General Workout Routines and Questions

[CAMAROBOY69]

Well I benched last night for the first time in about 7 years. The great news is I was able to do wide grip bench on the outside of the bench arms. The bar is only 5 feet so it only fit about 115 lb total including the bar. So 100lb worth of weight fit on there. I had so many 5# and 10# weights that by the time they were on the bar it was full. But I did that 10 times. So today at lunch I am going to get at least a couple 25# weights. Taking a pile of 5's and 10s' off is way too time consuming in between mine and Heathers set.

We also did flies and I used 30# on my last set and did it 8 times. That felt really good. We also did skull crushers and close grip bench to work the tris. Bench needs more weight. But I do feel a little nervous having Heather spot me. I have to keep my feet up on the bench or my back hurts. Other than that it felt pretty good.

 

[Aldo]

Ok, this isn't really a workout question but I'll ask anyway...
Do any of you guys know anything about back pain and possible fixes for it?
I'll expand on my situation if someone says yes
Thanks
Allyn

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

^
I hurt my back REALLY bad last year. But it was because of a lot of summer activity. Edging with a round geared edging tool, sprinkler system install, bodywork for 2 weeks straight on Heathers dads truck, then topped it off with golfing. I actually slipped a disk and it pinched my sciatic nerve. Worst pain I have felt in my life. So yes I know about back pain. I just recently started working out and have to be very careful. I havent worked out in about 7 years.

 

[Aldo]

Sounds horrible 👎
My situation: I am 16 and am fairly active (I play tennis a couple of times a week at a relatively high level and I do physical education at school, and I am a mountain biker). I have had pain in my lower back for roughly a year but never bothered to get it checked out by a doctor.
I thought I might just have been overdoing it so during the snow of December/January, I had rest. No tennis, no PE. My back is sorer than ever now!
When I turn my shoulders round to look backwards, it feels like someone is stabbing me.
It is just relentless. Even just when I am sitting I am constantly aware of the dull pain.
I've got a doctor's appointment for next week.
Any ideas on how to reduce the pain or fix it, or anything?
Thanks
Allyn

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Sounds horrible 👎
My situation: I am 16 and am fairly active (I play tennis a couple of times a week at a relatively high level and I do physical education at school, and I am a mountain biker). I have had pain in my lower back for roughly a year but never bothered to get it checked out by a doctor.
I thought I might just have been overdoing it so during the snow of December/January, I had rest. No tennis, no PE. My back is sorer than ever now!
When I turn my shoulders round to look backwards, it feels like someone is stabbing me.
It is just relentless. Even just when I am sitting I am constantly aware of the dull pain.
I've got a doctor's appointment for next week.
Any ideas on how to reduce the pain or fix it, or anything?
Thanks
Allyn

Thats pretty much how I was feeling for several months and then eventually slipped the disk. I was simply overdoing it over and over again and finally it went. I also used to install wood floors for abot 2 years and thats just brutal on the back. Tennis and mountain biking are rough on the back. For now you could try ICy Hot or something similar just to get you by until next week. Icy hot is the only thing that helped my back and real ICE. Just a couple seconds of ice on my back felt so good. The good news is that you are going to see the doctor. I waited until it was too late. I ended up taking it easy for about 2 months and mine is in very good shape now. Probably at least 95% healed.

 

[Aldo]

Thats pretty much how I was feeling for several months and then eventually slipped the disk. I was simply overdoing it over and over again and finally it went. I also used to install wood floors for abot 2 years and thats just brutal on the back. Tennis and mountain biking are rough on the back. For now you could try ICy Hot or something similar just to get you by until next week. Icy hot is the only thing that helped my back and real ICE. Just a couple seconds of ice on my back felt so good. The good news is that you are going to see the doctor. I waited until it was too late. I ended up taking it easy for about 2 months and mine is in very good shape now. Probably at least 95% healed.

I'll need to get my hands on whatever the uk equivilent (spelling?) of IcyHot is. Looks pretty good!
I will proabbly be told to give my back a rest from the doctor and I don't know how I'll cope! Tennis is like an addiction for me...

