3 days a week split(s)!

[T_man]

too much for triceps imo. They get hit when doing both shoulders and chest. I would only do one iso, if any, and it would be either be skullcrushers or even better close grip bench, which will build them like a mother******.
Also for shoulders I would substitute one of those iso's for a compound movement like cleans, arnold presses or something. But if you find iso is building them for you then it's all good.

But the legs. No they're not okay. No squats/deadlifts/lunges in there and only iso. If you do squats and deadlifts your whole body, not just your legs, will explode. A friend of mine once told me to watch him as he did squats in just a pair of shorts (i know it sounds gay) but, you could see almost every muscle in his body tense while doing it. It was rediculous, his calves, hams, (couldn't see his glutes, but you know they're worked), quads, abs, lower back, upper back, delts and traps where all fully tensed. See how much of a power move it is, it helps alot!

 

[Built]

(i know it sounds gay)

No, him reaming you up the ass sounds gay.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

but, you could see almost every muscle in his body tense while doing it. It was ridiculous, his calves, hams, (couldn't see his glutes, but you know they're worked), quads, abs, lower back, upper back, delts and traps where all fully tensed. See how much of a power move it is, it helps alot!

What a wonderful thing your friend did in showing you that.

I get asked all the time how I train my abs. I tell them "squats, chinups, sprints..."

 

[Built]

Here's one I like:
Squats and Deads (done correctly) will actually help most lower back pain in my experience.

I'm currently doing this nr of sets/reps:

Legs 9 sets
Leg Extensions - 3 sets 8 reps
Leg Press- 3 sets 12 reps
Leg curl(face down)- 3 sets 8 reps

Is it ok?

But the legs. No they're not okay. No squats/deadlifts/lunges in there and only iso.

Leg press can be harder on your back than squats or deads. Leg extensions aren't a movement you should go heavy on and leg curls are at best a pumping/depletion movement.

Maybe ask P-Funk if he can offer suggestions for leg training with your potential limitations.

 

[sagejx]

It hurts even when squatting with no weight at all

Tho doing the leg press doesn't hurt!

What do you guys think about HIT? I've read this article and it's quite interesting

 

[Derricks]

I personally don't like splits such as that but it seems that your almost doing too much. Try to break it down to more simple excersizes

 

[sagejx]

hey dudes! I am a bit bored of my workouts and giving full body workouts a try seems like a good idea!

*As you well know I train my back/legs with machines.

- sets/reps for each muscle group?
-rest periods?

Here's a plan I found:

day 1: Chest, shoulders, back, biceps, triceps, abs, legs
day 2: Legs, back, abs, shoulders, chest, biceps, triceps)
day 3: Back, chest, legs, triceps, biceps, shoulders, abs

Back - 4 sets
Elevated Cable Rows : 2 sets 12 reps
Lat pulldown: 2 sets 12 reps
Chest- 4 sets
Barbell Bench Press: 2 sets 12 reps
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets 10 reps
Shoulders 5 sets
Seated Military Press: 2 sets 8 reps
Side Lateral Raise : 2 sets 8 reps
Shrugs: 1 set 12 reps
Biceps 3 sets
Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 2 sets 8 reps
EZ Bar Curl: 1 set 12 reps
Triceps 3 sets
Triceps Pushdown : 2 sets 8 reps
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension: 1 set 12 reps
Legs 5 sets
Leg press: 1 set 15 reps
Leg curls: 2 sets 10 reps
Leg Extensions : 2 sets 12 reps
Abs
leg raises: 2 sets to failure

 

[sagejx]

oh and rest periods:

10 sec. between sets
30 sec. between exercises

alright?

 

[sagejx]

I'm open to new hardcore full body routines!

 

[T_man]

If you're doing 2 exercises per body part only do 1 set 3x a week. Your CNS will be fried after the first day. And you might get too much DOMS to carry out an effective workout two days later. I've tried one of those splits and you have to be really careful not to go to failure as your CNS will just cut out.

Anyways the best routine I would advise for you is the third one you mentioned in your OP:

"I wouldn't advise full body workouts unless you're really experienced.
Mon: chest+triceps+shoulders
wed: legs+abs
fri: back+biceps+traps"

But still, you need to get away from those leg machines! and only do one exercise & set for bi's/tri's

 

[DIVINITUS]

I wouldnt discount the benefits a full body split can do for weight loss and work capacity.

But other than that i agree with highpockets and the last split is the only one i would really consider.

