General Workout Routines and Questions

[CAMAROBOY69]

Friday night I almost puked.

It was shoulder / leg day. We did military press and that felt great. After that we start to do upright rows. I had the bright idea that I wanted to superset shrugs with my upright rows. (Just myself not Heather) I did my set of upright rows, then immediately with the same weight, did shrugs. No rest. That wasnt too bad but... Then we did some lunges. After that Heather was done for the night and I started hack squats. Now it gets worse. I decided that with my hack squats I wanted to superset shrugs again but also superset lateral raises. Basically a tripple superset no rest. I did this for 4 straight sets. I almost puked. Took me at least a good 10 minutes to recover. Whew what a workout. Actually all of last week went very well. I went up in all my workout weight. Getting stronger for sure.

However, I didnt eat that great during last week and ended up losing about 2 lbs from the previous week. So now I am down to 179lbs from 181lbs. Goal is at least 190lbs by the end of the year. So I am increasing the calories and protein into my diet for this week and should be able to at least maintain my current weight but hopefully gain. I am also not drinking enough water. If I dont go up by Saturday, I will add even more food to the diet for next week. I will keep adding until the weight starts going back up again. Eventually I will have to eat at least 4,500 calories like I did in the "Ectomorph" thread. Thats just such and unreal amount of food to eat. But if thats what I have to do again I will do it.

 

[Max Powers]

I need to remember to wrap my hands, at least for now, while using the heavy bag. I just finished about a 40 minute session on it doing mostly building block combos. (Jab, jab + R uppercut, and so on and so forth). Anyway, my knuckles have been getting so torn up. Usually I warm up with a thin pair of leather heavy bag gloves, then do my workout with a heavier pair of padded training gloves. I'm sure it will begin to callous over eventually, but I think it's going to get in the way of my workouts in the meantime.

 

[Bram Turismo]

I almost puked. Took me at least a good 10 minutes to recover.

I think this tells enough that you should ease up on those supersets

I never do supersets, I don't like them. I only take a 1-minute break anyway, so it's no big deal either. I tend to use that minute to mentally prepare for the next set, so that I get the maximum out of each rep.

Also, aren't shrugs normally higher weight than upright rows? In comparison to my rows, I shrug a ton.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Its very rare that I do supersets but I was feeling really good that day and wanted to get a crazy pump. I definetly wont tripple superset again. Maybe a regular superset once in a while but nothing that crazy again.


4/13/10 Tuesday Chest / Tricep

Last night we started with wide grip bench press. Added 5 more lbs than last week and did a few more reps. Great form squeezing chest at the top. I will probably stay at this bench weight for a at least another week. Felt very good.
-4 sets failing on the very last set

After this we mixed it up this week and went to incline flyes instead of regular flyes. I used the same weight that I use for regular flies and it worked out very well. Getting stronger for sure.
-4 sets

Then skull crushers. I also went up 5 more lbs since last week and it felt great!!! First set was 14 reps so I will need to add weight next week to this for sure
-4 sets failing on the last set

Finally tricep extensions. Also went up 5 lbs in this.
-4 sets

Finished the night with some situps until failure. Total workout around 1 1/2 hours. Overall very very good night and much stronger than last week for both of us.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Lesson of the day:

Always start your chest work-out with benches and then flies, not the other way round

Got fed up of waiting for the bench to become available so I started on my flies and incline flies. The benches were awful, I pressed 10kg less than what I'm used to...

