Please Critique My Routine

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

I’m 18, with a weight of around 155-160 lbs, and I’m very weak. My resources include weights up to 135 lbs (which will be enough for me for the time being due to my weakness). I’ve done a bit of reading and I sort of made this routine to work around my situation. I just need to know if it is sound for a beginner. It’s 3 days on 1 day off.

The reps are a bit high but that’s because I would like to make sure the weights I have are enough for a while, until I can afford a gym membership. Anyway here it is:

Day 1: Chest, Triceps, Shoulders
Bench Press- 4x10
Combo Press- 3x12 *
Military Press- 3x10
Lateral Raises- 3x12
Tricep Extentions- 3x12

  • dumbell bench press but lowered like a flye

Day 2: Back, Biceps
Dumbell Rows- 4x8
Bent Over Rows- 3x10
Reverse Flyes- 2x15
Dumbell Shrugs- 3x10
Dumbell Curls- 4x10

Day 3: Legs, Abs
Deadlifts- 5x7
Split Squats- 4x8
Romanian Deadlifts- 3x8
Abs

2

Starting Strengh: The Guide.
http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_beginner/starting_strength_the_guide

That may be a better place to start.

LR

3

I would say your program is a solid one, except I’d put in some kind of pullups on back day. And probably not good to do deadlifts day after back day because it works your back. However, I’d agree with London Runner that something like starting strength would be better for you.

It was made by someone who knows a whole lot more about lifting. Also, get a gym membership ASAP, because even if you’re weak, 135 pounds is going to be too light very soon for things like deadlifts and squats.

4

I would definately add pull ups (because two rwoing movements seem a little redundant to me too, although maybe I’ll do the barbell rows at a higher- 45 degree?- angle than the dumbell rows), although I don’t have a pull up bar, and don’t know if I’d be able to do more than 4 consectuive reps.

But thanks to the both of you for the feedback, I am probably going to try something like Rippetoes/Bill Starrs or maybe WS4SB when I get a gym membrship, but for the time being this will do I suppose.

Thanks again.

Edit: Also, I’ll switch the order of the days to- Day 1: Legs, Abs, Day 2- Chest, Triceps, Shoulders,Day 3- Back, Biceps, so that my back isn’t worked on consecutive days like you suggested Gmoore17. hanks

5

[quote]WeakGuy wrote:
I’m 18, with a weight of around 155-160 lbs, and I’m very weak. My resources include weights up to 135 lbs (which will be enough for me for the time being due to my weakness). I’ve done a bit of reading and I sort of made this routine to work around my situation. I just need to know if it is sound for a beginner. It’s 3 days on 1 day off.

The reps are a bit high but that’s because I would like to make sure the weights I have are enough for a while, until I can afford a gym membership. Anyway here it is:

Day 1: Chest, Triceps, Shoulders
Bench Press- 4x10
Combo Press- 3x12 *
Military Press- 3x10
Lateral Raises- 3x12
Tricep Extentions- 3x12

  • dumbell bench press but lowered like a flye

Day 2: Back, Biceps
Dumbell Rows- 4x8
Bent Over Rows- 3x10
Reverse Flyes- 2x15
Dumbell Shrugs- 3x10
Dumbell Curls- 4x10

Day 3: Legs, Abs
Deadlifts- 5x7
Split Squats- 4x8
Romanian Deadlifts- 3x8
Abs

[/quote]

way too complicated for you

bench press
deadlifts
rows
pull ups
squats

curls, flies, and shrugs??? say no to these drugs

you wont listen to me, but thats all you should be focusing on.

6

[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:

curls, flies, and shrugs??? say no to these drugs

you wont listen to me, but thats all you should be focusing on. [/quote]

Are you kidding me?

7

Day 1 legs:
squat
leg press
SLDL
calves

day 2 press:
bench press
incline DB or military press
side and front raises
triceps

Day 3:
deadlift
dumbell row
cable row
chins
shrugs
curls

However, do ripps for a few months before you start this. I’m serious.

8

[quote]zephead4747 wrote:
Day 1 legs:
squat
leg press
SLDL
calves

day 2 press:
bench press
incline DB or military press
side and front raises
triceps

Day 3:
deadlift
dumbell row
cable row
chins
shrugs
curls

However, do ripps for a few months before you start this. I’m serious.[/quote]

Yeah, when I get a gym membership I’ll try a program like Starting Strength, WS4SB, or something like the one you wrote to build up some strength and then go back to a split to build mass. Thanks man.

