help me find new exercises and change up routine?

[Too-$mall]

Ok so here's what i do at the moment using the following techniques and i try to keep my form proper.

Techniques: super slow reps / HIT, going to failure, time under tension, taking advantage of the negative portion of the rep, pyramiding down, getting the pump, going heavy, 1-6 ;going for hypertrophy 7 - 12. i usually plan on not ever making it to 12. don't limit myself to 4 sets or whatever. i go until my muscles tells me "OK no more."

this is not the order, and frequency i do my stuff in.
Chest day and triceps
flat mixed with dumbbells, flys, incline and a little reverse grip
Triceps: long and short muscles with cables only
Bicep day with forearms
biceps: inner bicep: outer bicep, dumbells, and machines
forearms: do'em till my muscles give out. then i do'em some more. and more
throw in some abs
Shoulder day
medial delt, rear delt, a little front delt. dumbbell raises. many of them with lighter weight so i dont hit the traps so much.
forearms: same as above.
throw in some abs
back with a little dead lift & squats
Upper back focus: high rows. some Low rows. lat pull downs, lower back raises without weight. little dead lift and little squats.
Legs with squats.
Leg press, squats, quad curls, ham curls, calve press: do'em just like my forearms.
throw in some abs


i think that's it. i'm thinking i could add a standing vertical press to the mix and shrugs. any other suggestions. i'm easy, so le'me have it

[Too-$mall]

decided to do shrugs tonight. i was shrugging waaay more than i thought i could. i did 290lb for so many sets up to 9 reps. and i tried to do HIT and TUT. i also did forearms and abs. time to eat! MORE!

[Clove1234]

Maybe switch to just a push pull leg routine? Focusing on the heavy compounds. That changed my physique and numbers drastically. The only think i could ever do do grow my traps was do way more weight than i should be doing on shrugs. I’m talking 405-495 with straps, getting a little hop in there to get the weight up to my ears then hang in the negative. If you are feeling real crazy and have a partner burnout at a super high weight like 495 and do a drop set to failure all the way to 135. Could also get crazy and try shrugging the bar at the end too, your traps will be trashed for days.

[Too-$mall]

what are some examples of heavy push pull compound leg exercises?

[Clove1234]

The main three are bench, deadlift and squats. I break my days down like so. For push i switch between a chest heavy day and a shoulder heavy day.
A chest day would be flat bench, maybe and incline or decline, either dumbbells or barbell. After i do two or three heavy exercises i usually do a hypertrophy exercise or two. Such as pull overs, or flies, every now and then push ups to failure.
A shoulder day would consist of the same type of scheme, start with heavy standing overhead, dumbell presses, military presses. Or any of those combined. Then after taxing the cns and feeling fatigued i go to more hypertrophy such as flies of any sort, raises side or front.
A sample pull day would consist of deadlift, or heavy rack pulls, sometimes both. Then any variation of rows, lat pull downs etc. could also mix in some pull ups, assisted or not if your doing them at the end.
Legs i either do heavy hack squat, barbell squat or leg press. Ive had crazy days where i do all three. Usually its just two of those. Then again on to more hypertrophy you can rotate your focus on hams, calves and quads.

This is just sample, my workouts generally tend to be only five workouts. But I don’t count sets or reps for the most part. You can also throw a curve ball by doing heave compounds at the end of your workout instead of the beginning; as well as switching up which ones you do first.

[Clove1234]

Just from switching to a powerlifting style workout i have put over 100lbs on my deadlift and squat, and 40 lbs on my bench in just under a year.

[Too-$mall]

ok, yea. that sounds like something i want to do. so powerlifting as a focus. so with powerlifting it seems like you're limiting the types and number of exercises you do? do you focus on this for months at a time? maybe i should just read about powerlifting routines to get a good idea for what to focus on. i do the 3 main, but i don't think there is a focus on powerlifting for me? so to get a better idea, what am i doing that's outside of what powerlifting is supposed to be? seems like in order not to fry the cns, or hurt yourself one should limit heavy to a couple days during the week?

[Clove1234]

There are a couple different approaches to doing a powerlifting type split. I respond better and for times sake prefer splitting them movements up each day. I do know some who try and do the big three each day for the most part then also do accessory movements. That gets to be a burden. To make it fun or change it up i do some core work after my workouts and we throw in an arm day or strictly hypertrophy once a week. Pretty much just an active recovery day in the gym.

[Berzerk]

Do opposite exercises between sets of other movement

Dumbbell bench, then curls on ez bar between DB sets.

Flys and tricep over head extension between fly sets

Bench press and pullups between sets.

