I have been training for over a year now and have seen myself develop some strength and size gains. However I have never had a proper routine and feel my progress is starting to slack. I am currently on bulking phase and am happy with the diet, I just need some help in developing a routine which bases around 5 days of work. What I need to know is should I be doing full body routines or splits? what set/rep range I should be using? etc.
I am not a complete newbie, nor am I an extrememly experienced lifter. I am just a guy who needs some advice on an intermediate size/strength programme.
All help is greatly apprechiated. Lastly, Sorry if the threads a bit poorly structured; I am new to these forums.
NOTE: I’ve only recently started doing deads and squats (I know should have started earlier) and want to know how many times a week I should do them?
Well, considering you’re a beginner, I wouldn’t want to make things much complicated. I think you’d be fine with one major exercise per muscle group and a secondary exercise just to finish it off. Here’s a split that I like:
Day 1: Horizontal pushing/pulling
Day 2: Quads/abs/calves
Day 3: Vertical pushing/pulling
Day 4: Hams/abs/calves
Day 5: Arms
Basically, I would pick one major movement and a secondary movement. For example: On the horizontal pushing/pulling day, your major exercises can be bench press and barbell row, with heavy weights and low reps. Then your secondary exercises can be a cable crossover and a facepull with lighter weights and more reps.
In my opinion you should experiment with different set/rep schemes. I could prescribe 5x5 for the main exercises and 3x12 for the secondary ones, but that might be too taxing. Try it and see.
Mind you, this is a split that i said worked well for me, It may or may not suit you. Its just a sample.
By 5 days of work, do you mean you work 5 days a week, or are you willing to work out 5 times a week? If it’s the former, I think a lot of people are in that situation.
[quote]ayork90 wrote:
day one - chest
day two - back
day three - shoulders
day four - arms
day five - legs
???[/quote]
This is similar to what I do. But I suggest doing legs early in the week rather than on the last day. If you save them for last you are more likely to miss them, due to short weeks, lack of motivation, or even being exhausted from the previous 4 days. You should NEVER miss a leg workout, which is why I do almost exactly what he has here with legs on day 2 (tuesday) and arms on day 5 (friday). This is my preferred method so that if I have to miss a day in a week, I’m still in good shape because I work my triceps on chest day and biceps on back day. Granted, this is to a lesser extent than I would get them on arm days. Also, something you need to bear in mind on a single body part 5-day split is that you have to kill the muscles on that day (you have 7 days to recover)so let em have it. Just my .02, I’m sure there are others who would disagree with me.
[quote]Iron-Hoosier wrote:
ayork90 wrote:
day one - chest
day two - back
day three - shoulders
day four - arms
day five - legs
???
This is similar to what I do. But I suggest doing legs early in the week rather than on the last day. If you save them for last you are more likely to miss them, due to short weeks, lack of motivation, or even being exhausted from the previous 4 days. You should NEVER miss a leg workout, which is why I do almost exactly what he has here with legs on day 2 (tuesday) and arms on day 5 (friday). This is my preferred method so that if I have to miss a day in a week, I’m still in good shape because I work my triceps on chest day and biceps on back day. Granted, this is to a lesser extent than I would get them on arm days. Also, something you need to bear in mind on a single body part 5-day split is that you have to kill the muscles on that day (you have 7 days to recover)so let em have it. Just my .02, I’m sure there are others who would disagree with me.
[/quote]
i personally have a labor intensive job, so having the weekend to recover from legs when i don’t need to be using them is effective for me. i also don’t know why you would miss a workout simply because it is later in the week, and if they did, why couldnt they just train legs on saterday?
last time i checked, my gym was open on weekends, (although not as early)
[quote]ayork90 wrote:
Iron-Hoosier wrote:
ayork90 wrote:
day one - chest
day two - back
day three - shoulders
day four - arms
day five - legs
???
