# My Routine Help Needed



## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

Hi guys I would love it if someone could critique my routine, I have been training 3 years but to cut a long story short I've been training consistently since the start of this year, those last 3 years I wasn't eating properly, wasn't lifting properly, not going consistently months/weeks at a time etc so here are my stats below

Height - 6"3

Weight - 14st

Goal - To look muscular, at the moment I still look like a stick despite the fact I used to be like 11st once upon a time 

*My Routine - I do 4 days total with 3 rest days per week, 3x10 for most workouts*

*Monday* - DB Bench Press, DB Incline Press, Dips, Skullcrushers, Overhead Tricep Extentions (sometimes I alternate exercise's and do close grip bench, or tricep push downs etc)

*Tuesday* - Leg Press, Hack Squat, Lat Pulldown, Close Grip Lat Pulldown, Longpull Machine, Face Pulls, DB Shoulder Press, Lateral Raises (sometimes with cable sometimes not) and I throw in some bicep work if I feel like I want/need it or any other body part

*Wednesday* - Off

*Thursday* - Same as Monday

*Friday* - Same as Tuesday

*Rest Time Between Sets* - 2mins

Is there something wrong with this? I feel like I am seeing results


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## RexEverthing (Apr 4, 2014)

Are you lifting progressively heavier weights?


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

RexEverthing said:


> Are you lifting progressively heavier weights?


 How progressive is progressively, every week or so? I went up in my bench about 2 weeks ago and went up in my DB shoulders 2 weeks ago...if I'm honest I don't know if I'm progressing fast enough...for example I'm only doing 22kg each hand for DB Bench and I'm pretty sure I could do 24 but I keep hearing stuff like no point doing a weight if it's not targeting the muscle you want to grow


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## 31205 (Jan 16, 2013)

Where's the steroids????


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## caspa13 (May 19, 2016)

Do you just repeat the same two workouts every single week?


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

sen said:


> Where's the steroids????


 In your body it seems


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

Casperundftd said:


> Do you just repeat the same two workouts every single week?


 Yeah the same one pretty much, I don't always do the exact same exercise for all the body parts but yeah it's generally the same, I don't understand this mixing up workout business it was enough of a ball ache trying to put this together


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## MjSingh92 (May 18, 2016)

I think maybe hit 5 days a week.

As youre a taller lifter, things like legs need some high volume especially on leg presses. Id say for the first movements you also need to do something like 5 sets and vary the rep ranges. 6-8 or pyramids?

If is possible, you could even do 6 and do a Push Pull Legs split, that would mean hitting every muscle twice a week!


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

MjSingh92 said:


> I think maybe hit 5 days a week.
> 
> As youre a taller lifter, things like legs need some high volume especially on leg presses. Id say for the first movements you also need to do something like 5 sets and vary the rep ranges. 6-8 or pyramids?
> 
> If is possible, you could even do 6 and do a Push Pull Legs split, that would mean hitting every muscle twice a week!


 Thank you for the reply, what is a 6-8 pyramid, usually I pyramid my way up to my working sets but then don't go back down...what would be an ideal push/pull routine?

Thanks


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## MjSingh92 (May 18, 2016)

Sorry, that might not have been that clear, i meant try sets of 6-8 or sometimes try pyramid (1st set 15 reps add weight each set and on last set aim for 4 reps so should be really heavy)

I have just done Push Pull Legs for the last 6 months. put on 2 stone (naturally, with some fat).

Push -

Chest Shoulders & Tris - Barbell work, start with incline 

Pull -

Lats, Trap & Biceps

Legs -

Squats, Leg press, extensions etc

Push -

Chest Shoulders & Tris - Dumbbellwork, start with incline  this will help fix any imbalances

Pull -

Rows, Rack Pulls etc
Biceps

Legs -

Front squats, Lunges etc

That routine is 3 days, one day off and you just repeat that. Let me know what you think


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

@MjSingh92 That seems pretty nice and simple! I will probably give it a try however what I don't get about pyramiding is what weight do you start on and end? will I have to have 90% of the gyms DB's next to my bench to do this? and once I get to 4 do I go back down? Do you do this with every exercise too?

