mitya

Hi there

After getting into building recently and getting some good initial advice from helpful people on this site I was advised to put together a routine and post it for scrutiny. I'd greatly appreciate getting some feedback on it. The aim of the routine, in line with my eating habits, is to gain weight (I have a fairly built, defined frame already), not necessarily get glistening muscles.

Tuesday- shoulders, lower arms

Shoulders
Anterior deltoid - barbell behind neck press
Lateral deltoid - barbell upright row
Posterior deltoid - barbell rear delt row
Forearms
Brachioradialis - reverse curl
Wrist, extensors - barbell wrist curl
Wrist, flexors - barbell reverse curl

Thursday - back, chest, waist, hips

back
General - barbell bent-over row
Trapezius upper fibers & levator scapulae - cambered barbell seated shrug
Infraspinatus & teres minor - dumbbell lying external rotation
chest
General - bench press
waist
Obliques - dumbbell side bend
Erector spinae - barbell bent knee good-morning
hips
Gluteus maximus - barbell straight-back stiff-leg deadlift

Saturday - upper arms, forearms

upper arms
Triceps brachii - close grip bench press
Biceps brachii - curl
Brachialis - dumbbell concentration curl
forearms
Brachioradialis - reverse curl
Wrist, extensors - barbell wrist curl
Wrist, flexors - barbell reverse curl

Monday - thighs, calves, chest

thighs
Quadriceps - barbell lunch
Hamstrings - barbell good-morning
calves
General or gastrocnemius - barbell standing leg calf raise
Soleus - safety barbell seated calf raise
Tibialis anterior - reverse calf raise
chest
General - bench press

Notes:

• I put the routine together using www.exrx.net's directory. I'm hoping, therefore, the terminology above and the names of the exercises are uniform and you'll know what I mean.
• Each day features 6 exercises, except for Thurs (7)
• I tend to do 4-5 sets for each exercise. From what I've read and heard this seems to be OK. Reps vary between 4-15 depending on the muscle.
• There are no 'squat' exercises for the lower body as I have a condition with my kneecaps which stops me bending on my knees a lot.
• Chest and forearms feature twice as I want to concentrate on them. Or is anything more than once a week inadvisable?
• The lower body isn't something I'm hell bent on building but a lot of people have said that neglecting one half of the body will hinder growth on the other.
• As is rather obvious from the choice of exercises I have only a barbell, no other equipment, though I'm getting a dumbell bar this week.

Question:
Where areas of the body have several muscles (i.e. the shoulders have alterior deltoids, lateral deltoids, etc) should I be working all of these, or is it more a pick and choose thing? I'm also pretty new to building - perhaps certain muscles are for pros while the rest of us should concentrate on the most 'traditional' (not sure what I mean by that) muscles?

THANKS IN ADVANCE
Andy

ParaManiac

Far too complicated.

Just go with a 3 day PPL routine - for gaining weight you cant go wrong.

Bulldozer

I dont like it one bit bro, sorry to be blunt.

Your missing squats and deadlifts for a start. Your concentrating on the smallest of muscle groups.

You only need a handful of exercise's if your goals are to pack on some serious muscle.

Deadlifts, squats, bench, military press and chin ups. Concentrate and get strong on those 5 movements.

ParaManiac

My turn to be blunt!

Mitya,you have already been given good,tried and tested advice on a suitable training routine on your previous thread.

Any reason you chose to ignore it?

mitya

Um, sorry, I didn't realise I had. You said:

---------
Eg.back/bi
chest/delts
legs
3 or 4 sets of 8 -12 reps for large muscle groups
2 or 3 sets for smaller.
-----------

I included the back, the delts etc. OK so I got the reps a bit wrong from what you said but I tried to build a routine around the skeleton routine you wrote and what others said too. Didn't mean to ignore anything - I'm not in a position to, I know jack for now.

I was also confused a bit because your routine didn't mention forearms, while everyone told me I should include all areas of body. And besides, forearms are something I want to build, so I added them to the routine. I'm open to suggestion.

Thanks
Andy

ParaManiac

Nobody with an ounce of knowledge would have given you advice that has spawned that routine.

With the routine and exercises suggested your forearms will be subject to enough stimulation to effect growth without need to isolate,as will many other smaller/stabiliser muscles that will be indirectly trained.

Make sure you are getting adequate quality calories over 6-8 meals to support your training.

You have my suggestion,your choice whether you decide to use it.

Best of luck.

mitya

Paramaniac - I can only repeat that I did try to base it on what you - and others on different forums - said. I am in no position to reject advice - I wouldn't have asked for it if I were that arrogant. I tried, I failed, I need to re-think.

Question
One thing that gets me is that people say "just concentrate on the major muscles" etc. That's fine, but when I go to the exercises directory I find that those 'major muscles' have lots of sub-muscles and therefore various exercises. When someone says 'do shoulders', for example, should I do exercises that work the anterior deltoids, lateral deltoids, posteriod deltoids or what?

I can't do squats for the reasons I outlined. Wish I could as they seem to be pretty key.

Thanks also to Bulldozer.

Bulldozer

No worries dude.

If you cant squat can you deadlift ??

There are variants of squats and deads but to be honest nothing comes close. But IMO you need to find a way to work your legs/hips and back in a way that replicates squats/deads. Working out with lots of weight in a movement that works hips/legs/back is paramount to adding some serious mass to your frame, your entire frame that is!!

Your worrying too much about tiny muscle groups that will get stimulation from core lifts mate. Your body is not broken up into parts, your body is one whole unit and it tends to grow as a unit IMO.

Take bench press for example, bench press is NOT a chest exercise, its a multi joint exercise that involves pretty much every muscle in your torso.

Look at some powerlifters , some of them only do squats, deads and bench and they carry mountains of muscle all over. Same goes for strongmen, you wont see them doing tricep kickbacks or flys.

As my original post said mate, if you wanna pack on some serious mass you only need a handful of exercises.

13stonetarget

Hey mate, follow the advice above with the big compound exercises that work big groups of muscles together. Don't bother with the isolation exercises (like bicep curls), and you'll make more progress. Train 2-3 times a week and eat and rest loads Good luck!

mitya

Thanks again - it's good news, after all the workouts will be shorter and I won't have to remember so many exercises

mitya

13stonetarget - you got there just before I posted a reply to Bulldozer. Thanks for the tips - good to see I'm not the only newbie. 13 stone is also my target, though I think I'm about at it. How's it going your end?

13stonetarget

Definitely! There's nothing wrong with working very high intensity and shorter workouts. Less chance of you overtraining, too.

Things are going okay with me although I'm not doing it all myself, I'm doing a few short, low dose cycles of dbol at the moment too.

ParaManiac

Compound exercises such as bench press and overhead press,performed with both dumbells and barbells,will also recruit smaller/stabiliser muscles.

As you are targeting growth these are the exercises best suited.

Using the shouders as an example,seated db pressing will predominantly work the front and side delts but also the rear to some degree.

However,when i train,and im currently using a PPL to good effect,i perform rear delt exercises on my back/pull day.

At this stage of your training do not worry too much about isolation exercises just concentrate on the mass builders.

ParaManiac

Blimey i must type faster!