is the principle of my routine good, i have read a few times it can be good to train up to 15 reps so i have included it, OR IS IT NOT NESSARY AND JUST SHOULD START OFF AT 12 REPS
i would just imagine that after heavy hard training 6_8 reps that my muscles would be completely shocked by this rep sceme, what do you think
(all over exerises that have no rep sceme next to it will be between 10_12
monday: chest
7 sets of bench press (starting off at 15, 12, 12, 10,10 8,6)
2 sets of incline dumbell press
2 sets of decline
2 sets of flies
tuesday: back, deads, bis
5 deads (10, 10, 8, 6, 6)
as many pullups as i can manage
4 sets of lat pull downs
6 sets of Barbell bentover row starting off at 12 working down to 6 reps)
2 EZ BB curls
2 standing hammer curls
2 preacher curls
wednesday: shoulders
5 sets of arnold seated shoulder presses (12,,10,10,8,6)
3 sets of lat raises
2 sets of front raises
2 bentover lat raises
thursday: legs
8 sets of squats(15,12,12,12,10,10,8,6)
3 sets of hamstring curls machine
1 sets of quad extensions
friday: tris + traps
7 sets of narrow grip BB (starting off at 15, 12,,10,10, 10,8,6,)
2 sets of seated overhead extenions
3 sets of one arm reverse grip pushdowns
5 shrugs
Simply increasing the reps isn't the answer to "shock" your muscles. You don't improve by just adding more and more volume to an already high-volume routine. Remember that as volume increases intensity has to decrease.
Some people do respond well to volume. You might be one of them. I just finished two microcycles of an extremely high-volume program. Just to give you an idea, mine had more combined exercises and sets than yours, except purely with compounds! It was torture. However, I wrote the program with very specific intensities to keep me from reaching failure on all but maybe the powerlifts at the beginning of each session. I got amazing results in two months, but after that my body started to catch up with the torture, so I scaled down to a hybrid high/low volume program. Still lots of sets, relatively speaking, but fewer lifts, one less day, and more recovery time. Because of this, the intensity can go up again. I didn't bother rewriting a complex program, as I'm beginning a new one in a month, but in the mean time this sudden shift of volume/intensity will be plenty of "shock".
You need to address more than just the number of sets and reps. To most people saying 10 sets of 5 would seem very intense, as they would assume failure at rep 5 or 6 (that's the common approach to reps for most guys in the gym...to train to failure or near failure on all sets). However, what if I said 10 sets of 5 at an 8 rep max? What about 10 sets of 5 at a 10 rep max? The intensity changes considerably. From the first assumption of the failure set to the 10 RM sets the intensity changed from submaximal loads to more along the lines of active recovery. This is one of many training variables.
One way for you to "shock" your muscles will be to ditch all that isolation, and reserve all your body's resources for the more productive, physically demanding compound lifts. Try some submaximal lifting. Muscle gains don't just come from a certain rep range. The whole follow this rep range and that rep range is kind of oversimplified. What is certain is that training at submaximal loads improves your neural efficiency -- that is you train your body to recruit a greater number of motor units in a movement, thus making your muscles more efficient. More efficient muscles are stronger/more powerful muscles. Stronger muscles lift more weight in a shorter time. More weight in a shorter time means more stimulus with more recovery time. More recovery time means more growth and opportunity to replenish muscle gylcogen. Larger, stronger, fresher muscles with more glycogen means more productive workouts. It's an endless cycle of productivity, if you play your cards right.
(1.) Ditch the isolation.
(2.) Balance your upper body pulling with pushing. Currently, there is too much chest and shoulder work. You want the two to be 50/50, or else (a) risk rotator cuff injury down the road, which will prevent you from doing chest/shoulder work and (b) look ridiculous and get laughed at by anyone seriously using a squat rack.
(3.) Include more leg work. Of all those exercises only 4 are lower body (deadlifts are a leg lift) -- two of which are isolation (even them, you have far fewer sets relative to upper isolation). Bring in more lower body compounds, with equal number for pushing and pulling. Use a unilateral lift for each, as well (split squats for pushing? unilateral romanian deads for pulling?).
(4.) Drop the volume. Too much volume, and no rationale for the rep ranges besides that they're common. Reserve certain lifts for certain intensities. Not all lifts necessarily need to be trained at the same rep range. The basic compounds like squats, deads, rows, etc, typically yield better results at submaximal loads, as they're more geared towards full-body development and neural efficiency. Then, include supplementary lifts like squat, dead, row, bench, etc, variations at higher rep ranges with different intensities, tempos, etc, and order of exercises according to what works for you. Don't do three chest-dominant lifts back to back. If you do an upper push/pull day maybe do heavy bench then follow it with heavy bent over rows. You allow the pushing muscles to actively recover due to localized blood flow, you can maintain better lifting intensity by switching and not training the freshly fatigued pushing muscles, and you'd be training in the horizontal plane (same as bench press) which will augment your bench performance (improving your rows improves your bench performance).
(5.) Adopt a periodization scheme. Rather than performing the same sets, reps, etc every session, set concrete goals and write an entire program that progresses in some way to achieve that goal. You can compose microcycles where you train at different intensities, add/remove certain lifts and adjust the volume accordingly, you can incorporate other training styles for a few weeks at a time like plyometrics, GPP, olympic weight lifting, etc. If you assess your weakpoints preventing you from reaching your goal then you can customize your program to gradually address those weak points on a number of fronts.
(6.) Eat big but eat clean and smart. It's true that when bulking you need to take in a lot of calories to provide your body with those extra resources necessary to create new, metabolically-expensive tissue (which it doesn't want, remember..this is the challenge of muscle development). However, this isn't an excuse to scarf down greasy burgers and take-out. When it comes to bodybuilding, strength training, powerlifting, whatever, you really are what you eat. The better you serve your body the better it will serve you.
Track your diet on fitday.com, and post it here for review. Everyone says their diet is great, but they don't understand how wrong they can be. There's so much more to it than protein shakes and canned tuna. In fact, most guys claiming to have a hold on diet have only addressed high-protein, and almost always are over-relying on supplements, and just flat out consuming way more than they need.
As important as training may be, diet is the determining factor in whether or not you'll be successful.