New Higher Frequency Routine Critique?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Monday - chest back arms

flat bench
weighted pullups narrow grip palms facing eachother
incline bench
wide grip rows
over head tricep extention (25lb straight bar with weights on one side like a dumbbel extention)(lack of dumbbells)
barbell curl with the 45lb straight bar

Tuesday - legs

Squat
Deadlift
hamstring curls
leg extentions
calf raises

wednesday - shoulders arms

lateral raise
bent over rear delt raise
barbell shrugs
lateral raise on a machine
dumbbell shrugs
skull crushers
preacher curls with the EZ bar

thursday - off (maybe run)

Friday - chest back arms

Incline benchpress
wide grip lat pulldown
weigted dips
rows with a reverse grip with palms facing up, kind of like a chinup
concentration curl with dumbell
one arm over head tricep extension with rope on a pulley system

Saturday - off (run)

Sunday - off (run)

for sets i try to keep my weekly volume for sets between 12-15 so for each arm exercise i typically only do 3 sets per workout and for chest and back i do like 6 total for each workout

for reps each week i change them in this order, week 1 = 10-12, week 2 = 6-8, week 3 = 4-5, week 4 = 3-(heavy singles)

then it repeats usually equals out to about every month haha if you couldnt do the math

what do you guys think, ive only done it for a week so i havent really had a whole lot of time to decide if it is an awesome routine for me.

in the past ive blasted every body part just once a week and hopefully this higher frequency workout will help me break past growth plateaus.

2

oh and for chest and back i am completing all sets of a chest exercise before i move to the back exercise, i repeat i am not doing antagonistic pairings or supersets for chest and back, but i do them for biceps/triceps

antagonistic pairings for sets would be ideal for pump and i do plan on changing to this later on down the road

also i know the military press is great for shoulders but my anterior delt gets hammered from barbell benching so that is why i dont do military press, pluss its rough on my shoulders/colar bone, even if done in the front.

3

Routine looks good, just keep at it.

What are your goals? Diet is just as important…are you in a position to be gaining? Like are you lean enough to be able to over-eat and gain a little fat with the muscle? For most this is usually less than 15% bf (but that’s just a rough guide).

Reason why I ask is because there’s nothing worse than being in a constant state of gaining a tiny bit, losing a tiny bit (maintaining)…and repeating. Need to be focussed and go full steam ahead; one goal or the other (and do each fully…not half heartedly).

Many are like that ^. They tend to not really know where they’re going (one minute they’ll be thinking “oh I need to trim”, the next minute they’re just “drifting” along and going through the motions). Sometimes they’re asked, “so what’s your aim?”, they’ll say that they’re trying to lose fat (in reality they’re stuck somewhere in-between bulking and dieting)…and then they get really frustrated because they’re not making any gains in the gym lol

To get stronger/bigger, you need to eat for it. To lose fat you need to restrict calories (maybe increase “energy output”) and not expect to make gains in the gym.

/babble

4

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Routine looks good, just keep at it.

What are your goals? Diet is just as important…are you in a position to be gaining? Like are you lean enough to be able to over-eat and gain a little fat with the muscle? For most this is usually less than 15% bf (but that’s just a rough guide).

Reason why I ask is because there’s nothing worse than being in a constant state of gaining a tiny bit, losing a tiny bit (maintaining)…and repeating. Need to be focussed and go full steam ahead; one goal or the other (and do each fully…not half heartedly).

Many are like that ^. They tend to not really know where they’re going (one minute they’ll be thinking “oh I need to trim”, the next minute they’re just “drifting” along and going through the motions). Sometimes they’re asked, “so what’s your aim?”, they’ll say that they’re trying to lose fat (in reality they’re stuck somewhere in-between bulking and dieting)…and then they get really frustrated because they’re not making any gains in the gym lol

To get stronger/bigger, you need to eat for it. To lose fat you need to restrict calories (maybe increase “energy output”) and not expect to make gains in the gym.

/babble[/quote]

okay so. my goals are to be the biggest mother fucker i can be without performance enhancing drugs/hormones

lol so ive been on like a year and a half bulk and i realize that most would say that this is ineffeciet seeing as how i am 5’8 about 24% bf at about 240lbs (started at 190 20% bf, cut down to 175lbs at 15% before i got serious about lifting)

my size and strength have gone up a lot and im making a lot of gains, obviously its harder to see these gains with a higher bf but if i showed you pictures you would definitely see the improvement in the 70lbs that ive gained over the past about 2 years, so anyways my first cut is going to be in the middle/end of april and im going to try to cut down til i am about 15% bf before i start bulking again and get to about 20% before i decide to go on another cut.

i know a lot of you bodybuilders would advise i drop below 15% but its hard for me to maintain that below that percent of bodyfat without exercising 2 hours a day and barely eating.

so im trying to come up with a plan of attack for cutting and im looking at going low carb but high protein and saturated/healthy fat diet maybe a diet closely related to the paleo?.

