My typical workout week

[Oldandbusted]

My cardio is pulling a sled or flipping a tire, so I'm hardly qualified to comment.

To your prior question. I only pyramid back down to my starting weight. That set goes as many reps as I can do, weather it be 10, 20, 30......whatever. If it was too easy I do a second burnout set. To me, if it takes more than 45 minutes to obliterate your shoulders you went way too light. Spend more time/reps/sets at the higher loads then use your fly's etc to polish them off.

[basketballfan22]

Okay, thanks. In this routine I do a warmup set of 20-25 reps. Do you think I should decrease until that point, then go back up by 10-15%?

[basketballfan22]

I couldn't help but think about this routine over the night. I think I may revise it slightly to account for the issue I encountered yesterday. How does this sound to you guys?

Warmup set: 20 - 25 reps (~45% of my one rep max, I never "max out"; so I don't actually know this number but I have a pretty good idea)
First set: 4 - 6 reps (the most weight I can lift to achieve this until failure)
Subsequent sets: drop weight by 10 - 15% lifting to failure each time until I reach a weight where I can do more than 10 reps.
Last sets: start to increase the weight by 10 - 15% lifting to failure each time until I go back up to a weight where I can't do a single rep.

Thanks.

[basketballfan22]

On Friday (arms/ab), I may do the ab routine mentioned by dan68131. Depending on what he (and any other member who wants to chime in) says, I will do this after I do my arms. Here is a link to his GREAT thread.

http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...s#.UP703qWi1N0

[dan991]

If your trying to lean bulk; forget cardio completely. If anything shorten the time between sets but if your metabolism is that fast I wouldn't bother with it.

[basketballfan22]

Okay. Thanks. I think your ab routine will take into account my cardio for the week.

[basketballfan22]

Day two (back), and boy did I feel it. I am very happy with this routine. I may cut out a set or two because I went a few minutes past the hour mark; and the way this is killing me, I think it may be more beneficial considering I need to gain some weight. Props for all the advice.

[basketballfan22]

Needless post, so I deleted it.

[Tron3219]

I would talk about my day today doing chest, but I need to dedicate an entirely different thread to it.

Why's that?

[basketballfan22]

Again, needless post; so I deleted it.

[MartyMcFly]

I used to do a similar split and then went to Chest/Tri/Shoulders , Back/Bi , Legs/abs but was still only hitting each muscle once a week. I have since switched over to this (http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...t-this-routine) and it is kicking my ass. Hitting it twice a week is doing wonders. I never go to failure either and it is doing so much better for me. Short breaks in between with only one weight didn't make sense to me but now I am seeing the light.

Problem is it is 6 days a week. I'm a CPA and tax season is coming up so I got to cut back to 4 days a week. Since I am essentially combining 2 workouts I decided to go back to reps of 12,10,8 and try to keep rest under a minute. It is basically a Upper/Lower split but I am alternating max effort push or pull during the week. This is what I have so far:

Monday
Upper 1 PUSH/PULL
Incline DB 12,12,10,8
Flat BB 12,10,10,8
Dip 3 sets
Rope Pulldown 12,12,10,8
Seated Row 12,10,10,8
Lat Pulldown 12,10,10
BB Curl 12,12,10,8
RDF/Side Lat SuperSet 12,10,10

Tuesday
Leg
Leg Press 15,12,10,8,6
Leg Ext 12,10,8
Leg Curl 12,10,8
Standing CR 16,14,12,10
Seated CR 14,12,10,8

Wednesday-- Rest

Thursday
Upper 2 PULL/PUSH

Dead 12,10,8
BO Row 12,10,8,6
Pullup 3 sets
Decline DB 12,12,10
Incline DB 12,12,10
Hammer Curl 12,10,8,8
RDF/Side Lat SuperSet 3 sets
RopePulldown 12,10,8

Friday
Leg
Leg Press 15,12,10,8,6
Leg Ext 15,12,10
Leg Curl 15,12,10
Standing CR 16,14,12,10
Seated CR 14,12,10,8

saturday/Sunday --Rest

[basketballfan22]

Hey MartyMcFly, thanks for the tips and new routine. I think I overreacted today, and I must admit I love this routine thus far. I think I will stick with this routine for at least a couple of months or until I feel like it is no longer helping. It is great to get new ideas for routines though, and I wouldn't be surprised if I give this one a shot in the future. I love any advice and suggestions though. Thanks.

[basketballfan22]

This is just a quote from Tron3219 to a thread that I haphazardly started and hopefully will get removed. I am including it here only as a reference just in case I would like to alter my chest routine.

