Critique My New Workout

S

Shermanez

0
Hi All,

I just recently revised my workout routine as detailed below. I have been working out again for about 9 months, however before this month my workout had too many isolations and cardio with no leg lifts.

I am 34 y/o, 5'11", 170#, cutting to 160#. (Started at 197# last July)

My diet is around 2,000 calories per day with 5 meals at about a 40/35/25 ratio consisting primarily of lean chicken & turkey breast, fish, eggs, oatmeal, salads, soups, vegatables and 3 liters of water per day.
Suppliements used are Whey & Dextrose PWO, Multivitamin, Fish Oil & Green Tea Extract Caps.

Please let me know if you think I should add or change anything.

Workout Routine: Full Body Workout Tues-Thurs-Sat. (all sets progressively get heavier to near failure on the last couple reps)

Squats - 3 Sets (10, 10 & 8 reps)
Bench Press - 4 Sets (12, 10, 8 & 6 reps)
Dips - 4 Sets (12, 10, 8 & 8 reps)
Tricep Pressdown - 4 Sets (12, 12, 10, 10 Reps)
Lat Pulldown - 4 Sets (12, 12, 10, 10 Reps)
Bicep Curls - 3 Sets (10, 10 & 8 Reps)
Military Press - 3 Sets (10, 10 & 8 Reps)
Cardio - 20 minutes (Swimming or HIIT on Treadmill)

Please critique all of the above and let me know if I should be adding or changing anything.

Thanks!
 
well, first of all, put your isolation exercises last, thats a good rule of thumb.
can you du pullups? if so, replace pulldowns with them.
Also, you need a deadlift movement inn there. Also, bench, dips, AND military press will be alot for your shoulders, spechally the anterior part. I also dont see any horizontal pulls (bendt over rows, cable rows, etc)
On the day i do bench press, i dont do military press, because it can quickly become overkill for the shoulders.

A good way to avoid hitting plateaus too fast, is to do different workouts each day and different sets and reps. That way you can get military press and bench, squats and deads, inn without them being in the same workout resulting in an overkill for those muscles.

Edit:
i forgot, what are your goals? loose fat? If you want to preserve strenght and muscle mass, going heavy can be an idea, though you are still a beginner, and beginners usually respond best to higher rep ranges.
 
you have more pressing than pulling,you have a vertical pull but no horizontal ,add either b-o-r or low-pulley-row.
and dont do them exercises in that order leave the isos to the last ,curls/triceps.
 
Thanks for the tips. I figured this still needed some fine tuning. Just a couple of things;

1. My goal is still cutting until I'm down to about 160# (10# of fat to go). Hopefully this will only take another 4 to 6 weeks.

2. I am trying to keep the # of excercises at 8 or less in order to keep my workout under 1 hour and prevent burnout. Should I replace certain exercises with the ones you suggest or have a different workout on each of the 3 days?

3. I prefer to stay with 3 FBW per week rather than a split.

4. I thought it was best to pair any isolations with the compound exercise that used that same muscle (bicep curls after pull ups or lat pull downs, tricep isolation after bench press...) rather than doing those isolations last which could be 30 minutes after the muscle was worked during a compound.
Any truth to this or is it irrelevant?


I appreciate any additional advise.

Thanks.
 
Here are some basic guidelines for ordering your exercises -

1. Big to Small
2. Fast exercises to Slow Exercises
3. Low Reps to Higher Reps
4. Unstable to Stable

Hope this helps.
 
i wasnt recommending a split, i was recommending 3 different fullbody routines a week, instead of 3 of the same.
 
Thanks Karky. That's what I thought. I will try to mix it up a bit to add in dead lift, pull ups and rows. I can do a few pull ups unassisted, however my gym does have an assisted pull up / dip machine that I can use to complete full sets.

Goergen: Can you explain fast excercises to slow exercises?
Also, is unstable to stable referring to free weights vs. machines? If not, please explain.

Any other suggestions or will the above changes be spot on?


Thanks!
 
slow to fast. If you do any explosive things, like cleans, or just speed work (for example speed squats, light weight, few reps, focus on SPEED) that would be put first.
 
Can you explain fast excercises to slow exercises?
Click to expand...

I think Karky covered that one pretty well. You would also do any explosive jumping, or power push-ups type stuff first.

Also, is unstable to stable referring to free weights vs. machines? If not, please explain.
Click to expand...

Sort of. Always do your weights exercises before your machines exercises. Anything that would require increased stability should by done early in the workout. These would be any single arm or single leg type exercises, anything using bands or any implement that is going to create a more unstable environment.

The 4 rules apply to both a split of a full body workout.
 
4. I thought it was best to pair any isolations with the compound exercise that used that same muscle (bicep curls after pull ups or lat pull downs, tricep isolation after bench press...) rather than doing those isolations last which could be 30 minutes after the muscle was worked during a compound.
Any truth to this or is it irrelevant?

dont do this.

do your compounds first then isos,also alternate if pos push pull,ie do bench then rows that way the muscle used will get more time to recover,that way you can use more weight.
 
Thanks for the reply Buzz. For years I have been told that it's best to keep the recovery time between sets to 60-90 seconds, and to pair compounds with the isolations that work the same muscle groups (back/biceps, chest/triceps...), so, doing just the opposite is a totally new concept to me.

Is the logic behind this based on utilizing your energy on the most important exercises first (compounds) so if you start to burn out by the end of the workout you have finished the most important movements first, or is there some other reason behind doing isolations last regardless of timing or grouping...?

Please explain in more detail if possible. I would really like to get this figured out while I'm changing up my routine this month and get it right this time with the help of the great knowledgeable people on this site.

Thanks!
 
Is the logic behind this based on utilizing your energy on the most important exercises first (compounds) so if you start to burn out by the end of the workout you have finished the most important movements first, or is there some other reason behind doing isolations last regardless of timing or grouping
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basicy yes thats it.

also when you were told this " that work the same muscle groups (back/biceps, chest/triceps...), " i think that who told you this meant that info for when you are doing a split ie do tris on chest day do bis on back day,because you are working them on them days anyway.

recovery time for muscle growth is not really important inbetween sets, if you lift after 30secs and you are not ready you wont be able to lift as much weight but if you wait another 30 or more secs then you can lift the weight again more weight=more muscle.
but if its muscle endurance you want then the less time inbetween is better.
 
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