The split is just a small part of an overall program however - remember exercise selection, rep ranges, rest intervals, and overall progression throughout the 6-12 weeks of the program. If you don't plan HOW you will succeed, you wont!

Oh, don't forget the golden rules:

1. Do the same number of pushing + pulling exercises.

2. Do the same number of upper body and lower body exercises.

3. Focus mostly on big compound, multiple-joint exercises.

4. Take plenty of rest days.

I have a question here as my current split looks like the one people are picking for the OP. Mon/upper Push Wed/Lower Fri/upper Pull. Your answer above confuses me a bit...specifically number 2. I do 8 excersizes for my upper push or pull, but the problem I have is my Wed workout is squats, leg presses and dead lifts and abs. I can't do leg extentions of any kind due to knee surgery so what else can i do? I play hoops 2x a week, but i clearly don't match your requirement for an equal number of upper and lower body excersizes...is my current split way off as a result?

 

[Gazhole]

I have a question here as my current split looks like the one people are picking for the OP. Mon/upper Push Wed/Lower Fri/upper Pull. Your answer above confuses me a bit...specifically number 2. I do 8 excersizes for my upper push or pull, but the problem I have is my Wed workout is squats, leg presses and dead lifts and abs. I can't do leg extentions of any kind due to knee surgery so what else can i do? I play hoops 2x a week, but i clearly don't match your requirement for an equal number of upper and lower body excersizes...is my current split way off as a result?

Number 2 could be a bit misleading, what it really means is the same amount of work rather than exercises.

For example, if in total for upper body you're doing say...12 sets a week over 6 exercises, you should do that amount of work for the lower body too. Whether thats 6 exercises (2 sets each), or 3 exercises (4 sets each) thats fine.

But obviously, working around an injury takes a lot of care so never do more than you can handle. I don't know the nature, or severity of the injury.

A balance is very important, though.

What are you doing for your program at the moment? Have you tried other ham/posterior chain exercises such as hyperextensions?

 

[DIVINITUS]

Number 2 could be a bit misleading, what it really means is the same amount of work rather than exercises.

For example, if in total for upper body you're doing say...12 sets a week over 6 exercises, you should do that amount of work for the lower body too. Whether thats 6 exercises (2 sets each), or 3 exercises (4 sets each) thats fine.

But obviously, working around an injury takes a lot of care so never do more than you can handle. I don't know the nature, or severity of the injury.

A balance is very important, though.

What are you doing for your program at the moment? Have you tried other ham/posterior chain exercises such as hyperextensions?

Well, without my notebook in front of me, my split is close to this:

Mon: (Upper Push)

Flat Bench 4x 4-7
Incline Bench 3x 4-7
DB Shoulder Press 3x 4-7
DB Tricep "Roll up" 3x 4-7 (don't know how else to explain this excersize...very good for tri's, at least for me)
Tricep cable pushdowns (I do these laying flat, so I guess it's "pushups") 3x 4-7
Weighted dips 3x 4-7
Sometimes I follow this with a quick superset of cable fly's/reverse cable fly's (to hit the rear delt)

Wed: (Lower)

BB Squat 4x 4-7
Leg Press 4x 4-7
Deadlift 4x 4-7
Abs...weighted decline crunches, hanging leg lifts, etc.

Fri: Upper Pull

T-Bar Rows 4x 4-7
Seated Rows 4x 4-7
Lat Pulldowns 4x 4-7
DB Bent over flys 3x 4-7
BB shrugs 3x 5-10
BB Curls 3x 4-7
Sometimes I will also throw in some standing cable curls (the type where it looks like you are basically standing and flexing like Mr. Universe...lol) at the end.

Like I said, I play ball 2x a week too, and if not, might jog 2 miles or so on Tue and Thur, if the weather is nice. i am noticing some good gains and really loving the new split, let me know if I should be tweaking it. I am shooting for strength and wouldn't mind trimming a wee bit of fat in the process as I am clearly over 10% body fat now. My diet is pretty good, probably a bit on the lean side for overall mass, but I am eating close to if not 3000 cals a day and always consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. I am 6' and currently weigh 217.

Let me know if you need more info, sorry for thread jacking and thanks for any input...

 

[Built]

Leg extensions suck anyway. I only ever do the top third of the movement, if I do them at all, and with a light weight - seems to fix a minor knee tracking problem I have, but my doc told me to do 'em and it seemed to work. I don't recommend them to anyone for any other purpose.

