How's My Workout?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1 
Hi, Just starting a workout program and need some advice on wether or not what I am doing is on the right path.

Dumbbell shoulder press 3sets/10reps
Crunch(swiss ball) 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell fly 3sets/10reps
Lateral shoulder raises 3sets/10reps
Pulldown 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell bentover row 3sets/10reps
Leg extension 3sets/10reps
Triceps kickback 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell squat 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell chest press 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell bicep curl 3sets/10reps

All this I am doing 3 days a week, usually on m-w-f and in this order as well. I think I would eventually like to end up having 2 to 3 exercises per body part.

Cardio I am either running or on a elliptical trainer, depending on how cold it is outside. Cardio I am doing in the morning, 5 days a week.

I have been doing this for a little more then a month, have lost 13# so far. The nutrition is going well and I am eating 40% protein and carbs and 20% fats. Between 2100 and 2300 calories a day. I guess my primary goal for now is to lose fat, then put on some muscle.

Any advice anyone could give me would be most welcome.

Thanks

2

[quote]mikey63 wrote:
Hi, Just starting a workout program and need some advice on wether or not what I am doing is on the right path.

Dumbbell shoulder press 3sets/10reps
Crunch(swiss ball) 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell fly 3sets/10reps
Lateral shoulder raises 3sets/10reps
Pulldown 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell bentover row 3sets/10reps
Leg extension 3sets/10reps
Triceps kickback 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell squat 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell chest press 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell bicep curl 3sets/10reps

All this I am doing 3 days a week, usually on m-w-f and in this order as well. I think I would eventually like to end up having 2 to 3 exercises per body part.

Cardio I am either running or on a elliptical trainer, depending on how cold it is outside. Cardio I am doing in the morning, 5 days a week.

I have been doing this for a little more then a month, have lost 13# so far. The nutrition is going well and I am eating 40% protein and carbs and 20% fats. Between 2100 and 2300 calories a day. I guess my primary goal for now is to lose fat, then put on some muscle.

Any advice anyone could give me would be most welcome.

Thanks[/quote]

Congratulations on losing weight.

Why aren’t you training your legs? Do you not have legs? If you did wouldn’t they deserve the same attention as the rest of the body? A couple sets of DB squats is not going to cut it. I saw no hamstring or calf work, and nowhere near enough on the quads.

Secondly, why are you starting your workout with shoulder presses and curls? You should start with your bigger compounds. You want your chest, shoulders and triceps fresh for your heavy pressing to get the most improvement.

If I were to re-order your workout for effectivity it would be this way;

Alternate chest & back, compounds first
Legs
Shoulders
Arms
Abs

In order to have 2 - 3 exercises per body part you would have to stay in the gym forever, or split your routine. Personally I feel TBT is best for weight loss, so I would keep on it but incorporate more compound movements to hit multiple groups.

3

I don’t understand why beginners don’t use a workout provided here on the site, instead of their own.

They will yeild better results and, if picked correctly, will get you used to the basic compound lifts.

4

[quote]mikey63 wrote:
Hi, Just starting a workout program and need some advice on wether or not what I am doing is on the right path.

Dumbbell shoulder press 3sets/10reps
Crunch(swiss ball) 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell fly 3sets/10reps
Lateral shoulder raises 3sets/10reps
Pulldown 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell bentover row 3sets/10reps
Leg extension 3sets/10reps
Triceps kickback 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell squat 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell chest press 3sets/10reps
Dumbbell bicep curl 3sets/10reps

All this I am doing 3 days a week, usually on m-w-f and in this order as well. I think I would eventually like to end up having 2 to 3 exercises per body part.

Cardio I am either running or on a elliptical trainer, depending on how cold it is outside. Cardio I am doing in the morning, 5 days a week.

I have been doing this for a little more then a month, have lost 13# so far. The nutrition is going well and I am eating 40% protein and carbs and 20% fats. Between 2100 and 2300 calories a day. I guess my primary goal for now is to lose fat, then put on some muscle.

Any advice anyone could give me would be most welcome.

