My Workout...open to advice

[YoTRacer158]

Height: 6'
Weight: 161
Max Bench: 245

Well I'm pretty new here, just thought I'd post my workout to see what everyone thinks and to get some advice on what I could do better. I've been off and on when it comes to working out, as I race motocross and I'm always getting hurt. I'm recovering from a knee injury (torn PCL) so I'm working primarily upper body for the next few months, and I just got back into the gym after a broken arm. I'm a US Marine currently stationed in Iraq, and there's basically nothing to do except go to the gym, so I'm looking to get the most out of my workouts and come back looking as good as I can. Our gym is small, consisting of only a bench press, lat pull down, bowflex, preacher curl, squat rack, and dumbells from 15-60lbs, so that's what I have to work with. The Pulldown machine for lats and tri's is stiff as hell, so the weights might seem strangely low for workouts using that. All weights are in pounds, and weights listed for bowflex excercises are weight for each arm.

Training Split:

Even Months
Day 1: Chest and Back
Flat BB Press: 135x10, 185x8, 205x6, 225x4
Lat Pulldowns: 90x10, 120x8, 140x6
Incline DB Press: 40x10, 50x10, 60x10
Bowflex Wide Grip Seated Rows: 80x10, 90x10, 100x8
Bowflex Incline Chest Flys: 60x10, 70x8, 80x8
Bowflex Close Grip Seated Rows: 80x10, 90x10, 100x8
Decline DB Press: 40x10, 50x10, 60x8
Bent Over Rows: 65x10, 85x8, 105x8

Day2: Shoulders and Abs
Front Shoulder Raises: 3 sets, 20x10
Side Shoulder Raises: 3 sets 20x10
DB Shoulder Press: 45x10, 50x10, 55x8
Various crunches, leg lifts, etc. for Abs

Day 3: Biceps and Triceps
Close Grip Preacher Curls: 75x10, 85x8, 95x8
Skullcrushers: 3 sets, 65x10
Seated Incline DB Curls: 3 sets, 35x10
Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets, 40x10
Wide Grip Standing BB Curls: 3 sets, 55x10
Single Arm Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets, 30x10
Bowflex Seated Cable Curls: 35x10, 40x8, 45x8
Reverse Grip Single Arm Pushdowns: 3 sets, 30x10
Finish with 21's, 45lbs

Day 4: Rest


Odd Months
Day 1: Chest and Triceps
Flat BB Press: 135x10, 185x8, 205x6, 225x4
Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets, 40x10
Incline DB Press: 40x10, 50x10, 60x10
Skullcrushers: 3 sets, 65x10
Bowflex Incline Chest Flys: 60x10, 70x8, 80x8
Single Arm Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets, 30x10
Decline DB Press: 40x10, 50x10, 60x8
Reverse Grip Single Arm Pushdowns: 3 sets, 30x10

Day2: Shoulders and Abs
Front Shoulder Raises: 3 sets, 20x10
Side Shoulder Raises: 3 sets 20x10
DB Shoulder Press: 45x10, 50x10, 55x8
Various crunches, leg lifts, etc. for Abs

Day 3: Back and Biceps
Lat Pulldowns: 90x10, 120x8, 140x6
Close Grip Preacher Curls: 75x10, 85x8, 95x8
Bowflex Wide Grip Seated Rows: 80x10, 90x10, 100x8
Seated Incline DB Curls: 3 sets, 35x10
Bowflex Close Grip Seated Rows: 80x10, 90x10, 100x8
Close Grip Lat Pulldowns: 90x10, 100x10, 110x8
Bent Over Rows: 65x10, 85x8, 105x8
Wide Grip Standing BB Curls: 3 sets, 55x10
Finish with 21's, 45lbs

Day 4: Rest


All weights are current, which have greatly increased from my starting point two months ago. Bench Max has risen from 205 to 245, my goal is 275 by the time I leave in April. I don't have any measurements, but I can tell I've gotten bigger and my shirts are feeling tighter than they used to. I'll try to get some measurements in the next few days. I've put on 4lbs in 2 months, which is good for me as I am an extremely slow gainer. As far as supplements, I've been on the BSN Mass Stack for a month (getting ready to switch to White Blood/Green Bulge) and Muscle Milk. I'm also taking IDS Testfen and 17-hydroxy-mesterone, and Meritech Recombinant DNA (HGH), which I assume are not doing much since no one had anything good to say about them on here.

I'm mainly trying to gain strength, and put on a little size. I'm looking to get up to about 170-175lbs. I race motocross so I dont want to be too big or bulky. So let me know what you guys think, and what I could do better. Thanks in advance for any input.

[YoTRacer158]

anyone? I know it's not good enough to not need any advice...

[9cyclops9]

Way. Too. Much.

You want to focus on the big compound lifts. A good recommendation is for at least 75% of your program to be compounds, yet yours seems to be mostly isolation. Another name for isolation lifts is "assistance." You want your assistance lifts to assist you in getting stronger on the big lifts, but doing too many gets in the way of improvement big time. That's the first thing you need to fix.