Lat pulls or rows and tricep rope pull downs between your lat sets

[Too-$mall]

today i tried going heavier on leg press. last time i was doing 360. tried out 810. couldn't do it. landed at 540. a lot heavier than last time. did quite a few sets then pyramided down. did heavy shoulders a few times then some light sets for a pump. i didn't eat a whole lot yesterday, so i kinda took it easy. went grocery shopping just a few minutes ago. threw in some abs and then walked a mile. for me routine is the most important part. eating has pretty much been on point except for yesterday. i better watch out for that. love me some cottage cheese, grilled chicken, and plain yogurt. i need to start drinking my lentils/oats/quinoa with water again. that was really working for me when i was doing it. 2 birds 1 stone.

yea i should try the opposite thing too. today really seemed to fit well for me. what's funny is i just kinda did what my body was ready for. my lower back is still sore from deads, and raises and whatever else i was doing on back day. forearm exercises really help with grip, but that's a no brainer i guess.

[CMB]

What up y'all?

So we could get into the weeds of your workout but let's just keep it simple

CHANGING UP YOUR ROUTINE
- Avoid having two workouts be the exact same.... Example, if your workout for chest is identical to the previous chest workout, this is a mistake
- Start with different exercises.... this is a common mistake IMO. Example... If you started with lat pull downs one week, start with horizontal pulls the next.
- After awhile (3 months or soimo), change up your split. Stop following the same routine for months on end. This is another common mistake.
- As far as new exercises goes, this is an easy fix. Use your resources to find new exercises. Watch others in the gym (who know what they're doing) and do those exercises which you've never done or hardly every do. The internet is full of information for every conceivable workout. I like textbook-like books to refresh my mind on exercises every now and again.
- As a general rule for your lifting tempo... EXPLOSIVE on the concentric movement, CONTROLLED on the eccentric movement... Do not slow down the eccentric part to an extreme degree, just controlled and stable.

I highly recommend using sources like the ACSM for fine tuning your workouts. Best of luck and remember, exercise is not an exact science!

[Too-$mall]

taking tonight off. I think i'm running myself ragged. lower back was super soar from dead lifts, (was doing more than i thought i could) then leg press (also did more than i thought i could) on another day and shoulders + abs, then chest yesterday, just a few sets. (it was supposed to be an off day. was already feeling kindof shitty) only did like 4 sets of chest, but i am not feeling well. my bench actually went up to 3 reps of 225lb. cool. i normally go about 5 days a week now. i went to bed super early Monday and at at 1100 yesterday. about to go to bed early now.

been almost eating the same too. last night i had a huge craving for junk food. weird cause that's not happened for quite awhile. and again today at the supermarket. i wanted to buy a pizza... i did have a slice and a half a day or two ago when i bought some for somebody.

lately though i've been eating a lot of blue cheese and candied pecans. the candied pecans is basically junk food. I'm not on a cycle and i think i need some rest. i don't feel right. think the candied pecans could be screwing me up? I almost went to the gym tonight, but i promised i was gonna cook for somebody.

i don't know WTF is wrong with me. drinking water throughout the day, getting over 200 grams of food protein a day. eating plenty of fat. getting carbs.

took 5K b12 this morning and just now. i get my vitamin D3 by tanning... i feel all hot an sweaty. think 250g of test a week is going to raise me E2 too high? and if so should i take 12mg a day, or 24mg/day exmestane?

[Clove1234]

No way to know without blood work

[Too-$mall]

did upper back and lats tonight. also forearms and abs.
think i did a good job. i was able to do more weight than i thought i could with proper form.

eating has been kinda off. not getting in as much as i could be. protein is staying high though. I've been getting really thrashed after a workout. i wonder if recovery is being impacted negatively somehow. maybe its the fact im not taking as high of doses. recovery is taking longer. thought i crushed my legs last leg day and then i barely felt anything afterward. when im really juicing i always get sore but i recover quickly. my strength has increased but my muscle endurance feels like it went down. not sure what to make of it. maybe water? carbs/fat?

oh shoot. forgot to mention. i saw my doc today and got'em to have my bloods done. i'll just have to wait and see what he ordered. i did mention liver and cholesterol. gonna get the rest of my bloods done through lab corp! saved some money! i'll post bloods soon. don't think doc is going to test for e2 and test though. he checked my shoulder out too. not a candadite for surgery. that's awesome. i figure TB 500 or BPC 157 will work wonders for me like it has in the past. thing just bugs me thats all.

time for lentils and cottage cheese

[ScotchGuard02]

There are a dizzying amount of exercises to develop every single body part. Overall, I think half of them are just marketing. Stick with the old school exercises. There are three variable in exercise.

1. Intensity - This could mean the amount of weight you're pushing or it could mean the number of reps. How intense is your workout, is the question.

