2005 Summer Workout Discussion (1 Viewer)

[Dome Vongvises]

Well, I figure it's time I start working out again. I've been going to the gym for a few days straight now, and I feel much better. I go about three days, rest, then three days.

I guess the point of this thread is if anybody has good workout plans, some general good diet tips, or if anybody wants to share their own summer workout goals.

Here's my workout and diet schedule:

Day 1
Chest
- Bench Press
- Dumbbell Bench Press
- Incline Bench Press
- Seated Machine Butterfly
Upper Back
- In front pulldowns

Day 2
Shoulders
- Arnold Presses
- Military Press
- Shrugs
Upper Back
- Seated Cable Row
- T Row
- One-Arm Rows

Day 3
Arms (Triceps)
- Cable Pulldown
- Tricep Extensions (Standing)
- Tricep Extensions (laying down)
Arms (Biceps)
- Hammer Curls
- Preacher Curls
- Curls
Arms (Forearms)
- Wrist Curls
- Reverse Barbell Curl

Day 4
Legs
- Squats
- Lunges
- Toe Raises
- Shin Raises
- 45 degree Leg Press
- Leg Curls

I eat about four banana/strawberry smoothies with Myoplex Whey protein a day, and maybe a slice of whole wheat bread with PB and jelly. Occasionaly I'll have a can of tuna. And I use the bike every two days, rest, then two days.

Anybody else think of some exercises I can add or if anybody else would like to share their own routines.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

You should try to add some cardio to your strength training

 

[Colton]

How about for those of us that don't belong to a gym nor have the equipment at home. My wife and I jog/walk for one hour each day. Trying to stay away from sweets and fried foods. Drink lots of water. I'll probably buy some 35/45/55 dumbbells to help work my arms and chest.

- Colton

 

[Shawn Solar]

I do:

Chest
flat bench
incline free weights
incline machine
cable crossovers
decline bench(switch between this and incline machine)

Shoulders
seated military press(long bar)
seat military press(free weight dumb-bells)
side lateral raises(guess you could call them)
shrugs
Rear deltoids(use a seated fly position where the dumbells are held in front and is a sweeping back motion where you squeeze the shoulder blades together)

Back
Rows(vary hand grip and height of pully)
wide grip pull downs(can do wide grip chins)
close grip chin ups(bit more arms here)
Chainsaw pulls(dumbell is lifted like starting a chainsaw)

Arms
Biceps
flat bar curls
machine curls
hammer curls(dumb-bells)
wrist curls
hanging forearm twists(uses dumbbells. start with a medium or light medium weight bend slightly over resting the other arm on a curl bench and with arm fully extended holding weight vertically twist the weight clockwise and counterclockwise until you feel the strech DONT go fast)

triceps
skull crushers(laying on back)
overhead extensions
tricep pulldowns(one exersise is with heavy weight the other is light weight and called burnouts)
Machine

ABS
hanging leg lifts
hanging leg twists
decline situps

Note that arms is usaully done the same day as chest back or shoulders and include either tricepts OR bicepts and not both. I will be starting to jog soon to(not looking forward to it...lol) And then include protien and possibly a vitamin supplement with whatever other supplements. Remember sugar and excess calories are the enemy. I could do more but if you do two to three sets of about three different exercises with moderate to heavy weight IMO its better than doing ten exercises 20times each. I can't usually close my arm fully after a decent arm workout for about an hour

 

[Garrett Lundy]

You may wanna start with a 5/10/15. 35 is alot weight to do 3 sets of 12 with for a begginer.

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

I'll only give my opinion on your workout plan.

Scrap the forearm exercises. Using good heavy weights without the aid of lifting straps will build your forearms more than adequately. You will find that all exercises that rely on grip and forearm strength (shrugs, all arm movements, rows, dumbbell flyes, etc, etc) use forearm muscles. Isolating the forearms in addition to what you are already doing will only overtrain them.

I personally think that you have one too many chest movements. I'd lose the incline barbell bench press, leaving you with your basic barbell press, incline dumbbell presses and a flye movement (personally, I'd opt for dumbbell flyes over the machine flyes but that's just my preference).

