How's my rouine? Your thoughts, please.

[mitya]

Hi there

After getting into building recently and getting some good initial advice from helpful people on this site I was advised to put together a routine and post it for scrutiny. I'd greatly appreciate getting some feedback on it. The aim of the routine, in line with my eating habits, is to gain weight (I have a fairly built, defined frame already), not necessarily get glistening muscles.

Tuesday- shoulders, lower arms

Shoulders
Anterior deltoid - barbell behind neck press
Lateral deltoid - barbell upright row
Posterior deltoid - barbell rear delt row
Forearms
Brachioradialis - reverse curl
Wrist, extensors - barbell wrist curl
Wrist, flexors - barbell reverse curl​

Thursday - back, chest, waist, hips

back
General - barbell bent-over row
Trapezius upper fibers & levator scapulae - cambered barbell seated shrug
Infraspinatus & teres minor - dumbbell lying external rotation
chest
General - bench press
waist
Obliques - dumbbell side bend
Erector spinae - barbell bent knee good-morning
hips
Gluteus maximus - barbell straight-back stiff-leg deadlift​

Saturday - upper arms, forearms

upper arms
Triceps brachii - close grip bench press
Biceps brachii - curl
Brachialis - dumbbell concentration curl
forearms
Brachioradialis - reverse curl
Wrist, extensors - barbell wrist curl
Wrist, flexors - barbell reverse curl​

Monday - thighs, calves, chest

thighs
Quadriceps - barbell lunch
Hamstrings - barbell good-morning
calves
General or gastrocnemius - barbell standing leg calf raise
Soleus - safety barbell seated calf raise
Tibialis anterior - reverse calf raise
chest
General - bench press​

Notes:

• I put the routine together using www.exrx.net's directory. I'm hoping, therefore, the terminology above and the names of the exercises are uniform and you'll know what I mean.
• Each day features 6 exercises, except for Thurs (7)
• I tend to do 4-5 sets for each exercise. From what I've read and heard this seems to be OK. Reps vary between 4-15 depending on the muscle.
• There are no 'squat' exercises for the lower body as I have a condition with my kneecaps which stops me bending on my knees a lot.
• Chest and forearms feature twice as I want to concentrate on them. Or is anything more than once a week inadvisable?
• The lower body isn't something I'm hell bent on building but a lot of people have said that neglecting one half of the body will hinder growth on the other.
• As is rather obvious from the choice of exercises I have only a barbell, no other equipment, though I'm getting a dumbell bar this week.

Question:
Where areas of the body have several muscles (i.e. the shoulders have alterior deltoids, lateral deltoids, etc) should I be working all of these, or is it more a pick and choose thing? I'm also pretty new to building - perhaps certain muscles are for pros while the rest of us should concentrate on the most 'traditional' (not sure what I mean by that) muscles?

THANKS IN ADVANCE
Andy

 

[DOMS]

How long have you been working out?

I believe that you're over-thinking it. But I do like the effort you put into it.

 

[mitya]

Yeah the general feedback (from other forums too) is that I'm trying too hard, just concentrate on the major muscles, etc etc.

I've only been working out for about 3 weeks but I'm not a total newbie, I did some bedroom workouts a few years back and did a fair bit of research into it all then (shame I can't remember any of it).

Cheers
Andy

 

[DOMS]

You really should just stick with the compound movements. Not only will they bring you the gain in size that you want, but they'll take less time. You don't want to over do it at the beginning. If you do, you may become discouraged and stop working out.

It's better to start with the basics and work your way up.

Oh, you really, really need to start a journal (in the Online Journals section). You'll get a lot of positive feedback from the other members. This will help you stay committed better than anything else. Well, besides a workout partner. Try to get one of those, too.

 

[Triple Threat]

There are no 'squat' exercises for the lower body as I have a condition with my kneecaps which stops me bending on my knees a lot.

So how do you sit down?

 

[Tatyana]

Ok no squats but lunges?

I would also say train legs more, have you tried squatting on a smith machine?

Don't have to start out super heavy?

What about leg press?

Leg extensions or leg curls?

Good mornings are also quite an advanced exercise, if they are not done properly, or your back is not that strong, INJURY.

Back extensions might be better.

Doing chest works the tris, back and shoulders will work the bis, so you may not want to start out with so many isolations exercises.

Focus on good form with a lighter weight, and build it up.

 

[mitya]

Doms, Triple Threat, Tatyana, thanks for your replies.

Triple Threat - I said I couldn't bend a lot, particularly under duress. I'm not sure sitting down requires repeated bending and with a stack of weights on your shoulders, though maybe my understanding of sitting down differs from yours.

Tatyana - I chucked the lunges in because, despite the knee issue, everyone keeps saying lower body is vital for upper, so I pushed the boat out about a bit and tried to get at least one leg thing in. I'll look at the other exercises you suggested.

DOMS - will consider doing a journal. Pushed for time but, then, who among us isn't, but I'll try when I get into the swing.