9

You definitely need to get bigger and stronger, especially if 135lbs of weights is enough for you right now.

Read and learn skinny, weak bastard!

http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/articles.htm

10

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
ZeusNathan wrote:

curls, flies, and shrugs??? say no to these drugs

you wont listen to me, but thats all you should be focusing on.

Are you kidding me?[/quote]

i guess that kinda offended you huh austin bicep

11

[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:
austin_bicep wrote:
ZeusNathan wrote:

curls, flies, and shrugs??? say no to these drugs

you wont listen to me, but thats all you should be focusing on.

Are you kidding me?

i guess that kinda offended you huh austin bicep[/quote]

No I think it is retarded advice. I can see if he was doing set after set of single arm spider curls and zottman curls are whatever, but shrugs, and curls are basic movements just like squats and deads. They’re the heavy hitters for the muscle they target, so in other words curls are the best exercise for biceps and shrugs are the best direct exercise for traps. This guy wants to be big and strong, I say do curls and shrugs.

12

u heard it here

do curls and shrugs to get big

13

[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:
u heard it here

do curls and shrugs to get big[/quote]

Is it that hard bro, to get big biceps curls are nescessary.

14

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
ZeusNathan wrote:
u heard it here

do curls and shrugs to get big

Is it that hard bro, to get big biceps curls are nescessary. [/quote]

But certain author’s say that your arms grow just fine off rows and bench-presses ! They can’t be wrong !!!111

…

I’d do the whole split differently, anyway.

OP, what exactly do you want to be? BBing huge, or would you like to enter Powerlifting or Oly lifting?

And for heaven’s sake, don’t make the mistake of believing that benching is all you need to do for tris… Especially if you bench bodybuilding style.

Chest and delts and tris all in the same workout is fine with some systems, but the way you do it, well, at some point your shoulders are going to tell you to go and fuckin die already.

If bbing (yes, even if you do not want to ever compete) is your goal, do something like this:

Day1 Chest+Tris
Day2 Back+Bis
Day3 Legs
Day4 Delts+traps+Abs
Day5 Off Day
Day6 Repeat

This’ll teach you to eat a ton, because if you don’t, you’ll burn out.
If you feel like shit, take a day off in between, if it happens a lot, eat more and make sure you get your sleep in.

Exercises (just a suggestion):

Chest+Tris

-Incline DB/BB Press

-Flat DB or Machine Press

(you could add flyes if you want, but imo not that important… Maybe do them to pump some blood into the muscle and that’s it)

-Close-Grip Press (If you get a gym membership, do these in the smith or powerrack and press against the smith/rack/towards your feet to get the tris more involved. Don’t do that if you press without rack/smith.
Hands shoulder width or slightly less, whatever’s comfortable for your wrists.)

-PJR Pullover’s or EZ Skullcrushers or some other extension where you can use some weight and that’s cool with your elbows.

-Pushdowns, whatever attachment you like. (more of a “get blood in” exercise, but you can also do it normally. Just leave 'em out when training at home.)

Back+Bis

-BTN Pulldowns to ear level onl, or Rack Chins, or Pullups/Chinups if you’re at home.

-One-Arm DB Rows or Low Cable Rows

-Rack Pulls (at the top of the movement, shrug BACKWARDS. Don’t do it during the movement.
You can do Deadlifts instead. (let’s not kid ourselves here, as a beginner with no one to show you how to deadlift properly, I don’t think floor deads should be in your split just now…)

  • Barbell Curls (if your wrists don’t like these, do EZ Curls)
  • Alternating DB Curls, or maybe Pinwheel Curls. All other’s are too difficult to progress on at your stage, imo… Wait till you’re stronger before you do them.

You don’t need 3 bi exercises as you already did rows and pulldowns.

Legs

-Leg Extensions if training at the gym, raise the angle so that you’re legs won’t go past a 90 degree bend (if you like your knees, that is)
Those mainly serve to warm you up… But try to progress on them, anyway.

-Squats or Leg Presses (watch this vid, that’s how you’re supposed to squat: - YouTube )

-Stiff-Legged Deads or Leg Curls

-Some Calf-Raise variation, you can do 1 or two exercises here… Make sure you get the stretch position right.

Delts+Traps+Abs

-Seated DB Overhead Presses

-DB Laterals or Machine laterals

-Bent-Over raises/ Face Pulls

-Shrugs (if you did Rack Deads on back+bi day, those may not be necessary… Just do them for a while and see how it goes.)