Your back is split over two days. I'd combine them into one day. Given your current plan, maybe chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs? Currently, my split is over four days: supersets on chest/back, arms, shoulders, and legs. Keeping your current splits and devoting back exercises to one day gives you five days, which might not work for you (time, etc)....

...which means I'd do shoulders by themselves on one day and not with your back. Military press is a solid shoulder movement, I use dumbbells myself. Arnold presses in addition to military presses is overkill, in my opinion. I'd stick to your military press, shrugs (alternating each workout between barbell shrugs and dumbbell shrugs), upright rows(solid exercise that is absent in your current plan), and side laterals.

Arms - going heavy on lifts will increase your overall arm size much like your forearms will grow. Arm muscles are pretty small muscle groups and easily overtrained. I'd keep your barbell curl, scrap the machine curls, keep the hammer curls, and scrap the preacher curls. Most of your back movements incorporate your biceps to a certain degree, heavy shrugs uses arms strength. I'd just be careful about doing too much. Triceps looks good. I'd do sitting tricep extensions - much safer for your lower back and easier to balance the weight than standing extensions.

Legs - looks to be too much and could lead to overtraining. My opinion only, of course, but: squats, deadlifts (absolute foundation for building overall mass - the exercisee that uses the most muscles for any movement), stiff leg deadlifts or hamstring curls. I'd lose the leg sled, or use the sled instead of the free weight squats. One thing, I personally use the sled for doing my "standing" calf raises. Takes all the preasure of your lower back and shoulders when performed on the leg sled. Sitting calf raises you should do as well. Sitting calf raises work the "flair" to the calf muscle group, as visible from the front of the leg. Standing calf raises work the muscle group in the back of the shin.

You should throw in some ab exercises in there as well. Maybe on shoulder day?

Of course all of this is meaningless if you don't work with intensity, eat right, and sleep well.

And given the choice, I almost always opt for the free weights over the convenience of machines. Biomechanics for some people are not good, so machines do have their place. Just not so much for me.

 

[Ravi K]

My very broad goal for this year is to gain weight and muscle mass. I'm quite skinny, 5' 8", about 130 lbs. I don't exactly watch what I eat, and I can eat quite a bit. I don't do any exercise aside from walking to and from class.

What are some of the beginner's workouts you guys have done? What foods are good to eat to gain weight? Are protein bars a waste of money?

 

[Chris_Morris]

My current routine (www.hypertrophy-specific.com)

3x a week (supposed to be, but I've been doing every other day, with only one 2 day break)

Squat
Slight incline bench
BB Rows
Power Cleans
Lat pulls
Standing Alt. Curls
Close Grip Bench
Rev. Preacher Curls

Starting weight (3 weeks ago) 262
Current weight: 250
Short term Goal (Oct 2005): < 200 @ < 20% BF
Long term Goal: 180-190 @ < 15% BF

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Protein bars are just very expensive. A Dozen eggs are far cheaper and can be prepared in a variety of ways.

 

[Shawn Solar]

I personally like forearm exersises. Remeber that the forarm has some of the most dense muscle in the body. Plus when wearing a T-shirt what do they see? lol I don't use grips for anything not even hanging or twisting leg raises(abs) and when I do biceps I alternate with dumbells and flat bar exercise(flat bar targets forearm more) grip strength is very important to me too. That said a couple of hand grips is another great thing to invest in. The only thing I have a problem trianng faithfully is my legs due to my work as any soreness will prevent me from doing my job properly.

 

[JonZ]

"Protein bars are just very expensive"
Guys be carfeul with protein bars. I ONLY eat Balance Bars. Theyre usually a little over a buck but are much healthier than the others. Most protein bars contain hydrolyzed collagen and gellatin.

Read this....

http://www.vhtbody.com/rp_collagen.htm

I have seen a few bars out there recently that say "No Collagen/Gellatin"

Right now I do this routine. It will change in 6 weeks.

(No more than 5 sets per bodypart, all reps to be between 6 and 12.No more than 12.When you hit 12, go up in weight. Last rep should be absolute failer,when I cant lift the weight for one more rep)

Monday:Shoudlers,Biceps,Triceps
Weds: Legs
Friday:Chest and Back

I do abs every other workout.

I walk 45 minutes every day. Usually in the afternoon.If I skip a day , its on a weight lifting day.

