Opinions On My Routine

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Hey,

I’m relatively new to lifting and want to gain and tone at the same time. Below is what I am doing right now:

Monday: Biceps and Back

Biceps: Any 3 of the following
Preacher curls
Hammer curls
Bar curls
Dumbbell curls

Back: Any few of the following
Assisted pulls ups
Seated Rows
Bent over row
Pull downs
Lower back extensions with low weight

Tuesday: Wrists, forearms and Abs

Wrists forearms:
Wrist curls
reverse curls

Abs: Leg raises
Crunches
Bicycle crunches
Reverse crunches
Crunch machine
Oblique weighted side bends

Wednesday: Legs and shoulders

Legs: Squats
Leg press
Calf raises
various machines

Shoulders: Any few of the following
Arnold press
Military press
Front and side raises

Thursday: Chest and tri’s

Chest: Any 3 of the following
Bench press
Incline Bench
Decline Bench
Seated Flys
Cable flys

Tris:
Skull crushers
Cable extensions
Dips

Friday: Cardio 30-50 minutes

Saturday: Cardio 30-50 minutes

Sunday: Rest

After each workout I normally do 10-15 minutes cardio…just because I feel better. Is this hurting my performance?

I do 3 sets, increasing weight each set and try to do 12-8-6 more or less. Every few weeks I am doing a week of supersetting, changing between antagonistic and isolated/compound supersets. One problem I have noticed is that I can’t lift very much weight, but I assume this is normally when beginning.

Any opinions on how I could improve would be appreciated,

Cheers.

2

I wouldn’t recommend doing shoulders the day before you do your benching work.

It’s probably in your best interest to find a program on this site rather than try and make one for yourself.

No reason not to take something from someone more experienced that you know will work.

Also, read the stickies.

3

[quote]Tumbles wrote:
I wouldn’t recommend doing shoulders the day before you do your benching work.

It’s probably in your best interest to find a program on this site rather than try and make one for yourself.

No reason not to take something from someone more experienced that you know will work.

Also, read the stickies.[/quote]

ding ding ding. we have a winner.

This is pretty damn good advice. I suggest you take it.

4

You are a beginner, you are not qualified or experienced enough to make your own. You also started with a split that is completely devoid of any leg work.

Search this site and find a nice total body program or an upper/lower split that is based around the big IMPORTANT compound movements: Deadlift, Squat, Pull/Chin Ups, Dips, Bench. A beginner does very well on a program based around the big compound lifts because the more muscle fibers that they are able to stimulate at one time the greater their chances of gaining strength, size, and neural efficiency. You aren’t neurally efficient enough to benefit full from a full body part split at this time.

Nutrition is also very important, read the articles on this site, bust your ass for the next couple of months using a well though out program, and then reevaluate.

5

I wouldn’t necessarily say you’re not qualified enough to make your own program- what you put up there isn’t that bad, and it’s definitely not worse than the routines many of us did when we started.

Instead, check out the stickies at the top of the beginner’s forum- click on ‘beginner’ at the top of this page, and they should be the top four threads on the resulting page. Read at least the first post and the first few responses of each (especially Vroom’s thread). That should provide a wealth of information as to what you could do to improve.

It could also very well lead to information overload. For the meantime, until you figure learn a bit more, I’d advise dropping your routine and doing the following:

Workout A:
Squat: 3x5
Bench: 3x5
Deadlift: 1x5

Workout B:
Squat: 3x5
Press: 3x5
Powerclean: 5x3

Lift Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and alternate workouts (ABA one week, BAB on the second, etc.).

Reason being is it’ll develop both strength and size, and give you a good foundation of both to best acheive whatever goal you set for yourself.

Hope this helps,
Cheers!

6

I like the simple workout, but most new trainees overwork their chest when compared to their back, I would add barbell rows to workout B and chin ups to workout A after the deadlift. That would be a solid beginners program.

I said unqualified because he is new to lifting, uses terminology like “tone”, and has 7 exercises for his biceps on Mondays. No offense to him, it is just that he could do far better; the important thing is that he is getting to the gym.

7

WAY TOO MUCH isolation work, as a newbie you need to set the foundation right which is thru the tried and true basic exercises. Make sure you hit the biggies like has been mentioned throughtout this thread and strive for progression whenver possible.

8

[quote]Zagman wrote:
I like the simple workout, but most new trainees overwork their chest when compared to their back, I would add barbell rows to workout B and chin ups to workout A after the deadlift. That would be a solid beginners program.
[/quote]

That’s Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength program, a program that has put size and strengh on thousands of beginning athletes…needless to say it would be a “solid beginners program” without changing a thing. Rippetoe says you can do rows instead of the cleans.

9

Didn’t know that, it is a good program and I would suggest the rows instead of the cleans for a beginner.

10

[quote]Zagman wrote:
I like the simple workout, but most new trainees overwork their chest when compared to their back, I would add barbell rows to workout B and chin ups to workout A after the deadlift. That would be a solid beginners program.
[/quote]

The designer of that routine wasn’t thinking of “back” and “chest”. He was thinking more of pulling exercises (deadlift, powerclean) and presses. When looked at that from that angle, it is balanced. However, I think adding a few sets of chin ups after the deadlifts wouldn’t hurt though.

11

[quote]Zagman wrote:
Didn’t know that, it is a good program and I would suggest the rows instead of the cleans for a beginner.[/quote]

In some varations (when cleans aren’t an option) he does actually use chin-ups or rows as an alternative.

12

i love how every beginner whether on this site or in the gym comes up with a program its always a body part split. its all the gay type of gym trainers fault. they make those programs so you feel the “burn” and shit and make you think you are making progress