Am I going in the right direction?

T

TheTerminator

0
Right now I am 160 pounds and I want to know if my plan is good. What I mean by plan is that I want to get to about 185-190 pounds and then start doing massive amounts of cardio to get rid of the excess fat. Right now I do not do any cardio at all because gaining weight is not an easy task for me. I eat 5-6 small meals a day and drink 1-2 scoops of protein mixed with milk a day. My workout scheduel is:
Day 1: Biceps, triceps, forearm, shoulders and abs.
day 2: Rest
Day 3: Chest, traps, abs, legs, back
Day 4 : Rest
So I just wanted to know if this is going in the right direction? I was also thinking of adding swimming to my routine because from what I hear it does not burn as much calories as running but it strengthens joints and whatnot.
One last thing I wanted to ask was about abs, how often should I work them out? I'm at the point with abs where I have to spend countless amount of time on them to get them to tire or get a burn, do I need to push them to the point where they are tired, or is it just enough to work em like the rest of the muscles?
Thanks for the help!
 
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Do a search for "full body workouts" then come back to us after you have done some research. FBWs are good for beginners, and better than most splits.
 
I think you would be much better served with a 3 day a week full body workout plan. Stick to compounds for the most part, adding isolation if you wish. Squats, deadlifts, pullups, dips, rows, bench press, lunges, those are some excellent compounds. Many variations can be done as well. If you are serious about putting on muscle, you can expect to have a bicep, tricep, forearm, and shoulder day. You need to work the entire body on say Monday, rest Tues, whole body Wed, rest Thurs, whole body Fri, rest Sat and Sun. No cardio is really necessary, but you can swim if you enjoy it on an off day or 2, just make sure to eat more to keep yourself in a caloric surplus. Diet is a whole other subject that I hope you have straightened out. At about 160 pounds, 2800 cals seems like a decent start, up to 3000 wouldnt hurt.
 
I used to do FBW up until just recently because my arm got a bit screwed up, I over worked it. So i decided to split things up, besides I thought splitting was better?
 
your arm was overworked, so you split your workouts into two days in which one days is almost entirely arm and another day requires arms in order to work the chest and back?

fbw is better for the general population than a split. But upper lower split is very good too. Your split however, is imbalanced and will limit gains AT BEST. at worst it'll lead to more injuries.
 
Let me clear that up, heres the situation, the problem is in my bicep. I split it up so that my biceps have a longer rest. The biggest reason why I did a split as opposed to FBW is because of that. Can you suggest then how I can balance this split? I plan to going back to FBW when im satisfied that my arm isn't going to give me any more trouble.
 
What exactly is wrong with your bicep? Drop the curls. That's the first thing. Curls are unnecessary for the average person. I used to do curls all the time with little or no gains each week. Now that I stopped doing them and did rows and pullups, my biceps are much stronger.

If you want to give your biceps a break then do an upper lower split. The split you have, still gives 48 hours inbetween movements that will use the biceps. (rows, and pullups, which are the best for strengthening the back excluding deadlifts, use biceps)

Do an upperlower split. buy the New Rules of Lifting, it's an excellent book.

i'll give you a sample upper lower split.

upper
Bench
Seated Row
Shoulder Press
Bent Over Row

lower
squat/deadlift (you can switch inbetween)

and the superset two of the following three
lunges
stepups
bulgarian squats.

the week will go as following U-upper L-lower -B rest
M T W Th F S S
U L B U L B B
 
btw, weight training is more important than cardio in terms of losing fat. Wtihout heavy weight training, you'll lose alot of muscle while you are losing fat.
 
I dont rate FBW's - like someone said maybe for beginners and id say only for the first month anway.
I find it better to work with different muscle groups and split it up.

I do:
chest/triceps
Back/Biceps
Shoulders/Calves
Upper Legs

Plus ill fit my stomach inbetween those.
 
CCR said:
Could you expand on your reasons? Lots of old pro's still switch back to FBW's every now and again because they work
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Maybe im being a bit narrow minded here as to be honest iv never actually done FBW's myself lol, but the reason im saying that i dont rate them is because where i live nobody does them, at my gym everyone advises on training seperate muscle groups and there are some fuking huge people at my gym. Personally i dont think ill try doing them myself from what iv been told locally, but asking on here.....Are they any good?
 
Well I don't do them either anymore but I did for about a year and got good results.

IMO, and this is purely from what I've seen with my own eyes, the routine is secondary to the attitude of the person performing it. I think a lot of people do FBW's because they think it's an easier option and that kind of attitude breeds failure which in turn makes some people blame the routine. I think everyone should go back to doing FBW's every now and again simply to add all important variation
 
If you want to do weird split routines because your biceps needs more rest, go to Bodybuilding.com - The Future Of Bodybuilding! Huge Bodybuilding Site. You'll find lots of people who will agree with you.

If the biceps is the problem, I suggest eliminating exercises that cause the problem. My guess is that you have too much curling. Or maybe you have some form issues where you flex your arms when you shouldn't

If you don't want to do a full body, I suggest you do a push pull or an upper lower split.
 
BigTomW said:
Maybe im being a bit narrow minded here as to be honest iv never actually done FBW's myself lol, but the reason im saying that i dont rate them is because where i live nobody does them, at my gym everyone advises on training seperate muscle groups and there are some fuking huge people at my gym. Personally i dont think ill try doing them myself from what iv been told locally, but asking on here.....Are they any good?
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Not doing FBWs b/c "fuking huge people" don't do them at your gym and they're huge is not a real good reason, IMO, to avoid them.

Mind you, body part splits came about with the advent of steroids.

Certainly there are 'splits' that can work great. Think upper/lower, push/pull, etc.

I'd be interested in hearing what you consider an ideal split?

IMO, basically anything, assuming commonsense is used, that trains each major muscle group multiple times per week using a compound movements and focusing on progressive overload will work.
 
My split includes working each muscle group once a week;

Mon: Chest/Triceps
Tues: Back/Biceps
Weds: Rest
Thurs: Shoulder/Calves
Sat or Sun: Upper Legs

Wot u think to that? I mean most people at my gym use a routine along similar lines and there are some huge people, but then again many are on steroids. Iv only been doin it 5 month and am really serious about it now and have seen a differece, i take creatine & weight gain, both twice daily and im trying to consume as many calories as possible.

Do you think i should sack my days off and work muscle groups more than once a week?
 
There are a host of reasons why you should train each major muscle group more than once per week... especially as a beginner.

Our training should be based on our recovery capabilities. As a beginner, pretty much everything you need to be concerned with in terms of recovery is recovered within a few days. Better yet, things are in a supercompensated state meaning it's the perfect time to train.

This, without getting into the specifics, is why something like a full body routine 3x per week at the minimum works great.

So my answer is yes, I think you should bag what you're doing now.
 
stroutman81 said:
There are a host of reasons why you should train each major muscle group more than once per week... especially as a beginner.

Our training should be based on our recovery capabilities. As a beginner, pretty much everything you need to be concerned with in terms of recovery is recovered within a few days. Better yet, things are in a supercompensated state meaning it's the perfect time to train.

This, without getting into the specifics, is why something like a full body routine 3x per week at the minimum works great.

So my answer is yes, I think you should bag what you're doing now.
Click to expand...


I agree. a FBW is far more helpful than your current split.
 
Cheers for your comments, iv decided im gonna carry on as i am but train more than 4 days a week. Im gonna stick to this for about 6 months - and if im not satisfied with any progression i might change to FBW's.

BTW is that what you people do? FBW's?
 
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