Split VS full body and please critique my program

J

JasonP

0
I'm 36 years old 166 lbs 6'1" ectomorph, skinny with a little gut.

10 years ago I trained using the Brawn hard-gainers system (when I was age 24-26)
and it worked well for me. *Compound excercises 2 times a week.

I stopped for 10 years and lost it all; became office-gut looking skinny old-guy.

I started again a few months ago and did a 12 week cycle; but everyone was telling me*because I'm older now I need to do a split system with Cardio. *I'm*trying to get rid of my gut for Christmas holidays; then after that in*January I want to seriously start adding muscle.

So after a 12 week cycle of 2 times full body workouts I have changed*to split. Is that a good idea because I am older?

Diet:
Calories: 2000/day (to lose gut and it's 1/2 gone - will it be gone by December?)
Protein: 130-160 grams protein a day

I am 5 weeks into this program; I started at 85% my max 6-8 reps and add weight each week. All workouts are at 5:30am before any food then I have a shake and 45 mins later breakfast.

Monday: cardio & abs
*25 minutes rowing machine
*Ab ripper x from ps90x

Tuesday: legs
*10 minutes rowing machine
*Squats 20x2 warmup, 20x2 heavy
*Leg curls 15x2 warmup, 10x3 heavy
*Calf raises 15x2 warmup, 10x3 heavy

Wednesday: chest & tris
*10 mins rowing machine
*Rotator cuff exercises (problem area) for warmup
*Bench 15x2 warmup, 6-8 x3 heavy
*Tri pushdowns 15x2 warmup, 8x3 heavy
*Dumbell shoulder press light (working on strengthening rotator cuff)
*
Thursday: back & bis
*10 minutes rowing machine
*Wide grip pulldowns until I'm strong enough again for chins15x2 warmup, 8x3 heavy
*Bent over Dumbell rows 15x2 warmup, 8-10 x3 heavy
*Dumbell curls 10x2 warmup, 8x3 heavy

*Thursday night: yoga 1 hour

Friday: cardio, abs
*25 mins rowing machine
*Ab ripper x

Sat & Sunday rest and stick strict to diet

Please critique! *Is 2x full body better? Or is this ok for now since I'm losing gut?

I'm so confused!
 
I know of no reason why people in their 30's+ should need a split routine by default (maybe a routine to help you learn to do the splits would be appropriate since almost everyone in their 30's is stiff as a brick, but that's a very different issue). Now, if you're getting the results you're after, then I don't think you need to completely overhaul your program. That said, I will make some critique points:

- Never train abs the day before you train legs, unless you plan on wasting time during your legs session. If you've fatigued your abs the day before, it's not uncommon for the major leg exercises (in your case, squats) to suffer significantly in quality and quantity. Unless you're wasting your time and not really doing any work during your ab workouts, I would expect that if you did legs Monday and CV/Abs Tuesday, you'd be squatting 10% heavier with better form almost overnight.
- Why such high reps on squats? Realistically, having been out of practice for 10 years, it's improbable that you're maintaining good form on your squats to the end of each set, and 20-rep squats are highly cardiovascular, which may cause some disconnect between your sense of exhaustion and actual muscular fatigue.
- On your upper body push day, overhead presses should come before triceps isolation work.
- For most of your exercises, you're doing significantly higher reps for the warm up sets. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it may be a problem with regards to weight acclimation and the risk of actually wroking during your warm up sets. It may be more appropriate for you to do the same number of reps on all sets, with the first warm up set being at 50% weight and the second being at 75%.
- What's your reasoning for fasted training? If you find you work better while starving than when fed, I won't tell you not to do so (even though I will raise an eyebrow from a distance), but generally speaking, the benefits of fasted training are overrated (and many people gain no added benefit from it at all), while the risks are largely understated. The logic pushed by the fasted training crowd is usually "You don't have any glucose in your system, so your body has to use up fat instead." Sounds good, but in practice, when you wake up you're in a hypoglycaemic state, and if you train with any significant level of intensity, more likely than not your body is still going to need sugar to fuel your work, so you'll just go further into hypoglycaemia. This problem tends to result in people undertraining, or pushing themselves and ending up dizzy, nauseus, having mood swings, or (at the extreme end of things) passing out on the floor. I can speak from experience here, as I used to do early morning training and get the lesser symptoms 3-5 days a week...and in more recent times, I've successfully KO'd from fasted training. It's my strong opinion that the risks aren't worth the reward. Eat first.
 
Thank you!

Much of what you said makes sense.

- I am wondering about this 3 day training because it only trains each body part once week. With full body I could do twice a week but also don't want to overtrain. I guess I could see how a few months if each work and take it from there. I want to pack in 10-20 lbs muscle fast without gaining too much fat.
-I am putting squat day before Ab day this will be the first week I'll let you know how it goes.
-I do 20 reps because I read it's easier on the knees/back etc. but you are right I am gasping double breaths on reps 15-20. I will try lower reps for next cycle and will finish up this one as-is.
 
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Sorry for two posts I'm on my iPhone and it filled up the text box.

- I will put shoulder press before tris thanks
- I stopped fasted training after reading your reply and googling. I was trying to lose my fat faster but as soon as I started eating 45 mins to an hour before lifting my energy level and intensity has gone way up. On cardio days I only take protein before but on lifting days eat good before.

Thank you, your advice has improved my workouts already.

Now I still am wondering about 3 day split routine vs full body twice a week. Hmm.

Other opinions?
 
Last edited:
3rd post - I've always just done light weight high reps for warm-up thinking heavier will waste muscle I use on my final working sets. Is this wrong?
 
Last edited:
3rd post - I've always just done light weight high reps for warm up thinking heavier will waste muscle I use on my final working sets. Is this wrong?
 
jason,
i do warm up sets with approx 50% of my working weight, and focus on the contraction of the muscle. helps warm up the joints, muscles, and get the mind/muscle connection fired up.
then i go real heavy on the working sets when I'm cutting. 5-6 reps a set. Since I"m not eating enough calories to put on muscle, my goal isnt' hypertrophy (10-12 rep range), but rather just putting a heavy load on the muscles so the body has a reason to hold on to the muscle tissue.

I also think 2000 cals a day is low for you. I'm shorter than you, 33 years old, and I was cutting 1.5lbs a week eating just over 2,200 cals a day.

I watched my carbs on cardio days (ate WAY more protein), lots of fiber (i.e. lots of veggies, no bread/pasta).

Granted this is just one approach to the diet side of the equation.
 
JasonP said:
Sorry for two posts I'm on my iPhone and it filled up the text box.

- I will put shoulder press before tris thanks
- I stopped fasted training after reading your reply and googling. I was trying to lose my fat faster but as soon as I started eating 45 mins to an hour before lifting my energy level and intensity has gone way up. On cardio days I only take protein before but on lifting days eat good before.

Thank you, your advice has improved my workouts already.

Now I still am wondering about 3 day split routine vs full body twice a week. Hmm.

Other opinions?
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear my advice has helped.

Regarding split vs fullbody, I'd generally recommend fullbody training over bodypart splits.
 
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