 

[Bram Turismo]

Definitely see a professional on this matter. I could be that a nerve in your back is getting pressed by your spine. I think someone in my family had this; each time he would make a certain movement, the spine compressed a certain nerve which put him in some serious pain for that movement.

On that, I still need to work on my chest workout. Benches and flies were good. But the incline DB press still doesn't work my chest enough; I'm still feeling it more in my triceps. Next time I will try to go a little bit heavier, but not fully locking out my arms or raise them so much I'm delivering the weight from my chest to the triceps.

To top this post off, here's a little video everyone of us "Gym rats" should see. You will no doubt get some good laughs out of it. Who knows you might spot yourself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnstNnqYp2M&feature=channel

Be sure to check out all 6 videos, they are all equally funny to watch. I would hotlink the video of it weren't for the F-words

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

On that, I still need to work on my chest workout. Benches and flies were good. But the incline DB press still doesn't work my chest enough; I'm still feeling it more in my triceps. Next time I will try to go a little bit heavier, but not fully locking out my arms or raise them so much I'm delivering the weight from my chest to the triceps.

You dont need to go heavier, you need to grip the bar wider. The closer your grip, the more you work the triceps. The wider the grip, the more you work the chest. Go at least 1 hand width wider with each hand and I bet you will see a huge difference in your chest.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Thanks for the input!

Had a great biceps/back today. I may do the preachers as last. Right now the order for biceps is hammers-preachers-concentration. Doing the preacher before the concentration curls kind of made my arm felt numb during the concentration curls and really exhausted. I might get more out of it if I slide it in as second and not as last.

For back I did hyperextensions, seated rows and upright rows. I think I hit my complete back with those exercises. Might try pulldowns soon but I really don't like them and I tend to stay with exercises that make me enjoy every minute of the workout.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Had a very good chest/tricep pump last night. The previous workouts were taking too long between sets so I made a change last night and it worked. Instead of heather doing a set then switching to do my set, I changed that. Now Heather does her 3 or 4 sets say bench as an example. Waiting only about 90 seconds. Then after she finishes all her sets I do mine. That worked very well and thats our new routine. The problem with doing it the other way was that it was too time consuming switching the weights each time.

So we did bench then flies for the chest, after that went right to skull crushers and seated overhead dumbell tricep extensions. Next week I will start with triceps then go chest just to mix up our chest/tricep day. We both also lifted more than we did last week so we are making positive progress. 👍

Tonight is leg / shoulders so for the legs I will try the Barbell Hack Squats that Der Alta suggested.

 

[Vince_Fiero]

Do any of you guys know anything about back pain and possible fixes for it?

Not to go on your specific issue, where I recommend a second opinion, some general remarks:

1) Train you back and abdominal muscles, they are essential when working with weights.
2) Really watch you technique, wrong technique can break you (slowly but still).
3) Talk to doctors, but this is not an exact science, so different doctors = different approaches.
4) Avoid what you get trouble from!

For my case:
1) No more running and jumping. I get a nerve that gets stuck between vertebrates and thus gives ghost pains.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Had a good chest/triceps day. Still not feeling the inclines good enough, they still start to burn in my shoulders and triceps way too early. I got a good pump out of my chest though, haven't had that before. I think I'm going to swap the incline DB presses for incline DB flies. That would make my chest day look like this:

Chest: benchpress/ flies/ incline flies
Triceps: Skullcrushers/ rope pushdowns/ DB kickbacks

Mixed some ab work in it as well. Since I have so many exercises I do abs on all three days, but only 1 exercise per work out.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

^ Yes flies work your chest big time. Mine still hurt from Tuesday. Along with the really wide grip bench press. As I stated before, the wider your grip, past shoulder width, the more it works the chest.

Der Alta,
I want to thank you for the hack squat suggestion at home since I dont have a squat rack. That was an awesome leg workout. 👍

I found out last night that I need to swap shoulder day and leg day to friday and put biceps / back on for Wednesday. Our chest / triceps were so sore from tuesday that we were not able to work shoulders properly. So legs / biceps will be on wednesday now and shoulders / back will be Friday. So now our weekly workout will be like this.

