Coleman Workout Routine

Was looking for some insight into this. FWIW, I have no plans of following this. I just thought that his frequency was really really high and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this.

Examples:
Wed Chest:

Bench Press - 5 sets
Incline Bench - 3 sets
Flat DB Press - 3 sets
Flat Flyes - 4 sets

Sat Chest:

Incline DB Press - 4 sets
Decline Bench - 3 sets
Incline DB Flyes - 3 sets
Decline DB press - 3 sets

That’s 28 sets a week on the chest. Most here have recommended far less (in fact, if memory serves me correctly from when I used to read M&F a lot, most pro’s do far less). Is this more of the exception than the rule?

Thanx!

Ronnie was just a genetic freak when it came to strength, recovery, and ability to pack on size. most IFBB PROs wouldn’t even try to follow his exact routine -lol.

Always keep in mind when you look at any one else’s routine and the results they achieved, that it may work very differently for you.

S

I see anywhere from 8-16 sets total over the week for chest there, depending… You are counting every warm-up, so of course you end up with a ton of sets. There are some pretty decent Ronnie routines out there, esp. from around 2000. Main problem with the 6days/twice/week thing is low back overlap etc… If you ever want to try that sort of thing, make sure you know how the guy did his sets and how he periodized the weights he used… The usual m&f write-up tells you absolutely nothing about a routine (if it isn’t downright made up).

This isn’t even all that different from what Modok did for some time (more warm-ups but work sets are split over more exercises instead…)

Agree with the above. I think if your doing muscle groups twice a week it is a good idea to take what you would normally do for a once per week workout and split it over two seperate days. So instead of this:

Examples:
Wed Chest:

Bench Press - 5 sets
Incline Bench - 3 sets
Flat DB Press - 3 sets
Flat Flyes - 4 sets

Sat Chest:

Incline DB Press - 4 sets
Decline Bench - 3 sets
Incline DB Flyes - 3 sets
Decline DB press - 3 sets

Do this:

Wed
Bench-5 sets
Incline bench 5 sets

Sat
Decline bench
Db flyes

I would start with this and add exercises later of you feel you can and still recover

We must also mention that in addition to genetics, Ronnie probably had some pharmaceutical “help” to recover from that kind of volume.

Most beginners/natural bodybuilders are in the 11-16 set range. I do 11 or 12 for chest, any more and it feels like I’m grinding my joints to a pulp.

I second Maiden’s advice, when I did chest three times a week, it was 4 sets on Day 1, 4 sets on Day 3, and 8 sets on Day 5 of the week.

for you guys that advocate this approach, how do you get a pump while splitting the work? I see isolation exercises for one day and none for the next. is the second day lighter/has more reps than the first?

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
for you guys that advocate this approach, how do you get a pump while splitting the work? I see isolation exercises for one day and none for the next. is the second day lighter/has more reps than the first?[/quote]

You should be able to get a pump with 2 exercises 4-5 sets each for a muscle group. You only need flyes on one of the days, preferably the second. Flyes only on one day is fine, you’re only hitting flyes once a week on a once/week split anyway. for me splitting up the work over two days just allowes me handle a little more weight and keep the intensity high on the second two exercises whereas if you were doing chest once a week you would be pretty damn fatigued by the time you get to flyes. I like to go heavier the first day and lighter the second but wouldn’t say you have to.

sorry, I should’ve specified a burnout rather than a pump. but then I suppose this approach being higher frequency obviates the need to obliterate the target muscle with burnouts.

Take copious amounts of steroids and be a genetic freak with the work ethic of a fwuuurken slave and you could probably do that routine to lol.

Seriously, what Cephalic-carnage and Maiden say makes sense to me.