I had a friend who is quite big he said he does this but I didn't understand at the time


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## MjSingh92 (May 18, 2016)

It is simple, but it can be a lot and a bit taxing sometime, so be sure to get plenty of calories in to make sure youre growing

Ok with pyramiding it works like this (example for one lift):

Flat Bench Press

1st set - 15 reps (whatever weight you can get 15 reps with)

rest

2nd set - 12 reps

3rd set - 8-10

4th set - 6 reps

5th set - heaviest and go for 4 reps

and thats it , no going back down. If you want to, you can strip the weight and do a burn out set, but no going back down the pyramid.

you wont have all the gyms weights there because youll slowly increment lol, each set youl be going up, so once you done with one set, get rid of those weights lol.


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

@MjSingh92 Ah okay it makes sense, why is this good compared to the regular 3-5 working sets with one weight? Thanks for your help!


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## Ultrasonic (Jul 13, 2004)

jaylord said:


> Hi guys I would love it if someone could critique my routine, I have been training 3 years but to cut a long story short I've been training consistently since the start of this year, those last 3 years I wasn't eating properly, wasn't lifting properly, not going consistently months/weeks at a time etc so here are my stats below
> 
> Height - 6"3
> 
> ...


 How old were you when you weighed 11 stone and how old are you now? Gaining 3 stone of muscle would be phenomenol progress but I suspect from your other post that this weight gain includes overall body growth as a teenager, right? The other thing to keep an eye on is what proportion of this weight gain is body fat gain?



> *My Routine - I do 4 days total with 3 rest days per week, 3x10 for most workouts*
> 
> *Monday* - DB Bench Press, DB Incline Press, Dips, Skullcrushers, Overhead Tricep Extentions (sometimes I alternate exercise's and do close grip bench, or tricep push downs etc)
> 
> ...


 That doesn't look like a particularly good routine to be honest, but as mentioned above if over time you are increasing the weights lifted, or total reps at each weight, then this will lead to growth. As it stands your routine includes far more pushing exercises than pulling or leg exercises, and too much of a focus on isolation exercises over compound exercises for my liking.

If you like training four days a week as you are now then this is one better routine that you could try:

http://forums.lylemcdonald.com/showthread.php?t=1696

(Read through the thread if you have questions about the routine, as there is loads of info.)

There are loads of options for you to consider though, with typical splits being upper/lower (as above), whole body three times per week or a Push/Pull/Legs split, with a minimum of one rest day every 4 days, but oftern more rest working better.

If you have never done proper squats, deadlifts, rows and bench presses then a routine like Stronglifts can be helpful to learn these and build up basic strength, although I wouldn't do this for more than a couple of months is size is your main goal.

On the exercise front I'm a big fan of decline pressing for chest and I would encourage you to try this if you never have. Form is also very important for chest growth:


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## MjSingh92 (May 18, 2016)

jaylord said:


> @MjSingh92 Ah okay it makes sense, why is this good compared to the regular 3-5 working sets with one weight? Thanks for your help!


 This is to get more volume in to push growth.

It is good to start with 4-5 sets especially on main compounds at one weight, just to see where you are at, then as you progress, you can implement things like pyramids or drop sets


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## Ultrasonic (Jul 13, 2004)

MjSingh92 said:


> This is to get more volume in to push growth.
> 
> It is good to start with 4-5 sets especially on main compounds at one weight, just to see where you are at, then as you progress, you can implement things like pyramids or drop sets


 Personally I would be looking to maximise the work done at heavy weight by doing sets across. Drop sets in particular I think have more of a place for assisted rather than natural trainees.


