CHeck out my workout

[Swole06]

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/work...rcount=30&s2r=

This is going to be my new workout starting next week. Does it llok good?

My goals are to build mass until about the end of January. (Leaves me about 10 weeks of bulking). Then, after the 10 weeks are up, I will switch over to a full body workout, lower my cals, start up some cardio, and get cut for spring break which is the first week in April. so this plan gives me about 10 weeks to bulk and about 8 or 9 weeks to cut. Look good?

Also, i have noticed this while and after bench presses. My left wrist is going through some pain. It's like the weight is too heavy and it just hurts my wrist. It's only my left wrist though. Could this be form?

Thanks EF!

[Insex]

I think your workout looks really good. But to be perfectly honest, this list you have here has a lot of exercises. I only do that many exercises on the days when I feel great, and those days are far and few between.

One thing I did notice. You don't have any abdominal exercises listed. Don't neglect your abs! I would suggest doing abdominal exercises twice a week should be sufficient. Also, I consider the traps to be part of the back. So if this were my workout schedule, I would reserve Shrugs and other trapezius exercises for my Back Day. But each person is different. So if doing trapezius exercises works fine for you on Shoulders Day, then go for it.

Regarding your wrist problem, talk to your doctor about it the next time you go for an appointment. You probably just have bad form. The next time you do Bench Press, have someone spot you and have them tell you if your form is good or not. Ask them if the bar is straight while you're doing the exercise. If the bar is not straight while you're doing Bench Press, then that might explain why you experience pain in your left wrist.

[Swole06]

thanks for all the input Insex.

Regarding the abs, i was planning on hitting them 2-3 times a week. mabey on the weekends as well.

As far as all my excercises go, are there any that i should jsut take out? I think there are a little too many here as well. Are there any i should add in?

Thanks for the wrist input. I think i just have bad form.. lol

[copenhagenbd]

I always do traps after my shoulders. Thats just me tho, like you said everyone is different.

[Swole06]

Would doing my Traps on shoulder day be more/less beneficial than doing them on back day?

[Insex]

You should do whatever you're comfortable with. If you like doing traps exercises on Shoulder Day, then go for it. If you rather do it on Back Day, then do that too.

I'm just saying personally for me I prefer to include trapezius exercises on my Back Day because the trapezius is such a big muscle that covers half of the back. I often use my trapezius indirectly through back exercises like rows. If you ever look at an anatomy chart of the human muscular system, you see that the trapezius makes up most of the upper back, makes up a big portion of the middle back, and trickles down to the lower back.

Regarding your exercises, I would go ahead and do everything you have listed for that week for the first week. After you complete your first week, take out what you don't like, then go from there. It also wouldn't hurt to mix in a few variations. Example: alternating Dumbbell Bench Press with Barbell Bench Press on certain weeks.

[Swole06]

Originally Posted by Insex

Example: alternating Dumbbell Bench Press with Barbell Bench Press on certain weeks.

SHould i stil include incline, and decline benches with barbell or all with dumbells?

[Presa_Canario]

Not much to add, so I'll play devil's advocate.

This and the follow-up article might help you decide to start off with a total body routine. As someone who started with a body part split and then saw the light and left the dark side, I can tell you I wish I had been working total body routines when I started lifting.

[Swole06]

That sounds like a good idea and i can see where your coming from, but who said that i'm just starting to lift? I've been lifting for awhile now.

[Presa_Canario]

Originally Posted by Swole06

That sounds like a good idea and i can see where your coming from, but who said that i'm just starting to lift? I've been lifting for awhile now.

Not trying to insult you homie. I got the sense that you hadn't been lifting for a very long time from your first posts here. "A while" doesn't clarify it either.
For the record, I've been lifting less than a year and half, so what I'm constructing is a rather large boat that I assumed we were in together.

In my limited experience, I already see better results with full body routines. Since my FIRST routine was a split, I should have been in the position to see the best results of my training life at that time. Every full body routine I've done from that point has been superior, so that's all I'm saying.

[Swole06]

so basically your saying that you get better results from full body workouts? I'm interested. I would like to know more. It seems to me that in a full body workout you can over-train. Is this not the case at all? Do you go to failure? How long does 1 workout usually last? I'm very interested and thank you for sharing. I didn't mean to come off as rude by the other post either.

I've been lifting for over 10 months now.

