Recommend a Routine - Changing Routines

[e5ofclay]

Bit of a problem here. Before I get into it, I read the stickies scouring them for a routine I could use, but to no avail.

A buddy of mine and I have been working out for about 12 weeks, we started off with a beginner's routine found on this site. (AllPro: A Simple Beginner's Routine)

We had both had experience lifting in High School, but we wanted to start off slow and build off of a base before we really hit it. So we did the beginner's program for 6 weeks and moved on to another routine. Out of all the routines I looked at, I honestly can't remember where I found it or what it's really called. Doesn't really matter, as we had to adjust it because we only have a weight bench, which is part of the problem. I tried finding a routine that doesn't tell us to use equipment we don't have. The only gym in our town is a Women's only gym.

If there is one using just a weight bench, sorry that I missed it.

If there aren't any, are there certain exercises that we can substitute with others? The last routine we had called for Leg Presses, but without a Leg Press machine, we just did Barbell Lunges. I'm not even sure that's a decent substitution. So if I could get a few pointers or a shove in the right direction, that would be greatly appreciated.

[KidAlchemy]

Well you could always build a squat rack. And once that's done I advise you to say hello to madcows or stronglifts.

[jms1281]

yeah^ build a squat rack. Otherwise, you can pretty much compensate for nearly every body part using dumbells and a bench...

[DeltaCharlie75]

Bit of a problem here. Before I get into it, I read the stickies scouring them for a routine I could use, but to no avail.

A buddy of mine and I have been working out for about 12 weeks, we started off with a beginner's routine found on this site. (AllPro: A Simple Beginner's Routine)

We had both had experience lifting in High School, but we wanted to start off slow and build off of a base before we really hit it. So we did the beginner's program for 6 weeks and moved on to another routine. Out of all the routines I looked at, I honestly can't remember where I found it or what it's really called. Doesn't really matter, as we had to adjust it because we only have a weight bench, which is part of the problem. I tried finding a routine that doesn't tell us to use equipment we don't have. The only gym in our town is a Women's only gym.

If there is one using just a weight bench, sorry that I missed it.

If there aren't any, are there certain exercises that we can substitute with others? The last routine we had called for Leg Presses, but without a Leg Press machine, we just did Barbell Lunges. I'm not even sure that's a decent substitution. So if I could get a few pointers or a shove in the right direction, that would be greatly appreciated.

Why did you switch routines after 6 weeks? Run All pros until you no longer make any progress and then think about switching.

[Jasonk282]

6 weeks...hell 12 weeks on any routine is not long enough, especially for a beginner. Run it till you can no longer make progress...deload your weights and run it again.

[jgreystoke]

^^^^^^

This.

Run it for a year(10 cycles) if you can..........

[Jasonk282]

^^^^^^

This.

Run it for a year(10 cycles) if you can..........

Yup there is not reason why you can't run it for a year. it's not the aggressive program as SS or SL is.

[e5ofclay]

We are able to do Squats, we figured out a way to do that... Probably should build a rack for it though, hah.

We stopped doing the Beginner's routine because I keep reading conflicting reports, blogs, posts an whatnot on how quickly the body adapts to a workout routing, so decided to play it safe. I wasn't sure how long we could do one routine. One of the things I was worried about with the Beginner's Routine is that I didn't feel like I was able to get a good leg workout with it. Would it hurt if we threw in some leg curls? If that's cool, we'll go back to the Beginner's Routine and stick with it.

Ok the page for finding out your starting weight in Q2 on the Beginner's Routine thread has been 404'd, can I get a quick summary of doing it again?

One more question. In the past 11 months I've gone from 320 to 226 (sitting at ~30% BF), not sure where he came from but he's at 212 now. From what I've read on the site, my primary focus should be cutting. Is the Beginner's Routine still good to use if that's my goal?