Hey guys, I really need to change things up with my workout, I’ve been bodybuilding for a while now and have gained some pretty good mass, about 25 lbs. Now I want to start getting real strong and fast/powerful. I was thinking of doing everybody part 2x a week, like one day bodybuilding style then the next time i do that part do strenght/powerlifting. Does this sound good? Here is my current routine.
The first thing i would do is to move back and legs up earlier in the week. They are two of your largest muscle groups and should be trained in the first part of the week, along with chest. You can still do chest/tris, but i would couple tris/bis together. Tris/bis and shoulders are secondary muscle groups and dont need to be worked as hard as the chest, back, and legs.
P.S. I finally started posting this week. I have been following T-mag for about 1.5 years. I have trained non-stop for the past 5.5 yrs.
My only suggestion is that when I have body parts on the same day (chest/tri’s) I like to alternate one chest exercise one tri exercise, and so on and so forth, that way when my tri’s aren’t already dead from all teh chest I just did.
First of all, how long have you been training this way? It might do your muscles good to do something different and completely shock them. I would try lowering your rep range (3-5)and train as heavy as you can and use more sets, less exercises. Try to build your workouts around big lifts (squats, leadlifts, bench, pullups…)
Do that for 6-8 weeks, you’ll get strong as hell and your muscles will be alot more dense. Then maybe switch back to more “bodybuilder style” workouts- only then using much more weight.
If you try to train each body part twice a week, only do it for a short duration of time (2-4 weeks). Your muscles might not have enough time to recover.
for tri’s and chest add close grip bench and maybe decline close grip. also add the bench press.
for bicep, add the cable curl, which is discussed in CT’s Canadian Cannons article. basicly add some of his bicep stuff, its really good for adding mass.
for legs hit the calfs with something like calf raises 4sets of 25 reps, fast tempo.
for the back, do incline delt raises. again, explained on CTs back program.
as far as the whole program, yes, that would be good. i would do power before speed and cutting i.e. going heavy = low reps, high weight, the first time in the week and then the second time hitting it up with the high reps - 6-% of your max.
as far as combining the days, i would do something where u should at least have 2 days or rest between the heavy and the BBing aspects of the training.
I would switch up your exercises as well. If you are using a bb for your bench, use db. Personally, I would only do one type of fly movement on the strength phase for chest. The rest focus on pressing movements. Have you ever used a cambered bar? Do you know what that is?
For your back, try doing weighted pullups, chinup- any kind of ups, with different grips- and really focus on the negative portion of the movement. Lower yourself for 5-10 seconds. this will really bring out your upper back and lats. Again heavy deadlifts or rack pulls are going to be great for your back, especially lower. Maybe do some seated cable rows for your back, and again, experiment with different grips for total developement.