Looking for Feedback on Lift Routine

Here’s my current routine, I appreciate any feedback you may have. I’ve seen good results over the past year and will probably continue until that changes, but am open to considering other options. I’d especially appreciate any feedback on imbalances (focusing on a particular muscle group too much or too little). My legs are genetically strong, so I intentionally don’t work them as much as upper body.

All exercises are 3x10. When I hit 10 reps, I up the weight and continue at that level until I can do 10 reps. I do 15 mins of moderate intensity cardio at the end of each workout (usually rowing or jogging). I don’t do free squats/deadlifts any more due to advice from my chiro. All machines are Hammer Strength.

Monday
Flat DB bench press
Bent over BB row
Front DB shoulder raise
Calf press (seated or standing)

Tuesday
Machine bench press
Seated horizontal cable row
Abs machine
Machine lateral shoulder raise

Wednesday
Flat bench DB fly
One arm DB row
Weighted dip
Machine squat

Thursday
Incline machine press
Machine horizontal row or pull down
Skull crusher or shoulder press
Curls or cable bench press

Friday
Decline DB bench
Weighted pullup
Dragon flag
Leg press

Less bench, more legs.

Looks like you don’t even train hamstrings.

Are you serious? Not being rude (seriously). Never seen a routine so skewed like that. Why a chest exercise 5 days a week? 2 days for legs? 1 day for calves?

If its working, surely it aint balanced? You’d have giant tits, chicken legs and everything else would be skin and bones. If confused. For working out 5 days a week working out, time which could be spent doing much more, it just seems like a chest routine twice a week would be better if all you want to do is your chest? :stuck_out_tongue:

What kind of progress have you made this year training like this? Just curious.

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
Less bench, more legs.

Looks like you don’t even train hamstrings.[/quote]

Completely agree. That split looks terrible.

It seems like most of the feedback so far is on the leg work. I do 9 sets/week (6 legs, 3 calves) with more focus on upper body, because my legs are already proportionally strong. I leg press 1,080 pounds and standing calf press the machine max (360 pounds). By contrast, my bench press is relatively weak (flat press with only 95s). For hams, I do machine hack squats.

I’m curious why people are focusing on the 15 sets of chest work, but nobody has said anything about 15 sets of back work?

I appreciate your feedback, negative or otherwise. Just explaining the rationale behind my current routine.

Itchy, to answer your question my lifts have gone up 20-25% over the past year across the board.

I guess a better question is what are your goals?

I believe this, one bit.

My goal is balanced muscle development. So far, my legs are one of my stronger muscle groups while chest and shoulders are weaker.

Yeah, what austin asked - What are your goals? If you already have big/strong legs and want to focus on upper body, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Do you feel you are getting enough arm work. I only ask because that is the only upper body workouts I can currently do (shoulder problems) and I don’t see any on your schedule (except for Thursdays?).

Did you make this thread to be serious? Didn’t you know everyone was going to say it looks horrible? This has been discussed in at least one of your threads before…your chest/back 5x a week thing is a horrible idea.

If you seriously don’t want to hit your legs more than 1x a week you could still easily do something where you hit most muscle groups 2x a week and legs 1x a week. Though I seriously doubt they are massively dominating over the rest of your body…you probably just hate doing legs because leg training is the most painful.

[quote]forlife wrote:

Itchy, to answer your question my lifts have gone up 20-25% over the past year across the board.[/quote]

Okay. I just wondered because it’s a shitload of pressing/chest exercises. I don’t give a crap about the leg work since you already said you are prioritizing your upper, but I just don’t see how anyone could press heavy that often without frying their shoulders.

I don’t know what your old schedule looked like, but I would try just picking a couple of bodyparts you most need to improve on and give them an extra day, maybe at the end of the week.

[quote]josh86 wrote:
your chest/back 5x a week thing is a horrible idea.[/quote]

How many total sets of chest and back are you doing each week?

Legs are one of my favorite exercises, they are just proportionally stronger than my upper body.

