Routine advice required plz..

S

slimmer

0
Can someone plz comment on my workout & let me know any problems you see with it.

I'm 5ft 9" & weigh 158lbs. I'm not over or under weight but do really want to reduce my body fat quite a bit, but also maintain and build my muscles. I've already got the food side of things sorted & am eating cleanly with easily a gram of protein per body weight per day, just wanted to see if my workout plan may be causing any problems? I particularly want to reduce the fat around my waistline and thighs, but I know you can't spot pick areas.

Mon - Chest

HIIT (30 mins)
Flat bench press (4 sets of 10) 20kg
Incline bench press (4 sets of 10) 20kg
Chest flye - flat bench (5 sets of 10) with 2 5kg dumbells
Incline flye (5 sets of 10) with 2 5kg dumbells


Tue - Shoulders

HIIT (30 mins)
Shoulder press on flat bench (5 sets of 10) using 2 5kg dumbells
Shoulder press on enclined bench (5 sets of 10) using 2 5kg dumbells
Forward raise (5 sets of 10) 5kg dumbell
Lateral raise (3 sets of 10) 5kg dumbell
Single arm row (5 sets of 10) 5kg dumbell


Wed - Rest

Thu - Triceps/Biceps

HIIT (30 mins)
Tricep extensions (4 sets of 10) 5kg dumbell
French Press (4 sets of 10) 5kg dumbell
Tricep kickbacks (4 sets of 10) 5kg dumbell
Dumbell Curl (5 sets of 10) 5kg dumbell


Fri - Back

HIIT (30 mins)
Upright rowing (5 sets of 10) 20kg
Bent over rowing (5 sets of 10) 20kg


Sat - Legs

HIIT (30 mins)
Close leg squat (5 sets of 10) 20kg
Wide leg squat (5 sets of 10) 20kg
Leg extension (5 sets of 10) 20kg
Calf raises (5 sets of 10) 20kg

Sun - Rest

the HIIT mentioned above is 5 min warmup, 5 mins cool down + 20 mins of alternating one min jogs and running.

I also work on my abs on monday, tuesday, friday & saturday, which involves doing those leg lift things for lower abs, weight side bends and then situps for the upper abs. All of the sessions above don't take longer than an hour either & are always in the morning. I will eventually increase the weights more but have only been doing this routine for a week! besides i want to get my left side of my body (arms) up to the strength of the right.

Any feedback on this routine would be greatly appreciated, particularly if you have any genuinely good workouts for the lower back I can do when I work on my abs as I can't seem to find any!

Cheers.
 
Fri you call "back", but upright rows are a shoulder exercise. How about bentover dumbbell rows instead?

The rest looks pretty gud.

Lower back: straight-legged deadlifts and back extensions are both good ones. Also, Good Mornings rock the lower back!

-Rip
 
It's unnecessary to do HIIT more than 3 times per week. One of the benefits of HIIT is that you only need to do it a few times per week and any more is overtraining.
Most of your fat loss is going to come from your diet, anyways, not cardio.
 
You're doing to much shoulder work and your shoulder day is the day after bench, that'll lead to overworking the shoulders, expecially the anterior deltoids. You need more work to your rear delts, otherwise you'll end up with shoulders that are hunched forward.

You need an equal amount of backwork to chest. I think 180 repititions to the chest is a bit much.

I think one squat movement is good, one unilateral leg movement, a posterior end movement, and perhaps a lower back movement.
 
ok i'll defo see to it i change the HIIT. I just put them in there because I hadn't decided on what days to do it yet. I'll do it 4 times a week. Any less and I'll feel like i'm not doing enough.

ok so on the working out front and back thing, thats my problem really. I know all the excercises for the front but aren't really sure on what back ones to do. I'll look into the straight-legged deadlifts, back extensions and Good Mornings just recommended. You're right on the high reps for the chest as well. It does seem a lot now that I look at it. I think I will increase the weight and reduce the reps. Can you list me anymore back excercises that i can look into?

What day you recommend i switch the chest or shoulder to, or do you already know what order you're supposed to work your body in (chest, shoulders, back etc.)? I need the legs before a rest day because those squats are killer. Did them today for first time. Didn't think they would be quite that hard on the legs!

other than that I'll move the upright rowing to the shoulder day (don't want to drop it because it feels very effective).

mon - chest
tue - triceps/biceps
wed - rest
thu - shoulders
fri - back
sat - legs
sun - rest

is that any better? (i need the rest days to be on wednesday & sunday)
 
Remember, training hard and training smart are not always the same thing. The other thing to consider is being exhausted is not a good indicator of a successful workout. I think HIIT 4X a week @ 30 minutes each session is way to much.

