I’m 15 and 135 lbsskinny twig I was wondering if it were better to do the routine i posted below(which i have been doing for like 2 months, ive lifted for 3 months in total though), or should i do full body workouts 3x a week or something where i hit body barts 2x a week or the main ones or something. I’m new to this site so im going to need a lil help. ty
Day 1: Biceps + Chest
1 X 10 Incline Bench Press
3 X 10 Incline DB Press
3 X 10 Flat DB press
2 X 10 Dumbbell Pullovers
2 X 10 Dumbbell Curls
2 X 10 Hammer Curls
2 X 10 EZ bar Curls
2 X 5 Preacher Curls
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Triceps + Back
2 X 10 Skull crushers
3 X 10 Dumbbell Extensions
2 X 15 Triceps Dips
2 X 10 EZ Bar Rows
3 X 6 Incline Dumbbell Prone Rows
2 X 10 Dumbbell Rows On Bench
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Legs + Shoulders + Abs
3 X 15 Stiff Legged Dumbbell Or EZ Bar Dead lift
4 X 30 Calve Raises
3 X 10 Leg Press
2 X 10 Military Press
2 X 10 Seated Bent Over Lateral Raises
3 X 10 Shoulder Press
2 X 10 Dumbbell Shrugs
1 X 10 Heavy Barbell Shrugs
4 X 25 Crunches
2 X 15 Flat Bench Ab Leg Pull Ins
I only have one peice of advice for you. Use a few basic exercises with barbells and go as heavy as you can for good reps without injuring yourself. Give your body a real reason to change.
I wish I would have learned the value of heavy basics when I was starting out. I could have saved a lot of wasted time.
Put a lot of effort in the basics. It will pay off. Somewhere between 3 & 7 compound barbell exercises is all I would do if I could start over again. Oh yeah …don’t forget to eat like a 200-lber if you want to look like one.
Have you checked out the “Are You a Beginner II” thread on this forum? If not, then go do it and read all the articles you can, paying close attention to the Skinny Bastard and Hard Gainer ones. And remember, diet is the foundation for muscle gain - you must have an adequate diet for good muscle gains.
As for your routine, I’m gonna echo merlin and tell you to stick to compound exercises with good form. Things like DB bench, pull-ups, rowing, squats (not leg presses), deadlifts, dips, etc.
Now, you have many of those exercises already, but do you really need 4 different curls? Replacing those with compounds is a much more efficient use of your time since they work multiple muscles at once. And work your abs more often too. A strong core is absolutely essential to, well, life.
Id suggest u stick with circuits and basic work outs like push ups, pull ups, free standing squats etc… for ur age it depends on what u want to be athlete or just pure body building. for the former, do plyometrics, hit weight when u r 17 or 18. if body building, give it a year.
you need to focus on getting stronger. drop the rep ranges to like 7 and below. Eat a lot, use more basic exercises…basically read the “are you a beginner”?
EAT. I’m a pretty skinny twig too and I started really upping my calories 2 weeks ago along with using a 4 day volume training program with a lot of compound lifts. I think the main thing for beginners like us is simply to start eating ALOT more, and start getting the compound lifts into the workouts.
As far as having 4 different sets of curls … try weighted pullups they are apparently a lot more effective. Look up the OVT program and see if you like the looks of it - that’s what I’m doing right now.
Im a year older and 20 lbs heavier but we’re pretty much in the same boat - check out my thread “Background, Past, and Goals” and look at the advice given to me, and some of my daily meals or workouts - if you have any questions you can PM me. Hope I helped a little.
[quote]merlin wrote:
I only have one peice of advice for you. Use a few basic exercises with barbells and go as heavy as you can for good reps without injuring yourself. Give your body a real reason to change.
I wish I would have learned the value of heavy basics when I was starting out. I could have saved a lot of wasted time.
Put a lot of effort in the basics. It will pay off. Somewhere between 3 & 7 compound barbell exercises is all I would do if I could start over again. Oh yeah …don’t forget to eat like a 200-lber if you want to look like one.
merlin[/quote]
So what do you recommend as a routine? I dont no if your talking about full body workouts, just heavy but plain and simple like squats, bench press, deadlifts, and rows everyother day or something.
[quote]Lol312 wrote:
So what do you recommend as a routine? I dont no if your talking about full body workouts, just heavy but plain and simple like squats, bench press, deadlifts, and rows everyother day or something.
[/quote]
Throw in pull ups and military presses and I think you’ve got yourself a damn fine routine.
[quote]Lol312 wrote:
I’m 15 and 135 lbsskinny twig I was wondering if it were better to do the routine i posted below(which i have been doing for like 2 months, ive lifted for 3 months in total though), or should i do full body workouts 3x a week or something where i hit body barts 2x a week or the main ones or something. I’m new to this site so im going to need a lil help. ty
Day 1: Biceps + Chest
1 X 10 Incline Bench Press
3 X 10 Incline DB Press
3 X 10 Flat DB press
2 X 10 Dumbbell Pullovers
2 X 10 Dumbbell Curls
2 X 10 Hammer Curls
2 X 10 EZ bar Curls
2 X 5 Preacher Curls
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Triceps + Back
2 X 10 Skull crushers
3 X 10 Dumbbell Extensions
2 X 15 Triceps Dips
2 X 10 EZ Bar Rows
3 X 6 Incline Dumbbell Prone Rows
2 X 10 Dumbbell Rows On Bench
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Legs + Shoulders + Abs
3 X 15 Stiff Legged Dumbbell Or EZ Bar Dead lift
4 X 30 Calve Raises
3 X 10 Leg Press
2 X 10 Military Press
2 X 10 Seated Bent Over Lateral Raises
3 X 10 Shoulder Press
2 X 10 Dumbbell Shrugs
1 X 10 Heavy Barbell Shrugs
4 X 25 Crunches
2 X 15 Flat Bench Ab Leg Pull Ins
[/quote]
At three months of experience, I would suggest you stick to some basic movements and make sure you are getting plenty of rest. This is way–WAY–to much volume on your arms and not near enough volume on your big movers.
