Critique my routine

[SteelWeaver]

I've just spent about 6 weeks lifting as heavy as I can for 6-8 reps (compound), 8-10 reps (isolation) in the first 3 weeks, then 3-5 reps (compound) and 6-8 reps (isolation) in the second 3 weeks. Each body part worked every 5-6 days. Lots of negatives, forced reps, some drop sets. Purpose was to try to increase strength, though I did put on a little size, too. Did 4 sets of 4 exercises for almost all body parts.

Goal: to use (slightly) increased strength to increase hypertrophy.
Six week programme.

Did one week pretty low intensity to rest up a bit, then started the following program last week. Loosely based on Fred Hatfield's ABC training.

Day 1 (Mon) Chest, Bis, Calves, Abs

Incline Smith press 4x5
Incline dumbell press 4x8
Cable cross-overs 4x12
Barbell bicep curl 3x5
Dumbbell preacher curl 3x8
High cable bicep curl 3x12 (the one that looks like front double bicep pose)
Single/double standing calf raises 3x15-20
Seated calf raises 3x15-20
Various abs 4x15-30

Day 2 (Tue) Legs, shoulders, abs
Squats 4x5
Incline leg presses 4x8
Leg extensions 4x12
Stiff legged deadlifts 4x8
Lying hamstring curl 4x12
Upright rows 3x5
Dumbbell presses 3x8
Lateral raises 3x12
Various abs 4x15-30

Day 3 (Thur) Back, triceps, forearms, abs
This is what I *want* to do:
T-bar rows 4x5
Low row 4x8
Standing straight-arm lat pulldown 4x12
Triceps dips 3x5
Triceps overhead extensions 3x8
Pushdowns 3x12
Barbell wrist curls (superset with below) 2x15
Reverse-grip b/b bicep curls 2x15
Various abs 4x15-30

This is what my gym owner *suggests* I do:
Lat pulldowns 4x8
Low row 4x8
Standing straight-arm lat pulldown 4x8
Same as above for tris, etc.

Day 4 (Sat) Chest, Bis and calves, abs again
Day 5 (Mon) Legs, shoulders, abs again
Day 6 (Tue) Back, triceps, forearms, abs again
And so on

2 mins rest between every set.

Problem is, I came to the conclusion after I added about 10-13 kilos to my squat and 5 kilos to my bench and, like ZERO to my back that my biceps are the weak link here. So I put in the straight-arm pulldowns to take them out and make my lats GROW, because they don't seem to want to. According to Hatfield, if you keep one low-rep power move in there, you maintain your strength while allowing for hypertrophy with the other exercises (??). My gym owner (not my trainer - no trainer) seems to be convinced lat pulldowns at 8 reps will do the trick, but I'm sure I did something like this before and it made no difference.

I intend to do all the exercises for one bodypart as tri or giant sets every alternate week or so, with 1 or 2 sets of about 40 reps on the non-tri-set weeks (apparently increases capillarisation which helps to increase hypertrophy).

I like to work each part every 5 or 6 days because once a week just didn't seem to be doing it for me - I made zero progress increasing weights. Also, even if I do drop sets on the last 2 sets of every exercise, my soreness goes away after 2 or 3 days, maybe 4 for legs. Amost never feel back unless I do high reps and lots of drops sets. Forced reps on back just make my arms sore. Gym owner said form is perfect. I'm obsessive about form, so it must be OK.

Calves and shoulders are lagging IMO. Calf machine at gym is crap - about 1000 years old and painful to use, leaves sore lower back for days - am trying one-legged on it.

If a part's lagging, do you blitz it more or less???? What rep cadence do you guys/women use? Should I go slower if I'm not feeling it? Like on heavy squats - my legs don't get lactic-acid burn (reps too low), they just cave in and stop working. Only way to get a burn on almost anything is drop sets, sometimes forced, or high reps (not so useful), or slow reps. Think tri/giant sets will help???

Would greatly appreciate any advice, opinions, etc. Most of this is from BOOKS - I'm still learning.

