Opinions on My Routine?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

I am 190lbs 6’1"
Bench 300lbs

my current routine is:

Monday- Back/Abs + two bicep exc… rows, chin ups, dead lifts, etc
Tues- Chest + two Tri…flat, incline, decline flys, dumbells
Wed- Shoulders/Legs/Abs… squats, arnold press, cleans + press etc
Thurs- Bicep+ two back
Fri- Triceps+ two chest …Close grip, dips, skull crushers, push down
Rest
Rest

I just changed up my routine last week.

An example of how my chest sets worked this week:

Flat Barbell Bench

Quick Warm up

185x 19 reps
205x 12 reps
225x 10 reps
265x 3 reps
275x 3 reps
185x 16 reps

I take in roughly 5000 calories a day. 6-7 meals plus protein shake.

My problem is not my strength, but It doesnt seem like my muscles are as big as they should be for how much I am lifting. My profile picture is a year old however. How does this routine look? Thanks

2

perhaps drop it to 4x a week then?
monday- back traps
tuesday- chest
wednesday- rest
thursday- shoulders biceps triceps
friday- quads hamstrings
saturday- rest
sunday- rest

3

you really like to bench, huh?

4

he’s probably the guy I see in the gym 3x a week and all I ever see him doing is chest…lol, seen too many of them.

5

190 @ 6’1" and you bench 300?

WTF have I been doing these past two years? O_o

6

[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
you really like to bench, huh?[/quote]

It’s one of my favorite things to do, but I hit everything equally. I dont’t work chest any more then I work shoulders, back, arms etc.

7

to me it looks like you have Tuesday and Friday dedicated to chest and pressing, but I could be wrong

as long you are hitting everything else

what are you squat, deadlift, and military numbers?

8

One thing that immediately stands out to me as a fundamental problem with that 5 day split is the timing of your shoulder day. They’re going to be quickly overtrained in that position. Something similar to what you listed but in a more efficient arrangement would look like this:

monday: back/biceps/abs
tuesday: chest/triceps
wednesday: off
thursday: legs
friday: shoulders/forearms/abs

You really need to keep in the forefront of your mind that more lifting doesn’t always equal more progress. Lift more intensely, less frequently and then give your body a chance to rest and recouperate in order to let it grow.

9

[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
to me it looks like you have Tuesday and Friday dedicated to chest and pressing, but I could be wrong

as long you are hitting everything else

what are you squat, deadlift, and military numbers?[/quote]

Friday is dedicated to Triceps. I maybe do one chest exercise on friday. Something simple like cable cross overs.

Military press max is right around 200lbs. When I do DB’s I usually use 65’s or 70’s for 8-10 reps.

I have never maxed out on squat or dead lift. I concentrate more with form then weight on these exercises.

10

[quote]Da Vinci wrote:
One thing that immediately stands out to me as a fundamental problem with that 5 day split is the timing of your shoulder day. They’re going to be quickly overtrained in that position. Something similar to what you listed but in a more efficient arrangement would look like this:

monday: back/biceps/abs
tuesday: chest/triceps
wednesday: off
thursday: legs
friday: shoulders/forearms/abs

You really need to keep in the forefront of your mind that more lifting doesn’t always equal more progress. Lift more intensely, less frequently and then give your body a chance to rest and recouperate in order to let it grow.[/quote]

Thanks for the feedback. The problem I have is I have the Encyclopedia of Arnold, and in it all of his routines are crazy. He works everything hard 3x a week. I guess I have to consider he was juicing.

11

You want to get bigger while hitting your muscle groups in compound and isolation movements 3 times a week all within a 5 day split and without any steroids? Unlikely to happen. At what point do you expect to grow during all of that catabolism? You aren’t going to get any bigger on that routine. You asked for opinions, change your routine.

12

[quote]motomaster132003 wrote:

Thanks for the feedback. The problem I have is I have the Encyclopedia of Arnold, and in it all of his routines are crazy. He works everything hard 3x a week. I guess I have to consider he was juicing.
[/quote]

That might be a good/fun book to read, but I would never use his routines. Rather, I would never use his routines as written. Yes he was taking steroids as well as being the owner of fantastic genetics. The combination allowed him to lift weights in a way that would be completely ineffective to the rest of us. But go ahead and give his extremely high volume workouts a try.

13

[quote]Da Vinci wrote:
You want to get bigger while hitting your muscle groups in compound and isolation movements 3 times a week all within a 5 day split and without any steroids? Unlikely to happen. At what point do you expect to grow during all of that catabolism? You aren’t going to get any bigger on that routine. You asked for opinions, change your routine.[/quote]

Haha there is no possible way you could get gains with ARNOLD’s routine:

Mon, Wed, Fri

Chest:
Bench press 5 x 6-10
Flat bench flyes 5 x 6-10
Incline bench press 6 x 6-10
Cable crossovers 6 x 10-12
Dips (body weight) 5 x failure
Dumbell pullovers 5 x 10-12.

