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Ok guys - intermediate lifter needs a bodybuilder routine

the.gladiator1987

Moderator
Platinum
Sup guys, lot of you know me on here. Anyway i wanna change my routine from strength training to bodybuilding training. I want size, im tired of strength training lol, and im sure i will still get stronger cuz i still wanna go heavy.

Anyway my current routine right now is usually 3 days a week.

Mon - squats (light because of a minor groin injury), bench, dips
Wed - deadlifts, btn military, handstand pushups
Fri - bench, rows, db military, anything else i feel like throwing in

The only thing i will say is that I like to bench 2x a week, I dont need to do chest 2x a week i just like to hit bench 2x a week it seems to help me better and i feel better when i do it more frequently.

So can you guys help me set somethin up? preferabbly 4-5 x a week, just some good stuff for MASS :) :evil:
 
Here is what i have, just a rough draft

Monday: Chest/Bi's
BB Bench
BB/DB Incline
Weighted Dips
BB/DB Curls
BB Reverse Curls
Hanging leg raises

Tuesday: Back
Deadlifts
Weighted Pullups
BB/DB Rows
Cable rows
Calf raises

Thursday: Shoulders/Tri's
Bench
Standing BTN Military
DB Military
Handstand Pushups
CGBP
1-arm reverse grip pulldowns
Hanging leg raises

Friday: Legs
Squats
Leg Press
SLDL
Calf raises
 
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Glad you are too funny bro. Reading your logs is like looking into the mind of any 20 year old lifter with your goals changing practically on a monthly basis.

One month it's to be strong as shit. The next it's to be the ultimate athlete. The next it's to be big as fuck lol.

I'm not knocking ya glad. It's just amusing because I was the same way at your age.

If you really want to get bigger you need to face facts.

You are going to have to eat more.

Unfortunately if you really want to get big you are going to lose some if not most of the definition you are accustomed to having for a certain amount of time.

With your base I'm guessing a solid year of hard lifting+high calorie intake could get you to 250lbs np with less bodyfat than I have. Then rip it down to 220-225lbs at your current level of bodyfat and you will qualify in my opinion as fucking yoked because you are already well muscled.

This is just my opinion. It's probably the fastest way, but definitely not the prettiest.

Oh ya, and anabolics to help fuel a higher percentage of muscle gained vs fat obviously won't hurt.

People always bring up bodybuilders, but what they never talk about is how fucking massive and bloated bodybuilders get in the offseason to get that big.

I remember reading about an old pro Mike Matarzzo and how his first 2-3 years lifting he was a fat fuck because he ate a shit load, but he built 22" arms. Then he cut it down and still had +20" arms and was like whos laughing now mutherfuckers lol.
 
lol I know bro, im jus tired of strength training and i wanna build some good mass and ur right i wanna get to about 225 then cut down to 215. Im only 5'9" and 225 lbs would be fuckin ridiculous, idk about 250, im just not built for that frame lol

I really need to eat more then. Can uhelp me with that? and what do u think of the routine :D
 
I could design any eating schedule based off percentages of macronutrients, total calories and recommend what foods to eat to do it, but you can find that stuff easily on ef in the diet/nutrition section I believe and you probably already know most of that.

As for your routine I would not train 5 days in a row, but that's me.

Keep in mind you are building up muscle outside of the gym and tearing it down in the gym.

I think you would be better served using a monday/tuesday---thursday/friday or thursday/saturday routine. Basically lift 4 days a week.

Everyone's recovery ability and exercise tolerance is different. On a light dose of roids I can handle 4 days of heavy training a week np. I'm sure I could handle 5 days if I wanted to, but I don't. Off roids I can do 4 days ew, but sleep and diet has to be totally spot on and I do alot better with 3 days a week.

If you think you can lift 5 days a week off roids and still make viable progress then more power to ya bro.