"When I'm training my chest, I very rarely feel a 'burn' unless I'm doing one arm cable flies, that's because it isolates parts of ur pecs after u cross the center line of ur body. If you really blast ur chest with bench, you'll feel the outer portion by ur arm pit swell up. Keep in mind you chest is only isolated the first 4-6 inches off ur chest, so make sure ur arm (shoulder to elbow) is below parallel to the floor and the bar comes close to ur chest as ur shoulders allow. If you went to failure, chances r you'll feel it tomorrow. Try it a few more times. If u don't feel it's working, try a progressive overload (opposite to what ur doing now), start with reps of 10-12 with failure in last rep, add weight, drop reps."

[basketballfan22]

Day four (legs), and boy am I feeling it as expected. The one thing I am learning, however, is that I am still programmed to believe I am not in the gym long enough. Although I have significantly reduced my gym time (by more than 30 minutes), I am definitely in there too long. I think it will take another week or two until I have made minor adjustments (e.g. don't decrease my weight too many times, drop an entire exercise, less time in between sets, etc.) or until I am mentally convinced that I have sufficiently worked my muscles before the duration of my workout routine is within the targeted range of 45 - 60 minutes.

Although squats immediately had an effect, I probably still did too many sets (8). Then despite how exhausted my entire body is; when I begin an easier exercise like leg curl, the rest of my muscles are beginning to recover so I don't feel nearly as exhausted. I know squats already worked the muscles in the other exercises, so I think I can ease up a little on the later exercises. One thing I am almost certain I will do is decrease my rest in between sets during my calf exercises to around 25 seconds because it takes a while for me to feel that burn I really want. As soon as 15 minutes after I finished my routine though, I was feeling very sore. I think I need to realize that I will probably achieve that same soreness (or very close to it) even after I decrease my workout by another 30 minutes or so. Regardless, I absolutely love this new routine; and I am excited to see gains in both strength and mass once I perfect it.

Also my chest is very sore today, so that just provides further evidence to myself that I can end my workout sooner and still sufficiently work out my muscles. I just need to have more self control when I am in the gym.

[61er]

Interesting thread. Cardio? No. Get your heart rate up through your workout regimen. Since you seem to have lots of time to hit the gym, why not go every day? I hate missing a day...

[Zodiac82]

Interesting thread. Cardio? No. Get your heart rate up through your workout regimen. Since you seem to have lots of time to hit the gym, why not go every day? I hate missing a day...

goin to the gym everyday would be overkill....the body needs time to rest and recover

[basketballfan22]

Yeah, 61er. I definitely don't go to the gym everyday. If anything, I was contemplating on reducing it to 4 days per week. I already spend more than enough time in the gym, so going more often would be a mistake. I do understand where you are coming from, but you need to try and have self control when going to the gym. If you work your muscles sufficiently enough, you should definitely feel it and not have to worry about going to the gym everyday. Like cancer82 said, our muscles need time to recover.

[bdos]

I do cardio before my workouts gets me all warmed up for about 45mins my metabolism is high also so it gives me 15/20 mins of burning fat. Don't hold me to this but you only start to burn fat after the 20min mark of cardio? (more knowledgeable member could correct me) After or before I don't think it matters.

[basketballfan22]

I do cardio before my workouts gets me all warmed up for about 45mins my metabolism is high also so it gives me 15/20 mins of burning fat. Don't hold me to this but you only start to burn fat after the 20min mark of cardio? (more knowledgeable member could correct me) After or before I don't think it matters.

What are your stats if you don't mind my asking? There is no way I can include 45 minutes of cardio everyday before my workouts. Perhaps if I were trying to cut, I would; but there is no way I would be successful bulking up. I have trouble as is. I will definitely have to read more about optimum cardio duration for burning fat. I know I have read that doing cardio at a moderate pace for 20 minutes is great at burning fat and maintaining lean muscle mass. A moderate pace was defined as a pace fast enough you are starting to breathe somewhat heavily, but yet can still have a conversation. If you go too slowly, your heart rate won't be high enough; and you won't be burning much fat. Conversely, a pace that is too high will result in the loss of muscle mass. I am not familiar with routines designed for fat loss, since I am already pretty lean.

[Tron3219]

What are your stats if you don't mind my asking? There is no way I can include 45 minutes of cardio everyday before my workouts. Perhaps if I were trying to cut, I would; but there is no way I would be successful bulking up. I have trouble as is. I will definitely have to read more about optimum cardio duration for burning fat. I know I have read that doing cardio at a moderate pace for 20 minutes is great at burning fat and maintaining lean muscle mass. A moderate pace was defined as a pace fast enough you are starting to breathe somewhat heavily, but yet can still have a conversation. If you go too slowly, your heart rate won't be high enough; and you won't be burning much fat. Conversely, a pace that is too high will result in the loss of muscle mass. I am not familiar with routines designed for fat loss, since I am already pretty lean.