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Dont beat yourself up over doing a different routine or using less weight. Its not always about using the big weight, just about getting a good pump and working the specific muscle. About a week ago I did triceps first just for the heck of it then did chest. Yes I went down about 10lb for my bench but I got one heck of a Tricep workout since I did it first. I actually went up 10-15lbs more in tricep than what I normally do. Nothing wrong with mixing it up once in a while.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

4/15/10 Wednesday Bicep / Back

Last night went very well with biceps. I started with preacher curls and finally got to put the 25lb weight on each side. 50lb total not including the bar. Then surprisingly I did 14 reps my first set!! I was shocked and very happy!! This was a major stepping stone for me for preacher curls.
4 sets failing last set

After this went to 25# dumbbell hammer curls with supersets of shrugs.
4 sets failing last set

Then moved onto 45# dumbbell bent over rows (pretty trashed by this point)
4 sets failing last set

Finished off the night with a walk around the block then some jump rope when we returned. Total workout around 1 1/2 hours.

I plan to buy a doorway pullup bar this weekend so I will have more for my back exercises. If that doesnt work I will make a pull up bar for the garage. Bent over rows are just not enough for back right now. Also as my lower back gets stronger I will start doing deadlifts. Still recovering from a slipped disk last year. We have tonight off. Friday is Shoulders / Legs.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Update!! 4/19/10
Had a VERY good weigh in this Saturday!! Gained 4 lbs and dropped fat. Huge gain over this last week and very happy with the results. Currently 183lbs and 22.8 % fat.

Friday was a great shoulder / leg day too. I went up in pretty much everything. I also bought 2 more 25# weights this weekend.

Then I designed and made a dip bar rack over the weekend. It slides into the end of my bench where the preacher curl adapter goes. Cant wait to use it Wednesday for chest / tricep day.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Absolutely adoring my workouts lately. I can't really judge on my progress since I look in the mirror everyday to try and spot every single difference there might be.

Not to try and sound like a show-off now, but my shoulder workouts are absolute killer. I tend to set my goals on soreness, and prioritizing high intensity with heavier weights and short pauses rather then light weighted workouts with slow and controlled reps. Sets and reps are still the same, but I try to go harder on the weighs to reach a limit on every set.

So far in the last two weeks I have been sore in places I never knew there were muscles, and I tend to get a great pump from every single body part I work on.

Surely after another 6 months of this there should be some noticeable difference...

 

[ExigeEvan]

Can anyone link/provide a good push/pull/legs split?

I've done a look for a few, and some of them are basically a chest day combined with shoulder day in it's entirety which is, well overkill and time consuming.

 

[Bram Turismo]

I split chest with tricep as it seems to fit together quite nicely. I got that tip from Pako; do all your push/pull and legs exercises on their own days. I do biceps+back/chest+triceps/legs+shoulders. That's a Monday-Wednesday-Friday program in that order. I do some quick abs work on all three days. But since I do them on all days, I only do two exercises for the abs, super-setting them which makes me use between an hour and 90 minutes on each workout. So far it's working quite nicely 👍

 

[ExigeEvan]

I take quite abit of time on legs and have been making some good progress on them, don't really want to rush through a legs sesh. But yeah, that's a good 3 day split, I'll think about it.

 

[Bram Turismo]

I know what you mean. Legs day tend to get quite long as well here, but never above my preferred time limits. I usually do squats - leg press - negative calf raises as a leg work out. Each week I change between squats and deadlifts because there's no way on this planet I will not include deadlifts in my workout. It's arguable that I could do some more hamstring work, but they tend to be sore the day after so I guess it's fine this way.

 

[Der Alta]

Yesteday was Delts/Traps.

I've been a bit unstructured for the past few weeks. Just letting my body rest and eating lots of good food. My weight is back up to where I want to keep it until Mid July. Currently 200lbs and about 12% body fat.