As for the exercises I think most of your choices are good. If I was going to design an absolutely basic bodybuilding program these are the exercises I would use:

Barbell squat
deadlift
leg press
stiff-legged deadlift
calf raise
bench press
decline dumbell bench alternated each week with---
incline dumbell bench
standing barbell press
side laterals
dumbell or barbell row, maybe alternate each week
chinups/pullups or pulldowns if too heavy/weak for real deal like my fat ass lol
power shrugs or power cleans
barbell curl alternate each week with dumbell curl
strict cable pressdown
close grip bench---prolly alternate with the decline/incline dumbell bench
wrist curls
situps, leg raises, light high rep sidebends


That's about it. That's around 4 exercises per day. That's just the basic list that I think would give a pretty solid bodybuilder development and is mostly compound lifts. Things like rear delt flyes, leg extensions, dumbell flyes, lunges etc can be added in later for detail or during a cutting phase, but for bulk building they are pointless imho.

Obviously if I was making a powerlifting program it would be abit different with 45 degree backraises thrown in and heavy sidebends and things that focus on powering up the big 3 lifts, but you get the picture.

I'm not a fan of redundancy in lifting. I used to be on the extreme side of undertraining from reading alot of Mike Mentzer and HIT training books/articles after getting nowhere from a solid 3 years of massive overtraining in high school while also doing all the wrong/not important lifts.

Then Madcow2 when he used to be on this forum introduced me and alot of other guy's into real training ie. basic periodization and 5x5 style programming.

Now I don't have a problem doing multiple exercises per body part, but I don't like doing more than about 2 exercises per body part. Sets I still like the old 3x8-10, but depending on the bodypart I might prefer to get more volume for that specific bodypart. Like back I may only do rows and pulldowns, but I'll do 5 sets for each exercise. For leg press I prefer sets of 15-18 reps and 4-5 sets to get volume in.

I guess I would consider myself a moderately low volume guy now. I'm not 1 set only per bodypart nor do I believe a bodypart can only be trained once a week or less, but I certainly don't believe in excess volume or pointlessly doing more exercises than is required.

I've read some of Dan John's work(very well known strength coach and lifter) and he often talks about just doing 3-4 exercises per workout. That's pretty much how I feel. Leg day for me is squats, leg press and maybe calf raises if I'm not strictly focused on a powerlifting style program.

Chest day is basically push day, bench, decline or incline or close grip, basically I prefer to alternate between the 3 and then a very strict cable pressdown for isolation and to get a good burn. That's 3 exercises. Bench would likely be 5x5 on a volume day or 1 top set of max reps. The assistance bench move aka decline/incline/closegrip would be done for probably 3 sets of 8-12. Less weight and done strictly. The pressdown 4-5 sets of 8-12 done super strict.

I don't do certain exercises because I have hurt myself doing them. Behind neck press is one of them. All it takes is to let one side of the bar stray back a tad too much when lowering the weight to injure your rotator cuff. I know this because I did behind neck presses for nearly 2 years in high school and then one day on the 3rd set I was getting tired and got a little loose and lightly injured my shoulder which stopped me from pretty much lifting altogether for about 6 weeks and ever since I still feel uncomfortable doing them so I don't.

This is just my opinion and I would change things depending on goals, but this is my general outlook on things.

You know what to do Glad. Make it happen. Your program overall is pretty decent imo except for some redundancy like behind neck press+dumbell press, but that's just my opinion. You'll be a solid 225lbs and look good at that weight. Just give it time and hardwork. Keep getting stronger and up the total calories.

You're a fuckin youngbuck. Powerlifters and even bodybuilders provided they don't run into any major setback often "peak" in their late 30's and early 40's so just keep on truckin.
 
Ghetto, you are awesome dude with you advice. Seriously! Glad, haha Im doing this too...maybe little diff then you but close
 
Like ghetto said, your going to have to sort your diet out. Most people dont realise how differant a real bodybuilding diet is to a powerlifters diet...

One thing that jumps out at me with the routine you just posted is you have 16 differant exercises for upper body and only 5 for lower body...
 
I would alternate pushing day (chest, military's, pushups, triceps etc), pulling day (rows, pull downs, biceps, upper back), and leg day (squats, deads, calves, anything legs)

and I would bump your workouts to 5 days a week and 70 minute sessions resting between sets. and then have a day where you only do 30 second rest between sets with less weights. throw your body off and teach it to adjust and be ready for anything. thats how you will build muscle.
 
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