Comments and Suggestions...

[sublime35]

Whats up ya'll? I have been doing mostly the same exercises in my workouts for a while now, and I would like to change it up and add in some new stuff. I have changed some recently, but I still feel like i'm not hitting all my muscles good enough.
Here's my split.

1st Day - Chest and Tris
Flat Bench
Close Grip
Flyes
Overhead Tricep Press
Inc. Bench

2nd Day Back, Arms
Shrugs -- This was Military Press but I changed in recently
EZ bar curls (wide grip)
DB bent rows
Incline DB curls
Side and Front Lats
Standing Hammercurls
Forearm front and back rolls ( I guess that's what they are called)

3rd Day Legs
Leg Extensions
Romanian DL --- this was hammy curls
Calf Raises
Lunges

I think I'm prolly overtraining my bi's and not doing enough with my legs. I can't do squats yet because I haven't got a rack yet( my b-day is soon and I'm pointing my parents toward this .) I guess I could do DB squats tho. I was thinking of doing Power Shrugs. instead of reg. shrugs as well. Any comments, suggestions and criticism welcome. I'm looking to change it up some.

 

[Guinness5.0]

I'm sure you saw this coming but give 5x5 a shot (Bill Starr/madcow version) once you can squat. I heard some guy tried it once and liked it

 

[sublime35]

LOL yeah just ONE guy, huh? I thought about that, i may give that a shot too.

 

[Guinness5.0]

The really great thing about the 5x5 program is that it will open up the door to future progress by enforcing techniques/methods that have been proven to work in just about everyone. It teaches you the important variables that need to be managed (intensity, volume, frequency, overall workload) and the program as laid out by Bill Starr and explained by madcow is fairly simple to follow while you learn the reasons behind it. There is SO MUCH friggin info in the 5x5 monster thread you could probably write a book from it. I can't tell you how glad I am to have stumbled my way back to this site and come across this stuff.

How's that for an endorsement?

 

[Guinness5.0]

This is probably the best article to read to familiarlize yourself with some of the ideas behind the dual factor theory itself:

Dammit I can't copy/paste on my work computers. The website is WWW.higher-faster-sports.com and it's in the "articles" section. It's called "How to benefit from planned overtraining."

Definitley worth a read.

 

[Madcow2]

The article is here: http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/PlannedOvertraining.html

FYI - it's really not my program, I took it off someone else, who took it off Starr. Interestingly, if you read the article you'll find the 5x5 program as an example (as well as the people really responsible for it). The program listed and description is a cut/paste from a post I wrote on another site in 2003.

As to your program, the most imporant thing to BBing is providing for some type of progressing overload. Of course you have to account for and manipulate intensity, volume, and frequency over a time period to pull this off. Outside of novices or people using enough drugs to ellict novice-like adaptability to random training, this is really what makes a "program" a program and a "routine" just a routine. Changing up exercises has the effect of providing some new stimulus for the body to acclimate too and as the acclimation takes place, progressive overload tends to occur (i.e. your body gets better at the movement and that drives capacity). It's also why people change exercises when they get stale (i.e. no more linear strength gains means adaptation stopping or possibly overtraining setting in). If you read that link, this is very much a fit with dual factor theory - people just aren't conscious of why they are doing it.

So anyway, what you have is a routine (a list of exercises and days - even sets and reps would still be a routine because it doesn't account for any plan over the time period to which you'll be using such). I don't see any kind of squatting or pulling from the floor (RDL doesn't really count). No overhead work, and quite a lot of isolation work which spares no expense on the arms and calves. Frequency per bodypart is 1x per week so your odds on getting any type of specificity or additional benefit strengthwise to drive overload is low simply because there's a ton of exercises and none are really being emphasized in the program.

In the end, it depends on your goal though. Personally, if I wanted to make someone big and strong in a short time frame, I'd go about it a lot differently. That doesn't mean it absolutely won't work for you at all and you won't enjoy yourself doing it which is really the crux of the matter.

 

[sublime35]

Thanks again Guiness

From the man himself, LOL , thanks Madcow, I'm gunna read over that thread and try to set up a workout. The only thing about my workouts is, sometimes I have to changes up my workout days, and sometimes I'm lifting 2 days in a row. due to a part time job and I don't have specifc hours that I work, week in and week out, and I know it's simple logic that you don't want to work the same muscles 2 days in a row, right?

edit: I thought I was going RDL's, but I've been doing just a simple barbell deadlift.

 

[Madcow2]

FYI - read the Squat, Dead, and Bench articles - they are some of the finest you will find anywhere on the net: http://www.midwestbarbell.com/totalelite/index.php?showtopic=14