Delts, started with Side Laterals superset with Prone Laterals.
1st set: Side laterals, 20lbs x 20 reps; Prone laterals, 20lbs x 15 reps
2nd set: Side laterals, 30lbs x 12 reps; Prone laterals, 30lbs x 7 reps
3rd set: Side laterals, 40lbs x 6 reps; Prone laterals, 40lbs x 4 reps

From there into Seated Rear Delt rows.
135lbs x 20 reps
185lbs x 15 reps
185lbs x 15 reps

Seated Machine Presses
70lbs x 20 reps
100lbs x 9 reps

And finished Delts with Upright Rows
95lbs x 15reps
135lbs x 5 reps

After that, it was a Pyramid 100 reps exercise for shrugs (running the rack)
30reps; 50lb dumbells
25reps; 60lb dumbells
20reps; 70lb dumbells
5reps; 80lb dumbells
5reps; 90lb dumbells
5reps; 100lb dumbells
5reps; 110lb dumbells
5reps; 120lb dumbells

The last 5 sets done without stopping. The total amount is 100 reps.

Tonight is Chest and Abs

 

[Dazzla]

Lesson of the day:

Always start your chest work-out with benches and then flies, not the other way round

Got fed up of waiting for the bench to become available so I started on my flies and incline flies. The benches were awful, I pressed 10kg less than what I'm used to...

Many times I work on my chest without using the bench press. I did this for a month and when I went back to bench I gained like 20-30 pounds on my bench.

- Start off with with a few warmup sets on the peck deck machine
- Flat bench dumbbell presses (3 sets)
- Flat bench dumbbell flies (2-3 sets)
- Incline dumbbell presses (3 sets)
- Incline dumbbell flies (2-3 sets)

Do you guys ever work triceps and biceps on the same day? I've heard that alot of people do this because for alot of bicep workouts you use your triceps and vice versa? So people will do a set of barbell curls, followed by a set of skullcrushers etc.?

Edit: Even though I'm getting stronger, I forgot to mention my chest still looks the same :|

 

[Bram Turismo]

Do you guys ever work triceps and biceps on the same day? I've heard that alot of people do this because for alot of bicep workouts you use your triceps and vice versa? So people will do a set of barbell curls, followed by a set of skullcrushers etc.?

Edit: Even though I'm getting stronger, I forgot to mention my chest still looks the same :|

I did it before, but I get more out of them when I split them. Mainly because when I do my back two days after my biceps and they are heavily sore, I will be in serious pain because you use your biceps in every single pulling exercise. As far as I know you don't use triceps in your biceps, that wouldn't make any sense now would it? But my previous program did have biceps and triceps exercises supersetted.

Also, strength =! size

If you want to gain serious strength, run 3 sets of 5 reps on the flat-bench. Heavy reps. Try limiting the number of exercises you run. Look up Mark Rippetoe's program called "Starting Strength". I've had some great results and went from 60kg in deadlifts to my bodyweight (85kg) in under a month. 👍

For size run also 3 sets, but up to 12 or even 15 reps. I'm noticing I'm getting bigger, even if it are just small changes. Every single change I can spot makes me happy because I then know that whatever I'm doing, it's working

 

[Dazzla]

Thanks for the input. Another thing I'm curious about is how people talk about over-training biceps, chest etc. Thing is I understand that may be the case if your more mature and have been lifting for a while but for someone like me who's under a year, lots of energy and still pretty skinny is it ok to go all out? I'm still a fairly skinny dude, so should I really be worried about over training? I try to give atleast one or two days rest at least before hitting the same muscle again.

If I want I can do like 6-7 different workouts for one muscle group with like 3-4 sets each and just pound my muscle. But I think that's wrong on my part because I shouldn't have that kind of energy left after working out "hard". I do take a NO Xplod before working out so that's where all that energy comes from lol

 

[Bram Turismo]

Go easy on the supplement when you first start out. You will be amazed how much energy fruit gives you right before your work out, try it out sometimes! Whenever I eat an apple 30 minutes before I go swimming, I am always amazed at the amount of energy I am putting out. Turns out fruits really are great energybombs, plus they are very healthy!

As for over-training, it depends on the muscle group and its size. You will be quicker to over-train biceps than your chest. If you only have 2 days rest between training the same muscle group, you really don't want to do more than 1 kind of exercise for that muscle group, max 2. If you only have 2 days rest between workouts, that means you are performing complete body workouts 3 days a week, correct?

