Workout Program Advice?????

P

poolman

0
I have just joined a Gym and plan to work out 3 days a week. I have been working out at home with just a bench press and a curl bar for a few months and really needed the complete gym workout.

I am 24 yrs old, 5'11'', 155lbs. Pretty much tall and thin, but all the trainers at my gym say that I have a great frame to build from.

My question is, with a 3 day work out plan, how should I group my workouts. I would like to do arms, chest, shoulders, legs, and abs. How should I group these muscles with a 3 day a week workout? I usually do abs every day so dont worry about that, but should I do chest one day, shoulders arms one day, and legs one day? Or any combo of that......

Any advice would be great......feel free to ask any questions if needed

THANKS
 
What about your back??

With three days a week you could realistically do a full body workout, if not, a push/pull routine could work as well. Your pushing days would involve presses (dumbbell and/or barbell) it would be chest and some shoulder work as well as triceps, you could do dips on those days as well.

Pulling would involve back and some shoulders as well, more along the lines of upright rows, shrugs, etc, in addition to the back work.

Depending how hard you hit your legs you could do them a separate day or incorporate them with your push/pull. Squats and/or leg press would be on the pushing day. Deadlifts on the pulling, hopefully you get the picture.
 
Your workout goals sound pretty typical as a newbie. The reason I say that is because you are only planning on working out the muscles you can see in the mirror.

Please don't get me wrong... I understand that and all.

It's just that you are inviting injury down the road if you do not workout your antagonist muscles as well. You need to do traps, lats, glutes, calves, and perhaps most importantly erector spinae (lower back muscle that runs up the spine to your neck) along with your planned muscle groups.

If you plan to do 3 days per week (and I think that is fine) I would break it down like this:

Day One (Push)
----------------
Chest
Shoulders
Lower back
Triceps

Day Two (Legs)
----------------
Glutes
Thighs
Calves

Day Three (Pull)
-----------------
Lats
Traps
Abs
Biceps

This would be a great routine to strengthen your entire body and help you to build a powerful base for future lifting routines.

BTW - From your description, you do have an excellent frame to build on. And, your age is prime!

-Rip
 
BTW - From your description, you do have an excellent frame to build on. And, your age is prime!
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Thanks for the positive encouragement rip. I am a newbie to working out so forgive me if I showed that in only speaking of the muscles you can see, but I am very consious about the other muscles and think they are important.

I like the push/pull routine that you and AJP describe. That makes it very easy to remember. That is the first time I have ever heard it explained that way. I would definately like to keep legs on a separate day because I like to hit legs hard. I do 30 minutes on an eliptical prior to working out (is that too much, just right or too little???)

One more thing, I have very bad slumping posture, what do you recommend that will improve that? Lower back is what I would think, but I am not completely sure.....THANKS again for all the advice, keep it comming, I need it.
 
poolman said:
One more thing, I have very bad slumping posture, what do you recommend that will improve that? Lower back is what I would think, but I am not completely sure.....
Click to expand...

It is your back, but upper and lower. As you work the back, the muscles will become stronger and pull you upright. Family/friends may think you've gotten taller...
 
poolman said:
I would definately like to keep legs on a separate day because I like to hit legs hard. I do 30 minutes on an eliptical prior to working out (is that too much, just right or too little???)
Click to expand...

If possible, I would try to put the elliptical, or any cardio for that matter, after your work out (the lifting). Your energy will be used much better if you put your anaerobic exercises first and the aerobic second.

The duration depends on what your goals are, if you are trying to put some muscle on, at least at this stage in the game, try to keep your cardio to a couple times a week at most (interval training would be great)
 
Isnt it good to get a higher heartrate before hitting the wieghts? Just something I have always heard of. But I do get better lift when I dont do aerobic first.
 
Is it really better to do cardio after the workout???? If so, what should I do before the workout to get my heartrate up?

THANKS
 
Gonna hit the Gym today (Monday) and I was going to do my push workout. I can figure out all of the triceps, chest, & shoulders exercises, but what would be a good push excercise for the lower back. I only mention this because on my list for push is lower back, but I cant think of what motion that would be or what machine would do it.

THANKS for the help, will let you know how the push pull goes after week 1
 
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