Optimal Training for Muscle Growth

[steve_m33]

What's up everyone...

I'm 20 years old, 160 lbs, and have been lifting seriously for about 2 years. The thing is though, while my muscle mass has definitely increased, and while my body definitely looks tighter, I'm interested in finally making GAINS. So basically, I wanna know how many days per week I should be training to maximize muscle growth, and how many exercises/sets per body part I should be doing in order to stimulate growth most effectively.

Currently, I'll warm up with six circuits of olympic, cross fit style lifts. Example would be: Deadlift - Lunge - front squat/push press hybrid - good morning. All exercises, 6 reps, repeat x 6. I Find this gets my blood pumping, subsitutes as a HIIT cardio workout, and prepares me mentally to lift.

Current split looks like this.

Monday: Shoulders and Tris
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Chest + Bis

So normally on the two bodypart days, I'll superset one major move with one minor... e.g. Shoulder Press - Skull crusher. Again, high intensity, really works my body. Typically, I like to do three exercises, four sets for each body part. All exercise choices for the major body parts are compound moves (presses, rows, chinups, squats... the usual). I just started this program a week ago, so it's fairly new.

Any comment? I currently eat fairly low carb (all carbs come from nuts and veggies, but I eat a ton of each), with the majority of my cals coming from eggs, beef, chicken, and various oils on my salads. Eating clean isn't an issue for me... although I normally 'cheat' with something sweet once a week.

 

[NJL52]

What's up everyone...

I'm 20 years old, 160 lbs, and have been lifting seriously for about 2 years. The thing is though, while my muscle mass has definitely increased, and while my body definitely looks tighter, I'm interested in finally making GAINS. So basically, I wanna know how many days per week I should be training to maximize muscle growth, and how many exercises/sets per body part I should be doing in order to stimulate growth most effectively.

Currently, I'll warm up with six circuits of olympic, cross fit style lifts. Example would be: Deadlift - Lunge - front squat/push press hybrid - good morning. All exercises, 6 reps, repeat x 6. I Find this gets my blood pumping, subsitutes as a HIIT cardio workout, and prepares me mentally to lift.

Current split looks like this.

Monday: Shoulders and Tris
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Chest + Bis

So normally on the two bodypart days, I'll superset one major move with one minor... e.g. Shoulder Press - Skull crusher. Again, high intensity, really works my body. Typically, I like to do three exercises, four sets for each body part. All exercise choices for the major body parts are compound moves (presses, rows, chinups, squats... the usual). I just started this program a week ago, so it's fairly new.

Any comment? I currently eat fairly low carb (all carbs come from nuts and veggies, but I eat a ton of each), with the majority of my cals coming from eggs, beef, chicken, and various oils on my salads. Eating clean isn't an issue for me... although I normally 'cheat' with something sweet once a week.

Not trying to be a prick or anything but....

Read the God damn stickies.

Nothing you do follows common knowledge that is posted everywhere on these forums.

 

[steve_m33]

Not trying to be a prick or anything but....

Read the God damn stickies.

Nothing you do follows common knowledge that is posted everywhere on these forums.

Eaaaaaasy man, I don't get what you mean. Basically I just upped the intensity of my workouts... what you just said provides absolutely zero guidance.

As far as common knowledge posted on the site... I just see a lot of guys doing 5x5 training or standard 4 sets of 8-12. Seriously though, I obviously respect your opinion or I wouldn't ask, what's a better way of going about it?

 

[NJL52]

Use the training vault: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/w...xercises-articles-more-start-here-484815.html

It has links to guides about everything from body building routines to strength building routines to diet guides.

Posting a thread in this forum asking for help is usually encouraged to be questions about minor tweaks or smaller things. What you have is a need to learn everything.

Performing HIIT while trying to gain mass is counter effective.
Eating clean limits body growth. Cheating is non existent while body building.
Training large muscle groups causes your smaller muscle groups to grow faster then actually focusing on the smaller groups. (Squatting builds your calves better then calve specific workouts.)
Shoulders + Bis are two very minor muscle groups. They don't need their own day. They build in a synergistic manner with the core lifts.

etc.

Just read whatever you can get your hands on until you can figure out what is best for you.