Hey everyone, I need some guidance on what sort of weight training I should be doing to get to my goals, I’ll tell you my goals and a little bit about me first:
Goals: Gain muscle size, with strength and athleticism (Muscle size takes priority)
About me: I’m 5’7", 138lbs, and I have an over-active thyroid (found this out at the doctors today, and im getting some meds for it next week).
From recording what I eat, Ive discovered that I need to be eating about 3500 calories a day to gain 0.5-1lb a week. (consisting of a lot of steak,eggs,Metabolic Drive complete)
I have also done some tests to find out my muscle fibre make-up, from my build I had a good idea of what it was, but this confirmed it.
The test: do as many reps as you can with 80% of your 1RM, the more reps, the slower twitch your muscle fibre is.
So, with a exercise for each muscle group, I found out the following:
Calves: Extremely slow twitch, 22 reps with 80% of 1RM
Quads: Slow twitch, 15 reps with 80% of 1RM
Chest,triceps: Equal ratio, 10-11 reps with 80% of 1RM
Back,biceps: Equal ratio, 10-11 reps with 80% of 1RM
Hamstrings: Fast twitch, 8 reps with 80% of 1RM
Deltoids: Fast twitch, 7 reps with 80% of 1RM
So in all, I have came to a junction with two programs:
Mark rippetoes starting strength.
5 day bodypart split (mon-legs/tues-chest,tri/weds-back,bi/thurs-legs/fri-shoulders)
note: I am not going to shy away from big compound movements on the split, infact here is an example of what i would do for it.
Mon-Legs
A. Back squat - 4x12-15
B. Leg press - 2x20
C. Leg curl - 4x8-10
Tues-Chest/Tri
A. DB bench - 4x12-15
B. Inc bench - 4x12-15
C. Weighted dips - 3x10-12
D. Decline db tri extension - 3x-12-15
- some calves
Weds-Back/Bi
A. Wide-grip pull up - 4x7 (tryin to get up to at least 4x12 over-time)
B. Deadlift - 4x8-10
C. Dumbbell row - 3x15-20
D. Seated DB preacher curl - 3x12-15
- some abs
Thurs-Legs
A. Front squat - 6x3-4 (Heavy, because the guys who front squat 400+ dont have small legs)
B. Romanian DL - 4x8-10
C. Leg extension - 2x15-20
Fri-Deltoids
A. Military press - 3x8
B. Lateral raise - 3x10-12
C. Bent over laterals - 3x10-12
- some calves & abs
Loads of people say good things about either one and I’m not sure which one to choose, there is plently of people making very good progress on splits which is why i put that in there, and of course everyone recommends rippetoes.
So i would just like to hear what the opinion is of people on this board, I’m sure I can’t go wrong listening to T-Nation members advice.
Fire away!