Thanks[/quote]

Well, quite a few of the writers here at T-Nation would agree that dropping fat first is a good way to go. However, 3x10 is NOT the optimal way to go about it.

I would check out Waterbury’s 10x3 For Fat Loss, or his Summer Project. Also look up Cosgrove’s articles, which have lots of fat loss advice (or you could shell out the $15 for his New Rules of Lifting book, which has specific fat loss routines, it’s worth it).

Good luck, and don’t forget energy systems work: sprints, hill sprints, bike sprints, intervals, etc.

Also, don’t be afraid to eat! Create a caloric deficit by increasing your physical activity, NOT by restricting calories. Your metabolism will reward you.

P.S. 3x10 Tricep Kickbacks??? Are you fucking kidding me?

5

Good job on losing the weight!

As a beginner you really have two focuses, grooving technique and managing fatigue. The technique gets grooved with lots of repetition, fatique is managed by keeping the load low enough that you maintain proper form, push hard, but feel good to go by the next workout.

That said, after you master the simpler exercises, take on more complex, and/or more intense exercisses. For example, some people start with machines, move to dumbbells, then barbells. The idea is to graduate to heavier weights with as little machines as possible.

Always start with the most complex and heavy exercises… just listen to the first posters advice.

I’d pick a routine published here like Anit-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy by Chad Waterbury and learn the movements well for a couple of weeks then do the routine exactly as outlined.

There is more to making a good routine than you can imagine, do others routines first.

Roland

6

HI and thank you all for your advice.

I guess the reason I was doing what I was doing is that I only have a basic weight stack home gym machine and pairs of dumbbells from 2# up to 25#. I am in the process of purchasing more as I go along.

I am going to try several of the “ready made” workouts and find one that suits me best.

So again thanks for all your advice.

7

I would say that for newbies 3x10 is ok. Sure, it doesn’t last long, and I’m not a fan of it as a rep scheme, but for guys that haven’t been lifting weights for more than, say, 6 months, it works pretty well. I mean, a lot of guys have built a lot of muscle using 3x10 over the decades.

My advice is to take everyone else’s advice on changing organization schemes, etc. You need more legs. Cardio does not equal leg training. Your legs make up a good half of your overall body mass. Change your rep per set after a while, but don’t sweat it just yet. Chances are your biggest improvements are going to come from proper organization and better exercise selection (more compound exercises). And more leg training. Think how much more fat you could burn if you started really training the other half of your body to work.

8

For the money, the best thing you could buy is an olympic barbell and plates. I got one from a chain sporting goods place for 150 bucks. That will give you a lot of weight to work with. If not that, then get a gym membership. Chances are you could get a few months worth of gym time for the amount of money it takes to get 2 more sets of heavy dumbells. Good trade in my opinion.

9

[quote]swordthrower wrote:

Well, quite a few of the writers here at T-Nation would agree that dropping fat first is a good way to go. However, 3x10 is NOT the optimal way to go about it.
[/quote]

Please explain how so.

10

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
For the money, the best thing you could buy is an olympic barbell and plates. I got one from a chain sporting goods place for 150 bucks. That will give you a lot of weight to work with. If not that, then get a gym membership. Chances are you could get a few months worth of gym time for the amount of money it takes to get 2 more sets of heavy dumbells. Good trade in my opinion.[/quote]

Agreed. You need to get more weight so you can do the compound exercises which are essential to anyone who is starting working out.

11

[quote]daraz wrote:
swordthrower wrote:

Well, quite a few of the writers here at T-Nation would agree that dropping fat first is a good way to go. However, 3x10 is NOT the optimal way to go about it.

Please explain how so.

[/quote]

I believe his thinking is that the rep scheme doesn’t let you train with enough intensity(% of your 1RM). When you are dieting(caloric deficit) your body will get rid of whatever is causing it to have a high metabolic rate.

Sometimes muscle will be the first thing to go since it is more costly(calorie wise) to keep on the body than fat. Your body must think that there is a reason for you to keep that muscle otherwise it will just discard of it.

Training with high intensity, makes your body think that the muscle is essential to your survival, there fore it won’t burn it as readily. 10 rep sets are not very intense…