Beginner Looking to Start Over

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

So Ive been told my routine is a piece of shit, and Im looking to start a new routine.

Im a skinny 5’9 153 exrunner, and from when i started 6 months ago to now my routine has evolved to this.
It is a 3 day cycle:
1.Back/Chest/Shoulder
2. Triceps/Biceps/Forearms
3. Cardio/Legs
(I do core/lower back work almost everyday)

I do two cycles and take 1 day off a week, and
I try to take about 1.5 minutes between sets.

Day 1:
DB Flat Chest Press 4 Sets 6 reps (4x6)
Cable Lat Pulldowns 4x7
DB Incline Chest Press 4x6
Pull-Ups 3 sets to failure
Chest Flys 3x7
Machine Seated Row 4x6 (soon to be DB rows)
DB Seated Shoulder Press 3x8
DB Front Shoulder Lifts 3x10
DB Side Shoulder Lifts 3x10
Abs/Core/Back work
Stretch

Day 2:
DB Curls (10 from straight to 90, then 8 full curls) 2x(10+8)
Overhead DB Tricep Extensions 3x8
Iso EZ-bar Curls 3x8-10
DB Tri Ext 3x8-10
High Cable Curls 3x8-10
Low Cable Tri Extensions
Wrist Curls to failure x2
Wrist Ext to failure x2
Abs/Core/Lower Back
Stretch

Day 3:
25-30 min. treadmill run Pace:7:30mile Incline 2-3
Squats 3x10
Core/Abs/Lower Back

Since everyone has said its shit, my questions are these:

Can it be modified to something good?

And if not, what routine from this site would you suggest?

i’ve been told to go w/ west side for skinny bastards, but that only is 3 days a week, id feel like i was wasting potential if i wasn’t doing something 5-6 days a week, is this wrong?

if its not wrong, is there a good way to modify WSFSB, or should i go with something thats designed for ppl who don’t have another sport to do the other days?

I know thats a lot but if you can help me out with any of these questions, thanks in advance.

2

[quote]Mephetic436 wrote:
So Ive been told my routine is a piece of shit, and Im looking to start a new routine.

Im a skinny 5’9 153 exrunner, and from when i started 6 months ago to now my routine has evolved to this.
It is a 3 day cycle:
1.Back/Chest/Shoulder
2. Triceps/Biceps/Forearms
3. Cardio/Legs
(I do core/lower back work almost everyday)

I do two cycles and take 1 day off a week, and
I try to take about 1.5 minutes between sets.

Day 1:
DB Flat Chest Press 4 Sets 6 reps (4x6)
Cable Lat Pulldowns 4x7
DB Incline Chest Press 4x6
Pull-Ups 3 sets to failure
Chest Flys 3x7
Machine Seated Row 4x6 (soon to be DB rows)
DB Seated Shoulder Press 3x8
DB Front Shoulder Lifts 3x10
DB Side Shoulder Lifts 3x10
Abs/Core/Back work
Stretch

Day 2:
DB Curls (10 from straight to 90, then 8 full curls) 2x(10+8)
Overhead DB Tricep Extensions 3x8
Iso EZ-bar Curls 3x8-10
DB Tri Ext 3x8-10
High Cable Curls 3x8-10
Low Cable Tri Extensions
Wrist Curls to failure x2
Wrist Ext to failure x2
Abs/Core/Lower Back
Stretch

Day 3:
25-30 min. treadmill run Pace:7:30mile Incline 2-3
Squats 3x10
Core/Abs/Lower Back

Since everyone has said its shit, my questions are these:

Can it be modified to something good?

And if not, what routine from this site would you suggest?

i’ve been told to go w/ west side for skinny bastards, but that only is 3 days a week, id feel like i was wasting potential if i wasn’t doing something 5-6 days a week, is this wrong?

if its not wrong, is there a good way to modify WSFSB, or should i go with something thats designed for ppl who don’t have another sport to do the other days?

I know thats a lot but if you can help me out with any of these questions, thanks in advance.[/quote]

Chin up. You’ve improved from where you were at and you’ve got some enthusiasm.