Can you do split squats or walking lunges? Or pistols?

What else do you do for hams - you doing good mornings or glute ham raises at all?

Re diet - you can read the link in my sig for some ideas, that's where the leaning out will happen.

Maybe carb/calorie cycle. It's an easy and kinda brainless way to cut back. Basically just drop your carbs back on the non-training days, maybe increase protein a bit to kill appetite.

 

[DIVINITUS]

Leg extensions suck anyway. I only ever do the top third of the movement, if I do them at all, and with a light weight - seems to fix a minor knee tracking problem I have, but my doc told me to do 'em and it seemed to work. I don't recommend them to anyone for any other purpose.

Can you do split squats or walking lunges? Or pistols?

What else do you do for hams - you doing good mornings or glute ham raises at all?

Re diet - you can read the link in my sig for some ideas, that's where the leaning out will happen.

Maybe carb/calorie cycle. It's an easy and kinda brainless way to cut back. Basically just drop your carbs back on the non-training days, maybe increase protein a bit to kill appetite.

Hey thanks alot for the info Built...so should I add something like the goodmornings in on that middle day or maybe swap them in for something like the leg presses? And I will check out your diet info aswell...I'm not doing something right because I do feel like I should be leaner than i am and I have been following many of the diet guidlines put forth on this site, think it's time to finally start writing everything down...turned 30 this year so there's no room for slacking! lol

 

[Plataeu]

Hey!I'm 17 years old,about 18% bf and wanna get down to about 10%,with min. mass loss.
I've been training for almost 8 months and I've lost quite a lot of weight,the last layers of fat shall be terminated! Unfortunately I can only train 3 times/week now,so I have to design a good split! Here are the exercises I will be performing and the possible splits;please rate 'em and tell me which one is the "best".

The exercises
legs
- laying ham curls - 3x6-8
- standing calf raises - 3x8-10
- good mornings - 3x8-10
- seated calf raises - 3x6-8
- leg extensions - 3x10-12
Chest/biceps
- flat bench - warm up set - 3 working sets of 6-8 reps
- incline DB press - 3x6-8
-Straight bar bicep curl - 3x6-8
- machine pec fly - 8-10 (squeeze and hold it for 2-3sec)
- DB seated hammer curl - 3x6-8
- either incline smith machine or BB decline ( i sub in machines for this sometimes) - 3x8-10
- incline DB curls or incline using the low cables. 3x8-10
Back/triceps
- Wide overhand grip bent over BB rows - 3x6-8
- overhead DB tricep extension with two hands - 3x6-8
- Deadlift - 2 warmup sets then heavy as possible - 3x4-6
- Close grip bench press - 3x6-8
- behind the neck pull downs 8-10
- over head rope extensions with flat bar push down superset - 3x8-10
- cable rows - close grip - 3x8-10
Shoulders

- Power cleans - 2 warm up sets - 3 working sets 6-8 reps
- DB shoulder press - 3x6-8
- Side DB lateral raises - 3x8-10
- BB shrugs - 3x6-8
- Front lateral DB raises - 3x8-10
- standing overhead BB push press - 3x8-10

The splits

Monday: Chest+Biceps
Wednesday : Back+Triceps+Forearm
Friday: Shoulders+Traps+Legs+Abdomen

or

Monday: Chest+Biceps+Triceps+Abs
Wed: Legs+abs
Fri: Back+Shoulders+Traps

or

Mon: chest+triceps+shoulders
wed: legs+abs
fri: back+biceps+traps

Thanks!!

The first one.

Chest / Biceps
Back / Triceps
Legs / Shoulders

Good set up.

 

[Built]

Try this for exercise selection:
Chest/Biceps
5x5 heavy barbell press
3x8 low incline dumbbell press
3x12 pec deck or cable crossovers
5x5 standing alternating dumbbell curls
3 supersets of 8 reps each:
- dumbbell preacher curls
- low incline dumbbell curls

Back/Triceps
5x5 heavy rows
5x5 weighted chins, shoulder width or narrower
3x8 one-arm dumbbell rows
5x5 weighted dips
3x8 close grip bench

Legs/Shoulders
5x5 heavy deads
5x5 below parallel heavy barbell squats
3 sets of walking lunges
5x5 push presss or millies
3x8 olympic barbell corner press

My .02

 

[T_man]

Number 2 could be a bit misleading, what it really means is the same amount of work rather than exercises.

