DrRinse

I've been lifting weights since the start of this year. Recently I left my old gym to a much better one. They gave me an assessment when I started there and said my overall fitness and recovery time was below average and I'd need to raise that.. In the 2 months I've been training with my routine, I gained 12lbs and I noticed the difference in my physique though on some exercises I've found not much progression at all. Overall though, I was pretty impressed. I showed the routine to the guy doing my assessment at the gym. He said that I shouldn't do s/l deadlifts the same day as squats. He then said my routine was a load of crap. A pretty quick judgement; after all, he only looked at one page of the routine. He told me to scrap it and follow a routine he'd made up.

Here's one day of my original routine

Barbell Squats 5 x 5 warmup then 2 heavy sets 5-7 reps
Dumbbell Lunges 1 set 5-7 reps
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts 2 sets 5-7 reps
Lying Leg Curls 1 set 5-7 reps
Barbell Curls 2 sets 5-7 reps
Cable Pushdowns 2 sets 5-7 reps
Standing Dumbbell Curls 2 sets 5-7 reps
O/H Dumbbell Extensions 2 sets 5-7 reps

One day of his routine goes something like this:

5 mins bike
Hip Flex 2 sets 25 reps
Crunches 2 sets 25 reps
Chest Press Machine 2 sets 10 - 12 reps
Rower 750m
Shoulder Press 2 sets 10 - 12reps
Dips 2 sets 10 - 12 reps
Leg Curls 2 sets 15 reps
Leg Extensions 2 sets 15 reps
Stepper 5 mins
Bicep Curl 2 Sets 10-12 Reps
Standing Calf Machine 2 sets 25 reps
Crosstrainer 5 mins
Lat Pulldowns 2 sets 10-12 reps
Treadmill cooldown

I'm pretty sure there's a good few more exercises in there I can't remember. What I do remember is how long all this took. After an hour, I was still not finished and out of steam. I don't know any more about bodybuilding the info I've read on the net but I don't see much back training in his routine though to admit, it is meant to be a general fitness routine. I also have to do this 3 times a week and from what I know, training the same muscle parts 3 times a week is excessive as are workouts that last longer than an hour.

I get the vibe that he thinks I'm some poor idiot and that he's going to fix me up. I'm open to his advice; after all, by all accounts he has 40 years experience in bodybuilding and there are impressive competition pictures of himself hanging above his desk in the gym but I am cagey about ditching a routine which looks like it's working for me.

Any advice most welcome.

Thanks,

Anthony

flex899

It certainly looks like his routine contains less compound movements than you had before. (No squats or deads)
Also he has put more cardio things in such as rowing to work on general fitness, as you said.
I think yor original routine is overkill for one day's training, I would combine both these routines and get a perfect set up. Possibly follow a split, 2-day or otherwise, with heavy compound movements divided between the days so you're not getting too knackered. Also make sure workouts stay around the hour's mark, in my experience that's pretty good.

DrRinse

Yeah. I'm well skeptical of it. It's seems that its meant to bring up my overall fitness so that he'll put me on a more weights-only routine in 6-8 weeks. I'd be interested in improving my fitness so that my recovery is better and I can lift more but I wonder if I could achieve that by adding cardio to my non weight training days. Do you think that 3 days weight training and 2 days cardio is too much for a beginner?

Anthony

flex899

In short, yes it probably is. I would keep cardio down to just 1 day (that is dedicated to cardio) and train with weights on the other 3 as a beginner. You'll still make progress.

DrRinse

I am scrapping this guy's circuit routine. I am losing strength, going down in reps and have no motivation. So it's back to my old one that got me results.

Anthony

irwit

Your routine was working like you said so I dont see why you would change it?

Personally I think it is alot but if picking my nose put 12 pounds on me in 2 months Id do it all day long. Its not about the routine its about whatever gets results IMO.

Iron19

Agree. Stick with what works, when gains begin to slow on that then its time to look to other factors e.g diet, lifting techniques, rest periods to name a few.

flapjack

I think your gym instructor is just aiming to get you toned and fit. If you want to add mass and strength you need to be doing heavy compound movements. Warm up well and do 45 minutes heavy weights then go and do some cardio, 25 minutes a session is plenty unless you are going to run a marathon. Your heart is already getting a workout from doing the weights. Train as often as you feel comfortable with. Your body will tell you if you are doing too much and you will know yourself if you are doing too little.

Just my opinion. Good Luck

Guy.B

Just follow a basic compoud push pull legs routine that covers all the major lifts

eg.
DAY 1 - Pull
Deadlifts
Barbell rows
Weighted pullups
Barbell curls

DAY 2 - Push
Flat bench press
Incline bench press
Military press
Dips

DAY 3 - Legs
Squats
Lunges
Straight Leg DLs
Standing calf raises

If you feel you need cardio in there i would do it seperatly so as not to wear yourself out