Routine Q & A

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

here’s the scoop, i’m 22, 5’10, 190 lbs around 10-12%bf.

i eat 3000cals +/- daily, whatever i can get my hands on, usually 150-190g protein daily. not afraid of gaining some fat if i can pack some muscle on with it. 2-3 months ago started gettin into a routine after a few years of sporadic weight training.
I’m trying to find the best routine that allows for max. gains with my limited food intake. If i do a full-body with 2 days recovery, will i burn less calories in a week than if i did a 2-day split with only 1 day off?

heres what i’ve been doing:

dumbell press with 45* incline 8-6-4
push-press (squat rack stuff) 8-6-4
deadlifts starting off light at 225,3-3-3
hang cleans 5-5-5
bent rows (dumbell) 8-6-4
weighted pull-ups w/ 35-45lbs 3/failure
weighted dips w/ 35-45 lbs till failure
deep squats 3x6
every other workout i replace weighted dips with close-grip benchpress

i’ve been thinking of switching to this:
1st day
-deep squats 3x6
-push press 8-6-4
-dumbell press 8-6-4
weighted dips 3xfailure

2nd day
-weighted pullups 3x failure
-hang clean 3x6
-deads 3x6
-bent rows 8-6-4
Rest one day, then repeat.

2

[quote]USMCGNPer wrote:
here’s the scoop, i’m 22, 5’10, 190 lbs around 10-12%bf.

i eat 3000cals +/- daily, whatever i can get my hands on, usually 150-190g protein daily. not afraid of gaining some fat if i can pack some muscle on with it. 2-3 months ago started gettin into a routine after a few years of sporadic weight training.
I’m trying to find the best routine that allows for max. gains with my limited food intake. If i do a full-body with 2 days recovery, will i burn less calories in a week than if i did a 2-day split with only 1 day off?

heres what i’ve been doing:

dumbell press with 45* incline 8-6-4
push-press (squat rack stuff) 8-6-4
deadlifts starting off light at 225,3-3-3
hang cleans 5-5-5
bent rows (dumbell) 8-6-4
weighted pull-ups w/ 35-45lbs 3/failure
weighted dips w/ 35-45 lbs till failure
deep squats 3x6
every other workout i replace weighted dips with close-grip benchpress

i’ve been thinking of switching to this:
1st day
-deep squats 3x6
-push press 8-6-4
-dumbell press 8-6-4
weighted dips 3xfailure

2nd day
-weighted pullups 3x failure
-hang clean 3x6
-deads 3x6
-bent rows 8-6-4
Rest one day, then repeat.

[/quote]

First, be afraid of adding fat. This should be avoided. In this day and age you should be able to bulk cleanly. Besides in this day and age adding muscle does not correlate with adding fat. Don’t worry the olderf you get, the more fat you’ll have.
Second, there is nothing wrong with the prescribed routine you listed. If it is getting you results then go for it. I would add at least one more heavy set per execise. Try to stay heavier vs. lighter. Heavy weight is complitmenary to your execise selection.

3

so there;s nothing wrong with just doing full body heavy and 2 days off? i dont know, for some odd reason i feel like i’m not working enough

4

[quote]USMCGNPer wrote:
so there;s nothing wrong with just doing full body heavy and 2 days off? i dont know, for some odd reason i feel like i’m not working enough[/quote]

well shit, you failed to mention that part!
No there’s nothing wrong with what your doing, but if you feel like you aren’t doing enough then you probably aren’t. First rule of lifting; listen to your body. If you feel like you need more then do more. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into a routine, just to put in reps.

That being said, I would like to know two things about you, how long have you been training and what do you want to accomplish short term? Oh yea, what’s you age range: 18 -21, 21-26, 27-32, etc…Then I can be more helpful.

5

The first workout seems like too much to me. Usually with full body workouts you want to do 1 compound exercise for each major muscle group. So like, one pushing movement, one pulling, one quad dominant and one hip dominant and them some isolation work at the end. Check out Chad’s Total Body Training Article or CTs How to Design a Damn Good Program or the Beast Rants articles and those should get you pointed in the right direction.

6

i’m 22, in the military, have been fairly athletic since 9th grade, shitloads of relative strength(wrestling), and a high metabolism. i’m sittin at about 12%bf and i would like to break the 200 barrier and keep the bf% the same.

another thing, how much protein does the average chicken breast contain?

7

Depends on the weight, raw they are generally about 6 grams per ounce. Cooked weight is harder to use because different methods will result in different weights.

8

[quote]USMCGNPer wrote:
i’m 22, in the military, have been fairly athletic since 9th grade, shitloads of relative strength(wrestling), and a high metabolism. i’m sittin at about 12%bf and i would like to break the 200 barrier and keep the bf% the same.

another thing, how much protein does the average chicken breast contain?[/quote]

Crap, I could have read your original post and gotten half that information. Sorry about that.

Well, there are a couple of different routes you can take. You can go the total body, HFT route or the split route. For adding mass, I’d say the high frequency training route is a better road. The idea is to hit each set of muscles multiple times a week. I’d say five is ideal. Use a combination of single joint and compound movements.

Don’t use the same movements for the same body parts on consecutive days. For instance, if you do squats one day, do lunges the next. If you do barbell bench press, then do incline dumbbell the next. So you attack the same muscle groups everyday with different exercises.

If you want to do splits I would do two or three day splits. Upper body, then lower body. Or, all push one day then all pull the next. The advantage hear is you can get more focus on fatiguing each muscle group more completely.

As far as exercise selection, I’d stick with the basics, squats, deads, pull-ups, the many variations of bench, overhead presses, the many variations of rows, pull downs, curls, dips, etc.

As far as set/rep schemes, I’d recommend either 5 x 5, or 10 x 3. The Idea is to do 25 to 30 reps per exercise, but error on the side of doing them heavier.

Lastly, go the “Authors” section and look up articles by Thibaudeau, Waterbury and Poliquin. There are many good authors here, but in my humble opinion these guys are on the cutting edge. Browse through them and pick ones that peak your interest. You cannot go wrong.

I hope I was some help. There are many good ways of training; you have to find the right one for you, which is not what you have been doing for years and years.