nukchebi0 wrote:
Here is my current program (thanks Jaekus for the 5x5 suggestion, but I have time to go to the gym everyday and need to):
Monday: Legs, Shoulders, Abs
Tuesday: Chest, Biceps, Abs
Wednesday: Back, Triceps, Abs
Thursday: Cardio/Sprint intervals, Plyometrics, Abs
Friday: Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Bicep Curls, Tricep Extensions, Abs
Saturday/Sunday: Rest one, repeat Thursday on the the other
I'm doing 4 sets with reps of 12, 12, 10, 10.
How does it look? Any suggested modifications to splits, sets, or reps?
A few suggestions.
* I agree with PrivateVendetta, you need more rest days. I know you're keen to go but your muscle only grows when at rest. If you're working them almost every day, they won't recover enough and won't grow as well as a result. From my understanding a routine as busy as outlined above would only really work for an advanced lifter, whose body has become used to recovering quickly and takes a lot of supplements to aid this process.
* The groupings of your exercise days could be better. Like, you've got chest and biceps on the same day, and then back and triceps on the following day. When you do back exercises your biceps are typically worked as secondary muscles. The same goes when doing chest exercises, your triceps are also used. So essentially you're working out both biceps and triceps two days in a row, which is a no-no as there is no recovery for these muscle groups between exercise days. Even the most advanced lifters could not do this, if they want to workout correctly.
* You're working your abs five days a week. Whilst a lot of people believe you can work abs every day, this is a myth. Your abs are just like any other muscle, they need a day to recover. It just so happens your abs are one of the fastest muscle groups to recover, but it still takes around 48 hours.
The main danger with this routine is that your body isn't getting enough time to recover. You might feel fine for the first couple weeks, but when you're trying to up the weights your body is just going to stall as it hasn't got time to grow the muscle it requires to do so. This will make you exhausted a lot of the time and could even lead to injury, or at least overtraining.
If you really want to go to the gym 5-6 times a week, might I suggest a routine that works your upper body one day, lower body the next, then cardio on the third day? You can do extra exercises for these muscle groups to really work them but they get a couple days to rest before intensive weight training again, which is just as/even more important as working them hard.
So, it would look something like this:
Monday: Lower body - quads, calves, hamstrings, lower back, glutes
Tuesday: Upper body - chest, arms, upper back (BB rows, machine rows; whatever works), shoulders, lats, traps.
Wednesday: Cardio/plyometrics/HIIT
Thursday: Lower body
Friday: Upper body
Saturday: Cardio/plyometrics/HIIT
Sunday: rest, and lots of it!
For your abs you've got a few options, with the main rule to do them every other day. So you can do them on your lower body days, and then again on Saturday, or do them M/W/F, or T/T/S - whatever works for you.
I also put the upper day between the cardio and lower days as cardio tends to work the legs more than the upper body (not always of course, but generally speaking). So your lower body has a rest day before doing your plyometrics etc. It doesn't need a rest day before weight training though as you're typically working the muscles differently (and harder) on your lifting days.
It looks like you're really keen, but if you work out hard and don't get enough rest you simply won't get the gains you are after. I discovered this when I first started as I had a 6 day routine, alternating A/B days, so the same two routines 3x a week. When I started upping all my weights, I felt exhausted all the time and found it almost impossible to complete my routine. Once I gave myself some extra rest days, my weights all went up by 50% in only 5 weeks. I've since changed to a full body routine 3x a week and this is feeling better even better. Because I'm a beginner (have been lifting
intelligently and consistently for under 6 months) a full body routine is best for me. Then after that something along the lines as what is outlined above is probably best.
Hope that helps!
Last edited by Jaekus (2011-01-19 16:59:30)
