Switching my workout rountine

[nott917]

I just finished making a new routine to accommodate my new goal of muscle tone/cutting fat and looking for some feedback on it. Previously I've been doing a 5x5 heavy weight routine that worked a single muscle group each day. Now I am planning on trying a push/pull/legs/rest rotation. I have never done a workout that focused on multiple muscle groups per day or muscles more then 1 time per week so any feedback will be much appreciated

Sunday - Chest/Tri's/Durs
Barbell Bench 3x6-8
Weighted Dips 3x6-8
Incline Flyes 2x6-8
Skull Crushers 2x6-8
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 2x10-12
Arnold Press 2x10-12
Lateral Raise 2x10-12
Frontal Raise 2x10-12
Upright Row 2x10-12

Monday - Legs/Ab's/Grip
Squats 3x8-10
Deadlifts 2x8-10
Leg Extensions/Curls Supersets 2x8-10
Dumbbell Lunges 2x8-10
Calf Raises 3x8-10
Hanging Leg Rasies 3 sets
Rope Crunches 3x10

Tuesday - Back/Bicep/Forearm
Pull-ups 3x8-10
Bent-Over Row 2x6-8
Straight Arm Pulldowns/Reverse Cable Crossover Supersets 2x8-10
Back Extensions 2x10
Standing EZ Bar Curls 3x10-12
Single Arm Preacher Curl 2x10-12
Dumbbell Eccentric Curl 1xBO
Narrow Grip Seated Row 2x10-12
Wrist Rotations 1xBO


Wednesday - Break


Thursday - Durs/Chest/Tri's
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3x6-8
Arnold Press 2x6-8
Lateral Raises 2x8
Frontal Raises 2x8
Upright Row 2x6-8
Dumbbell Bench 3x10-12
Weighted Dips 3x10-12
Cable Crossovers 2x10-12
Dumbbell Closegrip Bench 2x10-12


Friday - Legs/Ab's/Grip
Squats 3x8-10
Deadlifts 2x8-10
Leg Extensions/Curls supersets 2x8-10
Lunges 2x8-10
Calf Raise 3x8-10
Hanging Leg Rasies 3 sets
Rope Crunches 3x10


Saturday - Bicep/Back/Forearm
Standing EZ Bar Curl 3x6-8
Hammer Curls 2x6-8
Single Arm Preacher Curl 2x6-8
Dumbbell Eccentric Curl 1xBO
Pull-ups 2xBO
Seated Row 2x10-12
Straight Arm Pulldowns/Reverse Cable Crossover Supersets 2x8-10
Back Extensions 2x10-12
Wrist Curl 1x12-15
Wrist Extension 1x12-15

[wgpa]

A few ideas off the top of my head:

1) Working out 6 days in a row seems a bit tough going coming straight from a 3x a week program.

2) Your suggested routine has 6 separate splits, I think you might benefit more from a less fragmented workout. If you've peaked on 5x5, then I would look at an upper/lower split. As you peak on that then look to split into push/pull/squat/lift routines.

3) Volume looks really high with c.9 different exercises a day. I find 6 a day is really hard so I'd personally find 9 way too much. You could drop a bunch of the exercises for just now, and then swap some out after a while for a bit of variation.

4) How do you plan on increasing weight? No mention of targets etc.

5) On a cut you will likely lose strength, do you have a deload mechanism built in for any failures?

6) Despite having a 6 day split, you plan on deadlifting straight after squatting. Would these two exercises not be better as the headlines on separate days?

7) Saturday has an incredible amount of arm work. Usually one or two excercises a week would do in a split. That's almost an entire day dedicated to a small muscle.

[SoapyDave]

I think you would benefit more from 4x a week, upper/lower, this seems to be a little much. Also I personally found it odd that biceps are getting just as much attention as back, more sets are needed for a huge muscle group opposed to just a small arm muscle. Another thing is while you're doing roughly 14 sets a week for biceps you're only doing 4 sets for triceps not including dips anyway, triceps are a larger muscle group and need more attention than biceps. Just wanted to add that I've seen much worse programs but there isn't anything here that I actually like but that could be due to me having a completely different program and goals in mind. Every workout I do consists of strength, and power. Thanks for sharing your routine.