 

[OTCbooty]

Holy crap SW, you don't ask for much, do ya? I think you've heard that before...

Bumping for you. Getting into that detailed routine info is not my thing.

A few observations though, from my experience and not much from books :

Using lower reps on the exercises that use compound muscle groups, and higher reps on isolation work, has worked really well for me. You get the best of both worlds, working for strength on the big exercises, then making sure your muscles are "finished off".

Just because you don't feel the burn always, doesn't mean you aren't fatiguing the muscles enough to make them grow. And conversely, if I did sets of 150 leg extensions, I would certainly feel the burn, but probably not be doing anything to really build muscle. I wouldn't make that the focus of my training. If your legs go kaput, you've done what you need to do. You really shouldn't be sore for a week after your workout...a couple days is just right.

If I remember correctly, you're fairly new to training? It sounds to me like you're trying to incorporate an awful lot of advanced techniques, and it almost sounds like you're doing too much--doing SO much muscle break down with forced reps, drop sets etc that your body is only able to hold it's own...not hypertrophy. And if you now increase the frequency of your training, you might push the scales toward losing muscle.

Calves tend to be a genetic challenge. There are lots of ways to work them though, don't rely on a crappy machine...With an aerobic step, or even a length of 2X4, you can doing standing calf raises using the smith machine, sit on the bench and use the pad that goes behind the ankles on a hamstring curl machine, you can use the leg press, or dumbbells standing on a step...Just try something different. If you do some variety where the knee is bent rather than straight-legged, you will hit the gastroc. and the soleus, instead of just the gastrocnemius.

Lagging parts...I've had some issues in this area and the first thing I did was to look at my training split, exercises and muscle mechanics...since you're looking at doing chest on Mon (inclines heavily incorporate front delts) then directly hitting the shoulders on Tues, you may run into overtraining issues which won't help the matter any.

Back training...I'd start out with some low rep deadlifts, then do some rows etc. If you're patient, grip and arm strength will catch up. You could try using straps at the end of your workout, once your arm strength totally fails, so you can continue to work your back.

Again, bumping for others' opinions....

 

[SteelWeaver]

"Holy crap SW, you don't ask for much, do ya? I think you've heard that before..."

LOL!!! You're so cool, OTC! I'm just SOOOooo excited to finally find a bunch of people, women no less, who are as into bodybuilding as I am, and who actually know something about it!!!!! AND, and this is big - speak English. Somehow, even with reasonably good Japanese, it's just not the same. Anyway, I don't know any female BB's over here.

I've had about a zillion questions bouncing around my head for a year, with no-one to answer them, and I have new ones all the time! You ain't seen nothin' yet, girl!

About overtraining - well, I started weight training almost 2 years ago, but spent the first year knowing nothing more than what I had read in "Weight Training for Dummies", so didn't make much visible progress.

Then I got a trainer for a few months at the beginning of the year, and started studying big time, everything I can lay my hands on. Since then I've made better progress. And actually, I've cut 3 sets off my bis and tris routines for this cycle. (Although, they're what seemed to grow most in the last cycle, so this might turnout to be a bad move).

Thaks for the info on calves. Last night I did 6 sets in a row, standing, seated - wow!

I think you're right about doing delts after chest - I think I should switch legs and back day.

Do you do deadlifts every week? If I do deadlifts and SDL's that's OK?

Again, thanks, and BUMP for any other opinions ...

 

[new@gettinbig]

If you are looking for a good solid routine...do a search. W6 has posted every bodypart and they are very good basic ways of training. Lifting heavy and hard..3-4 exercises per body part with 8-10 reps. Its very simple to follow. Worked for me I wouldn't do 4 sets of 12....nor would I put chest/bis/calves/and abs together. You end up spending more time in the gym and cant really focus on any part very well. Abs do not need to be done every day..if you want abs it is 90% diet...you can train em all you want but if you are not lean enough they will not show!!!!

 

[OTCbooty]

Kay, so you've been working out a while, which is longer than I have, so take with a grain of salt....and a grain of salt is about all I know when compared to some of the gurus around here.

