Critique my routine please...

[timb]

Going to do this for a while to see if anyone can offer me some training advice/guidance and critique what I'm doing. This is a breakdown of my overall routine. I'll then go in and update what I do on a particular day.

Day one/Chest
Day two/Back & low back
Day three/Shoulders & Traps
Day four/Triceps
Day five/Biceps and forearms
Day six/Thighes & Leg Bi's

Do cardio three to five days a week usually at a seperate workout during my lunchbreak. Try to do ab's and calve's at least a couple times a week.

On Sunday 8/12 did:

BB curls 15/65lbs 12/85 12/105 12/115 12/95 12/95
EZ Scott curls 15/70 12/80 12/85 14/75
EZ Rev Curl 12/65 12/65 12/65
Alt DB Curl 24/45 22/50 26/40
BBWr Curl 15/60 15/60 12/60
Rev Wr Curl 12/30 12/30 12/20

On Monday 8/13...

No workout today... Had some minor mouth surgery and they said to not workout at all. No cardio, no nothing. I'm sure I'll be in a great mood later...

[MISSINGLINK]

Were you trying to blow your biceps up on 8/12? As far as your other stuff, there is no rep ranges, exercises, sets reps etc. Need the info.

[timb]

What I planned to do is each day list my exercises/weights/ and reps to give a true representation. But for example here is a leg workout and a chest workout with approximate reps.

Leg Press 15/180 15/270 15/360 15/450 15/540 15/630
Hacks 15/140 15/180 15/230 15/270
Leg Extension 20/120 20/140 20/100
Lying Leg Curls 15/70 15/90 15/100 15/80
Seated Leg Curls 15/225 15/225


Bench Press 15/135 12/185 8/225 6/255 4/285 3/305 3/325 X/335 X/275
Incline BP 8/175 8/205 8/225 X/245 X/215
DB Flyes 15/65 12/75 10/80 15/80
Smith Decline BP 15/165 12/195 12/215 15/185
Pec Dec 15/150 15/160 15/140

X = as many reps as possible...

If you get a chance visit my bodyspace and discover why I do the high reps like I do. Prior injuries, a heart attack and other things have influenced my training. All input is welcome though. I am really considering some changes to my routine. I still want to be strong, but obviously am now more concerned about being more fit and muscular...

[jgreystoke]

Hi Tim.

Fantastic, that you have fought your way back from ill health. Only someone who has gone through it really understands, and I salute you.

I'm a free weights, whole body, abbreviated routine fan, but you are not a novice and know what works for your body. I'll probably bugging you for some bodybuilding pointers when I've got a lot more size.

Nothing wrong with high reps, which are absolutely fantistic for conditioning, where I fall down badly. And yes, am doing something about it.

You are pretty damn strong already, having competed and all. You have to be fully familiar with the big basic, lower rep stuff that got you places in powerlifting. I may be bugging you about some of that stuff as well when I'm more advanced.

If you want some real world fitness that is hardly ever seen in todays gyms, consider incorporating some of the old time bodybuilding staples, that everyone used to do.

Weighted chins and dips are no slouch for upper body, but they also give you a kind of coordinated strength that no machines can duplicate.

Ditto the clean and strict press, where you finish with the plane of your arms behind your ears. Like the top of the press behind the neck.

Full range stiff leg deads and good mornings do wonders for everything up the back of your body from the heels to the neck, and to the fingertips in the case of the sld.

You may so enjoy the flexiblilty and grace that such training develops, that you might become addicted to the old style training. If you never use straps, your hands, wrists and forearms will become very strong, even without direct grip work.

You're still doing something that's pretty damn good right now. I'm shooting for your size, but hardly in a position to be advising you. I only know what worked wonders for me.

Best of luck with all your goals. I'll be really interested to see what changes you make, if you feel the need, and how it works out.

[timb]

I am actually pretty old school. I'll be listing more of my exercises workouts in coming days and you'll see that I use a lot of the staples. Some I can't due to injuries and overall condition. I can't do squats really well because I have three bulging disks in my back from my heavy squat days when I powerlifted. I still will go through a phase of trying them for a while, but I always pay for it... Same for comp. style deadlifts. But I do stiff leg ones. Thanks for the positive comments. Don't know if you saw my bodyspace stuff yet but it has been a hard road. Diabetic since age 10, numerous workout related injuries/surgeries, and then a heart attack at age 41. But with God's grace I'm still plugging along. I'm actually luckier than a lot of people in this world. But I digress, thanks for the comments and everyone's opinion is important and considered. Keep on pumping...

