Thread: Critique My New Routine...

How about goals, physical inforomation (age, BW, BF%, etc.) and dieting info?

seems like way too much volume for a push/pull routine...

and very erratic...what is your goal...size, strength...both??? details like the main said

Monday

Squats
Leg Press
Bench
Military Press

Tuesday

Good Mornings
B/O Rows
DB Curls

Thursday

Hack Squat
Incline Bench
Overhead DB Press

Friday

Deadlift
Weighted Pull up
Hamstring curls
Barbell Curls

Weeks 1-3 Keep reps around 8
Weeks 4-6 Keep reps around 6
Weeks 7-9 Keep reps around 4

These rep ranges apply to the most compound lift for that day IE (squat/bench/deadlift) etc.

Everything else use at your discretion...IE don't to too much high volume if your looking for strength or low volume if you want size...

Goal at this time is to bulk, im 5'8" 165, bench max= around 230...i had been up to around 180 last winter but from the summer i started workin 2 jobs and lost alot of my bulk and im just now having more time to dedicate to the gym and my diet.

I really dont think the volume is too great...if you look i only do 8 sets MAX on any one bodypart in day, alot of people do that many exercises X3 instead of two sets...I like to mix it up and stick to 6-7 exercises of 2 sets instead of 4 exercises of 3 sets.

Originally Posted by MillerMan

I really dont think the volume is too great...if you look i only do 8 sets MAX on any one bodypart in day, alot of people do that many exercises X3 instead of two sets...I like to mix it up and stick to 6-7 exercises of 2 sets instead of 4 exercises of 3 sets.

A lot of other people also overtrain... don't look to others and assume what they're doing is right, no matter how many of them there are.

Ive just never heard anyone say 5-7 sets per bodypart is too much, and i also split my lifts between light and heavy...i cant see myself overtraining from this routine if i rest enough and my diet is good...I just completed workout A of this routine in just under an hour so I dont think Im overdoing it.

I think you got it all backwards light to medium to heavy. If you are going for hypertrophy why not super sets?? if you are physcically prepared in hypertrophy you should be able to 4 sets of 8-10 on heavy days(80% being heavy). with 1 minute rests between sets and eat a ton

hypertrophy by itself is useless...all you are really doing is increasing contractile fluids and proteins and not really adding dense muscle...and bulking is not necessarily synonomous with training...bulking = nutrition....

and i believe there are general guidelines to overtraining...especially people who have to ask. You are doing upwards of 6-7 exercises a day, not only is that taxing the shit out of your muscles, your central nervous system needs recuperation, this is more true when you work with higher intensity/heavier weight.

Indirectly I can see you have two goals, from your statements.

1. Gain weight/size
2. Increase your strength/lifts

So since you have two opposing goals, structural and functional strength, why not periodize your workouts...if your primary goal is looks/size with not much use for maximal lifts/strength then focus your mesocycles (large training plans over a period of time/year even) to hypertrophy workouts/routines or else dedicate it to strength or both evenly.

Lets take bench/chest for example since you labeled your 1RM as 230lbs inadvertantly saying you'd like that to go up along with having a bigger chest.

You could do workouts where you tax your CNS and fast twitch muscle fibers, which lead to greater strength by hitting heavy weights, lower reps. Then follow it with a set or two at the end of your workout with higher reps, less rest, lighter weight.

Bench -- 2x4
Incline DB -- 2x4
Smith Machine Flat Bench -- 3x8-10

In the above workout your primary goal was to exhaust your CNS and fast twitch fibers, which then is followed with three hypertrophy sets targeting fibers that have the greatest propensity for enlargement. You did three exercises but if you use the correct rep/set/weight scheme you'll go home feeling like you got your ass kicked.

OR ... you could do basic linear/western periodization

3 weeks of 8-12 reps
3 weeks of 6-8 reps
3 weeks of 4-6 reps
1 week of 15 reps for "active recovery"

and repeat

or periodize within a week

monday -- chest/back 8-12 reps...5 sets max for each
thursday -- chest/back 4-6 reps ... 4 sets max for each

using uppwer body as an example


do some research on periodization...check out t-nation.com


good luck

1 other thing about hypertrophy...its more complicated then rep schemes...

some people have more fast twitch or slow twitch fibers...there are studies done on how to figure out how you are dominated without a muscle biopsy...

if your fast twitch dominated you'll grow quickest in the 4-6 rep range if your slow twitch dominated you'll need 8-12

and quite honestly you'll need both to maximize results....first advice stop reading articles in flex/ironman/muscle and fitness...if anything read monster muscle, powerlifting USA and even muscular development...


even certain muscle regions are dominated by fibers

ie

chest -- fast twitch
back -- slow twitch
legs -- both
calves -- slow twitch
biceps -- slow twitch


etc.etc.etc.

Am I the only one who think it looks fine overall? There are two things I would do. One is switch the split order:

Monday:
Upper Push
Lower Pull
Rest
Upper Pull
Lower Push

Or something like that... Just rotate upper and lower body days.

The other is switch exercise order around. Perform compound movements first and isolation last. An example would be that you perform your vertical pressing movements before you do chest isolation stuff like cable crossovers.

From my experience my Body Responds the best from the 4-6 rep range...I seem to get both stronger and bigger faster than higher rep ranges...The reason I have both light and heavy in my routine is just to switch things up and if you notice i also have different lifts for the same bodyparts alternating every other week.

I personally find that to be overtraining...as seen of volume/week but whatever floats your boat...my experience and research has shown me that less is more in relative terms. I've went from 5-4-3 day routines and have always done better on 3/4 day routines as far as frequency....same goes for volume...less volume, more intensity and focus = better results....but like anything try it out and take it from there ... i always test out my routines for at least a week and see how my muscles, joints, immune system (CNS) respond and make the necessary adjustments...if you dont know how report back on how you feel etc at the end of every week.