Critique/Suggestions for Current Split

Thanks for reading this.
For the past two months I began training with a bodybuilder. This is what we have been doing.
I was thinking of

  • adding a day for arms/abs
  • splitting leg day into two days
    Any suggestions/advice/recommendations?

Tuesday: Chest

  • Flat BB bench press
  • Incline DB press
  • Smith incline press or BB decline press
  • Cable flyes

Wednesday: Legs

  • Back squats
  • Leg press
  • Lying hamstring curls
  • Cybex calf machine
  • Seated calf machine
  • Eagle calf machine

Friday: Shoulders and Back

  • BB seated shoulder press
  • DB steep incline seated shoulder press
  • Smith shoulder press
  • BB bent-over row
  • DB bench-supported one-arm rows
  • Eagle row machine

I have been keeping rep range low (4-6 most exercises) and focusing on developing strength and adding weight whenever possible. We usually do 3 sets per exercise aside from warmups.

I have seen some good strength gains but not so much hypertrophy.

Any idea where I might put in some arm work, or deadlifts and split up leg day?
What do you think of this routine?

Thanks again.

Wakiki

If you want big arms you definitely need to actually directly train them. Anyone who says otherwise is a moron.

Also lying leg curls isn’t enuff for hams IMO. I’d do some SLDLs if I were you. This is from my personal findings tho, leg curls don’t do jack for me.

I didn’t think I needed to train arms directly either. It was a mistake. I’d definitely do direct arm work.

[quote]wakiki wrote:
Thanks for reading this.
For the past two months I began training with a bodybuilder. This is what we have been doing.
I was thinking of

  • adding a day for arms/abs
  • splitting leg day into two days
    Any suggestions/advice/recommendations?

Tuesday: Chest

  • Flat BB bench press
  • Incline DB press
  • Smith incline press or BB decline press
  • Cable flyes

Wednesday: Legs

  • Back squats
  • Leg press
  • Lying hamstring curls
  • Cybex calf machine
  • Seated calf machine
  • Eagle calf machine

Friday: Shoulders and Back

  • BB seated shoulder press
  • DB steep incline seated shoulder press
  • Smith shoulder press
  • BB bent-over row
  • DB bench-supported one-arm rows
  • Eagle row machine

I have been keeping rep range low (4-6 most exercises) and focusing on developing strength and adding weight whenever possible. We usually do 3 sets per exercise aside from warmups.

I have seen some good strength gains but not so much hypertrophy.

Any idea where I might put in some arm work, or deadlifts and split up leg day?
What do you think of this routine?

Thanks again.

Wakiki[/quote]

Man where is the arm training? All that stuff that you read where you get big arms with bench and pull ups is complete and utter bullshit. Add tris to your chest workout and bi’s to your back workout or another day with just arms altogether.

[quote]josh86 wrote:
If you want big arms you definitely need to actually directly train them. Anyone who says otherwise is a moron.

Also lying leg curls isn’t enuff for hams IMO. I’d do some SLDLs if I were you. This is from my personal findings tho, leg curls don’t do jack for me. [/quote]

At the beginning, we did stiff-leg deadlifts after squats and leg press, but stopped after a while because we were quite fatigued.
Do you train legs once per week or twice - if twice, what is your split?

The days of tuesday, wednesday, and friday are set in stone (his schedule). I’m trying to see where I would be best off putting in an arm day, and maybe a 2nd leg day…

[quote]wakiki wrote:
Thanks for reading this.
For the past two months I began training with a bodybuilder. This is what we have been doing.
I was thinking of

  • adding a day for arms/abs
  • splitting leg day into two days
    Any suggestions/advice/recommendations?

Tuesday: Chest

  • Flat BB bench press
  • Incline DB press
  • Smith incline press or BB decline press
  • Cable flyes

Wednesday: Legs

  • Back squats
  • Leg press
  • Lying hamstring curls
  • Cybex calf machine
  • Seated calf machine
  • Eagle calf machine

Friday: Shoulders and Back

  • BB seated shoulder press
  • DB steep incline seated shoulder press
  • Smith shoulder press
  • BB bent-over row
  • DB bench-supported one-arm rows
  • Eagle row machine

I have been keeping rep range low (4-6 most exercises) and focusing on developing strength and adding weight whenever possible. We usually do 3 sets per exercise aside from warmups.

I have seen some good strength gains but not so much hypertrophy.

Any idea where I might put in some arm work, or deadlifts and split up leg day?
What do you think of this routine?

Thanks again.

Wakiki[/quote]

And for hypertrophy, I have to do more reps than my 4-6 rep max. For me personally I like to start with my 15 rep max and pyramid down from there for 4-5 sets. then I like to do 2 supersets per body part. For instance:
Chest
Incline Bench 1x15, 1x10, 1x8, then a drop set with my 4-5 rep max and I will strip the plates off for 3 sets until I am fried till failure on each.
then superset HS decline bench and Dumbell flat bench 4 sets each, the first one I will try and get 12 then pyramid down from there, until failure on the last set of each superset.
then either cable flys at 2 angles for 4 sets each angle 15 reps each.

Tris
Dips
Overhead DB presses/ pushdowns
skull crushers/ reverse grip pushdowns
i do tris just like I do chest, with the same reps and sets

Im no professor x, but super low rep training alone has never given me much hypertrophy, a bodybuilder just started me training like this 4 weeks ago and I can tell a huge difference. My intensity is through the roof too. If you arent soaking wet and sore as shit the next 3 days you didnt do it right.