If you want to pound your muscles, take 3 days a week to work out but split your muscle groups into these 3 days:

Monday - biceps + back
Wednesday - chest + triceps
Friday - Legs + shoulders

I do ab work on Monday and Friday to finish off my workouts. I perform 3 different kind of exercises for all these muscle groups, each consisting of 3 sets of 12 reps each. My ab work, however, consists of 2 sets, super-setting them; light enough to get enough rest, heavy enough to get something out of it. By doing this I can target every part of the muscle, and I have enough rest for it to fully recharge for the next week.

Remember, after a heavy workout it takes a muscle 5-6 days to fully recover. So be sure to use that lapse and not breaking it by pounding it with additional work 2 days after. You could compare this by waking up someone in the middle of the night; That poor chap will feel tired throughout the entire day.

👍

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Well said Bram Turismo. I also give my muscles plenty of rest before hitting them again that way they are 100% each workout. This is the routine we have been using and it is very effective.

Tuesday: Chest / Triceps
Wednesday: Back / Biceps
Friday: Shoulders / Legs

This gives plenty of time for each muscle group to recover and doesnt interfere with any other muscle group while healing. Also you really dont need to do 5-6 sets per group. Just do 2 or 3 sets per group and use heavier weight to lower the reps. I push myself until failure on the very last rep of my last set. Its all about experimenting and trying to find what works for YOU.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Indeed, excellent advice! 👍

One last word of advice: Don't let it take over you completely. Weight lifting is all about feeling good about yourself, being able to be satisfied with how you look. It's a life-style, yes, but don't let it get to you. When you are at the store and you pass onto everything else you normally have because it "doesn't contain the perfect amount of carbs and proteins", then you are going too far. It's extreme fun and challenging at the same time, but once you start getting paranoid about the food you should eat, ease a bit on yourself.

Don't be too hard on yourself either, whether it's your goals, weight or diet. I still eat rubbish from time to time, but only as a treat. 👍

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Indeed, excellent advice! 👍

One last word of advice: Don't let it take over you completely. Weight lifting is all about feeling good about yourself, being able to be satisfied with how you look. It's a life-style, yes, but don't let it get to you. When you are at the store and you pass onto everything else you normally have because it "doesn't contain the perfect amount of carbs and proteins", then you are going too far. It's extreme fun and challenging at the same time, but once you start getting paranoid about the food you should eat, ease a bit on yourself.

Don't be too hard on yourself either, whether it's your goals, weight or diet. I still eat rubbish from time to time, but only as a treat. 👍

Same here. We treat ourselves to whatever we want a couple times a week especially for dinner. Right now Thursday night is our official "shis kabob Thursday". We cook shish kabobs on the grill, I have some beer, and she has a Margarita mixed drink. We kick back, relax and just enjoy whatever we want that day, while doing some outside work. Sometimes on Saturday or Sunday too. Overall the only thing we try to stay away from are sugars that are in candy like chocolate. A little once in a while is ok but in reality sugar is our enemy. Its usually converted by the body right away to fat.

So as Bran Turismo said, dont beat yourself up week after week day after day. Its good treat yourself at least once or twice a week. Or if you are ever feeling burnt out or tired, take it easy for a week and do less reps and less sets. You will be amazed the energy you have the following week.

 

[Der Alta]

Thanks for the input. Another thing I'm curious about is how people talk about over-training biceps, chest etc. Thing is I understand that may be the case if your more mature and have been lifting for a while but for someone like me who's under a year, lots of energy and still pretty skinny is it ok to go all out? I'm still a fairly skinny dude, so should I really be worried about over training? I try to give atleast one or two days rest at least before hitting the same muscle again.

