Introductions And All That

Training Beginners
1

Howdy everyone,

I’ve been hanging around the site for awhile now and thought I would finally introduce myself and also ask some advice.

First off, I’m 23, living in the St. Louis, MO area working full time. I’ve been involved in training for a number of years, taking it more serious while I was in college (when I was up to 175), and finally am able to get back into the “game” amidst planning a wedding this winter, buying a new house, and all of my work.

I have a cage in my garage, ~400lbs worth of weights, olympic bar, dumbbells, adjustable bench, and that’s about it. Before I start asking for help, here’s my stats, routine, diet, etc…

FYI My primary goal at this point is size.

Age: 23
Weight: 160
Height: 5’11"
BF%: ~13%
Blood panels have been taken, all are positive.
Past Injuries: Dislocated shoulder (right), since healed. 3 compressed vertebrae. (2,3,4) See a chiropractor once a week to help this.
I sleep between 8-10 hours per day. I’ve always need a lot of sleep to be happy.

Routine, I’ve been working this routine for 5 weeks, and took a week off, and am now repeating it. (The first 5 week session was to shake off the dust and get rid of the quick gains.) I will rotate a different rep scheme after this 5 week session. Will move to a 6-8 rep then. (My questions are following.)

Monday: Back Day

5x10 Deadlifts
3x8 One arm bent rows
5xMax Reps Pull-ups, generally between 5-8 at this point

Tuesday: Shoulders

5x10 Military Press
3x8 Front Arm Raises
5xMax Reps Vertical Push Ups

Wednesday: Legs

5x10 Squats
3x8 Lunges
3x15 Standing calf raises
5x100 yard sprints

Thursday: Chest

5x10 Flat Bench Press
3x8 45 degree dumbell flies
5x Max Reps Dips with 25lb plate (~8-10)

Friday: Arms (Split training, Biceps over lunch, Triceps in the evening)

5x10 Bar Curls (with the olympic bar, no preacher bar, unfortunately)
3x8 Hammer Curls on a 45 degree incline
3x8 Reverse Curls
3xMax Reps Pull Ups

5x10 Skull crushers
3x8 Close Grip Bench
3x8 Overhead extensions
3xMax Reps Dips

Ok. So a few questions. Am I committing overkill on myself by performing 5x10? And for shoulders, I would love to do cleans, but have never had anyone properly show me, and until then, I basically refuse because of past injuries. Also, core-work.

I have a fairly strong core from my job, but there’s always room for some core work, what is everyone’s opinions of a little bit per day as opposed to a dedicated core day?

I like to keep my sessions a bit shorter to help with the rest of my busy life, so any advice would be wonderful. Are there any holes that I have missed? As you can probably tell, I’m a huge fan of bodyweight type exercises to end my lifts. They always seemed to add that bit of extra punch to the end. That, and there’s nothing quite like nearly knocking yourself out on a dip bar.

Now to the Nutrition Stuff

Wake up (7:00am)

Breakfast (7:30am): Protein Powder, with 1 cup strawberries, .5 cup blueberries, .5 cup blackberries, .5 cup raspberries, 1 cup vanilla ice cream, 1 cup strawberry banana yogurt, 1 whole banana, 2 cups skim milk. ~1800 calories. Also, fish oil and glucosamine/chondroitin pills.

Snack (9:30am): Either a cup or so of mixed nuts, or a half pound (before deydrated) homemade beef jerky.

Lunch (noon-ish): Generally some sort of chicken and vegetables.

Snack (2:30pm): Another helping of mixed nuts and/or beef jerky

Workout (5-6pm): Another protein shake during/after

Dinner (7:00pm): Any number of things, always includes a lean meat with a fruit and vegetable.

Sleep 10pm

No snack before bed, dinner is usually much too big for me to feel like eating more. Rinse and repeat 7 days/week.

Also, in a day, I drink roughly 4-5 bottles of water. No soda, coffee, tea, alcohol really.

A couple of other notes. I used to be on creatine, but came off of it because I never noticed any difference in my body, recovery times, anything really. I’m also trying to find some egg based protein that doesn’t taste like newest type of Goodyear tires. Any suggestions? Any suggestions overall?

I appreciate any and all feedback, criticism, questions, etc. Thanks a ton to all T-Men/Vixens that respond.

Sid

2

What does it mean by blood panels are positive?

