After five years (and much success) as a skinny-a** triathlete, I found that I was sick of the sport and decided it was time for a new challenge. I am now committed to lifting- something I have always been interested in pursuing- and have been training for two months. I am up from about 125 pounds to 142 pounds (I’m 5’6"). My bench has gone from 5x85 to 5x125, and I can squat 250 for 15 clean reps (none of that part way down crap; I get my butt DOWN).
My goal is simply to put on as much size as possible, as I am still pretty puny. I no longer look like a starving Ethiopian, but that’s not much of an accomplishment. So anyways, here is my training structure:
Mon/Thurs: Chest, tri’s, shoulders (calves)
Tues/Fri: Back and bi’s
Wed/Sat: Legs, ab work (calves)
Here are sample workouts for each day (excluding warmups):
Chest, tris, shoulders:
flat BB bench 3x5-12 reps (usually 2 sets of 5-8, then a lighter set of 10-12)
close grip bench 3x8-12
incline DB bench 3x8-12
tri pushdown 3x8-12
guillitine press (smith machine) 3x8-12
bench dips (plates on legs) 3x8-12
decline bench 3x8-12
overhead press 3x8-12
one arm rev. grip tricep extensions 3x12
lat’l raise 3x[8-10-12] (drop sets)
machine tricep pressdown 3x8-12
butterflies 3x8-12, occaisonally do drop sets with really high reps
latl cable raise 3x15-20
frontal cable raise 3x15-20
on arm tricep extensions 3x20
calves (3-4 exercises, 3 sets of each)
back, bis:
BB curl 3x12
BB bent over rows 3x8-12
DB curl 3x12
wide grip seated rows 3x8-12
concentration curls 3x8-12
lat PD 3x8-12
preacher curls 3x8-12
behind back lat PD 3x8-12
rev grip EZ bar curls 3x8-12
one arm DB rows 3x8-12
hammer curls 3x8-12
close grip seated rows 3x8-12
close grip lat PD 3x8-12
straight arm lat PD 3x8-12
rear delt flies
rear delt cable “pimp slaps” (well, thats the best way to describe them)
forearm work (farmers walks, plate grips, etc)
legs:
squat 6 sets, working from 30 reps down to 10 reps
deadlift 3 sets (light)
leg press 3 sets from 20 reps to 6-8 reps
outer quad leg press 3x12
leg extension 3x15
leg curl 3x15
Abductor machine 3x15-20
Adductor machine 3x15-20
hypers 3x10-20
reverse hypers 3x10-20
calves (3-4 exercises, 3 sets of each), abs (lower, upper, obliques, three sets for each)
You’ve put on 17 lbs. in 2 months so that’s great but it looks like you are still training like a tri-athlete for endurance. You want to stimulate the Type II fibers for hypertrophy if you want to continue to gain muscle. That requires working with a high level of intensity.
I would do a lot fewer exercises and concentrate on the basic multi-joint exercises: bench, squat, deadlifts, dips, chins etc. and significantly increase the weights you are using.
For instance you can do 250 x 15 squats. Your 1 RM is probably in the 350 - 400 range. Try doing 315 x 5 x 5 on leg day. You can bench 125 x 5 so do that 5 x 5 on chest day. Your goal should be to increase the intensity of the exercises rather than doing tons of sets and reps.
If you can do all that without overtraining then looks great. Seriously though be mindful of overtraining in case you start burning out.
Edit: actually I have to change what I said. The number of different exercises you are doing per workout is completely ludicrous and redundant. Keep all of them, but interchange them. For example do bb curls one week and dumbell curls the next etc.
A couple things I would change though:
Number one move deadlifts from leg day to the first thing back day.
Number two replace the word in parentheses next to deadlift from (light) to (heavy as fuck)
Even bodybuilders using tons of pharmaceuticals don’t do that much shit. Quit using fatigue as your indicator of success and start looking at progress instead.
Thanks so much for the advice so far. To answer some of the questions posed…
Chest, tris, and shoulders and back and bis both take about 2 and a 1/2 hours; legs take about 90 minutes.
My volume actually doesn’t seem like much to me. Coming from a triathlon background, I am used to training 4 hours a day so anything less than that pretty much seems like a breeze.
I was definitely wondering if I was doing too many exercises and if, as suggested, I could increase intensity (and growth) if I reduced volume. I read that it is better to minimize cortisol production by getting in and out quickly, thereby reducing catabolism and promoting anabolism.
However, I also understand that fasting acts as a stimulant for GH release. By eating about an hour before workouts and then fasting until my post workout meal (immediately upon finishing), I thought that I might be getting more GH.
I also forgot to mention diet: I’m eating about 3000 calories a day, sometimes more. I am getting probably 200-250 grams of carbs, 200+ grams of protein, and 100-150 grams of fat. I have added in a lot more cheese and red meat to boost testosterone production via the physiological response to saturated fats, but I am also taking in a mono and polyunsaturated fats, and omega 3s, from a variety of sources.
[quote]Ethan7X wrote:
… I hope this is not a troll effort.
Anyways, your selection of training every muscle group 2x a week with higher “volume” is fine, and the split is fine… Push Pull Legs or whatever.
But what the hell. You are out of your MIND to do that many exercises. It is only COUNTERPRODUCTIVE . It is NOT doing more.
I bet if this was your entire CHEST workout , your chest would grow more than the crap you’re doing …
Incline Bench - 4 sets 10-6 reps
Flat Bench - 4 sets 10-6 reps
Incline Flye or Hammer Strength - 3 sets 12-20 reps
In all seriousness, this is not trolling. I just come from a “more is better” background, so I did what was logical to me. In fact, for the first couple of weeks I was doing 5 sets of every exercise (as opposed to three), which even I realized was too much.
Your suggestion is further validated by the fact that, when I arrived at the gym today, I was down on all of my lifts. I guess all of the volume is finally starting to catch up with me, so I plan to take two days off (during which I will be at orientation at Chapel Hill anyway) and then get back in there with a smarter training approach.
Once again, I really appreciate the advice. Thanks.
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