Some options-
A:
Mon-chest
Tues-back
W-off
Th-legs
F-shoulders
S-arms
S-off

B:
M-chest/anterior, medial delts
T-back/rear delts
W-off
Th-legs
F-off
S-arms
S-off

C:
M-chest/biceps
T-legs
W-off
Th-back/triceps
F-off
S-shoulders
S-off

D:
M-chest pressing/back horizontal
T-legs
W-off
Th-chest flying motions/back verticle
F-off
S-arms/shoulders
S-off

Your chest at the beginning of the week is fine. I think shoulders, unless split up with back and chest should be put towards the end of the week. I, myself, don't do a lot of split body part routines but there's a world of choices. My training is about to revolve around an overhead pressing day, upper body pulling day, leg day, and strongman event training day.

I'm not overly hip about the stiff leg deadlifts, but again, that's just me. I prefer stiff leg cable pull throughs over the stiff leg deadlift. For back, concentrate on rowing-cable rows to chest, cable rows to neck/face, bent over bb or db rowing, chin ups, and pull ups.

I think good mornings are a good choice, as are back extensions.
 
evolution said:
Remember, training hard and training smart are not always the same thing. The other thing to consider is being exhausted is not a good indicator of a successful workout. I think HIIT 4X a week @ 30 minutes each session is way to much.

.
Click to expand...
yes, yes, I obviously agree.
 
ah man 3 times a week? sounds low for someone losing body fat, particularly as I've noticed plenty of improvement from doing it around 5 times this week. I suppose I'll drop to 3 but if I feel its not doing enough I'll go back to 4.

Evolution, out of the options you've given I'd say 'C' looks the best for me probably because it, as well as seperating the chest and shoulders like you say, also breaks up the biceps and triceps, because I didn't feel i did much on the biceps from my normal routine because a lot of time was spent on the triceps.

One question though? won't it be pretty hard to work on the biceps straight after the chest with them having already indirectly been used? Other than that this gives me another day off, which is VERY important everyone keeps telling me ;)
 
slimmer said:
Evolution, out of the options you've given I'd say 'C' looks the best for me probably because it, as well as seperating the chest and shoulders like you say, also breaks up the biceps and triceps, because I didn't feel i did much on the biceps from my normal routine because a lot of time was spent on the triceps.

One question though? won't it be pretty hard to work on the biceps straight after the chest with them having already indirectly been used?
Click to expand...

It's hard to say about how much direct work one needs for biceps/triceps. But anyway, it's the triceps that get used when you work the chest, so your biceps will be nice and fresh. :)

With the 'C' schedule, you get one day of direct arm work and one day of indirect arm work.
 
alright cheers. I just need to put it all together and add the back excercises, when I get time. I'll post my routine back on here when i do
 
ok, heres the new plan:

Mon: Chest/Biceps
Tue: Legs
Wed: Rest + HIIT + Abs (5pm)
Thu: Back/Triceps
Fri: Rest + HIIT + Abs (5pm)
Sat: Shoulders
Sun: Rest + HIIT + Abs (5pm)

Chest
1. Flat Bench Press (4 sets of 8) 22kg
2. Incline Bench Press (4 sets of 8) 22kg
3. Chest Flye (flat bench) (4 sets of 8) 6kg
4. Incline Flye (4 sets of 8) 6kg
5. Push-ups (4 sets of 20)

Biceps
1. Dumbell Curl (static hold on last few reps) (5 sets of 8) 6kg

Legs
1. Close Leg Squat (5 sets of 8) 22kg
2. Wide Leg Squat (5 sets of 8) 22kg
3. Calf Raises (5 sets of 8) 22kg
4. Leg Extensions (5 sets of 8) 13kg

Back
1. Bent Over Rowing (5 sets of 8) 22kg
2. Stiff Leg Barbell Good Morning (5 sets of 8) 22kg
3. Superman (4 sets of 20)

Triceps
1. Tricep Extensions (4 sets of 10) 6kg
2. French Press (4 sets of 10) 6kg
3. Tricep Kickbacks (static hold on last few reps) (4 sets of 10) 6kg

