighted - holding 25 pound plate)
1 x 25 (weighted - holding 25 pound plate) There were so many people watching me do these. It was like they stopped what they were doing and just focused on me. Like i was going really fast and straining here and there. I dont know if they were impressed that i was doing this workout intense as possible (thinking i had killer abs) or they were thinking (what the hell is he doing?) because ive never seen anybody do this exercise ever.

Crunches (machine - weighted)

25 x 30
35 x 30

Swiss Ball Crunches

1 x 40
1 x 40

I had a half good workout and half shitty workout. Right when i started military press, my left shoulder was just feeling numb and couldnt get it loose. I had trouble with arnold's presses and upright rows was ok. However, i did have a great ab workouts (probably my best ever) as they felt very hard and tight afterwards. Too bad my BF isnt low enough to see it

fUnc17

good workout man, but i'd tone the volume down a little bit since your going to failure. 13 sets for just shoulders is alot. I usually do 6 - 9 sets depending on the exercises.

Also on ur tri exercises your doing 9 sets, honestly i think thats too many sets. remember more is not neccesarily better. I'd go with 6 sets for tri's. 14 sets for legs is semi- acceptable depending on intensity, but id cut an exercise out and just rotate it with something.

Heres how I train.
Strength Edge

shiznit2169

ya i knew i was doing too many sets and should cut out some exercises. For the intensity, what do you suggest i do for volume and reps? Should i always be doing 3 sets of 2-3 exercises and lift at 80-90% max?

by the way i usually dont train til failure, i usually do 3 sets of 8 reps but today i felt like doing some drop sets and doing shoulders as intense as possible. But that didnt really workout for me today so ill stick with the 3 x 8

fUnc17

since you train bodyparts... volume wise, do 9-12 sets for the larger muscles (legs, back, chest) and 6 sets for smaller muscles (bi's/tri's/shoulders). And as far as intensity.. it depends on the movement. dont train bi's with 80% of ur 1RM, but it makes sense to train at that intensity (sometimes) with larger body parts and movements... such as bench press, squats, and deadlifts.

And i wouldnt limit myself to only 3 sets of 2-3 exercises, switch it up every once and awhile. Try to avoid doing the same exercise with the same volume and intensity, your body gets used to it

Heres how I train.
Strength Edge

shiznit2169

ok my next workout is friday which is back/bi day. Since i did this workout last friday..

Then i read this

so im not 100% sure what youre trying to say. Are you talking about switching up all the exercises, the major body parts, or small body parts? ..or do u mean the set-rep change? What would u switch up with that workout i just posted?

fUnc17

that session is fine, you could even up the volume on ur bi's to 6 sets. what i meant by mixing it up was that you shouldnt do the same volume/intensity along with the same movement (exercise) every week because your body will eventually get used to it and not develop as much as it would if your doing many different movements (mixing it up, exercises, rep ranges AND intensities)

hope that helped

Heres how I train.
Strength Edge

shiznit2169

ya i understand now, thanks

shiznit2169

Back

WG Pull-ups

2 x failure

Deadlifts

135 x 8 (warmup)
185 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 3 *PB (whoo very intense here)
155 x 8

WG Lat Pulldown

50 x 8
70 x 8
90 x 8 (I can do a lot more weight but this is like 70-75% of my 1RM so i focus on the form and flexing my traps and contracting)

CG Lat Pulldown

60 x 8
80 x 8
100 x 8 (Same as above)

Seated Cable Rows

50 x 8
60 x 8
70 x 8 (Same as above)

Biceps

Hammer Curls

25 x 8
30 x 8

Incline Curls

25 x 8
30 x 8

DB Wrist Curls

15 x 12
20 x 12

Reverse BB Curls

45 x 8
55 x 8

This was the best back/bicep workout i have ever had. I absolutely hammered my back doing deadlifts and had a great pump setting the tone for the rest of my workouts. It was a nice day out and their were a lot of people there today and this hot chick i like from my school was there so it was nice. Well i have work tomorow 10-6 and i'm not going to be too happy when i can barely bend over (i do construction work as part time - lots of lifting objects and moving around) so wish me luck.

I forgot to add, i have started to notice that my grip is getting a lot stronger. I used to barely hold up 275 for deadlifts..now i can grip it like it's nothing. The calluses are healing and i'm lovin it!