3

yes 5x10 is more than overkill.

IF your form is right on why don’t you lower the reps and up the weights a bit. Something like a 5x5 or even a 3x8 would look good to me. Eventually you can change it up with 8x3 and then occasional 2x15 days or something along those lines.

Eh I stole the rep schemes from Waterbury’s TBT

4

Monkey: When they tested my blood panel, it’s just sort of an overall look at how my body is doing internally. They tested red and white blood cell count, triglycerides, cholesterol, etc. Just gives them an idea if bad things are happening.

LCCH: The reason I’m doing sets of ten is to help get an initial increase in size. After I finish with these sets, then I’m going to move toward a more strength based routine. Also, I’d like to put up some video of my squat, dead, and bench technique soon to have the educated critique, but I’m afraid it’s going to be a few weeks.

Thanks for the responses.

5

Bump, any advice?

6

[quote]SidSTL wrote:
[…]

Monday: Back Day

5x10 Deadlifts
3x8 One arm bent rows
5xMax Reps Pull-ups, generally between 5-8 at this point

Tuesday: Shoulders

5x10 Military Press
3x8 Front Arm Raises
5xMax Reps Vertical Push Ups

Wednesday: Legs

5x10 Squats
3x8 Lunges
3x15 Standing calf raises
5x100 yard sprints

Thursday: Chest

5x10 Flat Bench Press
3x8 45 degree dumbell flies
5x Max Reps Dips with 25lb plate (~8-10)

Friday: Arms (Split training, Biceps over lunch, Triceps in the evening)

5x10 Bar Curls (with the olympic bar, no preacher bar, unfortunately)
3x8 Hammer Curls on a 45 degree incline
3x8 Reverse Curls
3xMax Reps Pull Ups

5x10 Skull crushers
3x8 Close Grip Bench
3x8 Overhead extensions
3xMax Reps Dips

Ok. So a few questions. Am I committing overkill on myself by performing 5x10? And for shoulders, I would love to do cleans, but have never had anyone properly show me, and until then, I basically refuse because of past injuries. Also, core-work.

I have a fairly strong core from my job, but there’s always room for some core work, what is everyone’s opinions of a little bit per day as opposed to a dedicated core day?

I like to keep my sessions a bit shorter to help with the rest of my busy life, so any advice would be wonderful. Are there any holes that I have missed? As you can probably tell, I’m a huge fan of bodyweight type exercises to end my lifts. They always seemed to add that bit of extra punch to the end. That, and there’s nothing quite like nearly knocking yourself out on a dip bar.

Now to the Nutrition Stuff

Wake up (7:00am)

Breakfast (7:30am): Protein Powder, with 1 cup strawberries, .5 cup blueberries, .5 cup blackberries, .5 cup raspberries, 1 cup vanilla ice cream, 1 cup strawberry banana yogurt, 1 whole banana, 2 cups skim milk. ~1800 calories. Also, fish oil and glucosamine/chondroitin pills.

Snack (9:30am): Either a cup or so of mixed nuts, or a half pound (before deydrated) homemade beef jerky.

Lunch (noon-ish): Generally some sort of chicken and vegetables.

Snack (2:30pm): Another helping of mixed nuts and/or beef jerky

Workout (5-6pm): Another protein shake during/after

Dinner (7:00pm): Any number of things, always includes a lean meat with a fruit and vegetable.

Sleep 10pm

[/quote]

Hi

although 5x10 is pretty close to the edge of the spectrum, i wouldn’t call it overkill until you cannot recover properly and stop improving on your lifts.

Program looks decent although i think you’re doing too much volume on your Arms day (Friday). For that much volume, the intensity has to be pretty low. Plus i would switch Pullups for Chins on your Arms day.

I’d try to get some complex carbs in your breakfast, maybe mix in some oats in the shake and lower the amount of icecream.

As for cleans, the clean itself is more of a total body/core/posterior chain/back exercise than a shoulder exercise. Clean an press (and variations) however hammer the shoulders real good.

I would recommend starting with an empty bar (or maybe a broomstick) and try to catch the bar HIGH and CLOSE to the body (never below your collarbone, bar should touch your throat), as if you were to perform a front squat, with as little weight as possible resting on your hands/arms.

I do not believe in “core-day” as long as you’re doing the big compounds. However, you could do some core-specific work any day you don’t squat/Deadlift or do something similar.