Thread: Improve my workout

13 views...riiight.

How long have you been doing this exact workout???

Why do you do things like two chest exercises, then two biceps exercises, then another chest exercise?? Why don't you keep the muscle groups tigether????? You do the same thing with legs and shoulders??


You are using a lot of machines. Why not use more free weights??? Were are your heavy compound moves like squats, deadlifts and bench press??

Originally posted by infinity
I want to get more serious about my lifting though. I feel I'm still considerably weak for my age/height/weight, and would like to put on muscle, while tidying up abs/little flab around midsection.

What is your BF % at? You must understand that bulking and cutting are not one in the same. To get very basic on ya, to gain muscle you must consume more kcals than you burn away. To lose fat (which is what you would need to do to see more midsection) you must burn morw than you consume. Make sense? First off I agree with Pfunk, more free weights, less machines. You want your routine to consists of multi joint mass building exercises simply b/c these exercises you are able to use more weight, and target several muscle groups at once, not to mention the intensity level you may approach an exercise like the squat with will be much greater than a rope pressdown. Pick heavy lifts for each muscle group and work your weight up in each of them. i.e. suqat for the legs, bench for the chest, heavy rows for back. Its all about the heavy movements.

My BF % is around 17 I think? I had it taken but I can't remember. Okay so I need to do more heavy lifts. Can anyone point me to a pre-made workout that can help me bulk up (I understand cutting is the exact opposite of bulking)? I usually don't bench because I don't have a workout partner. I could get a spot, but I just found it easier if I did dumbell presses instead. Squats I can do. I just don't know how much weight is too much. How many reps should I be doing?

What I'm looking for is a workout that is "correct", not all jumbled and mixed up like mine. Thanks.

Also, where does Creatine fit into this? I've always wanted to take it, but not sure about health risks. Any opinions?

There is no correct WO, otherwise everyone would do it and make great gains. what might be great for me might not work at all for you. You can't just expect people to give you an exact detailed outline of what to do it and when. Instead research why and you will learn. Start out with a basic heavy movements and maybe a few suppplemental movements that compliment your basic movement.

For instance, Pick a major pressing movement for the chest like the incline bench. Now you would want to learn what specific muscle fibers in the chest this exercies recruits. Then you would want to pick another exercise that hits the chest in a different way such as some db flys. Do you see what I mean. You want to avoid doing a bunch of exercises in the same WO that pretty much do the same thing. There is no reason to hop from the flat bench to the decline,to the db press. That is too much pressing, focus your intensity on one major heavy lift and then pick a few other exercises that recruit different fibers of that specific muscle group you are training. I would reccommend starting out with high reps 10-12, get the form down and let your body become accustomed to the stress you are putting on it, and work your way down in reps over time. make sense?

I see, yah it makes sense. Is there a listing of all the different things for each body part? I also thought that flat bench, incline and decline all worked different parts of the chest? Also, do you take creatine?

It isn't like the incline only hits the upper chest and the decline hits the lower. They all hit all the fibers of the chest. The higher the incline, the more shoulder is involved. It is just a variation on the press, but it is still a pressing movement. I Have taken it plenty of times but let me give you the best advice you will ever get. Before worrying about supps that promise to make you bigger (don't get me wrong creatine is a great supp) worry about your diet, it is much more important than any supplement. Master your diet and then throw in supps if you want, don't spend all this money on creatine and glutamine if you are eating crap all day. make sense. prioritize the diet and the training first, then worry about all the other things.

A few quick heavy movements for you to consider doing:
squat-this is a must
deadlift
powerclean, snatch
really any of the olympic powerlifts are great for packing on the mass.

I see. Any good sources for instruction on how to do these exercises? I'm sure I could do a Google search and find something, but I was curious if there were some good sites around that people on these forums trusted.

http://exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

her is a good site that goes muscle by muscle and demonstrates some exercises for ya