Beginner - Routine Help

Training Beginners
1

Hi, I am 16 years old and have read some of the articles on this site and made myself a routine. I am 6 feet tall, and weigh 150lbs. I want to get bigger. I need some help finishing up the routine and would like to know what you guys think. Thanks, here it is…

Day 1 Chest

CHEST:

Bench Press 1 warm up set then w/ bar
1x8 add more weight
2x6

Incline bench press
3x8

Cord front lateral raises w/ palms up (dont know the actual name)
3x12

Chest cable cross-overs
3x12

Chest Flys
3x10

Day 2 - Back & Biceps

Biceps:

Barbell curls
3x10

Dumbbell curls
3x10

cable flexing
3x10

Preacher curls
3x8

Hammer curls using cord and rope grip
3x8

Upper Back / Rear Deltoids

chest-supported rowing
3x8

Wide-grip lat pulldown
3x10

machine seated row
3x8

Shrugs
3x12

Day 3 â¿¿ Triceps & Shoulders

Triceps:

Tricep dips
3x???

flat DB triceps extension
3x8

cable triceps extension
3x12

Close-grip pushups max out

Shoulders

seated dumbbell shoulder press
3x8

Machine shoulder press (different grip than dumbbell shoulder press)
3x8

Dumbbell front lateral raises, Dumbbell side lateral raises, and Dumbbell shoulder press
(these three exercises done in a circuit⿦ no rest between each one, 3 exercises = 1 set)
3x15

I play hockey about 3-4 times a week, so I do not want to work on my legs at the gym. Let me know what you guys think and if i should change any amount of sets or reps for an exercise. Thanks in advance.

2

If I were you I would probably change the set and rep scheme of your bench press to 5x5 and then increase the weight every week. You could also probably just take out the cable lateral raises as I don’t really think they’re necessary in your routine for size. Put your cable crossovers at the end of chest day. You definitely don’t need that many exercises for biceps. Take out the cable flexing and preacher curls. On back day add deadlifts as they are the best back exercise for adding mass. Add skullcrushers to tricep day and take out one of the two extension exercises.

Also, playing hockey 3-4 days a week is only going to make it harder to gain weight. Another thing you might want to consider is that you are missing out on one of(if not the single) best exercise for gaining mass by not doing squats. So I urge you to throw in a leg day and do some squats. Lastly, no program is going to do any good unless you take in an abundance of calories. So try to get as much carbs and protein as possible along with healthy fats.

3

you are doing way too many sets and too many isolation movements. Start doing Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Shoulder press, Rows. Basically stick to compound lifts. You don’t need to do so many different exercises per body part. Stick to one major lift and maybe a second supplemental lift per body part. Seems like you are adopting the theory that more exercises and sets equals more gains. That’s just not the case. You will see more gains by doing less.

Try a 5X5 routine with 2-3 minutes rest in between sets. Just do the 5X5 for major compound lifts (i.e. squats, bench, etc…) don’t do it for arms. Just do 2 sets of 8-10 reps for arms (bi/tri) at the end of your workout. Trust me on this. I am a lot like you (6 ft 1 inch, 155 lbs). When I did the 5X5 routine I put on 10 pounds in no time. But I failed to adjust my calorie intake according to my new weight so I got discouraged and fell off the wagon. Now I’m back to square one. Just give it a try for a month and you will see. Also, make sure you are using the heaviest weight you can handle. When you get to that last set, you should really be struggling to get all the reps and the last one should be almost impossible.

When you can do all 5 sets of 5 reps fairly easily, increase the weight (usually about 10 pound increase on legs (Squat), and about 5 pound increase on upper body). The squat should be where you put in the most focus. Squatting will put muscle all over your body due to the release of teststerone and growth hormone from activating your largest muscle groups (quads,hams, and glutes). You just don’t get the same chemical release from biceps, shoulders, etc…(small muscle groups).

4

Workout A
Squat 3x5
Bench Press 3x5
Deadlift 1x5

Workout B
Squat 3x5
Press 3x5
Pendlay Row 3x5

Alternate like this:

Week 1
Monday A
Wednesday B
Friday A

Week 2
Monday B
Wednesday A
Friday B

EAT.

5

I think we’re still at the same point you were at in your last thread:

http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1857124

I’m not trying to knock you, but I don’t think you’ve listened to what people have been saying will help. At least I don’t really see a difference in the prog you’ve planned.

I still think you’d do better following something ready-made from Waterbury or Thib.

For example why have you got cable crossovers and flys on the same day? I think you’d do much better concentrating your energy on fewer exes. Anyway, I still say read the articles on prog design that I posted before on your last thread if you really want to design your own.

6

I’m feeling the christmas spirit… so decided to help out a lil

always do compound exercises first before your isolation

do more compound than isolation

ur doin 2 compound and 3 isolation…

ur total rep scheme isn’t on par with Chad Waterbury’s guidelines
and those are pretty good to guidelines to follow

you should just pick up the book… if you need ur information organized.

otherwise get back to the drawing boards