Please critique my workout schedule...

[Face]

Aim - To bulk putting on as little fat as possible along the way...

Reps - really aim for 5-10, except on forearms, heard they respond better to higher reps to increase bloodflow.

Monday - Chest and Biceps

5 sets Incline dumbell bench press
5 sets Flat dumbell flyes
3 sets preacher curls
3 sets seated barbell curls

Tuesday- Abs and Back

2 sets crunches (with ab cradle)
2 sets leg raises
2 sets side crunches (each side with cradle)
3 sets chin ups
3 sets seated cable rows
3 sets dumbell shrugs

Wednesday - Legs

4 sets squats
3 sets leg extensions
3 sets leg curls
4 sets standing calf raises

Thursday - Abs and chest

2 sets crunches (ab cradle)
2 sets leg raises
2 sets side crunches (ab cradle)
5 sets flat dumbell bench press
5 sets flat dumbell flyes

Friday - Shoulders and triceps

5 sets seated barbell press
4 sets single arm diagonal raises
4 sets anterior raises
3 sets close grip barbell bench press
3 sets dips behind the back

Saturday - Cardio and forearms

1hr run (7 miles with sprints at the end)

4 sets wrist curls
4 sets reverse wrist curls
2 sets pronation/supination

Sunday - rest

I know many of you say this looks really heavy, and it feels quite heavy too...... I have done it for two weeks now, and even though I am reasonably used to working out, i am bloody knackered I am!

If you can please help by suggesting a modified routine, maybe some other exercises etc. My diet is pretty good, but i should probably be eating more. The only things I take are a protein shake and a multivitamin. Used to take creatine but stopped.

Thanks in advance for all the help...

[Bubo]

Bro, this is impossible without knowing you, but I’ll give you my two cents anyway.

I think you can train MORE

Here’s what I kind of do for each body part, and yes I have always been natural.
Note I say kind of, why? Because I try to do something a little different each time.

Back:
RDLs – 4 sets, one as heavy as I can go
Dumbbell pulls – don’t even ask me
Seated cable rows – 5 sets
Wide grip pull downs – 5 or 6 sets

Chest:
Flat bench – 3 or 4 sets
Incline bench – 3 or 4 sets
Incline dumbbells – 4 or 5 sets
Flat dumbbells – 4 or 5 sets
Pullovers – 3 sets
Cables or peck deck – until I have had enough

Legs:
Squats – 4 sets
Leg press – 6 or 7 sets
Calf raises – 6 sets
Leg curls – 6 sets
Leg extensions – 6 or 7 sets

Shoulders:
Side laterals dumbbells – don’t even ask me
Rear delts dumbbells – don’t even ask me
Shoulder press – 6 sets

Get the idea?

[Ironlfter]

Hey man,

It's just like Bubo said it's impossible to say for sure without really knowing your body. Only you know for sure.

Personally, I am a low volume trainer. I usually lean more towards a Dorian Yates style workout. All 30 to 40 pounds of muscle I have gained over the last few years has pretty much come from low volume workouts.

Th only way you will know what works for you is to experiment. Try low volume, try moderate volume and high volume and see where your best gains come from. One thing you need to look at though is you mentioned your ass is dragging from the workouts you've been doing...so it's possible you are overtraining. Then again your diet may not be in order or your sleep may be off as well.

A new thing I'm doing is to alternate different styles of traing to shock my body. I'll change each week to different styles of workouts. For example:

Week 1 - Will be my usual low volume style training to failure on 3 to 5 work sets per body part

Week 2 - Will be picking only one exercise per bodypart and blasting it with drop set after drop set (usually using the strip method of resting only long enough to strip a few pounds off the bar) until I'm foaming at the mouth from fatigue.

Week 3- Back to my low volume style

Week 4 - a high volume routine with 12-15 sets for large body parts and 10 to 12 for smaller parts.

Week 5- repeat week 1 again

This is just an idea man. Like I said most of my gains as a natural trainee have come from low volume training but I have learned that I need more variety in my training to further develop. See what works best for you. Try some variety. Get your diet on track and sleep at least 8 hours a night. -Best of luck. -Ironlfter

[Shibby]

Lets back way up. First Bubo, you didn't mention what your reps are like so I have no idea what your workout is like.

Face- The bulking with as little fat as possible will come down to your diet. If your doing anything until your burned out, that's not bulking. That means you can lift alot heavier. Lift big to get big. There is a big difference in the weight that can be done in a 5 rep set and a 10 rep set. So that range is to broad IMO. That's all the time I have to answer now. I'll will get back to you on options for exercises and organazation on days for body parts you have selected when I get more time if someone else dosn't first. It looks some what weird to me. Ironlfter has some good info on creating something personal once you get the rest worked out.

[Ironlfter]

Face,
Shibby does have good points that I didn't address. He's right about lifting big to get big. You do need to keep the reps some what lower. I shoot for at least 6 to 8 (usually 8) reps on most body parts -even legs. Mine seem to respond well to that instead of the mega high reps some routines outline.