[Presa_Canario]

Originally Posted by Swole06

so basically your saying that you get better results from full body workouts? I'm interested. I would like to know more. It seems to me that in a full body workout you can over-train. Is this not the case at all? Do you go to failure? How long does 1 workout usually last? I'm very interested and thank you for sharing. I didn't mean to come off as rude by the other post either.

I've been lifting for over 10 months now.

I definitely get better results from full body. This will be kind of long...

First I'll answer your questions as best as I can. Personally, I've come to believe that overtraining is something most of us will never do. I loved the concept when I first read about it; I could tell myself I was just working too hard, and I needed to cut myself a break. That's when my gains slowed down.
Since then, so long as I know I'm following a good routine, and getting enough food and sleep, busting my ass has been the only way to gain, NOT worrying that an extra set of shrugs would make my whole back waist away.

To that end, going to failure is somethign I am not really qualified to say is good or bad. I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as the big guys on this forum. However, I go to failure somewhat often. Isolation exercises, I feel I can go to failure anytime and not need more than two days recovery. A big compound lift, I won't go to failure anymore than once a month, provide that meant less than six reps total. Higher reps, sometimes I go to failure just because I'm too proud to use my real given rep-maximum But I'm only twenty. If you're sixteen or seventeen, I don't think you need to worry about it. Obviously, don't bench, squat, and deadlift to failure three days a week. But don't worry about "overtraining."

My total body workouts usually end up around an hour, which is generally the time we expect to put in the gym per workout anyway. If I go much more than 60 minutes, it's usually because I'm feeling shitty or I liked the last song on the radio and forgot my rest between sets wasn't supposed to be three and a half minutes. I think Adonis posted an article where 47 minutes was the threshold for optimum recovery. After that it was apparently harder to combat catabolic processes. I'll post the link later if I can dig it up.

Here was the format of my old split routine. I used another one as well, but only briefly. Who cares, it was a split. Splits have cooties.

Day 1: Chest
Day 2: Back and Hams/Glutes (mostly deads and stiff leg dead variations, I know that's a strange breakdown)
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Shoulders
Day 5: Tri/Bi
Day 6: Quads
Day 7: Off

Basically, my chest and my legs grew. But those are the two muscle groups that I've found, through experience, grow no matter what I do. They like to grow. It's the rest of the bastards I have to get ugly with.

Here are links to the Full Body Routines I've done, in case you'd like to sample any of them. Note the Olympic routine was far too advanced for me. However, it was a ton of agonizing, painful, vomitous fun, and I did gain from it.

Adonis' Four Day Plan

MSU Olympic Program (top one on the page)

Power Routine I made up and was very happy with.

HST with my own exercise selection, very similar to examples here and here on the web site. I'm on week 5 of a 12 week program, and I can tell I'm going to see growth in certain areas more than others (arms for sure). This is all part of figuring out which of your muscles like what for growth, power, etc. And even once you figure that out, you still gotta keep chaning things up to keep them going

By the way, what kind of gains have you seen so far? The ten month mark was where I began to have to really fight through some plateaus in strength levels, just curious if you're hitting any rough spots I might have recently dealt with or may currently be addressing.

PS - I'm way too lazy to proofread this right away. I'm sure it's full of typos, PM me if anything is completely nonsensical.

[Swole06]

Wow, thnks for posting all of that for me. "REPS". Anyway, this all sounds very interesting and i'm going to have to give it a try. I tried it once, but i was doing it all wrong. I would like to give it another go the right way!

As for my past gains. I used to be really chubby right when i turned 15. i thought i would do something about it, so i picked up weight training. The only excercises I did were Bench press, dumbell curls, and crunches. These were the only excercises I did and i did them everyday. Finally Baseball season came around and i started working out at the school gym with the baseball team. I started losing more fat and was getting stronger. I started to see fairly little tone. After Baseball I quit lifting and excercising for awhile. Then, when i moved into my new house, my parents bought me a home gym basically. So i started running and lifting heavy when my freshmen year of school started and lifted all through the school year with some decent gains. I still had a lot of fat on me. So come summer i Ran and dieted mt arss off. I got down to a good 12% at one point.

Now that school has started back up i have lost a lot of motivation to workout. I'm always tired when i get home and just feel like laying down and watching tv.