Example of diet (This is what I ate yesterday)

1.Breakfast: Shake
2.Snack: 3 hard boiled eggs
3.Lunch:Grilled Cheeseburger w/ mixed veggies
4.Snack: Balance bar,banana
5.Dinner:Roast Beast,asparagus,1/2 baked potatoe
6.Before sleep: a few scoopfulls of cottage cheese (full of casein protein, a slow absorbing protein - perfect for before going to sleep)

I'll sometimes eat a balance bar or shake after work outs, while Im still in the gym. To feed my body after weight training. Not alot is needed just enought to hold my body over until dinner, so its usually not more than 10 or 15 grams of protein.

Drinking nothing but water. On the weekend I treat myself to a few good root/birch beers.

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

Protein counter for many different foods

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

Well, I would imagine most girls would notice a flaired back and well-defined chest before forearms, but maybe not.

Regardless, I exercise for myself first, my son second (good role model, etc), girls last.

 

[Scott L]

I heard if you want to gain mass you should cut the cardio.

I split it up this way:

day 1: chest/back
day 2: arms/ shoulders
day 3: Legs

Abs everyday, but still trying to find what workouts work great for me. Echoing Jon drink nothing but water. All the sugary liquids drain you out later in the day.

My good friend acts as my own personal trainer and he goes by a book called the Body Sculpting Bible for Men. Pretty cheap and shows you many different workouts for muscles you want to target. Plus it has a 14-day starter workout routine. I'm seeing results pretty quick without the aid of supps.

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

That would be correct. I've gained 40lbs this past year and a half and I don't think I would have the same gains if I did a lot of cardio. Still do some, just not a lot.

 

[JonZ]

Ravi, You sound like a classic hardgainer.

Lots of protein and heavy,low reps for you.

ScottL,
Thats what Im doing now, but Id move the arms/shoulders day to friday,giving your arms and shoulders time to recover from mondays chest an dback workout. Then they have 3 days to recover again afterwards.


Shawn,
Try skullcrushers on a decline bench Research has shown its the better exercise for tris.

I also agree your doing too much. You should try to breakk all that down in to 3 days and loose some of those exercises.For example your doing shrugs on shoulder day and then back the next day, but alot of your back movements will include traps. Your doing chest on day, and shoulders the next but all chest pressing movement also indlude your shoudlers - your doing too much for your bodyparts and theres no recovery time in your reoutine. I think what your doing is fine as a foundation. A beginning routine to get your body used to the work, but I wouldnt do that routine for more than 6 or 8 weeks.(I did the Cybergenics routine for 8 weeks when I began - workign the whole body in 2 days. It was killer, but it got me in shape. It was also a one time routine. Do build a foundation and wasnt to be used once you were no longer a beginning lifter)

IMHO your overworking bodyparts. Especially if your trying to build muscle.

My advicewould be to do chest triceps and shoulders on one day and back, biceps and traps on other. Legs on another.
(Yes Ive broken from this routine FOR NOW. But will be going back to it)

 

[Jason Kirkpatri]

...and remember that supplements are exactly that, supplements. They are not meant to replace whole foods.

Drink lots of milk, research "hardgainer" and you'll find a common recommendation. Eat, eat, eat, basic compound movements, heavy weights, lower reps.

 

[Daren Welsh]

I've been going off of these two sites and had pretty good results. The hardest part is actually monitoring my diet. Gotta cut my body fat percentage to show off the abs I'm building.

John Stone
Nutrition Data

 

[Chris_Morris]

Don't cut the cardio, just watch the kind. Do HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Look at the build difference between Olympic sprinters and marathoners. Sprinting/Intervals helps cut the fat, but also helps preserve muscle.


Clarence Bass' "Forget the Fat Burn Zone"

Dave Draper's Iron Online

 

[Daren Welsh]

I have a question about cardio. I prefer to run a trail in the nice weather. So should I sprint for a couple minutes, then jog, then pick up the pace slowly to another sprint, and so on ... for HIIT? How long should I go in total? I'm used to running a "lap" that ends up being 2.21 miles and I can generally do it in 8 to 8.5 minute miles. Yesterday I did two "laps" to get a total of about 40 minutes. Would it be better for me to run a shorter time, but change my pace every couple minutes?