Back:
Wide-grip chins (to front) 6 x failure
T-bar rows 5 x 6-10
Seated pulley rows 6 x 6-10
One-arm dumbell rows 5 x 6-10
Straight-leg deadlifts 6 x 15

Legs:
Squats 6 x 8-12
Leg press 6 x 8-12
Leg extensions 6 x 12-15
Leg curls 6 x 10-12
Barbell lunges 5 x 15

Calves:
Standing calf raises 10 x 10
Seated calf raises 8 x 15
Oneplegged calf raises (holding dumbells) 6x12

Forearms:
Wrist curls (forearms on knees) - 4 sets, 10 reps
Reverse barbell curls - 4 sets, 8 reps
Wright roller machine - to failure

Abs:
½ hour of a variety of nonspecific abdominal exercises, done virtually nonstop.

Tues, Thurs, Sat

Biceps:
Barbell curls 6 x 6-10
Seated dumbell curls 6 x 6-10
Dumbell concentration curls 6 x 6-10

Triceps:
Close-grip bench presses 6 x 6-10
Pushdowns 6 x 6-10
French press (barbell) 6 x 6-10
One-arm triceps extensions (dumbell) 6 x 6-10

Shoulders:
Seated barbell presses 6 x 6-10
Lateral raises (standing) 6 x 6-10
Rear-delt lateral raises 5 x 6-10
Cable lateral raises 5 x 10-12

Calves , Forearms & Abs:
Same as Monday, Wednesday, Friday workout

HERE is the routine I was previously using:

Monday-Chest 4x8 flat, incline, decline, flys or DB flat, decline , incline and pec deck
Tues- Back/ Abs- pull ups, Seated Rows, Dead lifts, One arm Rows Various Ab exercises
Wed- Rest
Thurs- Bicep/Tricep- 4x8 barbell curls, seated Db incline curls, curls with arms again wall. close grip bench, skull crushers, Push down.
Fri- Shoulders/ Legs- 4x8-10Clean/press, squats, leg press, db shoulder press, Hitlers, other calf/leg exercises.

Then sometimes Abs with light back on the weekend.

So I am thinking I need to stick to a more basic routine such as this, but always change up my reps/sets and exercises every week?

14

[quote]motomaster132003 wrote:

HERE is the routine I was previously using:

Monday-Chest 4x8 flat, incline, decline, flys or DB flat, decline , incline and pec deck
Tues- Back/ Abs- pull ups, Seated Rows, Dead lifts, One arm Rows Various Ab exercises
Wed- Rest
Thurs- Bicep/Tricep- 4x8 barbell curls, seated Db incline curls, curls with arms again wall. close grip bench, skull crushers, Push down.
Fri- Shoulders/ Legs- 4x8-10Clean/press, squats, leg press, db shoulder press, Hitlers, other calf/leg exercises.

Then sometimes Abs with light back on the weekend.

So I am thinking I need to stick to a more basic routine such as this, but always change up my reps/sets and exercises every week?

[/quote]

I don’t think you need to change your reps/sets every week, but you should be increasing the weight.

15

Thanks for the replies

16

The fact that you work upper body 4 times a week and lower body once a week, concentrating on form (not lifting heavy) is likely your problem. Your upper body can only progress so far without bringing up the other half.

17

[quote]RMorrison wrote:
The fact that you work upper body 4 times a week and lower body once a week, concentrating on form (not lifting heavy) is likely your problem. Your upper body can only progress so far without bringing up the other half. [/quote]

Thanks for the reply. When I say form, I am still doing a couple plates just being a little more cautious.

18

Here is the routine I decided on. As of now it is a 4-day split. I could put legs and shoulders to their own day, but I would lose out on one rest day.

HSS-100 Modified a little

Accumulation Phase (4 weeks) Start Nov 17-2008
Heavy: 4-5 sets in the 6-8 rep range (with occasional foray into the 4-6 range) 2-3 min Rest
Superset (pre-fatigue) isolation movement: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps -2-3min Rest
Superset (pre-fatigue) compound movement: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps -2-3min Rest
Special exercise: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps -2-3min Rest
100-reps exercise: 1 set of 100 reps ?No rest
Details:

Monday: Back/ Abs- Good Special Exercises ? dead lifts, 1 arm barbell row, Rope-rowing, chest-supported dumbbell rowing
Tuesday: Chest ? Good Special Exercises- press to fly Dumbbell, Close to wide dumbbell, Multi-angle Dumbbell press(lower as you fail)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Shoulders/ Legs- Good Special Exercises- one leg-squat, Lunges, One arm Dumbbell press
Friday: Arms/Abs ? Good Special Exercises¬- Drag Curl?s, Decline dumbbell tri extension, Jettison Curl- barbell + Resistance 3 Step, Close grip-elbow out, wide grip elbows out preacher curl, overhead rope tri extension, Zottman Curl
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest