My Current Routine..thoughts?

[Dr Savage]

Here is how my routine will look over the next two to three months. Feel free to critique. It is not set in stone. Priorities are all leg muscles as they are lagging bad.

Cardio done in the morning before breakfast.

Day One - Chest and Calves

1. Flat Bench Press Warm up set followed by 4 working sets. 10,8,8,6.
2. Incline Dumbell Press 4 sets 10,8,8,8.
3. Dumbell Fly's 3 sets 12,12,10,10.
4. Cable Crossovers 12,12,10,10
5. Standing Calve Raises Warm Up set folled by 6 working sets 15,12,10,10,8,8.

Day Two - Back

1. Wide Grip Chins 4 sets to failure.
2. Lat Pulldowns to the front 4 sets 10,8,8,8
3. Deadlifts 4 sets 12,8,6,4.
4. Seated Rows 4 sets of 8,8,8,6

Each week I will alternate Seated Rows with T bar rows and then One Arm Rows.

Day Three - Shoulders

1. Dumbell Press Warm up Set followed by four working sets of 8,8,6,6
2. Lateral Raises 10,10,10,10
3. Superset Rear Delt Cable Laterals with rear dumbell laterals. 4 sets to failure.
4. Superset Barbell Shrugs to the rear with Dumbell Shrugs. 4 sets of 8 reps each.

Each week alternating dumbell Press with Smith machine Press.

Day Four - Legs

1. Squats Warm up followed by 4 working sets of 10, 8, 6, 4.
2. Leg Press 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 6 Drop set on last set with weight I can perform 10 reps.
3. Hamstring Curls 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8.
4. Leg Extentions 4 sets of 10,10,8,8.
5. Calve Raises Warm up followed by 4 sets to failure.

Day Five - Arms

1. Seated Preacher Curls 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8. At the completion of each set complete two to three forced reps.
2. Dumbell Curls 4 sets of 8,8,8,8
3. Barbell Curls 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 6. Drop set the last set with weight I can perform 10 reps with.
4. tripcep Rope Pulldowns 4 sets of 12,10, 10, 8
5. Skullcrushers 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8
6. Dips 4 sets to failure.
7. Reverse Standing Camber Bar curls superset with hammer curls. 3 sets of 8.

Day six and seven - Rest Days.

Thanks

[metalmarty]

Looks great; very much like one of my routines. However, I do have a few suggestions.

-On back day, I have always had good results from barbell rows. Also, if you are already doing wide grip chins, why not change the front pulldowns to v-bar pulldowns and do them after deadlifts?

-For legs day, leg curls are good, but I saw some real improvement after adding stiff-leg-deadlifts.

-Some people like training legs as a whole, but I personally never train calves with legs. I like to do them fresh, once with chest and once with shoulders. I train abs on back day and legs day as they greatly assist in lifts on those days.

-I would suggest using the leg-press for calf workouts. One set would be each leg unilaterally, then wide stance, then narrow stance with whatever weight allows you to complete the unilaterals for ten reps. Do four or more sets of this.

Like I said, they are just suggestions. Your plan may work better for you and be fine without them. Stick with what works.

[coffee-guy]

Just be concious of your shoulder joints - chest followed by back followed by shoulders would kill my joints...

[Shibby]

Here is how my routine will look over the next two to three months. Feel free to critique. It is not set in stone. Priorities are all leg muscles as they are lagging bad.

Cardio done in the morning before breakfast.

Day One - Chest and Calves

1. Flat Bench Press Warm up set followed by 4 working sets. 10,8,8,6.
2. Incline Dumbell Press 4 sets 10,8,8,8.
3. Dumbell Fly's 3 sets 12,12,10,10.What's your hand and body position on the fly's and crossovers? It's easy for this to be a repeated movement.
4. Cable Crossovers 12,12,10,10
5. Standing Calve Raises Warm Up set folled by 6 working sets 15,12,10,10,8,8.

Day Two - Back

1. Wide Grip Chins 4 sets to failure.I would do some of these to warm up but not to failure. Then do deads right after that. You want to put your heaviest movements first, then go onto isolating smaller muscle groups.
2. Lat Pulldowns to the front 4 sets 10,8,8,8
3. Deadlifts 4 sets 12,8,6,4.
4. Seated Rows 4 sets of 8,8,8,6

Each week I will alternate Seated Rows with T bar rows and then One Arm Rows.

Day Three - Shoulders

1. Dumbell Press Warm up Set followed by four working sets of 8,8,6,6
2. Lateral Raises 10,10,10,10
3. Superset Rear Delt Cable Laterals with rear dumbell laterals. 4 sets to failure.
4. Superset Barbell Shrugs to the rear with Dumbell Shrugs. 4 sets of 8 reps each.

Each week alternating dumbell Press with Smith machine Press.

Day Four - Legs

1. Squats Warm up followed by 4 working sets of 10, 8, 6, 4.
2. Leg Press 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 6 Drop set on last set with weight I can perform 10 reps. I think 1 and 2 are pretty much repeated movements. If you do your squats right, you shouldn't have the energy left to do leg press right. If you want to put something else in here maybe try front or hack squats.
3. Hamstring Curls 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8.
4. Leg Extentions 4 sets of 10,10,8,8.This might be overtraining if you do a front or hack squat first.
5. Calve Raises Warm up followed by 4 sets to failure.

Day Five - Arms
I really don't like any of this set up. With all those exercise you really aren't hitting the bi's differently. Again with the triceps you want to do your heavy movements first. I can completly rearrange this to my expierence if you want
1. Seated Preacher Curls 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8. At the completion of each set complete two to three forced reps.
2. Dumbell Curls 4 sets of 8,8,8,8
3. Barbell Curls 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 6. Drop set the last set with weight I can perform 10 reps with.
4. tripcep Rope Pulldowns 4 sets of 12,10, 10, 8
5. Skullcrushers 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8
6. Dips 4 sets to failure.
7. Reverse Standing Camber Bar curls superset with hammer curls. 3 sets of 8.

Day six and seven - Rest Days.

Thanks

...

[bowbow]

Since you want to focus on your legs I will coment on that, I totally agree with Shibby that if your putting your all into your squats you shouldn't be able to do leg press that well. After I get done squating I couldn't even think about going and doing four sets of leg press. I also agree with the hack squat, That has helped me tramendously.

I know many people do squats and leg press together but could never understand how.

[metalmarty]

Since you want to focus on your legs I will coment on that, I totally agree with Shibby that if your putting your all into your squats you shouldn't be able to do leg press that well. After I get done squating I couldn't even think about going and doing four sets of leg press. I also agree with the hack squat, That has helped me tramendously.

I know many people do squats and leg press together but could never understand how.

I always do squats and leg presses together. They work the legs in different ways and are both crucial to development. You put all you've got into squats, then do the leg press as heavy as you can, even if it's a little lighter than usual. If you put as much as you can into it at that point in the workout, it's going to do what it's supposed to either way. Hack squats are great as well, as long as the equipment is good; I hate the hack squat at my gym.

[metalmarty]

Oh yeah, and in your chest workout... do incline flyes instead of flat flyes, and do cable crossovers with the high attachment to vary the isolation target muscles.

[Control]

I don't like this routine at all. To me, 5 days a week is way too much.

[Dr Savage]

Thanks for the responses.

MetalMarty...I hear what you are saying about the V-bar pulldowns, good point.
In response to your other point regarding the dumbell flys, I do actually perform those on a slight incline. If I feel my chest is fried, I will not do cable crossoveras, however at times in the past my chest has responded better to flys and crossovers.

Shibby, Thanks for your input. I am curious to what sort of Arm routine you think would work better in this instance?
I have always incorporated at least two out of the three bicep excercises and the same for tri's in my arm workout over the last few years and made big improvements.

Control. It is hard for me to respond to that comment, although I have read some of your posts and respect the advise you have dished out over the last few months. I am assuming you would break it down into a four day training week.

[Shibby]

Shibby, Thanks for your input. I am curious to what sort of Arm routine you think would work better in this instance?
I have always incorporated at least two out of the three bicep excercises and the same for tri's in my arm workout over the last few years and made big improvements.
.