If I want I can do like 6-7 different workouts for one muscle group with like 3-4 sets each and just pound my muscle. But I think that's wrong on my part because I shouldn't have that kind of energy left after working out "hard". I do take a NO Xplod before working out so that's where all that energy comes from lol

Yes, you are overtraining. You're going beyond what your muscles can handle, and when you do that, the muscle turns on itself for energy.

In essence, you're doing 18-28 exercises for each muscle group. You've long passed the limits of energy the muscle can draw and you're now forcing the muscle to use itself for energy.

I'm also assuming that since you're feeling like traing your arms every few days, you're not sore the day after your workout. Which means, not only are you overtraining, you're not doing the exercises very well. I did my back workout two nights ago. Simple and done in 20 minutes, with plenty of rest. Superset of Pull ups with Low Cable Pulley rows.

10 chin-ups, 100lbs x 20 reps
8 chin-ups w/ 5 lbs weight, 145lbs x 12
6 chin-ups w/ 10lbs, 170lbs x 8
8 chin-ups (no weight), 205lbs x 6
6 chin-ups (no weight), 220lbs x 4
I'm incredibly sore today. 10 exercises and I destroyed my lats.

There's an old saying "You can't out train Bad Nutrition"

I'm still a fairly skinny dude, so should I really be worried about over training?

Yes, if you overtrain, you won't gain. How do you gain weight? You eat. Then you eat again. It doesn't matter how much you work out, your body won't grow if you're not getting enough food.

You're young and skinny take advantage of it. Eat lots of good food (No sodium!) and use every exercise to its potential. Don't lift the weight, instead contract the muscle.

If there's one thing I can stress to you, is that you concentrate on feeling the muscle move with each exercise. If you can do this and not look at the number on the side of the weight in your hand, you'll get bigger, fast than you thought.

 

[Dazzla]

Thanks DA. That's kind of a thought I've had on the back of my mind; that I was over training. A few weeks ago I hit my chest with 3-4 different exercises and felt quite sore, that was odd because I usually can do alot more volume then I did that day and not feel very sore the next day.

I think what I'll try from now is goto the gym 3-4 days a week instead of the 6-7 I do right now. Go two muscles each day and limit myself to 3-5 (x3 sets each) exercises each, and just focus on increasing the weights and not worry about volume?

I do focus on the muscle contraction instead of just pushing the weight. I used to push the weight when I first started but in the past few months I've focused on doing it right and not worrying about the amount of weight I'm lifting. Feel the 'pump' as Arnold described in his insane videos

 

[Bram Turismo]

Well I had leg day on Friday, tomorrow is back and biceps day but if I feel good enough I'm going for my 1-rep max deadlift. I've been wanting to do it for a long time now and I rather test my max power in deadlifts rather than benchpress or squats because I have no spotter. Depending on how I feel tomorrow, expect either a post where I'll be amazed at myself, or rather disappointed.

Last time I lifted heavy was a set of 5 reps my bodyweight, 85 kilos, which I was very happy with. I'm planning on starting out with the normal weight I use, go heavier performing only 1 rep and adding weight from there to check my form on each lift. My goal is 100 kg, anything even slightly above that and I will be celebrating the entire week

Wish me luck! 👍

 

[Der Alta]

You'll need no luck. I'm certain you'll be amazed at how easy it is.

As for my recent workout, I lifted heavy and long over the weekend. Today I'm just sore. Mostly my hands.

I started Friday night, with the Gym Owner, and we moved the entire gym. The gym was previously in two spaces opposite each other across a hall. We moved everything from two spaces and consilidated it into one space. There had previously been planned a 6 person crew, in addition to the owner and I. Noone showed.

So, plate by plate, piece by piece, dumbell by bumbell, he and I moved the entire gym. We had one other person lend a hand to do the flooring (we ripped all the rubber up, and relaid it, he made sure all the seams were tight and proper. One other guy helped for about two hours to move some equipment, but other than that, 4 hours Friday, 8 hours on Saturday, 6 hours on Sunday.