-Whatever you want to do for abs. Just make sure you progress on it, along with your other exercises. You can do 2 exercises here.

Ok, that’s it. You can alternate exercises (Do Incline DB Presses the one session, then do Incline Machine Presses the next… And go back and forth between the two. But you shouldn’t need to just yet. Remember that for later, makes progressing easier.)

If you stall on an exercise, first eat more. If that doesn’t help, do a different exercise for the same muscle-group. (i.e. BTN Presses to ear level instead of seated DB Presses… Or do Military Presses…).

You perform your sets in a pyramiding-up fashion. You warm up with light weight, 10-15 reps or so, then you increase the weight, do 8-10 reps, increase weight, 8-10 reps, increase weight again and do as many as you can (should be 7-10 or so).

Watch some youtube vids of pretty much any pro BB to see how they do it.
The last set is the one where you go all-out.

If your BB Curls look like this:
Bar12 (if the bar is too heavy for warm-up, use dumbells)
Bar+108
Bar+208
Bar+2510 ← this is your all-out set

You got 10 on your last set, so you can increase the weight next session.
So next session could be:
Bar12
Bar+108
Bar+208
Bar+307 ← all-out set

Ok, you only got 7, so next time don’t increase the weight, just try to get more reps till you can do 9-10. Then increase weight again.

Same formula for all exercises for now. On Squats and other big exercises, maybe do 5 or so total sets, i.e:

Bar15
Bar+more weight8-10
Bar+even more weight8-10
Bar+more weight again8-10
Bar+yet more weight * whatever you can do <-all-out set

Just make sure you always either progress by doing more reps and/or more weight on that last set of each exercise.

Ok, I think that’s all for now…

Avoid over-analyzing and reading 500 different articles which will only confuse you more.

You can do that once you’ve gained 50 pounds…

#Edit: Oh yeah, start doing your exercises with fairly strict form… You can start loosening up your form as you gain more experience and learn how to cheat properly.

15

Jesus christ, what is the obsession with bodypart splits here!?! By weakguys own admission, he’s weak! Dude, do a full body compound split 3 or 4 times a week,
hit the basic movements:
Presses (flat, incline+overhead)
Rows
Pull ups
Deadlifts
Squats
Lunges

Choose 3/4 of them each session and focus on building up some basic strength!
Sod anything that even resembles an isolation movement for now!
Oh, and eat like a fucking house!

16

[quote]jb413 wrote:
Jesus christ, what is the obsession with bodypart splits here!?! By weakguys own admission, he’s weak! Dude, do a full body compound split 3 or 4 times a week,
hit the basic movements:
Presses (flat, incline+overhead)
Rows
Pull ups
Deadlifts
Squats
Lunges

Choose 3/4 of them each session and focus on building up some basic strength!
Sod anything that even resembles an isolation movement for now!
Oh, and eat like a fucking house![/quote]

Jesus christ, what is the obsession with beginners giving out advice here?

It’s great that you can read articles and all, but maybe people who’ve been doing this for nearly a decade would know just a little better than you.

Avoiding curls and direct tricep work such as CGP’s and PJR’s while benching, squatting and deadlifting is the best way to end up with a 315 pound bench-press (if even) and 13-15 inch arms. Great.

Go have a look at the “bodyweight and arm measurements?” thread. That should serve as a wake-up call.

17

[quote]jb413 wrote:
Jesus christ, what is the obsession with bodypart splits here!?! By weakguys own admission, he’s weak! Dude, do a full body compound split 3 or 4 times a week,
hit the basic movements:
Presses (flat, incline+overhead)
Rows
Pull ups
Deadlifts
Squats
Lunges

Choose 3/4 of them each session and focus on building up some basic strength!
Sod anything that even resembles an isolation movement for now!
Oh, and eat like a fucking house![/quote]

Fuck you. What doi you know about bodybuilding?

I hate you, So many people like you say “do fullbody like Chad Waterbury and DON’T train arms to get them huge!” and end up looking alike shit.

YOU TRAIN LIKE BODYUBILDER IF YOU WANST TO LOOK LIKE THEM! Why do you knot understand thiss=? Why must all you stupids ‘strength sport oly,mpic players’ and those who care nothing or have ever built hguge arms recommend tbt as if that is the best for someone?

Fuck you again i hate you. You want to ruion his bodybuilding? do you? If the answer is yes then leave us. If the answer is no, and i hope this is the answer, and then shut up until you biold the muscle and learn from those who are huge.