New program:
Mon: Chest / Triceps
Tues: Biceps / Back
Friday: Shoulders / legs

That should workout perfectly and give the muscles the proper wait time before lifting again. Its all coming together perfectly now.

 

[Bram Turismo]

^ Yes flies work your chest big time. Mine still hurt from Tuesday. Along with the really wide grip bench press. As I stated before, the wider your grip, past shoulder width, the more it works the chest.

Indeed, I did go wider on the benches and I could feel it better in my chest at once. But the DB presses still burn too much in my shoulders and triceps so my current plan is benchpress/ flies/ incline flies. I'll see how that works out! 👍

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Make sure your arms go wide and deep with the flys. Dont be afraid to go lighter weight to get better form if necessary. Its not always about putting on heavier weight. You could also try to lower the incline so its not quite all the way up. Make sure you sqeeze your chest muscles as you reach the top too. Almost like you are hugging across your chest.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Indeed, I did go wider on the benches and I could feel it better in my chest at once. But the DB presses still burn too much in my shoulders and triceps so my current plan is benchpress/ flies/ incline flies. I'll see how that works out! 👍

When you are dumbell pressing, if you draw an imaginary line from one to the other where does it cross your body?

Alot of the guys I have introduced to the gym try to dumbell press with the imaginary line intersection their head, instead of just across their nipples if they were bench pressing.

Try it next time, I have a hunch this may be your problem.

 

[Bram Turismo]

When you are dumbell pressing, if you draw an imaginary line from one to the other where does it cross your body?

I'd say my chest, perhaps somewhere between my chest and my head.

 

[ExigeEvan]

I'd say my chest, perhaps somewhere between my chest and my head.

Is that where it would be if you were bench-pressing?

 

[Der Alta]

Der Alta,
I want to thank you for the hack squat suggestion at home since I dont have a squat rack. That was an awesome leg workout. 👍

They are a great exercise. As I'm concentrating on seperation in my quads, I've moved these up as my main exercise. Close stance, feet out, squats on the smith machine are the first exercise. Then it's Barbell Hack Squats. I find that I have to drop the weight to the floor each rep, and shift my butt down. Other wise, I end up doing more of a bad deadlift. I usually follow this up with a light weight, high rep exercise. Leg Extensions 2x50reps or Single leg Bench Squats, 2x to failure.

Make sure your arms go wide and deep with the flys. Dont be afraid to go lighter weight to get better form if necessary. Its not always about putting on heavier weight. You could also try to lower the incline so its not quite all the way up. Make sure you sqeeze your chest muscles as you reach the top too. Almost like you are hugging across your chest.

This! slight bend in the elbows, and a really big stretch. Makes for a great chest exercise.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Thanks to Der Altas hack squat advice, I am pretty much at the point where I dont think I will need to attend a gym come January or ever again. I have almost everything I need right here at home now. I am only missing 2 major things:

The first thing I am missing is a dip setup which I will weld together for sure within the next month or so. I can weld some round tubing together that will go in place of the preacher curl location of my bench. Dips are such an incredible workout for gaining mass on the chest and tricepts. Once I get a good solid foundation with my chest and triceps, I will make this dip set up.

The other item I am missing is a way to do wide grip pull ups to work the lats. I just havent found any back excercise sat home that work the lats quite as good as a wide grip pull up. I think I might even weld up a bar that I can bolt into the ceiling of my garage. It would mean going out to the garage to start or finish off a back set, but it is my only other option to have the complete setup I need at home. Hard to belive I have almost everything I need in a little 7' x 7' room. Took some creativity but its working out great and will save me a gym membership!! 👍

 

[Der Alta]

The other item I am missing is a way to do wide grip pull ups to work the lats. I just havent found any back excersizesat home that work the lats quite as good as a wide grip pull up.

That's because there isn't a back exercise that's better than pull-ups.

