2 Workouts: Upper and Lower Body

E

Erin1980

0
I gym it at 6am for 2 days on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off for an approx. total of
5x/week. I split my workouts into upper (arms, shoulders, chest, back) and lower (legs, butt). Abs are worked out along with both upper and lower body. Cardio is done at least 5x/week after work.
I've been going steadily for 3+ weeks now and am in the swing of things, so it's time to tweak the routines so I actually start seeing results beyond what I've already gotten, which isn't much.

Current Upper Body Workout:
Dumbbell curls or cable curls 3x12 reps (10lbs/arm)
Tri pulldowns 3x12 (30lbs)
Incline dumbbell chest press 3x15 (12lbs/dumbbell)
Lat pulldowns 3x15 (50lbs)
Seated row 3x15 (50lbs)
Overhead shoulder dumbbell press (10lbs/dumbbell)

Current Lower Body Workout:
Olympic Bar squats 3x12 (bar + 20lbs)
Romanian barbell deadlifts 3x12 (50lbs)
Leg press 3x12 (2 35lb plates)
Quad extend machine 3x12 (50lbs)
Ham curl machine 3x12 (50lbs)
Abductor/Adductor machine 3x15
Calf raises 3x12

Problem: No muscles hurt after my workouts and I recognize that "afterburn" as the sign of a good workout. Am I doing enough exercises per body part? These workouts only take me about 40-45mins. Should I be adding or changing any aforementioned exercises? I'm 5'7" 128lbs and what I call "skinny-fat" meaning I'm lean and considered "slim" but I'm soft and need to get hard again. Especially the ass/thigh/hip area (big surprise). How often should I be increasing my weight and do I knock off reps when I increase the weight? If I'm trying to build muscle should I be doing much lower reps with much higher weight, say, sets of 3x8 instead? I'm SERIOUSLY looking for hardcore results on the LOWER BODY so if anyone knows of a killer lower body routine they can share, I'm all ears. My upper body is quite skinny and thus produces results much quicker - there isn't an ounce of fat up there - JUST DOWN BELOW. :SaiyanSmilie_anim:

Sorry if this is long, I tried to keep it condensed, but fit everything in. Thoughts and advice much appreciated in advance, thank you.
 
you have a good ammount of compound movements, thats good. Bench, rows, pullups/pulldowns, military press.. etc for upper.

Deadlifts, squats, bulgarian squats, RDLs etc for lower.

you need to put isolation exercises last, big compound movements first. and ditch all machine work, you dont need it.

Being sore the next day does not indicate you had a good workout. If it really hurts, it indicates that you did too much. Pain is the bodies way of telling us to back off.

Cardio 5 times a week is too much. espechally if you want to gain muscle, you need a calorie surpluss, this will be hard with that much cardio. Maybe only do cardio once or twice a week. If you just started weight training, stick to higher reps for now. 3x10, 3x12 and 3x8
 
I heard somewhere that I start with the compound movements (I do squats and RDLs first) and then move on to the isolation exercises. Should I really be ditching the quad extensions and hamstring curls (I have to use machines for these)? I have the hardest time getting muscle so I thought I needed all the help I can get in this department! If I started doing Olympic squats, RDLs and weighted lunges on a Smith machine, could I take out the quad and ham isolated exercises altogether?

I also read about jumping squats and jumping lunges being great. Maybe I could add those, too?
 
dont do them on a smith machine, do them with free weights. Dont do anything with a smith machine, its just like a machine.
 
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