Giving BB a Shot


Hi, im new to this site, but I�´ve been reading some great articles here the past few days, so i decided to sign up.
About me: 22 years old male from norway (Im sorry if I miss-spell anything)

I have been weight training for about three years, the first two was highly unstructured and caotic. This last year i started doing Crossfit (Please, keep reading). Through crossfit I got good gains in strenght but not mass, I wasnt expecting mass gains either. It was fun as long as it lasted, but some time ago I grew tired of the crossfit mentality and programming, dont get me wrong, I think its a great method for getting in shape, but I se now, that to reach my goals i have to “forsake” crossfit and start doing some bodybuilding/powerlifting.

My current stats:
Height 5,9" (180 cm)
Weight 176 lbs (80kg)
Ectomorph, long arms/legs and short upper body. I don�´t gain weight (muscle/fat) easily, but I am a f-ing expert on loosing weight, which i dont want :P.

My current lifts (Im sorry if I use “crossfit-termonology” on any of these movements… It kinda stuck with me…

these are all 1RM:
Deadlift: 396.8 lbs
Back squat: 330.6 lbs
Front squat: 308.6lbs
Bench press: 253,5lbs
Strict shoulder press: 187lbs

My goal is withing a 4 month peroid:
Gain as lean as possible muscle mass
deadlift over 440lbs
Back squat 390
Front squat at least 45lbs more
Bench press at least 30 lbs more

I love compund exercises, and im used to training them. You guys might think that i did like 100 reps of back squats for strength, but reality is that i used to go 4x4, but never really got any solid gains from it… I think the main reason for the lack of gains is because of my nutrition and the fact that i only had like one rest day per week.

Ive made up my mind, cutting crossfit for 4 months and go bb/powerlifting. I made this routine, can you please take a look, give me some pointers? I would greatly appreciate it if you guys would take some time to help yet another BB newbie…

Program:
Monday:
Legs/shoulders/biceps:
Back squat 4x4
Bulgarian split squats 3x6
DB arnold press 4x10
DB Biceps curls 3x12

Tue:
Back/Pecs/Triceps:
deadlift 4x4
Power cleans 4x3
barbell row 3x6
Incline bench press 4x10
Dips 3x8
pushdown 3x12

Thur:
Legs/shoulders/biceps
Front squat: 4x10
calf raises: 3x8
strict shoulder press: 4x4
Curls with EZ 4x6

Fri:
Back/pecs/Triceps
Banded god mornings 3x15
weighted pullups 3x10
cable rows 3x12
bench press 4x4
narrow grip bench press 3x6
french press 3x8

Why the powercleans you say? Simply because i think theyre great :slight_smile:

Yeah, I forgot, the picture is me… not any random douche crossfitter taking his shirt off while working out :stuck_out_tongue: taken about 3 months ago… similar shape now.

Very impressive physique, I’ve got a feeling you will blow up with a more hypertrophy oriented routine.

I’ve never personally followed a split like that but it looks good at first glance, you could include some isolation movements like lateral raises for delts, Leg exts/curls. and if it were me I would aim for more reps with certain exercises and more sets overall. But if this is the first time you’ve followed a split then stick with it a while and find out what works for you.

And keep us posted!

Do you plan to compete?

Thanks man! My training partner got me to do the hypertrophy routine wich the norwegian bmx team followed from time to time (he is one of the coaches)… It went something like this…

monday. sets of 4 and 8 reps on each movement.
Back squat
bench press
deadlift
front squat

Then came wednesday with 4 sets and 10 reps on each movement, same movements as monday

And Friday at last, with everything just like wednesday… only thre reps where upped to 12… the load remained the same troughout the week…

I didnt get any gains on this method, because of piss poor dieting and very little rest… followed a crossfit program as well…

I guess my downfall is that Im afraid Ill get “unfit” if I dont work out at least 6 days out of 7… and on this particular program, there was a lack of isolation movements… I am under the impression of that you have to use a muscle to make it grow…

Ill keep you posted with logs and pics… and Im warning you… there will be a ton of questions from me on this thread… Im moving into uncommon teritory :stuck_out_tongue:

I dont know if ill compete… all of that bulking and cutting… I dont know if its for me… for the time beeing my goal is to be as fit as possible… not just in the crossfit way of seeing it… but also in an aesthetic way… Crossfits functional training was my foundation, and I feel I have prooven my fitness in crossfit… The next callenge is to gain strenght and muscle (preferably lean), look as good as possible and have the strenght to back it up :slight_smile: Hope that made any sence…

You look good and very lean!! How many calories are you consuming per day to maintain your current body fat? As you probably know you need to bump the calories in order to build muscle.