If it trying to gain, and a hard gainer, I'd omit cardio all together. Maybe 5-10 minutes prior to workout to get ur blood pumping.

[basketballfan22]

Day five (arms/abs). I really felt the burn. I may do my ab workout on Saturday instead of combining it with my arms. The arm portion of the workout was around 65 minutes. I know many people think that is too long for just arms, but I am coming from a routine where typically my arm workout would last almost 2 hours. This is a HUGE difference. Perhaps I have great muscle endurance because of my old routine; thus it still takes a little longer than usual to really feel that burn. With the addition of my ab workout which lasts around 20 minutes, I exceed the one hour barrier I am trying to keep my routine under. The question now becomes do I stay in the gym almost 90 minutes, or do I only have one day off from the gym? I am pretty resistant to the idea of cutting my arm routine by another 20 minutes. I am sure I can reduce the duration by 5 - 10 minutes if I keep my rest between sets within 30 seconds or so, but I doubt I can do better than that.

I have a few questions about my ab routine; but that is better suited for the thread by dan68131, since it is his routine I am replicating.

http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...s#.UQNAwaWi1N0

[basketballfan22]

If it trying to gain, and a hard gainer, I'd omit cardio all together. Maybe 5-10 minutes prior to workout to get ur blood pumping.

I definitely agree with you Tron, and that is why I mentioned that I don't do any cardio. I was merely suggesting a routine to burn fat which I am not trying to do.

[basketballfan22]

I will keep updating this thread; although I did not the past two days. I had very good days on Monday and Tuesday, and I was able to keep the routine very close to 60 minutes. One unfortunate reality is that I am now working out with a friend who wants to get in shape. Despite my recommendation that another type of routine would be more ideal for him (he has a lot more fat than I do), he really likes working out with me because of how much I drive him. Working out with a buddy has the drawback of increasing my gym time though since we are constantly having to alternate the amount of weight we do.

I must say that deadlifts are killing me. I am so glad how effective they are on my back. I know it will sound completely retarded; but for the five years I have been working out, I have never included deadlifts. Blasphemy, I know. Despite its effectiveness, I was still battling myself to not stay in the gym too long. I keep wanting to remain in the gym and do that extra exercise (in this case it was dumbbell rows), but I need to stay disciplined and not stay in the gym too long. Luckily, I have been successful in that endeavor so far; and I think as the weeks go by, I will begin to lose that urge altogether.

Today was chest day, and I am no longer concerned about not having that deep burning feeling that I do when I work my back for example. I am sure tomorrow my chest will be sore, as that is what happened last week. I have increased the amount of weight I am bench pressing too which I am elated about. My chest has always been my weak point, but I am confident I will begin to bridge that gap. Tomorrow I have legs, and I am super excited about it since I did very well last week.

Lastly, I wanted to update my stats. Every Monday morning I weigh myself and measure a lot of my muscle groups. Even though it may not be much, I still gained half of a pound. On one hand I am happy about that because I know a vast majority of it is lean muscle; but on the other hand, I am a little bummed as I was hoping for at least one pound. I don't want to gain too much because that means I am putting on fat too, but I would like the gains to be a little higher. I will increase my calories a little bit, and hopefully next week I will see a larger gain in weight.

[basketballfan22]

I was too tired to do my workout yesterday, especially since it was leg day; so I did legs today. Wow, I killed myself. I was on the verge of throwing up which I think had something to do with the free sample of N.O. Xplode 2.0 I drank. Regardless, I was seeing stars for a bit. I wanted to kill myself by the time I got home, haha. Because I took off yesterday, I will be lifting tomorrow and working my arms and abs. My leg strength is increasing at an alarming weight. Now I need to convert that strength into size! Anyway, I know I will be really sore tomorrow. Luckily arm day feels like a day off compared to leg day.

[basketballfan22]

Well I will be updating my stats Monday morning. Hopefully I will see some gains in weight. I am definitely getting stronger, and I think I will experiment with micronized creatine shortly. I have never used creatine because of the bloating and water retention effects it has on some people, but I think I will try it out and see how it affects me. My routine is going great though. I can't thank everyone on this site enough. Beyond the advice I have been getting all over, I just love having an avenue where I can talk about my progress. My motivation is at an entirely different level, and I attribute damn near all of it to this site. It's great being able to talk to people who are as motivated if not even more so than me and to people who have far more experience and knowledge than me.