I am 42 years old and have been seriously working out for the past 6 months. I am now using a routine which has Chest/Back on Mondays and Thursday and Legs on Tuesdays & Fridays.
My Chest routine now has me benching 185lbs 6 sets 6 reps. Cable flyes lying cable 4 sets 15 reps 60lbs. Also, pushups 3 sets to failure.
My back routine is pullups 6 sets of 6 bodyweight (I am 204lbs). Also, I do bent over lat raises 15lbs 4 sets of 12 reps. Also, bent over one arm row 50lbs 4 sets or 10 reps.
My question is how am I doing? My goal is to get both more size and definition. Is the weight “respectable” that I work out with.
How do you feel you’ve been doing? Your goal is BOTH size and definition? What else does your program include besides the exercises you listed? And above all else: how’s your form?
AND stats. What is your height and BF%? How’s your diet coming along?
Imagine for a moment that this is a phone call that you have placed to someone who has never, ever met you before. How would this person expect to answer your question with the brief info you had provided?
You’re doing very well for having only been working out 6 months, but I think it’s time that you expanded your exercise selection a little bit.
The first thing would be to alternate exercises. For example, on Monday, start off with flat barbell bench press, then inclines on Thursday. Stay with that for a few weeks, then change it up. Maybe inclines on Monday and declines on Thursday. The same thing goes for legs.
This also applies to your other exercises on chest & back day. Search through the previous issues to put together a list of chest and back exercises that you can continually rotate. The most recent article that you might benefit from the most would be Joel Marion’s mass-gaining article. It was in the past issue or two.
Now at some point, someone’s going to yell, “Deadlift!”, and you really do want to start doing thoseat some point. The problem is that they kind of fall under the back column, and they kind of fall under the leg column, so you’ll probably have to shake your routine up again.
A way to do that is what I’ve been doing for the past several weeks. Mon: chest & bis. Tues: legs. Thurs: back & calves. Fri: Shoulders & tris. This routine can also easily be shifted towards a modified Westside protocol, which might be good for you soon, as being able to move more weight will help you reach the goals that you mentioned.