Just don’t talk. You make beginners make mistakes, and end up weak/fat/no muscle/13"arms. Who wants that? Do you? Do you?

I am done-.

18

Listen to reson Zeus and JB, because with your theories you guys are obviously newbs.

19

[quote]Alquemist wrote:
jb413 wrote:
Jesus christ, what is the obsession with bodypart splits here!?! By weakguys own admission, he’s weak! Dude, do a full body compound split 3 or 4 times a week,
hit the basic movements:
Presses (flat, incline+overhead)
Rows
Pull ups
Deadlifts
Squats
Lunges

Choose 3/4 of them each session and focus on building up some basic strength!
Sod anything that even resembles an isolation movement for now!
Oh, and eat like a fucking house!

Fuck you. What doi you know about bodybuilding?

I hate you, So many people like you say “do fullbody like Chad Waterbury and DON’T train arms to get them huge!” and end up looking alike shit.

YOU TRAIN LIKE BODYUBILDER IF YOU WANST TO LOOK LIKE THEM! Why do you knot understand thiss=? Why must all you stupids ‘strength sport oly,mpic players’ and those who care nothing or have ever built hguge arms recommend tbt as if that is the best for someone?

Fuck you again i hate you. You want to ruion his bodybuilding? do you? If the answer is yes then leave us. If the answer is no, and i hope this is the answer, and then shut up until you biold the muscle and learn from those who are huge.

Just don’t talk. You make beginners make mistakes, and end up weak/fat/no muscle/13"arms. Who wants that? Do you? Do you?

I am done-.[/quote]

Lol i’m not advocating Chad Waterbury, far from it. I’m saying THIS dude, who started the thread, by his own admission, is weak. Therefore building up a base of strength with a regular frequency of compound exercises will be better for him in the short run, before moving on to a more traditional split.

I’m not even saying don’t train arms! I’m saying for NOW, maybe training arms is of lesser importance while the guy builds up his strength!

As you say, ‘Train like a bodybuilder to look like one’, well, i think you’ll find almost ALL bodybuilders started up going heavy on the compounds before building up to splits with more isolation work. Just because they train how they do now does NOT mean they have always trained that way. Plus heck anyway, throw into the equation the genes these guys possess and the 'roids there taking; then actually, training like them is not appropriate at all!

20

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
…

I’d do the whole split differently, anyway.

OP, what exactly do you want to be? BBing huge, or would you like to enter Powerlifting or Oly lifting?

And for heaven’s sake, don’t make the mistake of believing that benching is all you need to do for tris… Especially if you bench bodybuilding style.

Chest and delts and tris all in the same workout is fine with some systems, but the way you do it, well, at some point your shoulders are going to tell you to go and fuckin die already.

If bbing (yes, even if you do not want to ever compete) is your goal, do something like this:

Day1 Chest+Tris
Day2 Back+Bis
Day3 Legs
Day4 Delts+traps+Abs
Day5 Off Day
Day6 Repeat

This’ll teach you to eat a ton, because if you don’t, you’ll burn out.
If you feel like shit, take a day off in between, if it happens a lot, eat more and make sure you get your sleep in.

Exercises (just a suggestion):

Chest+Tris

-Incline DB/BB Press

-Flat DB or Machine Press

(you could add flyes if you want, but imo not that important… Maybe do them to pump some blood into the muscle and that’s it)

-Close-Grip Press (If you get a gym membership, do these in the smith or powerrack and press against the smith/rack/towards your feet to get the tris more involved. Don’t do that if you press without rack/smith.
Hands shoulder width or slightly less, whatever’s comfortable for your wrists.)

-PJR Pullover’s or EZ Skullcrushers or some other extension where you can use some weight and that’s cool with your elbows.

-Pushdowns, whatever attachment you like. (more of a “get blood in” exercise, but you can also do it normally. Just leave 'em out when training at home.)

Back+Bis

-BTN Pulldowns to ear level onl, or Rack Chins, or Pullups/Chinups if you’re at home.

-One-Arm DB Rows or Low Cable Rows

-Rack Pulls (at the top of the movement, shrug BACKWARDS. Don’t do it during the movement.
You can do Deadlifts instead. (let’s not kid ourselves here, as a beginner with no one to show you how to deadlift properly, I don’t think floor deads should be in your split just now…)

  • Barbell Curls (if your wrists don’t like these, do EZ Curls)
  • Alternating DB Curls, or maybe Pinwheel Curls. All other’s are too difficult to progress on at your stage, imo… Wait till you’re stronger before you do them.