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

MjSingh92 said:


> This is to get more volume in to push growth.
> 
> It is good to start with 4-5 sets especially on main compounds at one weight, just to see where you are at, then as you progress, you can implement things like pyramids or drop sets


 I see, also how do I actually progress on that routine? Once I can do more than 4 reps with the last weight or? Thank you!



Ultrasonic said:


> Personally I would be looking to maximise the work done at heavy weight by doing sets across. Drop sets in particular I think have more of a place for assisted rather than natural trainees.


 Hey Ultrasonic thank you for the response and feedback on the routine I checked out your link and that looks really confusing to me...like some physics math equation what does this mean..." 3-4X6-8/3' " wth is that? lol?

I read through whatever I could understand and from my understanding it's two days just lower and upper repeated on 4 days of the week right? I like training 4 days for now it feels good and keeps me somewhat active. I have done the strongman routines before but I dunno I'm just not a fan of them as soon as I changed my routine to doing 10 reps for the workouts I noticed growth. I basically based my routine off of starting strength trying to keep the compound lifts in as much as possible but for example when I'd do barbell rows it'd just feel like really odd for me maybe I was lifting too much weight back then but even when I lowered my weight it just felt odd I can't explain how...and then I switched to doing lat pulldowns, longpull machine rows, close grip pulldowns etc and it felt a lot better for my back and my back got bigger

If I'm honest I'm still really really confused about what to do in my head I've got it panned out like this; "Workout A is basically chest and tricep and my workout B is legs back and shoulders"


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## MjSingh92 (May 18, 2016)

when the 4 is easy with that weight, its time to up the weight!


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## Ultrasonic (Jul 13, 2004)

jaylord said:


> Hey Ultrasonic thank you for the response and feedback on the routine I checked out your link and that looks really confusing to me...like some physics math equation what does this mean..." 3-4X6-8/3' " wth is that? lol?


 3 or 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps with 3 minute rests between sets. I posted it mostly to give you an idea of a better balance of exercises for different muscle groups, and as a guide for a sensible number of sets to be doing. If you want to do 8-10 reps for everything that would be fine too.



> I read through whatever I could understand and from my understanding it's two days just lower and upper repeated on 4 days of the week right?


 Yes, it's an example of an upper/lower split routine.


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## VeneCZ (May 30, 2014)

Solid routine that comes to my mind is also "Conjugate split" by Mark Rippetoe. It should develop strength as well as some beef. You train body part twice a week using big compound movements mostly.


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

VeneCZ said:


> Solid routine that comes to my mind is also "Conjugate split" by Mark Rippetoe. It should develop strength as well as some beef. You train body part twice a week using big compound movements mostly.


 I don't trust that troll rippetoe xD


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## VeneCZ (May 30, 2014)

jaylord said:


> I don't trust that troll rippetoe xD


 Why?? The split is set up inteligent way, waaay better than bull... lot of ppl train these days.


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

VeneCZ said:


> Why?? The split is set up inteligent way, waaay better than bull... lot of ppl train these days.


 I dunno I just think my philosophy is different. I don't really buy into the whole "beginners must do 3x5" stuff because 90% of people preaching it who are in good shape never did it themselves + I have a lot of elder family who used to train back in the day and they didn't know any of this stuff at all they just went with pretty much whatever...I wish I could talk to them more to be honest but only ever get a chance at weddings or something like that.

Also I know a lot of people who didn't go by any of these laws the internet insists on and think a lot of it is just over the top and done for business reasons and I'm not bashing the internet or anything like that just saying that's how I feel...I guess my philosophy is as long as you're working out and getting stronger consistently then you're going to get big, I like to keep things simple as possible until they stop working.

Again I know I'm on an internet forum asking people if my routine is good but it's mainly because I don't have anyone I train with or talk to about this stuff apart from one friend who I talk to consistently so I wanted more of an opinion just to see whats up!