Getting into a routine with deadlifts should help you a lot, and not just with your back. They stress the whole body and are great for stimulating growth....you should ache from the neck down after a good DL workout. If you replace one of your lat exercises with 3-4 sets of conventional deadlifts, it should be a good start. Warm up to them over a few weeks before you start to hit them really heavy, then decide whether you want to do them weekly. You might want to rotate and do heavy deadlifts/lighter squats one week, heavy squats/lighter deadlifts the next, since both put a lot of stress on the lower back.

With any split, you have to watch out for the overlaps, like you'd have with incline presses one day, and direct shoulder work the next. If you switch to
1 chest/bis
2 back/tris/forearms
3
4 legs/shoulders

you need to keep in mind that biceps are heavily used in back exercises...which puts you in the same position you started with chest/delts. Since you think your bis are a weak point in training back, this won't help any. If you want to do this, I'd put chest/tris and back/biceps together...should be a very complementary split, since many chest exercises are tricep-assisted, and the same for back/biceps.

Whatever you try, let us know you're doing and how you think it's working out...And as for weight lifting for dummies, when I started working, I did a little circuit of lat pulldowns, pec deck, ham curls, and leg extensions. Whoo. Really tough stuff.

 

[SteelWeaver]

Abs do not need to be done every day..if you want abs it is 90% diet...you can train em all you want but if you are not lean enough they will not show!!!!

Mmm - thanks - I know. I'm not too worried about seeing them right now - I've NEVER been able to see them! I start leaning out in January. I just want to make sure there's something to see once the fat comes off. I used to train them just twice a week, and once I stepped it up to 4xper week, I found I could actually FEEL the blocks under the fat.

That said, I hate working abs, so I'm gonna take your advice and cut one day!

And, I searched wilson6's posts and found some stuff - will study - thanks.

OTC - I realised that about biceps and back after I thought about it, and figure there really isn't much I can change that won't affect another muscle group. But, I won't ALWAYS have delts directly after chest day, since I'm working a 4-day training week on a 3-day split:

1 Chest, bis, calves
2 Legs, delts
3
4 Back, triceps, forearms
5
6 Chest, bis, calves
7
8 Legs, delts
9 Back, tris, forearms
etc.

Next step - LEARN DEADLIFTS!! Will ask gym owner guy, although he was reluctant to teach me bent-over rows - said they were too advanced for me!!

"Heavy squats" i.e. as much weight as possible, low reps, to failure. "lighter squats": lower weight, higher reps, short of failure??

Thanks again!

 

[OTCbooty]

Too advanced???? If you were talking about power cleans or dumbbell swings, then maybe. But deadlifts and rows? Spare me. Deadlifts belong particularly in a routine where a person needs to put on mass. Who needs mass more than a non-advanced trainee? I won't caution you about form, you've already said you're totally anal about it so I'm sure you'll do just fine. Sounds to me like Mr Gym may not be considering your goals. Or he thinks you're too fragile

Light vs heavy...should apply to the weight and therefore the rep range you use, but not really to difficulty. Just to pick some random numbers...say you use 185 to squat tough sets of 5 reps; on a lighter day, you'd used say 150...those final reps should be tough also. The strain on the lower back is reduced a lot just by using less total load.

I directly work my abs a staggering once every 9 days, not that I claim to have amazing abs or anything. You can build a good foundation just through squats and deadlifts, which limits the amount you really need to worry about them directly.

 

[SteelWeaver]

Sounds to me like Mr Gym may not be considering your goals. Or he thinks you're too fragile

Too fragile!!!! Pa hah ha ha ha haa ha ... Maybe! I thought I was the biggest girl he'd ever met - well, height-wise anyway, but maybe he just can't get past the GIRL thing.

I told him I wanted to learn rows, so he asked me to show him, so I did, and he said - no, your lats aren't moving - this exercise is no good for you at this stage - better you do one-arm rows.

Damn! I shouldn't have been such a pussy!

Tonight ... DEADLIFTS or BUST!!!! Whoo hoo!