5-6 days per week is too much for a beginner. If you’ve been reading Flex, Muscle and Fitness and the like you will probably feel that you should be training 5-6 days per week.

This is not XC Running. I’ve been a triathlete and I know that to get good at running, you need to put the miles into the legs every single day. The same principle does not apply for lifting.

Your current program is lacking the exercises that actually put the mass on. You need to get into the squats, deadlifts and presses. I know you’re doing 3x10 squats but it is not enough to promote growth.

There are 2 programs I would point you towards. Westside for Skinny bastards. Even though it is 3-4 days per week, it is definetly enough because you are focusing on the money exercises that tax the body.

If for some reason you feel you need to be doing something the bulk of the time I would check out Charles Poliquins German Volume Training. It’s on here somewhere or simply google it. That entails 3 out of 5 days training.

At your age, level and experience 5 or 6 days a week is way, way, way too much.

3

I remember you had some lower-body injuries. Are they fully healed now or are there still lower-body exercises you can’t do?

Lots of people have made good gains working out three days a week and keeping the workouts short (45-60 minutes).

4

Yes, theyre all healed now, but the back-issue is chronic, ive had sacro-iliac problems 5 times in 7 years, so im still going to be cautious.

5

ok, so now that ive decided to give the Westside program a go i have a few questions about it.

  1. When it says "work up to max of 3-5), what does that mean specifically ? Go to the highest weight i can do 3 w/ and stick with it till i can do 6?

  2. MAX come first. Got that, but can the order of the next few vary or is there a reason for it.

  3. He says dont stick w/ the max lift longer than 2-3 weeks b4 rotating, any good protocol on rotating the others?

6

[quote]Mephetic436 wrote:
ok, so now that ive decided to give the Westside program a go i have a few questions about it.

  1. When it says "work up to max of 3-5), what does that mean specifically ? Go to the highest weight i can do 3 w/ and stick with it till i can do 6?

  2. MAX come first. Got that, but can the order of the next few vary or is there a reason for it.

  3. He says dont stick w/ the max lift longer than 2-3 weeks b4 rotating, any good protocol on rotating the others?[/quote]

  4. 3-5 is more of a choice where you can work up to a max set of 3 or 4 or 5 reps. Depending on the person you can drift any way you want. As far as waiting till you can do 6 to up the weight, it could work and hell maybe it’s effective, but I doubt it for the following reason: When you’re training in the low rep ranges it’s gonna be a while before you can do another rep with that weight. If you’re doing 3 reps you need to lift 1.33 times the weight to get to 4. Then to get to five you need to lift yet another fairly large percentage more. Stick with picking a max set to work to (3-5) reps and increase the weight a bit each time.

2.The reason is more or less to work all the muscle fibers, provide variation within a quick period of time to keep your muscles exposed to all new things, and to allow you to go more all out on the particular day. If you do two max effort days in a row, you’re using the same muscle fibers, straining them the same way, and your CNS is gonna have a harder time with it. If your do a max effort day, and then a light day it stresses your body differently.

  1. There’s no real protocol. Just choose exercises that are effective and give variation.
7

I’d just add one more thing: don’t rotate the non-max exercises too often. If you haven’t done them at all before it will take a few weeks to do them efficiently enough to really stimulate the muscles - so give each exercise 4-8 weeks before you change it.

Edit: I just realized that’s pretty much what today’s tip says…

8

your lower back muscles (on average) take about 100 hours to recover, as I remember. Don’t train your lower back every day.

9

Hey buddy, I just wanted to say that you are doing good. The thing is that you started training. You did not know everything but you started. Most people never start, also the weight you gained is six months is scale weight but I’d bet that you may have been skinny fat and that you have actually probably gained more lean muscle than that.

That would not be normal for most people but for a distance runner it would not be abnormal. You are doing good, you have a great attitude and you are asking the right questions. People on this site can be pretty harsh, you have taken it like a man. I have no doubt that you have improved your physique and look forward to hearing and seeing more progress in the years to come. Good job bro!