This is similar to what I do. But I suggest doing legs early in the week rather than on the last day. If you save them for last you are more likely to miss them, due to short weeks, lack of motivation, or even being exhausted from the previous 4 days. You should NEVER miss a leg workout, which is why I do almost exactly what he has here with legs on day 2 (tuesday) and arms on day 5 (friday). This is my preferred method so that if I have to miss a day in a week, I’m still in good shape because I work my triceps on chest day and biceps on back day. Granted, this is to a lesser extent than I would get them on arm days. Also, something you need to bear in mind on a single body part 5-day split is that you have to kill the muscles on that day (you have 7 days to recover)so let em have it. Just my .02, I’m sure there are others who would disagree with me.
i personally have a labor intensive job, so having the weekend to recover from legs when i don’t need to be using them is effective for me. i also don’t know why you would miss a workout simply because it is later in the week, and if they did, why couldnt they just train legs on saterday?
last time i checked, my gym was open on weekends, (although not as early)
[/quote]
Nothing wrong with your way, just offered up my thoughts on it. I personally don’t like to workout on weekends unless I absolutely have to. If I know it is going to be a 4 day week I throw triceps in with my chest and biceps in after back. So, it’s not really missing a workout.
Other than that, I agree missing any workout is not optimal but due to the work the arms get on chest and back, without any isolation work would make it bearable to miss an arm workout if you had to miss one. As we all know, there are 101 ways to workout and none are proven to be better than the other. Just offering up my opinion and an explanation for it. Didn’t mean to make you feel like I was downing your way of doing essentially the same thing I do.
[quote]Iron-Hoosier wrote:
ayork90 wrote:
Iron-Hoosier wrote:
ayork90 wrote:
day one - chest
day two - back
day three - shoulders
day four - arms
day five - legs
???
This is similar to what I do. But I suggest doing legs early in the week rather than on the last day. If you save them for last you are more likely to miss them, due to short weeks, lack of motivation, or even being exhausted from the previous 4 days. You should NEVER miss a leg workout, which is why I do almost exactly what he has here with legs on day 2 (tuesday) and arms on day 5 (friday). This is my preferred method so that if I have to miss a day in a week, I’m still in good shape because I work my triceps on chest day and biceps on back day. Granted, this is to a lesser extent than I would get them on arm days. Also, something you need to bear in mind on a single body part 5-day split is that you have to kill the muscles on that day (you have 7 days to recover)so let em have it. Just my .02, I’m sure there are others who would disagree with me.
i personally have a labor intensive job, so having the weekend to recover from legs when i don’t need to be using them is effective for me. i also don’t know why you would miss a workout simply because it is later in the week, and if they did, why couldnt they just train legs on saterday?
last time i checked, my gym was open on weekends, (although not as early)
Nothing wrong with your way, just offered up my thoughts on it. I personally don’t like to workout on weekends unless I absolutely have to. If I know it is going to be a 4 day week I throw triceps in with my chest and biceps in after back. So, it’s not really missing a workout.
Other than that, I agree missing any workout is not optimal but due to the work the arms get on chest and back, without any isolation work would make it bearable to miss an arm workout if you had to miss one. As we all know, there are 101 ways to workout and none are proven to be better than the other. Just offering up my opinion and an explanation for it. Didn’t mean to make you feel like I was downing your way of doing essentially the same thing I do.
[/quote]
i didn’t feel like you were downing my way of doing essentially the same thing, i felt like you were giving constructive advice. which, you were. (amazing i know)
i do think that arms don’t get stimulated enough by training only chest and back, although i don’t feel like that is what you were trying to get across, but instead you were saying if you had to miss a workout, missing an arm workout would be better than missing a leg workout. i would agree with this. (although i would still train arms over the weekend to make up for it.)
[quote]ayork90 wrote:
day one - chest
day two - back
day three - shoulders
day four - arms
day five - legs
???[/quote]
Just a input, wouldn’t switching arms and legs up be better? When working shoulder and doing any kind of press, you use your triceps relatively much. I’d figure it would be better to have a days rest inbetween before you hit the triceps again?