change my workout routine!

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Hello to all!

I have been training fairly regularly since I was a teenager. When I first started lifting, the routine my trainer got me on to was what I have been using my entire life: total body. Many people are not big fans, but it has worked fairly well for me. My career makes this the optimum method as well...I don't always have consistent gym access, so hitting my total body workout 3x a week has been all I can really do. But the time has now come to switch things up. Six weeks of vacation are coming up, and I have some things in mind. However I am very interested in this board's thoughts. Here is my routine as it currently stands:

stats
29 yrs old 5'9" 200lbs @ 13%bf as per last Thursday, no aas history

All exercises are in sets of 3. Periodically I will adjust the weight/reps and go either 4-6, 8-10, or 12 reps, depending on what I feel like switching up. Until recently, I did incline dumbell flies after bench until I had an injury that prevented me from moving the weights from seated to position. This injury has nearly healed.

1) Bench Press
2) Dips (12 reps)
3) Cable Crossovers
4) pec fly machine (substituted temporarily for incline dumbell flies)
5) military press
6) shrugs
7) tricep press downs with bar
8) tricep pull downs with rope
9) lat pull down
10) seated row
11) upright row
12) bent over barbell row
13) preacher curls
14) hammer curls
15) leg extensions
16) hamstring curls
17) squats

Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts!

[Reed]

Damn 3 sets an exercise and all of these exercises. How long does this take you?? I could of sworn full body routines were just one exercise per part with 3 to 4 sets. You might want to looking into a split body routine, people tend to have more of the results they want.

[ComeFlyWithMe]

I can crank this routine out in about an hour or so if I am energized. There really isn't a lot of rest between sets. Splits are something I have been thinking about, but I don't imagine it will be a long term thing for me. I spend a lot of nights in hotels across the country with 8 hrs before I have to be fresh to head out again. Sleep is unfortunately the higher priority, so cutting down on how many days I need to be in the gym is the compromise. But as I said, I have 6 weeks of vacation which I'd like to use to switch things up

[Reed]

Are you wanting to keep the full body routine or do something completely different?

[ComeFlyWithMe]

I'd like to do something entirely different. I've read about slingshot, and heard the testimony on here of those who have tried it. But it doesn't really sound like something I am interested in. I'm opening to just about anything though. Just going to read all the suggestions and decide from there.

[Reed]

I'm I usually do a twice a week program which is
Day 1: Chest/Back'
Day 2: Shoulders/arms
Day 3: Legs
But I'm a little bit more advanced then most and my diet is on point

You could try
Day 1: Chest/Calves
Day 2: Back
Day 3: off
Day 4: Shoulders and Calves
Day 5: Arms and forearms
Day 6: Legs
Day 7: off
You probably want to keep it at about 4 or 5 exercises per part with maybe 4 sets and make sure you get all parts of the muscle. With leg day do 4 exercises for quads and 3 for hamstrings, due to the fact you utilize some hamstrings in with quad exercises. Now these are just suggestions, Your stats look good, but I have no idea what level your at or how much you lift.

[ComeFlyWithMe]

I'm in fairly decent condition. I wouldn't consider myself a strength beast...I'm a long ways from the days when I played college lacrosse. But I can hold my own. Anything tough would be a plus, as the challenge keeps me motivated. I dunno if this helps give you an idea where I am at:

All time best bench: 325
Current max bench: 295
I'm not sure what my max squat is because I've never tried. But this week I did manage to finish my last set of 7 reps on 375.

[Reed]

Well those are my suggestions. You should be able to figure out what exercises you need to make improvements by looking into the mirror. Your strength is really good. Make sure you have a really good diet if you decide to do the routine I do because if you don't you'll go backwards. It's quite taxing and sometimes after day 4 I'll throw in a extra rest day here and there. But I also change up my routine from twice a week to once a week and really slam the heck out of that one part. Its good to keep changing every 8-10 weeks because progress can become stagnant. Good luck!!

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Diet is something that I could most definitely improve on. Work just makes in nearly impossible to be disciplined, but I do the best with the situation. Mostly, I avoid sugary foods, and heavy fat junk foods. On days I don't work, I try to follow a fairly strict diet. Sure makes it hard to get over the 13% hump, but I think with the vacation and switch up, I'll be able to make some dents in it!

I'd also like to ask for some ideas on exercises for delts and traps. My traps aren't lagging, but they could really be the best part of my physique if I could figure out how to hit them harder. I don't have a whole lot of separation in my arms, as I dont think my delts are as developed as they could be. I don't regularly do arm raises, but I do on occasion. Seems hard for me to imagine that I could get where I want to be if I just did them regularly. Any suggestions?