[waseem]

OMFG! Where are your legs?! :@

[DrewZ]

Height: 6'
Weight: 161
Max Bench: 245

Training Split:

Even Months
Day 1: Chest and Back
Flat BB Press: 135x10, 185x8, 205x6, 225x4
Lat Pulldowns: 90x10, 120x8, 140x6
Incline DB Press: 40x10, 50x10, 60x10
Bowflex Wide Grip Seated Rows: 80x10, 90x10, 100x8
Bowflex Incline Chest Flys: 60x10, 70x8, 80x8
Bowflex Close Grip Seated Rows: 80x10, 90x10, 100x8
Decline DB Press: 40x10, 50x10, 60x8
Bent Over Rows: 65x10, 85x8, 105x8

Day2: Shoulders and Abs
Front Shoulder Raises: 3 sets, 20x10
Side Shoulder Raises: 3 sets 20x10
DB Shoulder Press: 45x10, 50x10, 55x8
Various crunches, leg lifts, etc. for Abs

Day 3: Biceps and Triceps
Close Grip Preacher Curls: 75x10, 85x8, 95x8
Skullcrushers: 3 sets, 65x10
Seated Incline DB Curls: 3 sets, 35x10
Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets, 40x10
Wide Grip Standing BB Curls: 3 sets, 55x10
Single Arm Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets, 30x10
Bowflex Seated Cable Curls: 35x10, 40x8, 45x8
Reverse Grip Single Arm Pushdowns: 3 sets, 30x10
Finish with 21's, 45lbs

Day 4: Rest


Odd Months
Day 1: Chest and Triceps
Flat BB Press: 135x10, 185x8, 205x6, 225x4
Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets, 40x10
Incline DB Press: 40x10, 50x10, 60x10
Skullcrushers: 3 sets, 65x10
Bowflex Incline Chest Flys: 60x10, 70x8, 80x8
Single Arm Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets, 30x10
Decline DB Press: 40x10, 50x10, 60x8
Reverse Grip Single Arm Pushdowns: 3 sets, 30x10

Day2: Shoulders and Abs
Front Shoulder Raises: 3 sets, 20x10
Side Shoulder Raises: 3 sets 20x10
DB Shoulder Press: 45x10, 50x10, 55x8
Various crunches, leg lifts, etc. for Abs

Day 3: Back and Biceps
Lat Pulldowns: 90x10, 120x8, 140x6
Close Grip Preacher Curls: 75x10, 85x8, 95x8
Bowflex Wide Grip Seated Rows: 80x10, 90x10, 100x8
Seated Incline DB Curls: 3 sets, 35x10
Bowflex Close Grip Seated Rows: 80x10, 90x10, 100x8
Close Grip Lat Pulldowns: 90x10, 100x10, 110x8
Bent Over Rows: 65x10, 85x8, 105x8
Wide Grip Standing BB Curls: 3 sets, 55x10
Finish with 21's, 45lbs

Day 4: Rest


I'm mainly trying to gain strength, and put on a little size. I'm looking to get up to about 170-175lbs. I race motocross so I dont want to be too big or bulky. So let me know what you guys think, and what I could do better. Thanks in advance for any input.

Too much focus on isolation moves. It sounds like you're making some good progress. But, you would have been even further along if you spent more time on a basic routine that focused on the compound moves and kept assistance moves to a minimum. Especially since your main goal is strength. 4 to 5 exercises is too much for a couple of reasons. For one, it will tax the hell of your recovery system, mainly your CNS. And two, you can't maintain sufficient intensity in terms of training poundages after your first two exercises. I'd bet that by the last couple of sets of your 3rd exercise you feel like you're just going through the motions. At that point you're doing nothing to enhance size or strength. Also, I've never advocated training on consecutive days, but if you must, then keep it to no more than two days in a row followed by a rest day. Like a two days on, one day off upper body/lower body split, or a basic push/pull. Then trim the fat (Bowflex work, flyes, laterals and cable work) and condense your routine into something that allows for more compound moves with less overall exercises. Ideally you should be able to work three major muscle groups (ie. chest, delts, tris) with no more than 4 to 6 exercises. Even less for back/bis or legs. Try designing it so that you work each muscle group twice a week but with two different workouts. For example, if you start off with benching or dips on your first push day of the week, then start the next one with inclines. That way you're attacking your chest with maximum weights and will achieve better development than trying to do them both on them same day. If you must do assistance work, then try rotating it between bodyparts. Like on push days do two sets of flyes one workout (after bench or inclines), side laterals the next time (after presses), and tricep pushdowns the next time (after skull crushers). Same for pull days. You could do dumbell rows (after chins or barbell row) on one day, and concentration curls (after barbell curl) the next. Final note: You need to do some kind of leg training! If you want to muscle-up your whole body then you MUST work your legs. If your knee allows, you should opt for high rep squats with a weight that challenges you on your last few reps. The leg press is an alternative, but nowhere near as efficient as squats. Once you incorporate leg training into your routine you'll have no choice but to cut down on the total volume. Then you'll really see yourself make some progress. So will everyone else!