5

oh its just me, as far as nutrition goes i eat, constantly til i cant eat anymore, if i feel like ive had enough food i tell myself i havent, i probably consume about 300g + of carbs a day 300g + of protein a day and i dont know about fat, i dont count calories because i am in the army and deployed right now so everything is cafeteria style food that i dont prepare and measure myself,

i have about 3-4 meals a day with 3-4 protein shakes (about 150g of protein comes from shakes)

and i rarely ever miss out on sleep i sleep at about the same time every night between 7-9 hours usually around 7.5 - 8 hour range but some days i get more or less the only thing i hate about my sleep is i take casein before i go to sleep and i drink like 6-10 bottles of water a day so i always wake up 6-7 hours into sleep with my dick about to explode full of piss and the bathroom is so far away haha but its never hard for me to fall back asleep

6

That’s really good progress! So long as you’re getting stronger while gaining and your waistline isn’t blowing up every month it’s fine.

Some people do well to stay within a high bodyfat range than others (e.g. my brother, he’s a bit like yourself; has to be extremely restrictive and active to get down to just a moderate bodyfat).

It’s fine if there’s some lee-way/room (like you’d be ok with gaining 4-5% extra bodyfat). You wouldn’t want to try gaining at a stage where you’re not comfortable with your bodyfat levels.

As for diet, if the scale’s budging slightly upwards each month, I wouldn’t worry about “force feeding” unless it’s necessary to make the changes. You’re not going to gain more muscle with gaining 25lbs in 3 months vs 6-12lbs in 3 months.

Sorry for going off topic :slight_smile:

7

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
That’s really good progress! So long as you’re getting stronger while gaining and your waistline isn’t blowing up every month it’s fine.

Some people do well to stay within a high bodyfat range than others (e.g. my brother, he’s a bit like yourself; has to be extremely restrictive and active to get down to just a moderate bodyfat).

It’s fine if there’s some lee-way/room (like you’d be ok with gaining 4-5% extra bodyfat). You wouldn’t want to try gaining at a stage where you’re not comfortable with your bodyfat levels.

As for diet, if the scale’s budging slightly upwards each month, I wouldn’t worry about “force feeding” unless it’s necessary to make the changes. You’re not going to gain more muscle with gaining 25lbs in 3 months vs 6-12lbs in 3 months.

Sorry for going off topic :)[/quote]

ha thanx man, and its cool i like talking about all things related to the routine of lifting

8

They’re cool with you being 25% BF in the Army?

I feel like 25% is too high. It is completely unnessecary to carry that much fat while trying to gain muscle. I would drop some BF and recomp a bit before continuing to “bulk” (I don’t like that word cause I feel like a lot of people use it as an excuse to gain lots of extra fat) up. Having 1/4 of your bodyweight consisting of fat isn’t very healthy.

Your routine looks ok. With the higher frequency you’re probably going to want to go a little bi lower volume than you’re used to for each workout. Also, I wouldn’t change my rep scheme every week… That’s unnessecary

9

[quote]gregron wrote:
They’re cool with you being 25% BF in the Army?

I feel like 25% is too high. It is completely unnessecary to carry that much fat while trying to gain muscle. I would drop some BF and recomp a bit before continuing to “bulk” (I don’t like that word cause I feel like a lot of people use it as an excuse to gain lots of extra fat) up. Having 1/4 of your bodyweight consisting of fat isn’t very healthy.

Your routine looks ok. With the higher frequency you’re probably going to want to go a little bi lower volume than you’re used to for each workout. Also, I wouldn’t change my rep scheme every week… That’s unnessecary [/quote]

lol nah they arnt cool with me being that high, but i think im alloted to be 22% so when it comes time to get taped i only need to lose about 6-8 lbs to be 22 %

oh and i do plan on starting a cut after i figure out how my body reacts to this new routine im trying by the end of april.
id hate to start a cut on a counter productive routine know what i mean?
but my cut should bring me down to about 215ish at 15% i think

i feel you on the fact that it is unhealthy to be high though

and as far as changing the rep scheme every week, i only do this because i found that it helped me increase strength, maybe there is a better way but i typically add between 10-20lbs when i change my rep scheme then when i start over i start with 5-10 higher than i did the month before on all of them

how would you keep the rep scheme?

all input is welcome.

10

High[er] frequency is great for maintaining muscle while trimming, so I don’t think the routine will be a problem. When you think about it, you are giving your body even more reason to hold onto the muscle by hitting it a little more often.

Not sure about changing reps every week, some people do it, others don’t. Personally I find it distracts me too much (hard to monitor progression).

11

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
High[er] frequency is great for maintaining muscle while trimming, so I don’t think the routine will be a problem. When you think about it, you are giving your body even more reason to hold onto the muscle by hitting it a little more often.

Not sure about changing reps every week, some people do it, others don’t. Personally I find it distracts me too much (hard to monitor progression).[/quote]

agreed it is a little harder to track progress because you have to look many weeks back to see progress rather than judging progress workout to workout