[timb]

Hate bumping this myself, but wanted to get it back up so I could get some more ideas on how or if to change up my routine....

[timb]

Can anyone offer some advice?

[timb]

Due to not having trained legs in well over a week and not supposed to even be working out due to dental work yesterday, dropped the number of sets and weight used. Still had great pumps though and got done really quick... Little over an hour.

Leg Press 15/180 15/270 15/360 20/450
Hacks 15/90 15/140 15/180
Leg Extension 20/100 20/120 20/80
Lying Leg Curl 15/60 15/80 15/90
Seated Leg Curl 15/210 15/210
Calf Press 12/270 12/270 12/270

Hope to get back into regular training tomorrow. Maybe some cardio at lunch, then chest in the evening.

[timb]

Another delay. Missed lunch cardio workout due to work being nuts... Hopefully will have enough energy after chest tonight to do a little cardio afterwards. Maybe should just skip chest and do cardio, but I don't see that happening.... Hopefully work will slow down enough for me to train tonight. Will try again tomorrow for the lunch cardio.

[timb]

Great chest workout... Still down some in strength, but going back up, and pump was incredible.
Bench Press 15/135 12/185 8/225 6/245 4/265 3/285 3/305 4/325 12/265
Incline BP 8/165 8/185 8/205 11/225 14/195
DB Flyes 15/55 12/65 12/70 15/60
Smith Decline BP 15/165 12/185 12/205 15/185
Pec Dec 15/140 14/150 19/130
Treadmill 15 minutes...

On Thursday going to try and get cardio done during lunch break then blast back in evening...

[the_muss]

Hey Tim,

Good routine, I like the 6 day - one body part per day split.

I think that you may be doing too many sets on some exercises - what's your rest period between sets?

Also personally I'd do the incline bench press first as to put more emphasis on your upper chest.

I look forward to seeing your shoulder and back days.

[timb]

Thanks for the input. The main thing I don't like about my routine is that with missing days sometimes it puts a long time between working bodyparts. I really would like to hit chest/back/legs more often, but don't like sacrificing the other bodyparts. As far as the number of sets that goes back to my old powerlifting days. A lot of times I don't feel like I'm getting a good workout unless I do that. On benches I do a lot of sets because I really have to warm up a lot due to old injuries and just being old. Except for benches I don't do that many sets on any other exercise or bodypart, usually my sets are the 3-6 range depending on if it's a primary movement or a secondary (like BB curls vs. alternate DB curls).

[MISSINGLINK]

This is starting to look like a journal. Maybe you should head over there.

[amarkham]

You have an entire day dedicated to triceps and another dedicated to biceps?!? And you did 22 sets of CURLS?!! Just because they're different exercises does not mean you're hitting your biceps differently... Stick to at most 4 sets of curls or you will overtrain them. Less is more.

[timb]

Thanks for the comments. amarkham, I actually did 16 sets for biceps and 6 for forearms. I've done the low set thing before and it just don't work for me. I don't see how you can work all the areas of a muscle just doing 4 sets of one exercise for any muscle. Maybe for a novice or beginner. But I've been lifting for almost 30 years. muss, I have the same thing posted in journals, but I post on this section to try and get some input and training advice. Hope that's within the purview of this forum.

[amarkham]

First off, I say 4 sets for bis/tris because they already get hit fairly hard when you work chest/back. Secondly...how many "areas" of a muscle do you think there are... Are you one of those guys that thinks that you can isolate "upper/lower pecs"? No offense, but if you've been lifting for 30+ years, you might wanna go over the human anatomy because there aren't as many "areas" of a muscle as you think there are. Hammer curls do not hit "one part" of the biceps more than Barbell curls or preacher curls...

[timb]

I appreciate your "opinion", but actually I'm very well versed in anatomy and though any exercise can work the entire muscle, some exercises do target certain areas of the muscle more than others. I guess all the other bodybuilders/powerlifters/fitness people who do exercises to target certain areas of a muscle have been doing it wrong for all these years. Also, they are called triceps because there are three heads the muscle, biceps for two, and quads for four as an example, oh and don't forget you also have leg biceps too... But I guess I could just do four sets of squats and hit all of them... I agree that bis/tris are hit hard on back/chest, that's why I stagger the days. Kind of an advanced push/pull.