Well as far as bi's go you really aren't changing the motion, just the way your body is positioned or the mechanism of exercise you use. I would do 2 exerciess that promote elbow flexion and one exercise that promotes supination of the forarm. During your last bi set, do some stretching an light warm up on your tris. Then go into a heavy tri exercise like french press or skull crushers. Then do you rope pulls and maybe next a single hand cable pull. This you will start with your hand near the oppisite shoulder and supinate your hand as much as comfortably possible. Then holding your and in that position pull your arm in an abduction motion down your torso line to your side.

[metalmarty]

I don't like this routine at all. To me, 5 days a week is way too much.

Control,
I know you're a very knowledgeable personal trainer, and I mean no disrespect by saying this. But five days a week is not overtraining as long as it is properly divided. This routine may actually be comparatively modest in my opinion. My lifting buddies and I all get great results from routines with equal or greater volume. And I personally lost arm size when I did not give them a day by themselves. High volume may not work for everyone, but it is not always overtraining.

[metalmarty]

Let me post my arm routine and see what you think. I have always had the best results from training arms on their own day.

I do biceps and triceps exercises back to back to keep both pumped and fresh throughout the workout. I will occasionally superset instead. Each exercise is done with three sets, since I do so many exercises.

1) Standing barbell curls
2) Closed grip bench press

The heaviest mass-building movements come first. These particular exercises also serve as a good warmup for the elbows. Biceps are done first also to warm up the elbows.

3) Standing dumbell curls
4) Decline skullcrushers

These are also supreme mass-builders that can be performed with slightly lighter weight than the first two since the first might have taken a bit out of you and because they require more precise form. Skullcrushers can be done decline to take stress off elbows.

5) Unilateral dumbell preacher curls
6) Unileteral dumbell overhead extension

Preachers are not especially noted for building mass, but I find they do so effectively, and can emphasize biceps peak. I have found one-arm tricep extensions to be less stressful on my shoulders than two-arm, as well as more beneficial to a lagging arm.

7) High cable crossover curls... (or) ...hammer strength preacher curls
8) Bodyweight dips... (or) ...cambered bar pushdowns

I switch these last exercises from week to week. I find that they are all good finishing movements.

9) Forearm wrist curls & reverse wrist curls

I do these with dumbells on the edge of a bench, one arm at a time. I do three sets of wrist curls in a row (alternating arm) and then do the same for reverse curls. Then I rest for a minute and do the whole thing again.

[Control]

Control,
I know you're a very knowledgeable personal trainer, and I mean no disrespect by saying this. But five days a week is not overtraining as long as it is properly divided. This routine may actually be comparatively modest in my opinion. My lifting buddies and I all get great results from routines with equal or greater volume. And I personally lost arm size when I did not give them a day by themselves. High volume may not work for everyone, but it is not always overtraining.

I didn't say 5 days a week, is always over-training. You may be able to get away with it for awhile, but it would be better to split up the days off instead of lifting 5 days straight. Also, he's doing rear delts the day after back. I'm not totally low-volume, I like to switch between low-volume and high-volume. You may think that your workouts are intense, but you can't train as intensely 5 or 6 days a week as you can 3 or 4.

[zed]

does everyone thinks its an absoulte necessity to hit each bodypart a week? our bodies arent exactly based on a system of weeks...weve geared them this way havent we?? sometimes the day after legs i can barely walk let alone get "up" for a good workout so i take like 2 days off to rejuveniate and recover...i figure id rather go 110% after 2 days of rest than 70% the next day...this draws some of my splits out over more than a week ... is this a bad idea??

[NYmeathead]

I AGREE WITH CONTROL.. EVERY OTHER DAY IS MY ROUTINE, AFTER A HARD WORK OUT IS FOLLOWED BY A COMPLETE DAY OF REST AND SO ALL MY PROTEIN AND MINERALS GO INTO JUST THOSE MUSCLES AND CONCETRATE ON THEM INSTEAD A 5 DAY MASACRE ON YOUR BODY IN A ROW .. I GET SKINNY WHEN I GO TO MUCH.. MAYBE ITS JUST ME.. AND CONTROL DO U LIFT 3-4 TIMES A WEEK EVEN ON JUICE ?