I don’t mind sets of 10, 12, or even 15 for beginners. I disagree with the poster who suggested going to 7 reps to increase strength. Be smart about your volume. Why use up 30 reps on shrugs when 2-3 sets of deads with 1 finisher of shrugs would be much better and much more efficient use of your time.
Why start your back day with tri’s? when a set or two at the end of your workout would be a better. Finishing off your arm workout(which is way too much volume by the way)–with sets of 5 is incongruant with basic weightlifting principles. You need to continue to educate yourself and I think as you do, you’ll understand what many are saying.
Doing the most is rarely the recipe for success. Doing the smartest is. Many of us older guys would have loved to have this much info available to us back then. When I started in the 70’s–all we had were muscle mags that gave us Arnold’s latest workout. You have access to much more now–I suggest that be where you start.
I’m using home equipment though and i don’t have much. What would you recommend to do then? Full body workouts 3x a week or just lowering the volume of my workouts (for instance, taking out the curls that are unneeded, putting triceps after back and lowering the amount of repetitive exercises etc).
Honestly, maybe it is just me, but when i only do my compound excersizes such as bench, squat, military, etc. That is all i need with obviously some arms thrown in. I don’t think people need to be doing 2 hours of lifting with 8 sets of arms.
If your trying to get big and you think your eating enough, well your probably not because your gonna be wasting like 2000 calories doing all those extra exersizes when i think all you need is 3 sets of arms, and 4 sets of 6-12 reps of good ole fashioned squats and bench. Just my opinion. Unless your a body builder i dont think there is much reason to be doing all these stupid machine isolated movements.
[quote]Brant_Drake wrote:
Lol312 wrote:
So what do you recommend as a routine? I dont no if your talking about full body workouts, just heavy but plain and simple like squats, bench press, deadlifts, and rows everyother day or something.
Throw in pull ups and military presses and I think you’ve got yourself a damn fine routine.[/quote]
Alright then, how should i go about with rest periods though.
Monday - Workout A
Wednesday -Workout B
Friday - Workout A
Workout B-
3x5 Squat
3x5 Standing military press
3x5 Bent over Rows
2x5 EZ Bar curls
Something like that?[/quote]
Yep thats much better, the old A & B rotation is a good place to start and the exercise selection is starting to look alot better. I would replace one of the squats though, so you’re not squatting every workout, maybe lose the one in ‘Workout A’ as you have deadlifts in that day as well.
Maybe replace it with something shoulder friendly like face pulls or incline shrugs (its good to get into these good habits early on) and stick it at the end of the session.
The only other thing is I wouldn’t do all those low sets of 5 reps, besides being very monotonous, you will get more stimulation if you do different reps for one of the sessions and also as your 15, go easy on your joints and give them a higher rep day.
But you’re starting to get somewhere now, just a little more tweaking and you’ll be good to go
For sure, i was going to change the reps to my liking anyways. Mind telling me what a face pull is? Also, i might take the squats out of workout B and do a tricep exercise. Tricep dips or dumbbell extentions maybe?
[quote]Lol312 wrote:
For sure, i was going to change the reps to my liking anyways. Mind telling me what a face pull is? Also, i might take the squats out of workout B and do a tricep exercise. Tricep dips or dumbbell extentions maybe?[/quote]
but if you don’t have access to a pulley don’t worry about it. The article is good to read and keep for the future, I wouldn’t stress about all the stuff in it too much right now, but it’ll come in handy as you progress and learn more.
Personally I wouldn’t squat and deadlift on the same day and I would prefer dips to tri exts, but this is just details now. If I were you I’d just start the programme on Monday and do it consistently for about 4-6 weeks before you think about tweaking it any more, give it a fair trial. Don’t get so bogged down in the details that you don’t get started, you’ve got loads of years and training programmes ahead of you. Crack on for a while and come back with questions when you need to.
Workout B-
Squat
Standing military press
Bent over Rows
EZ Bar curls
or if you can’t do pull ups you could put in shrugs?
It doesn’t make a whole lot of difference at this stage, as long as you’ve got the big compound lifts in there. Just train, eat lots and get good sleep.
I like your A-B workout. It’s really basic and I should have done that when i started out. Anyways, really if you lift hard, with heavy weights your going to be good. Like the last guy said… Eat a lot, but healthy, no fast food, and eat a lot of it. Lots of meat, protein shakes, vegetables and drink water until it comes out of your ears.
Also a lot of sleep, 8-10 hours IF possible. Your body needs to recover. And if you say you “can’t” do pull ups, I bet you can do at least one. If thats the case, don’t worry how long it takes, just like if you want to do 30 of them, take as many sets as it takes. Even if its 30 sets of one rep. Good luck, eat lots!