For example, if in total for upper body you're doing say...12 sets a week over 6 exercises, you should do that amount of work for the lower body too. Whether thats 6 exercises (2 sets each), or 3 exercises (4 sets each) thats fine.

But obviously, working around an injury takes a lot of care so never do more than you can handle. I don't know the nature, or severity of the injury.

A balance is very important, though.

What are you doing for your program at the moment? Have you tried other ham/posterior chain exercises such as hyperextensions?

Just a question considering doing an even amount of upper body/lower body.
If he's doing a upper push/leg/upper pull routine I really don't see how he can do the same for upper and lower.

 

[Gazhole]

Just a question considering doing an even amount of upper body/lower body.
If he's doing a upper push/leg/upper pull routine I really don't see how he can do the same for upper and lower.

Why not?

Push - Bench Press, Overhead Press, Dips.
Legs - Squats, Deadlifts, Lunges, Single Leg RDLs, Hyperextensions, Calve Raises.
Pull - Pullups, Rows, Face Pulls.

For example.

Admittedly thats a lot of volume for leg day, but that's an inherent flaw in that particular split, and should be taken into consideration when choosing a split.

Balance between antagonistic muscle groups is more important than a split, so if a mammoth leg session isnt achievable choose a different split rather than open yourself up for muscular imbalances, lol.

Upper Push/Lower Pull/Upper Pull/Lower Push

Is a split i prefer for this reason.

 

[T_man]

It's alot for one session though isnt it? Considering Squats, DL & Lunges are the most taxing exercises out there.
For this particular split I don't think its wise to do that many, just do alternating quad/hams, but yea i prefer the upper push/ham dom/upper pull/quad dom sort of split

 

[Plataeu]

Back/Triceps
5x5 heavy rows
5x5 weighted chins, shoulder width or narrower
3x8 one-arm dumbbell rows
5x5 weighted dips
3x8 close grip bench

If I'm not mistaken, chins are primary biceps, secondary lats. Did you mean pullups? Pullups are overhand, chins are underhand from what I've always understood.

 

[Built]

I feel 'em in my lats and my bis. Do 'em whichever way you feel 'em.

 

[Plataeu]

But pullups (overhand) due to the position of the hands would naturally target the back of the body more, although the chins do incorporate lat stimulus, not as much as a pullup. Plus, if you're pushing in the vertical plane, the opposing force (pull) would be good.

 

[Built]

Cool. Do 'em that way. I do 'em both ways, just depends how I feel that day.

 

[Plataeu]

Don't get me wrong, I do both exercises too, but I normally do chins as a first exercise - 1 set until failure on my bicep day, I do pullups on my Back / Triceps day. Both are good movements, but if I had to choose one, it would be pullups.

 

[Built]

I don't do any of my training to failure. And I hardly ever even bother to train biceps, much less have an arm-day. I'm too lazy for that LOL!

 

[Plataeu]

I've never put a full "arm" day in as in one day dedicated to biceps and triceps, simply because I feel for example if I train my biceps and build up lactic acid in them, then my triceps won't work as efficiently as they would when they're fresh. So I usually prefer to do a Chest / Biceps; Back / Triceps. Two exercises for my arms is roughly all I do.

 

[Built]

Chest and bis; back and tris is good. You get the push pull thing going.

 

[gymforall]

the normal bodybuilders routine is

back/bi
chest/tri
shoulders/ legs

I like your last routine.........

But I would add so,e ,ore imtense workout if you want to loose weight.

 

[Built]

the normal bodybuilders routine is

back/bi
chest/tri
shoulders/ legs

I like your last routine.........

But I would add so,e ,ore imtense workout if you want to loose weight.

Back and bis really suck on the same day, don't you find?

And it's not the workout that gets the weight off - that part's diet. The workout is there to retain muscle while he diets off the weight.

 

[sagejx]

Built: thanks for the routine!

Hm would it work if I did these exercises instead?

Bi: barbell curls 5x5
hammer curls 3x8
Back[I can do 2,3 chins then I'm on the floor,literally]:lat pulldown 5x5
barbell bent over rows 3x12
Straight-Arm Pulldown 5x5
Tri:[yes,i suck at doing dips]
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension 3x8
Triceps Pushdown 5x5
Shoulders barbell shoulders press 5x5
Side Lateral Raise 3x8
Seated Bent Over Rear Delt Raise 3x8

Thanks