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## VeneCZ (May 30, 2014)

Ok, fine. If your routine makes you happy, then it's all good, the main purpose of our gym work is that we like what we do, right? Some like to lift heavy stuff, some pump biceps or whatever. From my 7+ yrs of training I know what works for me. There are routines I know that I wouldn't bother with bc they wouldn't work or I wouldn't enjoy them at all (bro splits for example). I made great progress on upper/lower routines. I basically come from the idea that muscle can grow 2 days after training, so with bro splits you lose 5 days of hypertrophy (when enhanced it's a completely different story). There are also routines that work for almost everyone and I hope that is the one I suggested before.


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## jaylord (Jun 2, 2016)

VeneCZ said:


> Ok, fine. If your routine makes you happy, then it's all good, the main purpose of our gym work is that we like what we do, right? Some like to lift heavy stuff, some pump biceps or whatever. From my 7+ yrs of training I know what works for me. There are routines I know that I wouldn't bother with bc they wouldn't work or I wouldn't enjoy them at all (bro splits for example). I made great progress on upper/lower routines. I basically come from the idea that muscle can grow 2 days after training, so with bro splits you lose 5 days of hypertrophy (when enhanced it's a completely different story). There are also routines that work for almost everyone and I hope that is the one I suggested before.


 I will defo give it a try no doubt, no harm in trying and if I'm completely honest with you I am a noob still I haven't tinkered around much which is why I'm here I suppose.

What is a bro split btw? Is what I'm doing considered bro split? (whatever that may be lol)


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## Quackerz (Dec 19, 2015)

jaylord said:


> I dunno I just think my philosophy is different. I don't really buy into the whole "beginners must do 3x5" stuff because 90% of people preaching it who are in good shape never did it themselves + I have a lot of elder family who used to train back in the day and they didn't know any of this stuff at all they just weike that. nt with pretty much whatever...I wish I could talk to them more to be honest but only ever get a chance at weddings or something l
> 
> Also I know a lot of people who didn't go by any of these laws the internet insists on and think a lot of it is just over the top and done for business reasons and I'm not bashing the internet or anything like that just saying that's how I feel...I guess my philosophy is as long as you're working out and getting stronger consistently then you're going to get big, I like to keep things simple as possible until they stop working.
> 
> Again I know I'm on an internet forum asking people if my routine is good but it's mainly because I don't have anyone I train with or talk to about this stuff apart from one friend who I talk to consistently so I wanted more of an opinion just to see whats up!


 People who do not gain on 3 X 5 or 5 X 5 programming are simply not eating enough and/or pushing themselves hard enough. The problem is the programs often also entourage daily addition of weight, this can cause new trainees to compromise form. Under the correct supervision and guidance however a 5 X 5 program will add size for a beginner like nothing else. There is a reason they use these programs to bulk up high school football athletes, because for the majority they do work and they do it well whist also developing neural patterns in a stupidly short space of time.

People may have preferences but for the majority when performed correctly these programs can and do work extremely well, the problem is being coached into learning the correct form and technique to able to start progressing fast enough at a decent rate. This is where you will see most issues in conjunction with under eating.

You do not have to do it, do what you want to do and there are many other training methods that can and do work just as well for developing size, but this is one of the most basic, productive templates for a beginner you will ever find. Strength development on the other hand would be a different issue.


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## VeneCZ (May 30, 2014)

jaylord said:


> What is a bro split btw? Is what I'm doing considered bro split? (whatever that may be lol)


 I guess the "bro split" term from what I observed here is a typical bodybuilding type of split, where you hit the muscle group only once a week and is usually annihilated by a great amount of volume. Typically used by beginners that copy programs of their favorite BBers. I used these too at the begining. Your split isn't a typical bro split, since you hit the muscle group twice a week, it just need better structure imo. You don't have to be sore after every workout to make gains, with fullbody workouts you're likely sore and can make greater gains as a beginner than with bro splits.

cheers

Edit: and as stated above by Quackerz 5x5 parameter is really good in strength and size development. It was a staple of my training for years.


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