Critique my exercise routine please? ? ?

[chrischaaaaan]

Hey everyone,

I've been hitting the gym consistently for the past 2 weeks, learning the ropes with the different equipment. Please understand I'm a total gym newbie, but am really dedicated towards strengthening and toning my upper body. I'm a road cyclist so I don't have much interest in building my leg muscles. I've come up with a plan that incorporates exercises my friends and trainers have encouraged me to do. I split them into A and B... with A on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and B on Tuesday/Thursday.

A
1. Bench press (4 x 5)
2. Squats (3 x 5)
3. Dips (3 x 8)
4. Rowing machine (3 x 8)
5. Bicep curls (3 x 8)
6. Overhead dumbbell extension (2 x 8)
7. Lateral dumbbell extension (2 x 8)
8. Seated pulldown (3 x 8)

B
1. Ab Ripper X (from P90X)
2. Cardio


PLEASE feel free to suggest anything, bash me all you want! Am I doing too much? Too little? Just understand that I have never had a gym routine before, but I'm extremely committed towards sticking with one.

[Reynolds2x]

Yep, you're on a trip to overtraining, break it up like this (which also msy be a little much), listen to your body and throw in another rest day when needed.

Day 1: all push
Day 2: all pull
Day 3: legs
Day 4: rest
Day 5: repeat

Who cares if push is monday one week and tuesday the next, or pull or legs etc.

You can split shoulders into both push day and pull day, since they do both... But no routine is gonna do shnit unless you have your recovery (diet, rest) plan in check.

Btw, legs are important to your routine wether you want to work them or not due to the growth hormone released from working such a large musle group.

[Partyrocking]

A newbie should be able to train full body three days a week w/o overtraining. They're at the beginning of their lifting potential and will recover fast.

I don't get why you wouldn't want to increase leg strength if your a cyclist. I understand not wanting to add too much mass, but that is a matter of what you eat, not what you train. If anything, you probably should be doing exercises to strengthen the back of your legs because cycling is very quad dominant. If your muscle imbalances are too high, then you are putting torque on your joints, in this case, your knee and increasing your risk of injury.

If your worried about overworking your legs, then I would keep lower body work to your off-season.

Maybe check out some weight training programs geared toward cyclists?

[amgben]

I really feel that after some time you will develop some muscle imbalances which will cause problems down the line. You really need to have a more balanced routine.