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Mass and Strength Routine

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New member
What's up fellas,
I am starting a new routine adapted from Chris Confessore. It looked like a good routine that did not have too many sets per bodypart (only 9 for eaach). Here it is:
Monday: Legs and Back
Squats-3 sets of 5
Leg Curls-3 sets of 8
Seated Calf Raises- 3 sets of 8
Barbell Rows-3 sets of 5
Lat Pulldowns-3 sets of 6
Seated Rows-3 sets of 6

Wednesday: Chest and Triceps
Bench Press-3 sets of 5
Dumbell Incline Bench Press-3 sets of 6
Dumbell Flyes-3 sets of 6-8
Skull Crushers-3 sets of 5
Tricep Pushdowns-3 sets of 6
Hands Together Push-ups-3 sets of 12

Friday:Shoulders and Biceps
Side Laterial Raises:3 sets of 6
Shrugs-3 sets of 6
Rotator Cuff Exercise-3 sets of 12-15
Barbell Curls-3 sets of 6
Hammer Curls-3 sets of 8
Incline Dumbell Curls-3 sets of 8

I am not doing any shoulder presses right now because I just came back from a month layoff because of a rotator cuff injury (the reason for the rotator cuff exercise replacing the presses). PLease critique this routine. Thank you.
 
Welcome to the board brother. If shoulder presses are out, then why the inclusion of barbell bench presses? Dumbbells should give more freedom of movement for pressing, but it comes down to the individual. One angle can cause alot of pain for someone, and no pain for the next person. Hammer Strength Machines and other chest machines may be better while healing as well, but I would say just go by your pain level. If you are feeling excessive pain on a movement its probably not going to work out well. Try to find the movements which hurt the least on the joint, and make those your movements. This will allow you to continue training around injuries and adapt.

Of course, sometimes its best to just do rehab work or lay off an area completely, but that is something you have to feel out for yourself. If you already took a break then it may be good to get back in and re strengthen the area.

Everyone is different when it comes to rep ranges, but I feel that 12-15 was a better range for me, especially in the beginning. Low reps are also going to mean you need to go much heavier to hit failure, which is not good for healing joints. I believe in always hitting failure on main sets, unless training around strains or an injury, for the most part. I dont feel that you are forcing any type of growth or adaption from the muscle when you dont push it to the limit. The body adapts very quickly.

For legs you can easily exceed 20 rep sets and still be training very heavy. It comes down more to entering a pain zone that most dont want to. Its hard to hit real failure on legs especially. Or atleast it will be later, if the strength is not developed yet.

I wouldnt limit yourself to 9 sets per exercise either. That type of thinking is very rigid and leads to limiting your capabilities in my opinion. Just hit the main movements that feel best to you, and dont worry about the sets on each movement. If you can keep tearing shit up then continue doing so. You really have to force your body to respond to get continued growth, so you shouldnt fall into the habit of being complacent with training. It may work in the early stages but it wont once you get beyond the beginning stage. You didnt mention your lifting history, so I dont know if you are a beginner, but theres alot here that can be applied to your situation. Just based off my personal experience of course. Id reccomend never taking what anyone says at full value. I prefer to take pieces of everything and burn my own path, form my own ideas. The more knowledge to build with the better. The real test is in what you do during training and how hard you push your eating.

Would not reccomend 5 rep skull crushers at all. If you are going to do them an incline bench can take some pressure off the elbows, BUT they can be very damaging to the elbows. Coming off rotator injuries Id reccomend dropping them and hitting cables. Its a myth that ANY exercise cannot be done with the same intensity as any other movement. You just need to take shit to places where people are afraid to go. Try dropsetting down the stack, hitting each set to failure with no rest on the way down. Then go into some curling. Youll get a full arm pump by alternating bis and tris, rahter than doing one first. Also find it better to train arms on a dedicated day. I dont reccomend all dropsets and supersets, you want heavier work in there too. With no rest sets you are much more fatigued. So Id reccomend mixing it up.

Exercise selection looks overall solid. There is some ancillary shit you can do too, which wouldnt hurt. Having imbalances is more than just an issue with the appearance of muscle, it can cause structural problems. Not having developed rear delts can pull the joint out of the socket, if you have too much front delt development. Its good to have more stability in your joints with fuller development I believe. Core work, (lower back abs), rear delts, forearms, etc. Forearms will get good stimulation from curling and if you can get to a point where you DITCH straps. Only do so if your grip is good enough to do so. You dont want your grip strength to limit your back work. I believe straps can cause major issues and carpal tunnel over time. The way they pull on the hands is very unnatural. I switched over to gripping everything after having permanent numbness in my hands for 6 years now.

My basic starter routine , that I added more and more to, was basically 12 sets for everything except back and legs which were 15 sets each. And I aimed for 12-15 reps. It set a good foundation but I quickly modified it. It worked well because I had a list of movements that covered all the bases.

Youll have to experiment to find the best movements and rep ranges for yourself. As mentioned, I prefer to include the entire spectrum of rep ranges, except maybe 2 rep and 1 rep maxing. With the 1 rep maxing especially, I feel it only really builds ego and not muscle or strength. I got all my strength from the rep work. When I put in the volume with the rep sets to failure.

An important part of that was not cutting back my ascending sets. When ascending the pyramid I mean. I might have 1 or 2 warm up sets that I didnt take to failure, often times only 1 set, sometimes I even took the first and lightest set to failure. When you cut back your lighter warm up sets, you end up making them worthless sets, aside from warming the joints. Which means maybe you had one good set on the exercise. Trying to break records while taking most of your sets to failure will make it harder to do so, and force the body to become even stronger and larger.

You should aim for records on nearly all your ascending sets on the pyramid. Once you reach your heaviest set of the pyramid, try dropsetting down the stack or rack. You are unlikely to break records on your way down, so this is an efficient way to cram in more volume and finish the shit out of the muscle, with the no rest descention. Just some ideas.


Of course, dont do the strength shit I mentioned if your joints are still fucked up. That can wait. You can grow with super high reps, no rest between sets, etc. Many ways to force adaption. You have to push the limits in whichever methods you choose however. Embrace the fucking pain zone when you are doing dropsets or high rep shit. When the severe burning starts, consider that the start of the set. You dont want your joints to burn like hell though if they are already injured, so feel shit out.

KEEP KILLIN THAT SHIT !!
 
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