Shoulders
1. Shoulder Press (4 sets of 8) 6kg
2. Shoulder Press (Inclined) (4 sets of 8) 6kg
3. Forward Raise (static hold on last few reps) (4 sets of 8) 6kg
4. Lateral Raise (static hold on last few reps) (4 sets of 8) 6kg
5. Upright Rows (static hold on last few reps) (4 sets of 8) 22kg
6. Single Arm Rows (4 sets of 8) 6kg

Abs
1. Leg Lifts (4 sets of 20)
2. Side Bends With Dumbells (4 sets of 20) 6kg
3. Weighted Crunches (4 sets of 20)

A few of the new excercises added were from http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm

Also by static hold i mean holding the dumbell out at 90 degrees. Supposed to really help with size? do you know much about this?

Is this new plan alright or do you still have issues?
 
Sure, static holds are another tool to be used. I think they're better served to use as a plateau breaker and just use a nice, long eccentric until then...but that's just me. I personally like to use static holds for the chest at arm's length...it's the whole theory that by doing this you can use overload measures to help reduce the inhibition of the GTO (but that's another matter altogether and something we discussed in another thread).

You've got way more work on your triceps than your biceps, try and level it out just a bit.

You're still hitting the chest with 200 reps, that's still a bit high. Personally I feel the cables are better suited for flyes. I'm curious-why do you want to do push ups so bad? If you want to do pushups, I really like taking two sheets of paper and letting my hands slide out and then slide them back in.

To much on shoulders and you're still not really hitting the rear delts like you should.

The leg lifts unless you're curling your knees up to your chest is really working the hip flexors and not the abdominals.

On your legs, I would add a lying hamstring raise since you're doing the leg extensions. Also, try and decrease the range of motion on the extensions so that the motion from under the seat to almost half way to lock out is not there, this will help with saving your knees.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I have issues with your program at all...just trying to offer some friendly advice. However, I do think this way looks much better than the other way. :)
 
I don't know what else I can do for the biceps to level them out with the triceps? (i d ont want to take any of the tricep excercises away)

By 200 reps for the chest do you mean including the push ups? I'm not desperate to do pushups but read they're good to do in other threads so just added them. If I take away the pushups do you reckon the no of reps will be ok for the chest?

The reason I'm not using cables is because all of this is done at home before I go college, and i don't have cables at home. When i go to the gym (usually once or twice a week - depending on when mates go) i'll be sure to use them, particularly for the back.

Sorry rear delts? can you just comfirm for me where that is (back?)?

For the leg lift thingy's there supposed to hit the lower abs and it feels like they are. I lie flat on my back, with arms to side or spread out behind my head then using abs lift my legs (bent a little) up to chest and then back down again. Is there any particular ab excercises you're fond of that I can do?

Finally, on the legs, whats a lying hamstring raise? and about the decreasing the motion with the leg extensions. Not quite sure what you mean? do you mean not take my legs back fully before raising them again?

Thans a lot for all this help :D
 
I would definately take the push ups away; that would definately help with the number of reps.

Add in some sets of hammer curls.

The movement you've described is okay for the abs. Just remember, because you can feel it doesn't mean it's what you want. The example my anatomy professor used when talking about working abs when someone would say "but I feel it" is that he would say "sure, if I hit you with a hammer, y ou'll feel it but that doesn't mean it's doing you any good." ;)

Google some of these, these are my favorite ab movements-weighted Russian Twists, Turkish get ups, double crunches (knees to elbows), saxon side bends, and full contact twists.

A lying hamstring is where you lay on a machine and you will pull the weight towards your ass. The leg extensions are just really bad on the knees for the first part of the motion, you actually only need about half of the motion you would normally use to get the effect that you want.

The rear delts is the posterior most deltoid. You have the anterior delts which are in the front, the medial delts which are in the middle, and the rear or posterior delts which are the ones in the back and are usually the least worked and under developed of the deltoid muscles.