He also brought up some points about your sort of bizzarre looking routine. I too am rushed for time right now, so can't write a lot, but you might want to stay the hell out of the gym on days you aren't hitting the big muscle groups. I wouldn't touch weights on a rest day just to do forearms. Put forearms with biceps or with back. You don't need another day stimulating the nervous system with more training just to do forearms. Another thing I would suggest is to split your workout days up with a rest day in the middle of the week and one at the end of the week. I know some natural guys train 5 days in a row, but in my opinion natural guys shouldn't go more than three days in a row.

About the diet-you didn't list specifics, but to bulk and stay lean is somewhat contradictory. I feel some fat has to be added to gain size. You don't have to put on 7 inches around the waistline but a couple inches in my opinion is pretty acceptable because you do need extra calories to add muscle. I've been known to bulk up with an extra 45 or 50 ( a lot is water though) pounds sometimes and then diet it off slowly, but that's just me. In your case though stay on top of your waistline (if that's a big concern), but don't let it become so much of a focus you will be fearful of upping your calories enough to gain muscle.

Hopefully that gives a little more help and maybe Shibby can get you some more info before I get back online again. Otherwise I'll try and help a little more. Hopefully I'm helping some and not confusing you more. -IronLfter

[Shibby]

I'll post this up to see what you think

all 4 sets/ 4-6 reps

Day1 Cest

Flat bench
Flat dumbell
Incline Flys
weighted Chest dips


Day 2

Biceps:
straight bar curls wide grip
Hammer curls
Preacher curls
Get on a cable cross with the lowest setting and keep your hands supentine and pull towards your shoulder(take around a step foreward to slight pull your shoulder back.

Triceps:
Overhead tri extensions
Nose Breakers/Skull Crushers
Rope Tricep pulldowns
Single handed cable tricep pull downs

Forarms: (I'll pu this more into a description style type)
Behind the back forcep contractions witht he thumb on the same side of the bar as the res of your fingers

Forarm curls on a bench: Support your arm on a bench and extend and contract the forarm

Reverse Forarm curls: Same as ^ but upside down.

Standing reverse curls: Do Curls but with your hands on the top side of the bar instead of the under side.

Day3

rest

Day 4

Shoulders:
Overhead dumbell presses.
Military Presses
Lateral Raises
Rear delt raises

Back:
Outside row
Inside Row
Single handed Bent over rows
Lat pulldowns
Lat pull ups with a V-grip bar


Maybe some upright rows somewher in there in your interested.

Day 5

Legs:

wide Stance squats
Leg curls
Front Squats
Leg Extentions
Abduction
Adduction
Cooked Calves in 4 minutes routine. Search for post on it.

Weekends off

See what you think, everyone will have ther own ideas. So take it all in and see what works best for you.

[Face]

Thanks for all the feedback fellas, has been most useful to read. Yes, your right, my exercise routine is kind of unconventional because I made it up myself, but a lot of it stems around my work schedule; for instance i hit legs on wednesday cos i bunk lectures that day, and there is no way i could face going into uni on a leg day, no fookin way. As for the reps, i hear what your saying. The reason my reps says 5-10, is cos I aim for 10 on my first set and then it gradually falls, when it hits five, I know for the next set to drop some weight. Bubo, i hear what you say, but i don't think I can train more than I am now, I would just be too tired and wouldn't be giving my exercises the maximum, which is what I always aim to do. I now have access to a gym also, so I will be adding a few things to my routine, like cable crossovers and pullups, which i didn't have the facilities to do before.
As for the bulking without putting on much fat, I think this is more than possible, there is no logical reasoning why it should not be, as long as you can put up with a slower rise. But i think a lot of people that bulk just want to see the weight go up as fast as possible; I am happy to see the weight rise slowly, confident that what i am actually putting on is muscle.

My diet is pretty good, I don't eat as much as most of the hardcore bulkers but i am eating pretty well, lots of turkey sandwiches, egg whites, protein shakes, tuna and chicken breast. I don't really control my carbs. I do my one hour run once every two weeks and I have noticed that even with this lack of frequency my fitness is really improving, manage to cover over 10ks in the hour.

My first month gains after being on my schedule have been pretty good, much better than i expected, weight only went up a couple of kgs but I had increases everywhere except my waist (great!) and calves (my arms went up nearly 3/4 inches) and i look and feel bigger and stronger. I know the hard work will to keep the gains going month to month but this first month gains has given me real fire to carry on and achieve my goals. Please keep the input coming, I value all your opinions as your are all no doubt vastly more experienced than I am at this.

Face

[Shibby]

Just my opinion but ten reps is not tearing the muscle deap enouhg for size. No more than six reps even if your last one sucks ass (which you want to try and stay awya from, but close too).

[Face]

So shib, whats the lowest number of reps before you need to change the weight down a fraction? I dunno what it is, but when I do sets of like 6 reps I just don't feel as though I am working out as intensely? Is this a normal feeling?

[Shibby]

No lower than 4 reps. With bulking you won't feel it so much while working out. You feel it more the next day or two. I noticed you said that you can't do legs ont he day mentioned. But this of course is nothing set in stone. Move around the days. Plus this is just an example, when it comes down to it things will need to change to work best for your body.