I have kind of hit a plateau. I think. I'm not sure if that is what i am experiencing, or its just i don't lift like i used to. It's hard for me to get sore after my workouts. Personally i like the sore feeling because it makes me feel that i have accomplished something. WHen i dont get sore, it seems like i didnt get a good workout in and i shouldve lifted harder/heavier. I also find myself cheating A LOT through the weeknds and some during the week. I don't know where my motivation went. I have a Really good goal to work towards. i guess i just have to remember that.

I'm going to get a membership at the gym soon. mabey that'll spark me back into the bodybuilding world.

Thanks for all your info!

[Insex]

Originally Posted by Presa_Canario

Basically, my chest and my legs grew. But those are the two muscle groups that I've found, through experience, grow no matter what I do. They like to grow. It's the rest of the bastards I have to get ugly with.

If one of your problem areas is your back, then I can help you in that department. What made my back grow was:

1. Lot's of Weighted Pullups. I just slap on a 45 with a couple 5s and go! Obviously, before you can do Pullups with extra weight hanging between your legs, you've got to be able to do Pullups with your own bodyweight.

2. Lot's of heavy Bent-Over Rows. Regular grip to reverse grip. Switch it up from time to time.

3. Lot's of really heavy T-Bar Rows. We don't have an actual T-Bar in my gym. So what I do is grab the little triangle handle that people use for the Seated Cable Rows Machine, and hook it under the barbell. Then I stack on a bunch of weight plates, and rep that mother out. I like to think of myself being like Ronnie Coleman on this exercise, where he just stacks on over 600 pounds and does it with ease. Make sure to emphasize squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement to really work that trapezius.

4. Lot's of heavy Dumbbell Rows. Except I go the distance. At my gym, the heaviest dumbbells we've got are the 120s. These are too light for me for Dumbbell Rows though. But I have this chain I use to wrap around the dumbbell, and connect small weight plates on the sides. So now I've got a 120 pound dumbbell with a couple 5s on each side. Yea, it's dangerous. But it's not much more dangerous than everything else I do. So far my chain hasn't broken on me, yet. Just like the Weighted Pullups, I usually turn heads in the gym everytime I do these.

Do these four routines to the maximum, and you'll definitely take care of those problem areas.

Originally Posted by Swole06

I'm going to get a membership at the gym soon. mabey that'll spark me back into the bodybuilding world.

Do it! When I first got a gym membership back in high school, I wasn't sure what to expect. Little did I know that there are tons of hot ladies working out in there. It's much more motivating to work out hard when you've got hot girls working out next to you.

[Swole06]

thanks for that info man.

So anyone read my #13 post? Has anyone experienced this?

Also Insex, how do you feel about the full body workouts as stated above?

[copenhagenbd]

Originally Posted by Presa_Canario

I definitely get better results from full body. This will be kind of long...

First I'll answer your questions as best as I can. Personally, I've come to believe that overtraining is something most of us will never do. I loved the concept when I first read about it; I could tell myself I was just working too hard, and I needed to cut myself a break. That's when my gains slowed down.
Since then, so long as I know I'm following a good routine, and getting enough food and sleep, busting my ass has been the only way to gain, NOT worrying that an extra set of shrugs would make my whole back waist away.

To that end, going to failure is somethign I am not really qualified to say is good or bad. I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as the big guys on this forum. However, I go to failure somewhat often. Isolation exercises, I feel I can go to failure anytime and not need more than two days recovery. A big compound lift, I won't go to failure anymore than once a month, provide that meant less than six reps total. Higher reps, sometimes I go to failure just because I'm too proud to use my real given rep-maximum But I'm only twenty. If you're sixteen or seventeen, I don't think you need to worry about it. Obviously, don't bench, squat, and deadlift to failure three days a week. But don't worry about "overtraining."

Right on man, Overtraining is a term thrown around way too much these days. Guys need to stop worrying about overtraining and start working their asses off!!! I'm still laughing about the whole back wasting away line. lol

[Swole06]

yeah, i'm going to start working out muscles twice a week. When i do this, should i increase the weight in one week, or workout with the same weight twice that week and then increase like 5 piunds next week?

[Insex]

I think full body workouts are great. I especially love Olympic lifts. Olympic lifts = great full body workouts.

[Swole06]

yeah, I might try to set up a full body workout for myself.

[burntrat]

i didnt really read everyones replies above
so i dont know if they mentioned theres no deadlifts in that routine
i wasnt a big fan at first
but they are now like a big must for me