Thoughts On My Routine!

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Hi everyone, my name is Dave, I’ve been working out for about 6 months now and about 6 days a week since then. I’ve been trying different routines and I’ve been on this one from about 1 month. It’s a lot of work but my friend has been using it to great success. I’ve constantly read T-Nation but really posted until now.

I’m really motivated to get bigger, 6 months ago I weighed around 150lbs and now I weigh 165lbs and can still see my six pack. I’ve always been fit and athletic, I stay active and play sports. When not at the gym I’ll do some bodyweight exercises, box, jump rope and occasionally plyometrics.
As far as my diet is concerned, I do whey protein, Surge and creatine for now and I eat clean and watch what I eat.

I’m not worried about my diet or how hard I’ll work because I’m showing some good gains so far but there’s always room for improvement and I know not to stay on one routine for a long time, it’s variety that helps you get over slopes.

Just curious to what everyone thinks about this routine, my friend has been on for a while and he’s 200lbs and 5’8 and he’s ripped.

Monday: Chest + triceps + abs
4 x 8-10 reps flat bench press
4 x 8-10 dumbbell incline bench press
4 x 8-10 close grip bench press
3 x 12-15 cable crossover

3 x 8-10 cable pushdown
3 x 8-10 lying triceps extension

Abs exercises are about 3 different exercises at about 3 x 10-15 each.

Tuesday: Back + biceps
4 x 8-10 chin-up
4 x 8-10 close grip chin-up
4 x 8-10 seated row
4 x 6-10 dead lift

3 x 8-10 dumbbell curl
3 x 8-10 barbell curl

Wednesday: Shoulders + legs
4 x 8-10 dumbbell shoulder press
4 x 10-12 dumbbell lateral raise
4 x 10-12 dumbbell rear lateral raise
4 x 12-16 dumbbell shrugs

4 x 10-16 seated leg press

Edit: And I repeat Thursday-Saturday basically with the three workouts.

2

You had me until I got to the very last portion of the final day. All you are doing for legs is the seated leg press? Call me crazy, but I believe that you’re leaving something on the table there.

…something like squats.

3

[quote]Just curious to what everyone thinks about this routine, my friend has been on for a while and he’s 200lbs and 5’8 and he’s ripped.
[/quote]

This isn’t supposed to come off jerky, but what works for your friend won’t necessarily work for you.

Personally, I have tried bodybuilder type routines with little success in the past. Nothing but frustration.

The beginning of this year I decided to change things up a bit. I had read when you train for strength, size will surely follow. That became my new goal. Now I can’t relate to you as far as size because I weigh 240. I can tell you that I am making pretty good gains and eating to get those gains.

Do you want to stay ‘ripped’ or least keep your six pack and gain mass? Depending on a lot of things, that may not be possible to have both. Or it is possible but your results will be slow.

The question is how long is too long and how long is not long enough. Everything works and nothing works.

Read this article by Chris Shugart

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1788475

If you’re curious, this is my routine

4

Dave, there’s nothing wrong with the leg press and squats aren’t the answer to everything.

5

[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
Dave, there’s nothing wrong with the leg press and squats aren’t the answer to everything.[/quote]

There’s nothing wrong with leg press… unless it’s your only lower body exercise in a whole week of training.

There’s a whole 'nother world of lower body exercises OP.
For example:

leg press
squat
front squat
overhead squat
Good morning
RDL
Lunge
GHR
The dreaded leg curl

6

[quote]Davy420 wrote:
Monday: Chest + triceps + abs
4 x 8-10 reps flat bench press
4 x 8-10 dumbbell incline bench press
4 x 8-10 close grip bench press
3 x 12-15 cable crossover

3 x 8-10 cable pushdown
3 x 8-10 lying triceps extension

Abs exercises are about 3 different exercises at about 3 x 10-15 each.

Tuesday: Back + biceps
4 x 8-10 chin-up
4 x 8-10 close grip chin-up
4 x 8-10 seated row
4 x 6-10 dead lift

3 x 8-10 dumbbell curl
3 x 8-10 barbell curl

Wednesday: Shoulders + legs
4 x 8-10 dumbbell shoulder press
4 x 10-12 dumbbell lateral raise
4 x 10-12 dumbbell rear lateral raise
4 x 12-16 dumbbell shrugs

4 x 10-16 seated leg press

[/quote]

Is it really necessary to do 15 sets and 4 exercises for chest? 16 sets and four exercises for back? Same thing for shoulders?

I have no problem with that amount of volume per sessions, but it’s highly redundant. It just seems like you could work a little harder and have better training economy.

How much weight are you using for these lifts and how old are you?

7

When it comes quad development, squats are the answer for pretty much everyone. Perhaps, Dave here is the exception, but probably not.

8

TheDudeAbides thanks for your thoughts and criticism(btw, I love the Big Lebowski) and I don’t really care about keeping my six pack, I want to gain size. I work hard enough and I’m active enough so I’m confident I would gain it back if I were to lose it. And I know what worked for somebody else won’t necessarily work for me, I’ve been changing routines for a while, my last one was Max OT which I liked and I was on it for about 90 days.

I eat a lot, and I’ve put on 15 lbs in about 6 months with my bf % staying the same and I’m happy with the progress I’m making but I was a little skeptical about this routine which is why I posted it asking for everyone’s thoughts. Even though my friend is in fantastic shape, it may not be a great routine for me.

Conorh, I’m 21 and my biggest weak point is my chest, it seems really hard for me to train my chest and produce good results, so I try to train my chest more than other body parts. I do enough weight where I can’t do more than 8-10 reps per set. I struggle somewhat nearing the end of it because it gets difficult, that workout is definitely my harder one, but I really want to improve my chest.

Thanks for everyone’s responses so far!

9

[quote]conorh wrote:
TheDudeAbides wrote:
Dave, there’s nothing wrong with the leg press and squats aren’t the answer to everything.

There’s nothing wrong with leg press… unless it’s your only lower body exercise in a whole week of training.

[/quote]

I don’t think my post came out as intended. Thank you conor for the correction. I just didn’t want Dave to think that the leg press is a worthless exercise. It can get you results. Are there better exercises or more variety. Well, you listed them.

Dave, I do front squats and deadlifts exclusively for leg development.

10

I question the amount of volume/intensity per week. Seems like a lot of volume and intensity for someone only working out for 6 months.

Wouldn’t doing a routine like that 3x a week be better than doing it 6x a week?