Question: One thing that gets me is that everyons says 'do the shoulders' etc. But when I look up shoulder exercises I'm not just faced with shoulders I'm faced with the anterior deltoid, lateral deltoid and posteriod deltoid. Which should I do, or all? Same for back - general, trapezius upper fibers & levator scapulae or infraspinatus & teres minor (I'm reading these off the directory site)?

Thanks again
Andy

 

[DOMS]

Question: One thing that gets me is that everyons says 'do the shoulders' etc. But when I look up shoulder exercises I'm not just faced with shoulders I'm faced with the anterior deltoid, lateral deltoid and posteriod deltoid. Which should I do, or all? Same for back - general, trapezius upper fibers & levator scapulae or infraspinatus & teres minor (I'm reading these off the directory site)?

I can't stress it enough: compound movements. For example, your shoulder will take a beating if you do exercises like the military press, bench press, pull-ups, etc.

At this point, all three heads of your deltoid are probably underdeveloped. Start by doing the compound exercises. If, over time, you find that one of the heads are lacking, then you'd use an exercise that hits that particular one.

Capice?

 

[mitya]

Yeap - thanks. Though I'm a bit scared of looking stupid when I ask: what are compound muscles? I'm trying to find out as we speak.

 

[vortrit]

Yeap - thanks. Though I'm a bit scared of looking stupid when I ask: what are compound muscles? I'm trying to find out as we speak.

Compound just means that it works more than one muscle. For example, bench press works the chest, shoulders, and tricps.

 

[DOMS]

Yeap - thanks. Though I'm a bit scared of looking stupid when I ask: what are compound muscles? I'm trying to find out as we speak.

You should take the time to read through the stickies. They'll get you started off quite well.

It's "compound exercises", not "compound muscles".

When you do an exercise that utilizes more than one muscle, it's referred to as a compound exercise. For example, when you Deadlift, you'll use muscles in your legs, torso, and arms. You'll pretty much end up using most of the muscles in your body.

The other type of exercise is an isolation exercise. The theory is that you're only going to work one muscle, or muscle group. In reality, you cant use just one muscle in a weight training exercise. For example, if you do a seated biceps curl, you're not using just your biceps, your also using the muscles in your forearm and shoulder. Actually, you'd also be using other muscle for stabilization.

So, the Military Press is a compound exercise targeting your deltoids, and a Rear DB Raise is an isolation exercise that would be targeting just the posterior (rear) deltoid head.

You'd be doing yourself a favor to read up the basics of physiology and how it relates to weight training. If you do a search of the Training forum for "recommend" and "books", I'm sure you find a list of just that, recommended books on weight training.

 

[Burner02]

one more point that nobody has mentioned: You stated behind the neck mil press.
Going behind the neck places unnecessary stress on your rotators. Do either front presses or Dumbell mil presses...

 

[Duncans Donuts]

Way, way to much in my opinion. Squats?

 

[DOMS]

Way, way to much in my opinion. Squats?

He said that he had a condition which prevents him from bending his knees to parallel.

 

[mitya]

Thanks, everyone, for your help. I'll certainly look up some books etc and get clued up on the terminology.

One final question: in a workout, do I do just one exercise per muscle? For example, there are many exercises for particular muscles, i.e. for the forearms, with the barbell, I have the choice of reverse curl and reverse preacher curl. Presumably you'd do one, not both?

It just seems workouts are rather short. For example on one day I do chest and biceps. That means 3/4 sets of bench presses then 3/4 sets of bicep curls. I know the whole quality over quantity thing, but is that right?

I'll get the hand of all this eventually

Thanks again

 

[njc]

So how do you sit down?

One time this guy told me that you could sit down then straighten your legs out in front of you. He was a little goofy though.

 

[Gazhole]

Thanks, everyone, for your help. I'll certainly look up some books etc and get clued up on the terminology.

One final question: in a workout, do I do just one exercise per muscle? For example, there are many exercises for particular muscles, i.e. for the forearms, with the barbell, I have the choice of reverse curl and reverse preacher curl. Presumably you'd do one, not both?

It just seems workouts are rather short. For example on one day I do chest and biceps. That means 3/4 sets of bench presses then 3/4 sets of bicep curls. I know the whole quality over quantity thing, but is that right?

I'll get the hand of all this eventually

Thanks again

You're missing the point of compound movements. They DONT just work one muscle, so you cant dedicate certain days/movements to one muscle either.

Have you read the stickies yet? They go into detail about putting together a program and sessions that make that program up.

Basically, work in terms of whether its an upper body or lower body movement, what plane of motion (horizontal or vertical) and what mechanic the movement uses (pushing or pulling).

So Military Pressing for example would be an Upper Body Vertical Push, where Bent Over Rows would be an Upper Body Horizontal Pull.

As long as you balance the Upper/Lower movements throughout the program, as well as the Pushing/Pulling for both Upper and Lower body movements, thats how you can split the program.

A popular method is to dedicate one day to Upper Body consisting of an equal number of pushes and pulls, and one day to Lower Body also consisting of an equal number of pushes and pulls.

Seriously, read the training sticky topics. They will be of incrdible use to you. I first read them when i got here in 2004, and i still refer to them sometimes when putting together my own programs.