I've recently moved to four days a week lifting, two days dedicated to cardio, with 20 min of cardio after each weight session as well.
Example:
Mon - Chest, shoulders, arms
Tue - Legs, back, abs
Wed - Run 45-60 min
Thu - Chest, shoulders, arms
Fri - Legs, back, abs
Sat - Run 45-60 min
Sun - rest or light swim
I do three exercises per muscle group, 12-10-8-6, with the occasional drop set, depending how I feel. Each week, I start at the next weight for each set. For example, if I did 12x180, 10x200, 8x220, 6x240 one week, I'll do 12x200, 10x220, 8x240, 6x260 the next week.
Chest exercises: bench press, incline press, decline press, flyes. I alternate two of the first three. I always finish with flyes.
Shoulders: rear delt on flye machine, military press, lateral raises, upright row. I always do rear delts, due to my shoulder surgery a year ago.
Biceps: standing barbell curls, reverse cable curls, hanging hammer curls, preacher curls. I always do reverse curls, then two of the other four.
Triceps: overhead extensions, dips (either sitting or hanging), triceps press, close-grip bench press. Again, three of the four; I always try to do dips as my last exercise of the day, as they engage every muscle group I've already hit.
Legs: leg press, squat, leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises. I do all four...except when I pull a muscle in my inner quad, then I stay away from the press and squats (like now).
Back: pull ups, lat pull downs, hi row, mid row, low row. One of the first two, two of the last three. Also normally work traps separately this day (shrugs).
Abs: ab machine going middle, right, left to failure; leg lifts; medicine ball sit ups...basically just kill the abs.
I do high intensity interval training at least two days a week (usually upper body days). On leg days, I usually do the stationary bike at 80% max hr. I go as heavy as I can on all lifts. If I can't get all the reps in with good form, I drop ~20 lbs and finish the set.
Because I go as heavy as I can, I don't have a specific weight that I go with. I spend 1:20-1:30 lifting, then 20 min of cardio...around a 2 hour routine, all told. I rest less than a minute between sets, and less than three minutes between exercises.
I use a pre-workout, aminos (pre and post workout), protein blend (post workout), and casein at night. I get around 250-300g of protein each day, between diet and supplementation. I try to keep my fat and carbs about 50% lower than the RDV.
I've been following this routine for about three months. I'm lifting far more now than I did when I was competing in weightlifting in high school (a very long time ago).
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
― Albert Einstein
Doing the popular thing is not always right. Doing the right thing is not always popular