2. Duration - This is how long is your workout. How many sets do you do per body part?

3. Specificity - What is the motion of your exercise? How many different ways do you work your bicep or any other body part.

By altering and combining these three variables you can break out of your plateau. For example, I used to do the classic pyramid bench workout culminating in a 1RM of 405lbs. My joints hurt after a workout like that. So now I rep 225lbs 100 times. Then I incline press 100lb dumbbells for 50 reps. I get a SUPER pump but my shoulders don't hurt. I've altered the intensity/duration/specificity of the exercise. Be creative. You can mix things up and keep growing.

[Too-$mall]

ok,

intensity. i always make sure i get some sweat on my forehead. at least 1 bead that runs down, but 2 is better. i try to make my rest periods no more than 2 minutes. i'm going heavy. i plan to never make it to 12, if i can make it to 12 more weight goes on until i'm maxing out at 3, however i stick around 8 reps.

duration: My workouts aren't longer than 1 hr ever. i do as many sets as my body feels comfortable with. i try to not over due it, but sometimes i do i guess.

specificity when doing muscles i don't always do various exercises. like last chest session i did the whole session bench with some cable flys and punches at the end. normally i do bench normal grip and a little reverse at the end with much lower weight, dumbbells, dumbells flys, and cable flys. i remember and practice HIT, time under tension, emphasis on all parts of the rep, neg, pos, static, high weight, rep range for power and hypertrophy. if i'm doing bicep, I'll do outer and inner. i mind my forearms, calves, and abs as well. i throw those in on any day.

today i did shrugs and shoulder medial delt raises. reached a personal record with the shrugs. i can shrug 315 now for 8 reps and higher. that's pretty cool. gotta go eat now. ...

[ScotchGuard02]

ok,

intensity. i always make sure i get some sweat on my forehead. at least 1 bead that runs down, but 2 is better. i try to make my rest periods no more than 2 minutes. i'm going heavy. i plan to never make it to 12, if i can make it to 12 more weight goes on until i'm maxing out at 3, however i stick around 8 reps.

duration: My workouts aren't longer than 1 hr ever. i do as many sets as my body feels comfortable with. i try to not over due it, but sometimes i do i guess.

specificity when doing muscles i don't always do various exercises. like last chest session i did the whole session bench with some cable flys and punches at the end. normally i do bench normal grip and a little reverse at the end with much lower weight, dumbbells, dumbells flys, and cable flys. i remember and practice HIT, time under tension, emphasis on all parts of the rep, neg, pos, static, high weight, rep range for power and hypertrophy. if i'm doing bicep, I'll do outer and inner. i mind my forearms, calves, and abs as well. i throw those in on any day.

today i did shrugs and shoulder medial delt raises. reached a personal record with the shrugs. i can shrug 315 now for 8 reps and higher. that's pretty cool. gotta go eat now. ...

That's awesome, congrats on your new PR.

[cousinmuscles]

Since you do triceps with chest, try some compound exercises for triceps like close grip presses, JM presses, dips. A big part of HIT is keeping a log book and increasing the load over time (progressive overload). With compound exercises you can measure this easily and go to failure and know you didn't beat the book just because you swung the dumbbells on side raises for delts. Also I favor compound exercises above anything else, I get more "work" in with more damage to the muscles along with carryover effects to other muscles involved.

My routines have been combining similar movements to put all similar type of load (e.g. pressing, pulling, legs/lower back) on the same training session. Chest+tri, back+bi, shoulders+calves, deads OR squats alternating, then repeat. We all have our reasons for splits but my legs grow disproportionately quickly. But this way I can measure how much training I can handle before diminishing returns. I can measure the results too and compare with other methods. When you consistently change things and do not get opportunities to measure the progress, how can you know what produced some result?

[Too-$mall]

thanks for the information.

came to the conclusion that i'm i'm being impatient and i realized that i was in fact getting to comfortable with going heavy. kinda lost my way i think. had an internal crisis about a week ago and now things are settling down, but 2 days ago i took 2 days off. lot of stuff was going on, but i was worried that it had something to do with my dedication. last 2 days were a very welcome sign of relief. did shoulders then biceps the next day. still getting sore from the gym workouts i'm doing. still eating pretty good and i've since reminded myself that carbs essential as is water. i'm on a day off right now, but looking towards the future i want to prep for another cycle. well as luck would have it i'm freaking out again because i got a notification saying my bitcoin acc is being shut down... after attempting to get rolo from ADC. i don't know wtf is going on, but i'm very upset about it. just when i was feeling great this stuff happens. i feel like my life is ruined. <exagerating> but ya know.... ... .. . i'm going to give it a few days, while i wait for bitcoin to tell me WTF happened.