Am I doing the right routine in the gym?

[user94JOT6K2LZE]

I am 17 and started lifting around 8 months ago. I took some weight lifting classes at my school and learned the proper technique and eventually made my own workout program. My main goal is hypertrophy. I have a day for back and biceps, a day for chest and triceps, and a day for shoulders and legs. Each day I do around 3-4 set exercises per muscle group (they stay the same every week). When I get through the third day I just repeat. I usually lift 6-7 days a week. I do 6-12 reps per exercise. I do as many reps as I can with a given weight and as long as I’m within that rep range it is a good weight. I usually find myself moving down a weight ever or every other set. Is this a bad thing? Should I have a set amount of reps? Should I not being moving down the weight so much? I definitely have seen results so far, but I don’t know if I could be seeing more through a different method. I am already paying for a gym membership so I would rather not buy a workout plan as well, but if mine is not worth doing than please let me know.

Also I do mix in cardio or abs every other day after my lifting routine

[jk202]

In the end, split is not that big of a deal. I did just fine starting out with a "bro split" like you described, but if i could redo it, i'd do an upper/lower or PPL split.

Hypertrophy Coach (joe bennett) has an amazing site that can teach you everything from exercise execution to how to program your split. It's an amazing value for $10 a month. I consider myself rather advanced and still pay for it and take a ton of value from it

[user94JOT6K2LZE]

Okay thank you. Is the way I count out my reps a good method though? I explain it above. Should I not be moving down weights so much through an exercise

[jk202]

Okay thank you. Is the way I count out my reps a good method though? I explain it above. Should I not be moving down weights so much through an exercise

I generally do one top set of 5-8 and then a backoff set say 8-12 with appropriately lighter load.

[Nelg1993]

I am 17 and started lifting around 8 months ago. I took some weight lifting classes at my school and learned the proper technique and eventually made my own workout program. My main goal is hypertrophy. I have a day for back and biceps, a day for chest and triceps, and a day for shoulders and legs. Each day I do around 3-4 set exercises per muscle group (they stay the same every week). When I get through the third day I just repeat. I usually lift 6-7 days a week. I do 6-12 reps per exercise. I do as many reps as I can with a given weight and as long as I’m within that rep range it is a good weight. I usually find myself moving down a weight ever or every other set. Is this a bad thing? Should I have a set amount of reps? Should I not being moving down the weight so much? I definitely have seen results so far, but I don’t know if I could be seeing more through a different method. I am already paying for a gym membership so I would rather not buy a workout plan as well, but if mine is not worth doing than please let me know.

Also I do mix in cardio or abs every other day after my lifting routine

I found lifting less and focussing more on progress is what did it for me. For example, I make better progress taking 2-3 days off between workouts than lifting 2-3 days in a row or even every other day. Worrying less about the perfect split, rep range or workout routine, worrying less about wether or not I should do bicep curls with a barbell, dumbbells or a broomstick...

Lifting with intensity, making sure I'm making progress from week tot week, prioritizing recovery and meal prep and doing the exercises that I feel work best for me.

Specifically for hypertrophy what matters is:
1) progressive tension overload: lifting more weight for the same amount of reps or lifting more reps with the same weight (specifically isolation exercises are a good bench mark for growth, e.g. doing biceps curls with 20lbs vs 10lbs before with the same form - which comes from doing the big lifts and making progress on those)
2) creating some kind of (metabolic) stress/momentary fatigue in the muscle. Of course If you just lifted 200lbs for 8 close to failure, you're probably not going to reproduce the same amount of reps on the subsequent set. If you reach 7 reps, but it was at the same level of intensity, it was a good set. Same for doing 195 for 8 the next set. There's a certain threshold you need to meet, but even lifting 30% of your 1RM to failure can cause muscle growth so I'd say rep range isn't nearly as important as people make it to be. Intensity is the main factor imo.

You seem to have the intensity factor down already, just make sure you make progress. And unless you're benching 315 for reps, you don't need 3-4 exercises for your chest or another 3 for triceps.

[user94JOT6K2LZE]

I do reps until failure with the 6-12 range every time. Is it bad to max out on every set or is it a good thing? To clarify, I always use the right amount of weight where that failure point is within that rep range.

[user94JOT6K2LZE]

Okay thank you that makes a lot of sense. So since the tricep is already being used as a secondary muscle, it only needs 1 or 2 other isolation exercises? Should I do the same with biceps on back and bis day? They are used in many of the back exercises I do.

[Kpissoutbye]

Keep track of your top set (1st set). If you're able to increase reps and eventually weight on this, you're progressing -> building muscle.

It's not about how many exercises you do for a specific muscle group, but rather how much stimulus you put on it (and the damage that comes with it). Counting the number of sets is a proxy for this stimulus, but it obviously also depends on the intensity of the set etc. Bottom line: progress = success.

[daudi81]

I'm just going to state the obvious because nobody else has:

Stop trying to build your own program. Choose a proven routine and use that as a baseline for learning and growing. (plenty can be found on the forum stickies). A good routine is more than just a list of exercises - there's reset / de-load protocols, progression scheme / programming, proper balance push/pull ratios, etc.

You'll learn a lot more, make less mistakes, reduce your risk of injury, and progress / build muscle faster.

Win/Win.

[n64bomb]

Use an actual program. You don't know enough to make your own program.