[nott917]

A few ideas off the top of my head:

1) Working out 6 days in a row seems a bit tough going coming straight from a 3x a week program.

2) Your suggested routine has 6 separate splits, I think you might benefit more from a less fragmented workout. If you've peaked on 5x5, then I would look at an upper/lower split. As you peak on that then look to split into push/pull/squat/lift roI utines.

3) Volume looks really high with c.9 different exercises a day. I find 6 a day is really hard so I'd personally find 9 way too much. You could drop a bunch of the exercises for just now, and then swap some out after a while for a bit of variation.

4) How do you plan on increasing weight? No mention of targets etc.

5) On a cut you will likely lose strength, do you have a deload mechanism built in for any failures?

6) Despite having a 6 day split, you plan on deadlifting straight after squatting. Would these two exercises not be better as the headlines on separate days?

7) Saturday has an incredible amount of arm work. Usually one or two exercises a week would do in a split. That's almost an entire day dedicated to a small muscle.

Thanks for the response, you've given me some things to think about. I'll try and go through and address some of your points.

1. I meant to erase the days and put in "day 1", "day 2" etc.. so it would be push/leg/pull/rest/push/leg/pull/rest instead of 6 straight

2. I did look into upper/lower body splits but I got the feeling that I would become bored with a routine like that faster than a P/P/L one.

3. This is something I was also concerned with when making the routine which is why I dropped many of the exercises to 2 sets instead of 3. I still do think it may be a little much and may decide to drop some exercises after trying it.

4. I hadn't given a whole lot of thought to this. My primary goal is maintaining what I have as best as I can. I didn't plan on increasing in weight very much during this. I suppose i'll just increase as needed though, if i find myself completing my sets too easily then it's time to add more.

5.Same answer as #4 I guess. My goal is to maintain as much as possible but wont have any set goals on adding/dropping weight. Just gonna go by feel and once I get back into a strength based routine ill worry about setting weight goals.

6. I should have clarified that I planned on doing low weight 'ass to ankles' deep squats. probably only 135 lbs or so. Also not planning on going extremely heavy with the dead lifts either. Perhaps it may still be better to switch deadlifts to back day though.

7. Again this was a concern that I had already thought about. After the first week I may drop an exercise.



Also. When doing mixed muscle group workouts do you prefer alternating (bench/shoulder press/Dips..etc) or finishing all exercises for a muscle group before moving onto the next?

[wgpa]

Thanks for taking the feedback on board. In my honest opinion, you would be better working with a proven program on here particularly if pushing squats of c.135lbs. If you're cutting, you may end up burning off all your existing 5x5 muscle if you haven't gained enough. I've done this before and it's an easy mistake to make and it stems from the fear of putting fat on.

That said, if you want to go with a custom split then you could look at a few options:

1) The 5/3/1 routine offers a good guide to splitting workouts. You could load some of your exercises above into the guidelines offered by that program and you would end up with a great program. It focuses on strength for the core lifts which is consistent with how you've trained previously and allows supplemental exercises to be layered on. You could look at the "boring but big (BBB)" routine which is highly recommended. As a caveat I've never done this workout before, but it looks good.

2) Continue 5x5. Seriously, it's good. If you want a little isolation work too check out the Ice Cream sticky which is basically 5x5 with quite a lot of well chosen supplemental work around it. Quite a bit of volume. I think you'd like it.

3) If splitting, you could look at GST on here which offers a 4 day push, squat, pull, lift routine. I did this for c.18months and enjoyed it.

4) Continue to construct your own program. As mentioned some of the core themes are present so it's not a total write off. I wrote a post which might help structure your split workout ( http://www.peckmeout.com/best-upper-...rkout-routine/ ). It offers a little guidance around types of lift etc. which is useful if creating your own program.

Good luck!