Thread: New routine

Welcome to IM and congrats on your gains thus far

You've got some good stuff and bad stuff in there.

Varying your routine, focusing on compound movements, eating a lot, and taking plenty of rest are all great habits that a lot of people seem to ignore for some reason so good on you!

I dont like your split, but its not awful. I would do either a Push/Pull/Legs program, or an Upper/Lower program of some description, or even a full body in some way. Splitting movements up in terms of bodyparts, even a little, is a counter-intuitive way of splitting training days.

Triceps, Chest, and Shoulders are usually involved in all pushin movements, and the same goes for the Back, Traps/Shoulders, and Biceps in pulling movements, so id train them on the same days. Most people around here dont think of movements in terms of bodyparts, but in this way instead.

Other advice would be to take careful note of balance across the length of your program.

For example, make sure you do as much upper body work as lower body, as much pushing as pulling, etc. Also make sure you get a good variety of unilateral and bilateral movements, and vertical/horizontal plane work (pullups would be vertical, rows would be horizontal, dips would be vertical, bench horizontal etc).

Hi Gazhole

Thanks for your reply - liking your avatar very er interesting!!

I have heard of a push pull program but i'm not entirely sure what i'd do each day I train would it be possible to give me an example ? Reason I ask it that as i'm used to doing (bad) splits my push pull could be in danger of replicating the bad practice not the good.

I want to concentrate on lower as well as upper as I really don't want to be one of those upper body with skinny legs looking freaks that you see so many of in the gym! Clearly they show what their bodies used to look like than a more developed all over body builder.

Cheers for advice, very encouraging to know i'm doing some good stuff!!!

No thats good, you need a balance of upper and lower work because a huge part of gaining muscle anywhere on your body is to train your legs. The legs are the biggest muscles, and will release a lot of growth potential when you train them. Bigger movements will give bigger growth, man!

Basically, instead of categorising movements by the bodyparts they use (because the body doesnt know body parts, it only knows movement patterns) you should split them up into:

Pushes - Where the weight is moved away from you.
Pulls - Where the weight is moved towards you.

A push could be bench press, overhead press, pushups, dips...
A pull could be rows, pullups, supine rows, lat pulldowns...

Do you see?

That way, you lose the whole "chest/shoulders/tricep" problem. A lot of people have those on different days, even though those bodyparts are all involved with pushing movements, so youll be working them 3x a week:

Chest - Bench
Shoulders - Overhead Press
Triceps - Skullcrushers

Shoulders and tris are used in bench too, tris are used in overhead press, shoulders and tris are used in skullcrushers.

Overtraining city!

If you lump them together, you will avoid this problem completely. Does that make sense?

Right so lose the isolations that are being worked by the larger compound moves i.e triceps pushdowns, bicep curls as these are being worked by bench and overhead.

Really a full body routine sounds better that incorporates push pull.
That way i'm getting the growth out of legs and utilising the best method of training. I could perform different push/pull exercises Mon/Wed/Fri so that its not stagnant.

Is that better?

Anything can work. I love full body splits because you can do upper and lower body in the same session, which is obviously more challenging.

There are a few ways you can do it.

I usually do something like:

Day 1 - Upper Push, Lower Pull
Day 2 - Upper Pull, Lower Push

And repeat for 3 days a week, assigning a different rep range to each day:

Monday - 4x6 (1:45 RI)
Wednesday - 3x12 (1:15 RI)
Friday - 2x20 (1:00 RI)

Or whatever. The same principles apply to any split:

90% Compound Movements.
Balance between upper body, lower body, push, and pull.
Periodize to avoid overtraining.

Sorry but what is RI ?

So a routine similar to one you posted in

Critique my workouts routine .
eg:

Monday - Bench Press, Dips, Pushups, Single Arm Overhead Press

Wednesday - Deadlifts, Squats, Lunges, Hyperextensions.

Friday - Pullups, Bent Over Rows, Single Arm Pulldowns, Supine Rows

Would be ideal? (even though I hate deadlifts - just because I always think my form is bad)

I'd like to jump in if possible..

I've been training with this mentality for a few months, and really seen some pretty good "visual" and performance related gains in a short amount of time.

Built helped me put a full body workout together that, at first glance looks really simple and easy, but as more weight is getting added is really proving to be a nice workout.

Here's what I've been doin:

M,Tues, Thurs, Fri. (weird intervals because of work)

DB flat bench 3x8 (Push)
Lat pulls 3x8 (Pulls)
Arnold presses 3x8 (push)
Bent over 1 arm DB rows (pull)
Romanian dead lifts (pull) ---- careful with the form if you havent done these
Lumber Jack squats (push) (for lack of a squat rack)
Pullups for a few sets on days I just feel extra froggy (pull)

With reasonable weight (close too.. if not failure 6-8) it takes about 1 hour.

I know it doesn't work EVERYTHING, but it is a pretty good full body workout that seems to be working for me.

Oh, and don't forget to eat!

GL!

B

Hi SnowmanSnow-man this is totally the reason my mate recommended I switch from my other very poor immitation sites and come to this one.

The workout is nothing like anything I have done before - even the full bodies i've sampled (again from that other site) are just not that good compared to the structure of yours.

On my split I only have another week left and i'll have completed 6 weeks to i'll start the workout below in 2 weeks.
Have done deadlift but hate them so maybe the romanian deadlifts will be a good compromise (ahem - I see pain on the horizon) I'll check out

ExRx (Exercise Prescription) on the Net for the form as I rarely speak to instructors in the gym.

You say you've had gains in a short period - can I ask what gains, thats if you're as anal as me and record results and measurements.

Oh and as for eating got that nailed, but bored of the current stuff i'm eating!!!!

Cheers again.

Snowmansnow - thank you for the feedback, I'm so glad you're liking that one!

max - you've had excellent advice so far. Glad you found us.

Hi Built I certainly have and will act on it.
I'll let you know of any gains,problems etc.....