And you're very welcome.
 
cheers again. I think i'm nearly there lol. I've added to the biceps, added some exs to get the rear delts plus others besides, so i reckon this should be pretty good. Here it is:

Mon - Chest/Biceps
Tue - Legs
Wed - Rest + HIIT + Abs (5pm)
Thu - Back/Triceps
Fri - Rest + HIIT + Abs (5pm)
Sat - Shoulders
Sun - Rest + HIIT + Abs (5pm)

Chest
1. Flat Bench Press (4 sets of 8)
2. Incline Bench Press (4 sets of 8)
3. Chest Flye (flat bench) (4 sets of 8)
4. Incline Flye (4 sets of 8)

Biceps
1. Dumbell Curl (5 sets of 8)
2. Hammer Curl (5 sets of 8)
3. Barbell Curl (4 sets of 8)

Legs
1. Close Leg Squat (5 sets of 8)
2. Wide Leg Squat (5 sets of 8)
3. Calf Raises (5 sets of 8)
4. Leg Extensions (5 sets of 8)

Back
1. Bent Over Rowing (5 sets of 8)
2. Stiff Leg Barbell Good Morning (5 sets of 8)
3. Middle Back Shrug (5 sets of 8)
4. Single Arm Rows (5 sets of 8)
5. Superman (4 sets of 20)

Triceps
1. Tricep Extensions (5 sets of 8)
2. French Press (5 sets of 8)
3. Tricep Kickbacks (5 sets of 8)

Shoulders
1. Shoulder Press (4 sets of 8)
2. Shoulder Press (Inclined) (4 sets of 8)
3. Forward Raise (4 sets of 8)
4. Lateral Raise (4 sets of 8)
5. Upright Rows (4 sets of 8)
6. Lying Rear Delt Raise (4 sets of 8)
6. Seated Bent Over Rear Delt Raise (4 sets of 8)

Abs
Lower - Reverse Crunch
Obliques - Russian Twist, Plate Twist, Dumbell Side Bends, Saxon Side Bends
Upper - Weighted Crunches, Tuck Crunch, Cross-Body Crunch
Glutes - Butt Lift (Bridge), Glute Kickback, Leg Lift

(not all at once of course)

totals reps come to:

Chest - 128
Biceps - 112
Legs - 160
Back - 240
Triceps - 120
Shoulders - 224

oh and i moved the arm rows from shoulders to back because on bodybuilding.com it says they're for middle back primarily + i needed to get the shoulder reps down still.

Does that seem sound now? :)
 
Yup, almost there. There are only a few minor changes I would make--

-Get rid of the front raise and incline shoulder press (you will seriously overwork your front delts)

-Knock out 2 sets of your supermans and I would actually do a 3X12. (2X20 or 3X12 with the good mornings is enough)

-For triceps, make one of those movements an overhead extension to hit all the tricep heads for complete development
 
ok, I've made all the changes you said. I wasn't totally sure on the number of reps on a few like supermans because I haven't done them yet.

One other thing. Based on this workout routine, for someone of my size (5 ft 9/10, 158lbs, 19 years old), would you have any idea of how many calories i should be getting in in a day considering I'm looking to reduce body fat + gain muscle? I've tried a few calculators on the net but don't totally trust them. At the moment I'm having between 2000-2500. That sound about right?
 
Well, it gets tricky when you want to reduce bodyfat and gain muscle at the same time. If you knew your bodyfat percentage, then you could have a pretty close estimate of how many calories you need give or take a few hundred calories.

Start with 2500 calories and monitor how you look in the mirror, see if you can radomly get your bf% checked, and make sure that you are getting stronger in your lifts, or at the very least, not weaker. From there, you can see if you need to jump up in your calories or not.

You should, if you eat cleanly be able to put on some lean muscle mass with very little fat. At the moment, I would concentrate on just eating clean, doing your HIIT cardio, and lifting weights. This by itself will cause your lean body mass to rise which will in turn help burn off any fat.
 
I've decided i'm gonna concentrate on reudcing fat and improving my abs before beefing up my muscles so much.

I'll keep the routine but would you suggest reducing the calories anymore? I don't reckon i should go higher than 2000 cals a day if i'm gonna get rid of the fat ahead of concentrating on gaining muscle mass.

+if you have quite a low amount of calories every day (above amount putting body into starvation mode) but get a high amount of protein, will your muscles still grow or do you specifically need to have more calories than you need to considerably increase muscles?
 
I wouldn't worry about increasing your mass while on a lowered calorie diet. Just make sure your strength stays up and that means you are not burning muscle instead of burning fat.

If you really want to work on getting lean, then reduce your calories under 2000, like in the range of 1600-1800 and keep your protein at 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. I would also get your fats mainly from CLA and fish oil and lower your carbs to under 100 grams a day.

Some will say those are to low of calories, but just monitor yourself and the rest will take care of itself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top