Any Flaws In My Workout?

Training Beginners
1

Hey all, been lurking for quite some time now. First off i have to say this site may have too much information! Lots of great stuff and advice.

I’m in the Air Force and almost 6-weeks ago decided to get my ass back into shape. The two biggest things I have done so far is clean up my diet (eating six times a day also) and stop drinking Code Red Mountain Dew…I was drinking 6-12 a day…every day for about a decade.

I’m 6’2" and currently weight about 190 pounds. About six weeks ago I weighed 200…a bad 200. I had a 42" waist, which is now 38" and decreasing weekly (i tape only once a week to keep my sanity).
i want to work on building a little mass and getting cut but right now i keep losing weight.

Anyways, i started with a total body workout, but i found it exhausting and it took damn near an hour and a half to complete. I’ve since went to a split three days a week. However i feel this is not enough so i figured i would post what i’m doing and take any feedback from whomever wants to give it.

Monday
Interval training for 2-miles (takes me about 17-18 minutes)

Tuesday
3x10 dumbell shrugs
3x10 lat pull downs
3x10 lying t-bar row
3x10 seated cable rows

3x10 BB drag curl
3x10 DB hammer curls
3x10 DB curls

ABS work is 3 supersets of the following
crunch X 30
bent leg knew raise X 25
oblique v-ups X 30 (each side)
bridge (30-45 seconds)
supermans x 20

Wednesday
same cardio as Monday

Thursady
3x10 flat bench (smith machine)
3x10 incline bench (smith machine)
3x10 hammer strength machine

3x10 low pulley crossovers
3x10 low pulley front delt raise
3x10 external rotations

3x10 reverse grip tricep extension (cable)
3x10 dip machine
3x10 overhead cable pulldown

same ab work as Tuesday

Friday
either straight run for 2 miles or back to the interval training for 2 miles

Saturday
3x10 seated leg curl
3x10 lying leg curl
3x10 lunges

3x10 leg press
3x10 lying squat (low back issues right now)
3x10 leg extension

3x15 calf work on leg press machine
3x15 standing calf raise machine

same ab work as Tuesday and Thursday

Sunday is an off day

i plan on sticking to this for about 6-weeks (i just started this split this week) and then mixing up the exercises.

any thoughts? major flaws? wasted exercises?

thanks in advance…your country appreciates it!

2

Do a search on the “Superhero” program. I think that is something that you would like.

Don’t use the smith machine.

3

I’d swap some of your 3x10 for 5x5 or even 4x6. I’d also try and see if you can squat and deadlift (of course I see where you have back issues) so go slowly.

I’d also advise throwing in more compound work in as opposed to so many machines. Machines are fine but I’d like to see maybe a 4:1 ratio of freeweight vs. machine.

4

Add more volume to your rowing. You’ve got an imbalance brewing between push/chest day and back/bi day. Just look at your volume difference from benching to rowing. Or drop a bench variant. It could be worse though. Not too bad overall. You’re doing hamstrings before quads, that’s good. Do your lunges first in the workout when you’re fresh, then move to machines. In fact, stay away from machines and look for other alternative hamstring/glute exercises.

STAY AWAY FROM THE SMITH MACHINE. Free weights allow for more hypertrophy. I’m not necessarily an injury guy. I’ll leave that alone for now.

You’re doing a lot of running. That is probably slowing down your mass gains and the reason you’re still losing weight, other than eating at a caloric deficit. I assume you’re eating as much as you can, allowing for the fact that your meals are not under your total control at a mess hall.

Try to take some of that money that you used to use for Mountain Dew and grab other food items to bolster your intake and allow you to grow. I understand you have to train for your PT tests, so runnings part of the deal, but if you feel you can get a good score on the PT, drop a day of the running. Unless you can find a way to make up the third day of running with extra food every day. Either way it should help you.

I’d post more, but I need to get back to my projects due tomorrow…

5

Chewie…I have to say that at first I thought you were fucking with me. In fact I felt pretty damn stupid searching for Superhero. Let’s say I was relieved when I found it to be true! Looks like a good program…i’m gonna look into it.

Derek…sweet avatar! i think you’re right on the compound exercises. Also, I plan on moving away from the machines as soon as I get comfortable with everything. I’m still kind of a newbie on serious lifting (not a bodybuilder by any means!).

Aragorn…may be a dumb question but what do you mean by volume? I’m assuming more exercises. I also think you are right about the running. I wanted to drop body fat but now it seems i’m never gonna stop losing. I may be in a calorie deficit right now.

Thanks for the advice all!

6

[quote]HeelZ_Fan wrote:

Aragorn…may be a dumb question but what do you mean by volume? I’m assuming more exercises. I also think you are right about the running. I wanted to drop body fat but now it seems i’m never gonna stop losing. I may be in a calorie deficit right now.

Thanks for the advice all!
[/quote]

You are most definitely in a calorie deficit. Any time you lose bf or weight you are automatically in a calorie deficit. It’s the only way to lose fat. Read Massive Eating as a starting point for gaining muscle. I said what I said because I didn’t know if you had an upcoming Phys. Test to go through. I know it’s part of the job in the military, so I know a certain volume of running is unavoidable. And besides, as a military guy, you’re #1 job is to be in shape for long hauls and hard nights. But if you feel good about your running/rucking ability, kick it to the back burner while you try to gain muscle. You are not eating enough to gain. Combine less running with more eating and you’ll start to see improvements.

Re: volume–volume is defined in a general way as how much work you do for a specific lift (eg. bench or squat), or body part, or movement pattern (eg–horizontal push or horizontal pull).

There are many different ways to measure and track volume. The most widely used are probably the # of sets for a lift/body part/plane of movement, or the total # of repetitions in a week for a lift/body part/movement plane.

A key part of good training protocols is to strive for balance in volume and intensity for opposing movement planes and muscle groups (bench vs. row, chest vs. back, hamstrings vs. quads, etc). Volume is probably most important to balance out first. However, if the difference in intensity is too big, you’ll still run into problems in the long run. In other words if you do 10 sets of 5 reps for chest, but do 2 sets of 25 reps for your back, that’s not really balanced is it? Your chest is getting a much greater stimulus to grow. That’s why it’s ideal to balance intensity as well–they don’t have to be identical rep ranges, just fairly close.

Obviously the one exception to this balance is the point where you decide to specialize in a certain lift or body part to make it better. At that point you drop your volume and intensity for other things so you can work more intensely on the particular body part. But if you specialize for too long, then you end up imbalanced anyway.

Hope that helps.

7

Some great advice Ill just add to this comment

[quote]HeelZ_Fan wrote: i think you’re right on the compound exercises. Also, I plan on moving away from the machines as soon as I get comfortable with everything. I’m still kind of a newbie on serious lifting (not a bodybuilder by any means!).

[/quote]
well do it, no really just do it no weay to get better at them then just doing it.m drop the loads and ego and do it LOL. you can always mop up ltr with a lil of the stuff your comfortable with but do the real; work first dont wait

Phill