You don’t need 3 bi exercises as you already did rows and pulldowns.

Legs

-Leg Extensions if training at the gym, raise the angle so that you’re legs won’t go past a 90 degree bend (if you like your knees, that is)
Those mainly serve to warm you up… But try to progress on them, anyway.

-Squats or Leg Presses (watch this vid, that’s how you’re supposed to squat: - YouTube )

-Stiff-Legged Deads or Leg Curls

-Some Calf-Raise variation, you can do 1 or two exercises here… Make sure you get the stretch position right.

Delts+Traps+Abs

-Seated DB Overhead Presses

-DB Laterals or Machine laterals

-Bent-Over raises/ Face Pulls

-Shrugs (if you did Rack Deads on back+bi day, those may not be necessary… Just do them for a while and see how it goes.)

-Whatever you want to do for abs. Just make sure you progress on it, along with your other exercises. You can do 2 exercises here.

Ok, that’s it. You can alternate exercises (Do Incline DB Presses the one session, then do Incline Machine Presses the next… And go back and forth between the two. But you shouldn’t need to just yet. Remember that for later, makes progressing easier.)

If you stall on an exercise, first eat more. If that doesn’t help, do a different exercise for the same muscle-group. (i.e. BTN Presses to ear level instead of seated DB Presses… Or do Military Presses…).

You perform your sets in a pyramiding-up fashion. You warm up with light weight, 10-15 reps or so, then you increase the weight, do 8-10 reps, increase weight, 8-10 reps, increase weight again and do as many as you can (should be 7-10 or so).

Watch some youtube vids of pretty much any pro BB to see how they do it.
The last set is the one where you go all-out.

If your BB Curls look like this:
Bar12 (if the bar is too heavy for warm-up, use dumbells)
Bar+108
Bar+208
Bar+2510 ← this is your all-out set

You got 10 on your last set, so you can increase the weight next session.
So next session could be:
Bar12
Bar+108
Bar+208
Bar+307 ← all-out set

Ok, you only got 7, so next time don’t increase the weight, just try to get more reps till you can do 9-10. Then increase weight again.

Same formula for all exercises for now. On Squats and other big exercises, maybe do 5 or so total sets, i.e:

Bar15
Bar+more weight8-10
Bar+even more weight8-10
Bar+more weight again8-10
Bar+yet more weight * whatever you can do <-all-out set

Just make sure you always either progress by doing more reps and/or more weight on that last set of each exercise.

Ok, I think that’s all for now…

Avoid over-analyzing and reading 500 different articles which will only confuse you more.

You can do that once you’ve gained 50 pounds…

#Edit: Oh yeah, start doing your exercises with fairly strict form… You can start loosening up your form as you gain more experience and learn how to cheat properly. [/quote]

Hey, thanks for all the help. I’m training for size. I’ve changed up the routine to take your adivde int account, here it is:

Day 1: Chest, Triceps
Bench Press- 15, 12, 10, 8, 8
Close Grip Bench- 15, 12, 10, 10
Combo Press- 12, 12, 12
Skull Crushers- 12, 12

Day 2: Back, Biceps
Deadlifts- 10, 8, 5, 5
Bent Over Rows- 15, 12, 10, 8, 8
Dumbell Rows- 15, 12, 10, 10
Barbell Curls- 15, 12, 10, 10, 10

Day 3: Shoulders, Traps, Abs
Seated DB Presses- 15, 12, 10, 8, 8
Front DB Raises- 15, 12, 10, 10
Lateral DB Raises- 15, 12, 10, 10
Shrugs- 12, 10, 10
Abs

Day 4: Legs
Front Squat- 15, 12, 10, 8, 8
Split Squat- 12, 10, 8, 8
RDL’s- 12, 10, 8, 8
Leg Curls- 10, 8, 8, 6
Calf Raises- 15, 12, 10, 10

Day 5: OFF

Day 6: Repeat

I have it so that the sets pyramid to two main sets. I know you suggested one max set, but I was hoping two could work too. The exercises are chosen to work around my lack of equipment.

I moved the leg day to two days after back so that I could do deadlifts on the back day (I’ll make sure to use good form).

On he chest day I will eventually replace the Bench Press with dips when the strength allows.

Anyway, if there is anything wrong with the program please tell me, I appreciate all the help. Thanks