If you want bigger arms direct arm work (as said in previous posts). If your going to add a leg day have it at a higher rep range than your 4-6reps you have now. Larger muscle groups need more recovery time than smaller ones.

So to understand you, you have Monday and Thursday free for the gym?

p.s. 4-6 rep range is more for strength gains as apposed to 8-12 reps that are more geared towards hypertrophy.

I think you train to little upperback.

I think its important to have as many pull-movements as press-movements. you have much more presses than pulls.

this is how I would have done it:

day1: quaddominant.
backsquat or frontsquat.
lunges or step-ups.
legpress.
legext.

day2: chest and lats.
pull-ups or chins.
BB or DBflatbench.
BB or DB rows.
DB or BBinclinebench.
pullowers.
flyes.

day3: rest.

day4:hipdominant and calves.
deadlift.
DB stiff-legged-deadlift.
one-legged-deadlift.
legcurls.
calves.

day5: delts, arms and core.
BB or DB overheadpress.
reversedflyes.
shrugs.
dips. ( tricepstyle)
BB or DB bicepcurls.
corework.

anyway goodluck :slight_smile:

I did now notice that your program was written in stone, because of youre bodybuilding friend. then my advices was meeningless.

still, good luck :slight_smile:

You need direct arm work.

Try a second leg day centered on the deadlift. I have a squat centered day and a deadlift centered day:

Monday: Chest/Shoulders
Tuesday: Squat centered leg day
Wed: Off
Thursday: Back (both vertical and horizontal pulling)
Friday: Deadlift centered leg day
Saturday: Bi/tri

I’m thinking of moving Shoulders to Saturday and extend the workout since bi/tri’s are small muscle groups. Usually lift 50-60min. If add shoulders to Saturday and drop them Monday I’d extend the workout to 90 minutes.

Lift the failure. Don’t just lift to a prescribed number. MAKE the muscle grow. Get stronger.

[quote]BantamRunner wrote:
You need direct arm work.

Try a second leg day centered on the deadlift. I have a squat centered day and a deadlift centered day:

Monday: Chest/Shoulders
Tuesday: Squat centered leg day
Wed: Off
Thursday: Back (both vertical and horizontal pulling)
Friday: Deadlift centered leg day
Saturday: Bi/tri

I’m thinking of moving Shoulders to Saturday and extend the workout since bi/tri’s are small muscle groups. Usually lift 50-60min. If add shoulders to Saturday and drop them Monday I’d extend the workout to 90 minutes.

Lift the failure. Don’t just lift to a prescribed number. MAKE the muscle grow. Get stronger.[/quote]

don’t lift to failure if you want to make strenght gain

[quote]BantamRunner wrote:
You need direct arm work.

Try a second leg day centered on the deadlift. I have a squat centered day and a deadlift centered day:

Monday: Chest/Shoulders
Tuesday: Squat centered leg day
Wed: Off
Thursday: Back (both vertical and horizontal pulling)
Friday: Deadlift centered leg day
Saturday: Bi/tri

I’m thinking of moving Shoulders to Saturday and extend the workout since bi/tri’s are small muscle groups. Usually lift 50-60min. If add shoulders to Saturday and drop them Monday I’d extend the workout to 90 minutes.

Lift the failure. Don’t just lift to a prescribed number. MAKE the muscle grow. Get stronger.[/quote]

Thanks! this has been the most helpful so far, since Tuesday, Wednesday, and friday are days I train with my partner.

Slightly adjusted, this might be my new plan:

Tuesday - Chest / shoulders
wednesday - Squat-centered leg day
Thursday - OFF
Friday - Back
Saturday - Deadlift-centered leg day
Sunday - Arms/abs

Now, if I am going to be doing deadlifts on saturday, what would i do for back the day before - pull-ups and rows - what else? you said both horizontal and vertical planes…

It goes without saying, I don’t just lift a number. I push myself hard to add weight/reps as much as possible.

Thanks for the help.

(silent prayer for prof x to stop by thread)

[quote]jasmincar wrote:
BantamRunner wrote:
You need direct arm work.

Try a second leg day centered on the deadlift. I have a squat centered day and a deadlift centered day:

Monday: Chest/Shoulders
Tuesday: Squat centered leg day
Wed: Off
Thursday: Back (both vertical and horizontal pulling)
Friday: Deadlift centered leg day
Saturday: Bi/tri

I’m thinking of moving Shoulders to Saturday and extend the workout since bi/tri’s are small muscle groups. Usually lift 50-60min. If add shoulders to Saturday and drop them Monday I’d extend the workout to 90 minutes.

Lift the failure. Don’t just lift to a prescribed number. MAKE the muscle grow. Get stronger.

don’t lift to failure if you want to make strenght gain[/quote]

Thanks for the advice. I try my best to never actually fail at a rep on any core lift. On smaller exercises and isolation work I will fairly often however.

And ya, now that I think about it, doing shoulders after chest would be running on steam, so it would probably be a good idea to do shoulders on arms day…

No offense but I can’t see how the ‘bodybuilder’ you train with doesn’t do any direct arm work? Anyway good luck with your training.

[quote]links wrote:
No offense but I can’t see how the ‘bodybuilder’ you train with doesn’t do any direct arm work? Anyway good luck with your training.[/quote]

He says that his arms tend to grow very (too) quickly, and he is focusing on bringing up other areas.
Of course, I don’t have that “problem” so I will probably put in an arm day…