[amarkham]

Congratulations, you understand that muscles might have different heads... Your pecs have sternal/clavicular heads but I'm SURE you know that you can't "isolate" either, right? I apologize for the sarcasm but I'm not going to bother arguing with you any more. Good luck and keep doing your 30+ sets of bicep curls and maybe...just maybe in years time you will realize.

[timb]

I don't like being petty, but I don't see any of your stats or numbers to demonstrate your effectiveness of training... have a nice day.

[ThickAsABrick]

Originally Posted by amarkham

Stick to at most 4 sets of curls or you will overtrain them. Less is more.

Terrible advice and incorrect.

Originally Posted by amarkham

First off, I say 4 sets for bis/tris because they already get hit fairly hard when you work chest/back. Secondly...how many "areas" of a muscle do you think there are... Are you one of those guys that thinks that you can isolate "upper/lower pecs"? No offense, but if you've been lifting for 30+ years, you might wanna go over the human anatomy because there aren't as many "areas" of a muscle as you think there are. Hammer curls do not hit "one part" of the biceps more than Barbell curls or preacher curls...

No, smaller muscle groups recover quickly. lol at not thinking you can train upper/lower pecs.
Compartmentalization is a legit theory that I agree with.

Originally Posted by amarkham

Congratulations, you understand that muscles might have different heads... Your pecs have sternal/clavicular heads but I'm SURE you know that you can't "isolate" either, right? I apologize for the sarcasm but I'm not going to bother arguing with you any more. Good luck and keep doing your 30+ sets of bicep curls and maybe...just maybe in years time you will realize.

Um...

He's been training a long time and has decent size.

And you're an idiot.

Negged.

[timb]

For the affirmation and voice of confidence and reason. Looking pretty thick yourself there. Keep on pumping...

[amarkham]

What and you think 25+ sets of curls is gonna give you SUPER TONED HUGE BULGING BICEPS THAT WILL KILL WOMEN AND CHILDREN UPON FLEXING! ? Your pecs contract as a whole - it is impossible to isolate either head. It's like arguing with a brick wall.

[craze9]

Originally Posted by timb

I don't like being petty, but I don't see any of your stats or numbers to demonstrate your effectiveness of training... have a nice day.

Why are you posting this topic then? You have 30 years of experience and know everything about anatomy and used to powerlift and do the old school bodybuilding thing so what exactly are you expecting? I'm not saying amarkham gave good advice... far from it. But according to the claims you've made in this thread you have more knowledge/experience than 98% of the people on this forum.

In your first post you say you want "to see if anyone can offer me some training advice/guidance and critique what I'm doing." Well, if you know what you're doing so well what kind of critique do you want? You are doing a very high volume 6-day a week body part split and seem to think it is awesome. So just keep doing it.

[ThickAsABrick]

Originally Posted by amarkham

Your pecs contract as a whole - it is impossible to isolate either head. It's like arguing with a brick wall.

lol

There is no debate that upper and lower can be emphasized.

You must be referring to inner/outer. Here are some articles about that:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpo...9&postcount=17

Try to learn before posting ignorant things. You won't look like as a big of a moron that way.

Have a fantastic Thursday!

[amarkham]

So what, if I went and found 100 articles saying that you can't isolate your upper/lower pecs that gives me the right to flame other people? Don't be so arrogant.

[ThickAsABrick]

wow, strong comeback

[amarkham]

Originally Posted by ThickAsABrick

There is no debate that upper and lower can be emphasized.
Try to learn before posting ignorant things. You won't look like as a big of a moron that way.

Oh, there isn't a debate?

http://www.mmipowertraining.com/foru...ad.php?t=15323
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1327855
Need I list more?

Do me a favor and flex your "upper pec" for me, won't you? Oh, wait...you can't. And I believe I was debating that you can't ISOLATE upper/lower pecs, not emphasize... Maybe you should re-read the wording of what you're arguing against so you don't jump the gun and "look like as a big of a moron that way" (double check your grammar)?

Try to learn before posting ignorant things.

[ThickAsABrick]

Originally Posted by amarkham

I'm new to the forums and mildly retarded.

Welcome!

[amarkham]

Aah, maturity at its finest.

[BuffMedic]

Without getting into the other crap going on in the thread

Tim you look like your hitting it really hard. My only suggestion would be keep it up and think about getting some rest. All the work and no rest is worthless bro.
Good Luck and Keep it up