[quote]ballsout wrote:
Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Ok… So, as I told matt above, a 3-way is a very flexible routine… The one I have in mind can be done anywhere from 3 days a week up to 5-6, depending on how you feel and how much time you have.
That would be a standard bodybuilding routine, somewhat yates-inspired and recently overhauled, similar routines have worked very well for many of “my trainees”.
Alternative would be a Wendler 5/3/1-based routine over either 3 or 4 days a week. Progression on the main lifts is fairly stiff/planned in this case. At least to a large degree.
Pick one…
I’m 179, 5’ 10", arms are 15.5 cold & flexed
I’ll take the 6 day bodybuilding routine with a side salad and iced tea.
[/quote]
6 days a week, ok… You can take a day or two off whenever you feel the need, though, make use of that.
Basic split would be:
Chest, Back, Traps
-Chest Press (Low-Incline, Flat, Decline, Machine, BB, DB, Smith, …)
(-could do another chest exercise, but I’d not do that right away. Ease into things first and focus on progression)
-Backwidth Exercise (pulldowns, pullups, rack chins)
-Backthickness Exercise (kroc rows, yates rows, rack pulls,…)
(-Trap exercise but only if you’re not doing rack pulls or conv. deadlifts) (greene shrugs, for example, work best with DB’s and straps… Bend forward a bit from the hips, keep your head forward, shrug not so that your shoulders come to your ears but basically to behind your head, sort of. )
Legs, Abs (you can go either calves, hams, quads or quads, hams, calves… Depends.)
-Quad Exercise (Back Squats, Front Squats, Leg Presses, Hack Machine Squats, etc)
-Ham Exercise (sumo deads with wide stance, SLDL’s, lying leg curls, reverse-hyper-machine, glute-ham raises, sumo-leg-presses, PL good mornings…)
-Ab Exercise (weighted, which means pulldown abs, hanging leg raises with db, decline situps with plate behind head, that kind of thing, but you can also do some ab-wheel rollouts)
-Calf Exercise (I don’t have to list those, right? 
Delts, Arms (order depends on exercise selection, and no, you don’t really need to do 6 exercises here… explanation below)
-Bicep exercise (alt. curls possibly with offset grip, incline offset curls, one-arm db curls, bb curls, ez curls, machine curls…)
-Tricep Press (CGP elbows tucked and flaring out when pressing up, In-Human press, wide-Smith RGB with thumb and index finger-grip, board CGP…)
-Tricep extension/pullover variant (Dead Extensions, Bent-Over overhead Rope Extensions, PJR’s with one or two DB’s, …)
-Brachialis/Forearm exercise (pinwheel curls, alt. hammers)
-Overhead Press variant (SHIPs, free-weight HIPs, Mil Press, Seated DB OHP, V-squat/power-squat push presses, machine-work…)
-Laterals (done as a mix between db upright row and regular lateral… You start with db’s on your thighs and likely in a neutral grip, leaning forward a bit from the hips. As you raise the 'bells forcefully, you pronate your grip while bringing the elbows up and to your sides, keep the weight somewhat close-ish to the body, meaning that at the top you will likely have a 90 or more degree bend in the elbows.)
Ok… We have 2 possible ways of going about this.
- Do the same exercise(s) every time you train the same muscle-group again, but alternate between 2 different rep-ranges.
(i.e. chest workout 1: Low-Incline BB, 8-12, or 10-15 or so, chest workout 2: low-incline BB 4-6 or 6-8 or whatever)
You’d need:
1-2 chest exercises
1 backwidth
1 backthickness
1 trap exercise
1 quad
1 ham
1 calf
1-2 ab movements
1-2 shoulder exercises (not 2 presses)
1-2 tricep exercises (not 2 presses and not free-weight CGP if you’re doing a press for delts)
1 bicep exercise
1 brachialis/forearm exercise
- Have 2 different versions of each workout, exercise-selection-wise.
(i.e. chest session 1: Low-inc BB, 8-10 reps… Session 2: Hammerstrength Iso Chest Press, 8-10 reps)
For this option you’ll need a total of:
-at least 2 different chest press variants (4 if you decide to add a second chest exercise per workout, but don’t do that just yet)
-2 different backwidth exercises
-2 different back-thickness exercises (balance low-back involvement! Not 2 deadlift variants but kroc rows and rack pulls or something like that, so that you can do a heavy ham exercise on one of your leg days without having to worry about frying your low-back)
-one or 2 (if you’re not doing any deadlift variants for backthickness) exercises for traps (different shrugs)
-2 quad exercises
-2 ham exercises (not 2 low-back involving ones, except if you choose rev-hyper machine… Go for something like SLDL’s and lying leg curls or so)
-2 weighted ab exercises or 1 weighted plus ab wheel rollouts or so
-2 calf exercises
(delt+arm day can be done in many ways… Either 3 exercises total per session, i.e.
overhead press
pullover/extension variant
Brachialis/forearm exercise
and
Bicep exercise
Tricep Press
Laterals
or with more exercises… So the number of exercises you need to pick varies.
-one overhead press variant if you want to do free-weight CGP for triceps, but you can use 2 overhead press variants if you pick 2 smith presses for triceps or we alternate emphasis (1 workout we do an overhead press + laterals but only a pullover/extension for tris, the other workout we do only laterals for delts but a press and a pullover/extension for tris…)
-one or two presses for triceps
-two pullover/extension variants for triceps or just one if you want to keep the overall volume low and go for only 3 exercises total per delts/arms day.
-one or 2 bicep curl variants
-one or 2 brachialis+forearm curl variants
-laterals as described above, only need that one variation, but you can add machine laterals or so as a second variant for easier progression.
I prefer option 2. Pick one option and pick your exercises, I’ll give you the recommended rep ranges then and how to go about your sets and I’ll structure the routine for you.