And, of course, we get all done and both of us realize that one piece should be in a different spot. Which means both X-over machiens have to move about two feet. To do that, we have to disassemble them.

The only thing left is to rebuild the owners desk area.

I did invent a new exercise though. It's called the 40mile Shrug. Lift two 25 lb plates and carry them 200 feet. Repeat with half the 25lb plates in the gym. Do it again with the 45lb plates.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Heather and I both had a killer week last week. She rode her exercise bike twice a day 3 times a week. Once in the morning and once before our workout. She did this until she burned 500 calories each time. Thats 1000 calories each day. Her record is 500 calories in 32 minutes! On top of that she also worked out those same days. This experiment worked out very well because she lost 2 lbs since last week setting her at her goal weight already!!! Needless to say she is beyond happy. Now she just wants to stay the same weight and concentrate on losing the fat. She is also getting much stronger and more muscles are becoming visible. Her tricep is quite visible now too and she is toning right up.

I messed with my diet a little and gained 1 more lb since last week. Now I am 184lbs and still shooting for 190lbs. Last week was brutal for me. I used my dip bar on bicep/ tricep day. I used my door jam pull up bar on back bicep day. And on back day I also finally added in barbell deadlifts. Keep in mind I am still recovering from a slipped disk injury from last year. Then to top all that off I went up quite a bit in my hack squat weight. Whew what a great week. Lots of gains for both of us.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Well, I didn't manage 100kg. I managed to get it off the ground but I felt like it all was going to go horribly wrong, and the weight intimidated me quite heavily so I backed off. I went 10kg lighter, 90 kg. Easy. 92,5; Went up smoothly. Definitely going to try again next Monday. I've had bad sleep this week so I'm going to try have more sleep every night and who knows I may be able to manage 100 kg next week.

I was quite shocked at how intimidated I felt after trying 100 kg, but deep inside I know it's there so I feel confident I will manage it next week.

Other than that I had a killer arm workout. I went heavier on my hyper-extensions and my lower back hurts a little bit. I kept form as tight as always so I'm wondering whether this is normal or that I might've stretched a muscle in there.

 

[Der Alta]

Here's something to help with the mental block you're coming up against. Prop the weight up 6 inches higher and start your deadlift from there.

I'm currently holding my deadlift at 405lbs, and am aiming for 500lbs by years end. To get myself familiar with what its like to hodl 500lbs, I set up the power rack on the lowest tier (which was about 10 inches off the ground), and loaded 5 plates on each side, plus a 5 lb plate to total up to 505lbs. From that point, I deadlifted it and held it for a few seconds.

Another thing to help out on a day like that is adding some extra carbs into your diet that particular day.

As for my exercise tonight, I'm hitting Chest, Abs and Cardio. Provided I have enough time. From this past weekend, my forearms, hands and shoulders are so sore.

 

[Dazzla]

DA: Your still sore from a few days ago? I dunno why but I rarely feel super sore. For me the only time I ever feel really sore the next day is when I work out my legs and do squats (Is it because I rarely do legs?)

But sure I'll feel a little bit of stretch in my chest a day or two after hitting it hard, but its not the same soreness I used to get when I started working out.

Does that mean my recovery is good and my preworkout drink is doing its job? Or am I continuing to over-train and thus not feeling any soreness?

I worked out triceps today and they are sore, but they won't be that sore tomorrow and the day after they usually will feel 100%.

(Post is all over the place, I know, sorry I'm going to sleep!)

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

5/5/10 Chest / tricep

I had a killer workout last night. Started with chest and went up another 5# in bench. Then did flyes but those still feel weird to me so staying around the same weight. The real good workout came with triceps. I did skull crushers and went up another 5# Then did tricep extensions with another 5# increase.

But the best news came at the very end. I installed my dip rack and was able to do 4 non assisted dips! Then did another 4 non assisted then another 4 non assisted. I was so happy I was jumping up and down running around all happy. lol Getting much stronger for sure.