Hard to belive I have almost everything I need in a little 7' x 7' room. Took some creativity but its working out great and will save me a gym membership!! 👍

That's Fantastic! The best thing about going to the gym, is my trainer. Hence why I don't have a set up in my basement.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Oh yeah you cant beat having a trainer or having someone to workout with. It helps a lot having Heather workout with me. Right now I am her personal trainer. Luckily I retained all my education from my 3 month bulk up I did 7 years ago. I documented everything (even have an ectomorphic thread about it) and remembered everything I did that was succesful while I was in the gym. My friend was a bodybuilder and basically my trainer at the time but most of my weight gain and success was from my own research online, commited diet, and determination. Personal motivation is everything. Without that you will not succeed. But it really does help to have someone else to workout with.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Is that where it would be if you were bench-pressing?

Well anything lower than that would make it more of a shoulder exercise since my forearms wouldn't be straight and thus my shoulders working to keep my arms up. When I benchpress I press the barbell in a straight line above the middle of my chest, and I try to keep it there as well during the DB presses. I just don't feel it works out my chest as good as flies or flat-bench presses so I think I'm dropping these anyway.

 

[Aldo]

Quick update on my back troubles. I saw the doctor yesterday and he said that it could be a wee bit of tendonitis. Nothing really serious though as he said it would probably be perfect once I have totally stopped growing.
He referred me to the physio and I am awaiting the arrival of my appointment card.
Thanks to those that replied

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Glad to hear it is nothing serious. My back seems to have made a very good recovery since last year. I would say I am at least 95% healed. I even rode the quads over the weekend with no back problems.

Switched up our Tuesday workout and did triceps first then chest. (typically you want to work larger muscle first then smaller muscle) But I mixed it up for the heck of it. This way the tris could get a really really good pump instead of being worked after chest. But yes it did sacrifice my bench which is ok I still got a good pump. The entire workout still turned out really good but I will go back to chest/tris. Tonight we will do biceps back. We will work the biceps really hard this week since we missed bicep day last week.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Had a killer bicep / back day yesterday. This new routine is working out perfect this week. It is allowing the perfect exercise between each workout without conflicting with the other muscles after they have been worked. We got a killer bicep / back pump yesterday. And this is what we will be doing from now on.

Tues - Chest / triceps
Wed - Bicep / Back
Friday - Shoulders / legs

My bf has also lowered by 2% since I started this a few weeks ago. It helps that I have not been drinking alcohol every day and eating junk food. Cutting that out has made an instant improvement. And to top that off I am still staying around my 180lb weight that I want to be at. I have been able to see my abs but now I am starting to see them more and more. This truly is working out exactly as I have been planning. As long as I can stay around 180lb and lower some BF then I will be happy.

 

[Der Alta]

Last night was a great back workout. Set a new personal record in the Deadlift.

Workout started with a Super Set of Deadlifts and Chins.
135 x 15, 10 chins
225 x 12, 10 chins
315 x 6, 10 chins
375 x 2, 6 chins
405 x 1, 6 chins. (new Personal Record)

Then it was Low Cable Rows, and 2 shoulder exercise.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Starting to see some great results. Just changing the diet and drinking less beer has made a huge difference. Obviously the lifting helps too but diet is everything. I went up 3 more lbs and lowered 1%bf again with little to no cardio at all. Keep in mind 7 years ago I used to only be 141 and then bulked up to around 171 in 3 months. I am now 183 lbs and more areas of my abs are starting to show again. I would love to stay right around 185 and keep losing bf. If I got to 190 by the end of the year that would be killer but 185 is still great!! Heather lost another 1 lb and a 1% of bf. Shes already really small but every little bit of bf loss is always good news.

Yesterday we had a killer chest/tricep workout. Heather and I both had to stack on more weight for each exercise so clearly getting stronger. 👍

 

[Blake]

Had a pretty nuts workout tonight.

1.6km run
20 rounds of...
5 x Chin ups
10 x Push ups
15 x squats
Then another 1.6km run

Took me 47 minutes... I am quite dead, lol.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Sounds like circuit training to me

If you have any weights, even anything that's just heavy, try and mix in some more things.

Shoulder presses, rows, light-weight clean+press etc.