My routine:
Thanks for the replies.
My routine. M, W, F on the bowflex with 410 lbs rods, I have no idea what this really equates to. I do 3 sets of 10 on bench press, pull downs, resistance crunches (20 reps), military press, about 120 lbs on chest fly and 170 lbs on leg extension. With dumb bells I do 3 set of 10 with 35 lbs on a preachers bench, and then 52.5 lbs behind the head triceps (both arms at once).
On T, TH, on the bowflex again with 410 lbs, 3 sets of 30 reps on cable row, calf raises, shoulder shrugs, crossover pull down, squats (15 reps), 120 lbs on a lateral cable pull down. With the dumbells I do lateral raises with 20 lbs on each arm.
Do I feel over trained? Not really, but after doing a little on line reading I was under the impression that I should probably let my body rest every other day or so to allow for muscle growth.
Yea, that's not the greatest routine but I've seen far worse.
Here's a fact you need to keep in mind. When you're dieting, you don't want to push things too much. Dieting = caloric deficit.
When you're in a surplus, you're able to tolerate much more volume with your training. Your recoverability goes up with caloric intake.
That said, it's important to match your weight training to your goal at hand.
If you're dieting, the goal is to lift heavy weights relative to your strength and maximize recovery. The real goal is to preserve muscle mass.
This can easily be done with 2-3 days of training that emphasized big compound lifts in the 4-10 rep range.
When you're bulking, you can bump up the volume a bit. I still wouldn't train every single day although it can be done... but it's a matter of planning appropriately.
My favorite split for bulking is a 4x per week upper/lower split where I alternate upper body workouts with lower body workouts.
Each upper day emphasizes things a bit differently.
The first upper body day is heavy horizontal stuff (in the 5 rep range per set) and the lighter vertical stuff (in the 8-15 rep range).
The second upper day is heavy vertical stuff and lighter horizontal stuff.
Horizontal = bench press and rows
Vertical = overhead presses and pullups/pulldowns.
I'll usually emphasize different things on my leg days too. One day for quad dominant stuff and the next day for ham/glute dominant stuff. All the big leg exercises hit most of your leg musculature though so it isn't critical.
In fact, none of this is written in stone. It's just how I like to structure things personally and what has given good results for me and my clients with similar goals.
It seems to be an optimal split in terms of providing enough 'stress' to force adaptation while providing adequate recovery time as well... it's good balance all the way around.
I'm not sure what you think those 30 rep days are providing you, care to explain?
One last afterthought, when you're cutting, there's no need for a ton of isolation movements. Shit, I don't even do that many when I'm bulking.
I realize that when cutting I won't be bulking any, but when I tired to eat more and bulk, I just didn't seem to get bigger. How long should I allow for bulking and at what point do you cut again, or do you? I guess I really have no idea what I'm doing.
Here's the thing...
Bulking is all about finding that caloric sweet spot where you're eating sufficiently to fuel growth but not so much that you're storing a lot of fat. Whenever you're in a caloric surplus, you're going to gain some flub. You have to take the good with the evil if adding more muscle is what you're after.
How you find that sweet spot is through trial and error. When I first started toying around with bulking and cutting, I kept meticulous tabs on things like calories, measurements, photos, weight, etc, etc.
With 'my finger on the pulse' I was able to tweak things as needed.
You can't fast forward muscle growth by eating more and more, which is where a lot of guys go wrong. Or they think that bulking is an excuse to eat whatever the hell they want.
It's neither of these things.
Track the appropriate metrics when you are in a caloric surplus and adjust accordingly. If you aren't gaining enough, bump up your cals. If you're gaining too much, scale back. I'd reevaluate every two weeks or so.
If you're gaining 1 lb per week of muscle, you're lucky. In all actuality, a pound per week total tends to be the sweet spot for many. I know it is for me when I'm doing things right.
When do you cut and when to you bulk?
That's completely up to you. It varies from person to person.
Heck, bulking and cutting isn't even necessary. Some people are content and that's that.
Personally, I'm on a never ending pursuit. It's not so much a particular look I'm going for. I'm simply pursuing refinement, if that makes sense. I don't like the idea of maintenance so I figure why not always be working towards refinement.
The thing with that concept is this: You can't bulk forever and you can't cut forever. Bulking forever will get you fat. Cutting forever will eat into your muscle and wear you down.
It becomes a process of bulking up to a point where you've gained a bit of muscle. I usually bulk up right to the point where I'm starting to get a little uncomfortable with my fat gain. Or to the point I'm sick of eating *enough* to gain. Then I reverse the process slowly and incrementally into a cut. The goal then is to lose the fat that has accumulated while preserving as much muscle as possible. Then back again.
Training revolves around the process too.
I'm rambling but hopefully this has shed a bit of light for ya.
