opinions on new routine

[rm21]

I have been on a 3 day split, one day off work out cycle for the past couple of months and I am about ready to change things up. My previous workout routine focused on a lot of free weights, but I like the idea of throwing in some more body weight exercises. I am throwing a lot of exercises out and am basically keeping the ones I feel are most beneficial. How does this routine look for someone who is trying to gain a bit of muscle mass and more importantly, just stay fit. My diet is already really good and my body fat is in between 6-8 percent.

Day 1: upper body

10 minute warm up – jump rope

Bench Press (1 warm up set of 14, 2 sets of 10, 1 set of 8)
Pull ups (4 sets of 12, superset with bench press)

Compound Row (1 warm up set of 14, 2 sets of 10, 1 set of 8)
Dips (4 sets of 15, superset with compound row)

Cable flys (alternate incline, decline each “day 1” - 3 sets of 12)

Military Press (1 warm up set, 3 sets of 10)
Lateral / Front raises (3 sets of 12, alternating lateral / front each "day 1")

EZ bar bicep curls (3 sets of 12)
Skullcrushers (3 sets of 12, superset with EZ bar curls)
Preacher curls (3 sets of 8)
Tricep pull down (3 sets of 8, superset with preacher curls)

10 minute cool down – jump rope or run

Day 2: Lower body

10 minute warm up – jump rope

Squats (1 warm up set, 3 sets of 10)
Dumbbell step ups (3 sets of 24 ie 12 each leg)
Seated calf raises (3 sets of 10)
Standing calf raises (3 sets of 10)

10 minute cool down – jump rope or run

Day 3:

Rest

Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Cynic]

10 minute warm up – jump rope

Cardio is not a good warm-up. It doesn't activate the CNS or muscles for the movements you're about to do.

I suffer chronic back injuries because of a spinal injury back when I was 11-12 yrs old, so I've had two CSCSs help me design a proper warm-up regimen to minimize that. Here is how I warm-up:

http://forums.jpfitness.com/showpost.php?p=244777&postcount=193

Now, on to your moves:

Bench Press (1 warm up set of 14, 2 sets of 10, 1 set of 8)

Your doing too much for warm-up moves. You're likely exhusting the muscle before you actually hit the heavy weight.

An example of mine:

I do 100lbs military presses for 4x6, so I do a warm-up of:

1x5x60, 1x3x75, 1x3x90


That fires up the CNS for the move under load and warms the muscle and joints that will get used.

onto a breakdown:

Bench Press - Compound Horz push
Pull ups - Compound vert pull

Compound Row - DO you mean bent over? Horz pull
Dips - Compound Horz push

Cable flys - Iso chest
Military Press - Compound Vert push
Lateral / Front raises - Iso Shoulders

EZ bar bicep curls - Iso biceps
Skullcrushers - iso tri
Preacher curls - iso bic
Tricep pull down - iso tri

You have:

Horz push: 2
Horz pull: 1
Vert push: 1
Vert pull: 1

Compound: 3
Iso: 5

The lateral and front raises both work the the three delts, but the lateral also works the upper and middle traps and the front works the clavicular head of the pec.

You've got two bicep and two tricep. While they balance themselves out well, you've already done bench presses, pull-ups, etc. These are small muscle and exhaust sooner than the bigger muscle groups (pec, lat, trap, etc) so adding on to it with iso is overtraining.

Over half your workout is isolation when it should account for no more than 20-25%, not including ab work, of which you have none.

Squats - Quad dom
Dumbbell step ups - Quad dom
Seated calf raises - iso calf
Standing calf raises - iso calf

You have two quad dominant and no hip dominant (deadlifts). You don't need to work the calf as much as you do because the both the seated and standing work the soleus. That's likely to cause your feet to point outward over time. Do one or the other and then swap in the other when it comes time to change up exercises.

In short, do a pre-made. Chad Waterbury of T-Nation has plenty of good ones, but there is also many good books:

New Rules of Lifting
Scrawny to Brawny
Book of Muscle
etc.

 

[rm21]

Thanks for the feedback, I will consider what you said. I didn't post my ab workout because it has been working extremely well for me. I work my abs three times per week.

Also, has anyone been satisfied with results obtained from doing an exclusively bodyweight exercise routine (ie pull ups, chin ups, different variations of push ups, various leg exercises, running, ...)?

 

[Cynic]

The problem with BW exercises is that you limited in the weight you can put on, unless you get a vest and/or backpack. I've seen some vests go to 100lbs, but they cost around $300.

A solidly built laptop backpack could fill in, for $70. I have a targus sport pack. I haven't used it for adding weight to any exercises, since I use barbells and dumbells, but it is solid.