Great place to start ‘building,’ and strength that will help you as well.

Man, your leg volume is pretty low though, and seems to be pretty low-rep. I definitely understand that you’re trying to improve your numbers quite a bit, but if you want to get a more overall proportionate and balanced physique, IMO you should throw at least some machine work in there… (lying hammie curls, seated hammie curls, leg extensions…) Or hell, even a couple sets of close-stance back squats with elevated heels, 15-20 reps but without locking out or staying in the hole. Or try 1.5 reps. You’re training like a BB’er now! :wink:

If you do your diet right, you could put 10 pounds of muscle on in a heartbeat!

From an upper-body aesthetics perspective, whatever you’re doing for chest, delts and (especially) abs is working well–just need to spend more time/energy doing direct arm work in order to bring them up. (Can’t say anything about your back and/or legs, obviously).

Looking good, I personally like to have more volume on one body part for a particular day, but if you are getting good results with your program stick with it. It was already said but definitely add a little bit more direct arm work.

Had my first workout after some time off because of sickness. It felt great.

I did front squats 4x10 @ 176
Calf raises with back racked bar 3x8 @ 225
Strict shoulder press 4x4 @ 143
lateral raises 4x10 @ 26
And another shoulder exercise… almost like lateral raises but you raise the dumbells in front of you 3x10 @ 26
EZ curls 4x10 @ unknown weight :stuck_out_tongue:
hammer curls 4x12 @ 26 (dumbells)
And then some ab-work…

I know I strayed from the routine, but i felt like adding some movements like you guys said, and focusing on my arms :slight_smile:

Post workout shake: 900 kcal :wink: (ultra mass its called, wight gainer)

Post workout meal 4 oz of lean pork, 3,5 oz of brown rice, 3 eggs and some veggies :slight_smile:

Ill have a more strict plan when it comes to eating, but right now I dont have the time to figure it out, work and school stresses me…

Great workout anyhow :smiley:

[quote]SSC wrote:
Great place to start ‘building,’ and strength that will help you as well.

Man, your leg volume is pretty low though, and seems to be pretty low-rep. I definitely understand that you’re trying to improve your numbers quite a bit, but if you want to get a more overall proportionate and balanced physique, IMO you should throw at least some machine work in there… (lying hammie curls, seated hammie curls, leg extensions…) Or hell, even a couple sets of close-stance back squats with elevated heels, 15-20 reps but without locking out or staying in the hole. Or try 1.5 reps. You’re training like a BB’er now! ;)[/quote]

You gotta keep in mind he’s doing legs 4x a week though. You just can’t pump the volume up doing that kind of frequency with strength as your main goal. Squat and split squat monday, deadlift and clean tuesday, front squat thurs, good mornings etc. friday…that’s not a layout conducive to high volume work.

To the OP–I can definitely understand your concern about losing fitness as a former Crossfitter if you only train 4x a week…but keep in mind that “fitness” is usually much much quicker to increase than muscle mass. Just like fat loss is very easy and quick compared to muscle gain. So don’t worry too much. If you want, do some bodyweight stuff on 1 or 2 of your off days. Or do an easy run–emphasis on easy. That will help you mentally and won’t really hinder your gains. The recovery might even benefit some.

I personally like training 5-6 times a week, but understand that schedules are hard to predict and consistency is much better than a perfect plan you’re not able to stay with. That said, keep working hard.

Todays workout:

Back extentions with a 45lbs plate 3x12
weighted pullups 3x10 @ 22lbs
Cable rows 4x12 @ 121lbs
Bench press 4x4 (with full stop at bottom position) @ 225
Narrow grip bench press 3x6 @ 155
french press 3x8 @ 66 (single dumbell)
Triceps pushdowns(?) 3x12 @ 110

Great session :slight_smile: added the pushdowns to get more work done on my arms. My calves are very sore from yesterday… calf raises… never done that movement before…

I found some pictures, they are 1 month old, maybe those are a better description of my current shape…

another pic…

aaaand yet another one…

Had a great couple of workouts this week! I decided to add one extra exercise on my biceps and triceps as you guys suggested. Thanks for very helpful input!

Dude. I would do one of two things.

Either:

  1. Dedicate an entire session to arms roughtly 12-15 sets.

or

  1. Workout arms twice a week and everything else once a week for a while.

example:

Chest/tri (6 sets triceps)(if you want make this arm day higher rep/pumping)
back/bi (6 sets biceps) (if you want make this arm day higher rep/pumping)
OFF
legs
arms (6 sets biceps)(6 sets triceps)(make these heavier if you want, heavy barbell curl, heavy dips stuff like that with a finisher like concentration curls and pjr pullovers.)
shoulders
OFF