[quote]Itchy wrote:
Okay. I just wondered because it’s a shitload of pressing/chest exercises. I don’t give a crap about the leg work since you already said you are prioritizing your upper, but I just don’t see how anyone could press heavy that often without frying their shoulders.

I don’t know what your old schedule looked like, but I would try just picking a couple of bodyparts you most need to improve on and give them an extra day, maybe at the end of the week. [/quote]

I’m sore the whole week, but I have good strength for every workout. I think chest and shoulders are what I need the most work on, what would you change to make that happen?

[quote]forlife wrote:
Itchy wrote:
Okay. I just wondered because it’s a shitload of pressing/chest exercises. I don’t give a crap about the leg work since you already said you are prioritizing your upper, but I just don’t see how anyone could press heavy that often without frying their shoulders.

I don’t know what your old schedule looked like, but I would try just picking a couple of bodyparts you most need to improve on and give them an extra day, maybe at the end of the week.

I’m sore the whole week, but I have good strength for every workout. I think chest and shoulders are what I need the most work on, what would you change to make that happen?[/quote]

Newbie, vet, small, big, Papa Smurf, or whoever you are I don’t see how benching, or exercises which hit the same major muscle group, 5 days in a row could possibly allow any sort of adequate recovery and growth period for your muscles.

Just my two cents. Listen to others, as you see fit.

EDITED

[quote]forlife wrote:
My goal is balanced muscle development. So far, my legs are one of my stronger muscle groups while chest and shoulders are weaker.[/quote]

Generally, your legs are supposed to be your strongest muscle group. Naturally. In most cases, the people who claim to not want to do anything but the bare minimum for leg work because “they’re already too big” or they “get enough work from running” are just being lazy.

If you can train any muscle group (except maybe calves) 5x per week, I really question how hard you are training in the first place.

If you want to prioritize your chest and shoulders, give them their own sessions and hit them harder and with more a few more exercises. I’d recommend trying to hit each muscle group 2x per week.

[quote]forlife wrote:
I’m sore the whole week, but I have good strength for every workout.[/quote]

If you still have good strength in your chest the day after training it… you ain’t hitting your damn chest hard enough. This goes for most muscle groups (except, once again, maybe calves).

Why don’t you just try Iron Addict’s simple power based routine? I know you’ve said you have made some progress but the routine is horrible. The extra rest days will be helpful and you can focus on quality/intensity rather than a shit load of repetition.

[quote]forlife wrote:
josh86 wrote:
your chest/back 5x a week thing is a horrible idea.

How many total sets of chest and back are you doing each week?

you probably just hate doing legs because leg training is the most painful.

Legs are one of my favorite exercises, they are just proportionally stronger than my upper body.[/quote]

I only count my top weight set for each lift…I do 4 per week for back. I hit everything 2x a week and my delts/back day has 1 horizontal movement and 1 vertical movement. I’m not counting shrugs in with that. For chest I had been doing the same amount as back, but I am upping it as my chest lags compared to everything else (adding in more fly-work, I have trouble feeling my chest work during pressing ever since I broke my collar bone) - while my back grows like a weed.

[quote]kylec72 wrote:
forlife wrote:
Itchy wrote:
Okay. I just wondered because it’s a shitload of pressing/chest exercises. I don’t give a crap about the leg work since you already said you are prioritizing your upper, but I just don’t see how anyone could press heavy that often without frying their shoulders.

I don’t know what your old schedule looked like, but I would try just picking a couple of bodyparts you most need to improve on and give them an extra day, maybe at the end of the week.

I’m sore the whole week, but I have good strength for every workout. I think chest and shoulders are what I need the most work on, what would you change to make that happen?

Newbie, vet, small, big, Papa Smurf, or whoever you are I don’t see how benching, or exercises which hit the same major muscle group, 5 days in a row could possibly allow any sort of adequate recovery and growth period for your muscles.

Just my two cents. Listen to others, as you see fit.

EDITED[/quote]

THIS! We all know that adding extra volume/frequency can be a good way to bring up lagging body parts. But it only works if you are still allowing adequate time to recover between sessions.