Bulking. I’m a complete beginner.
I think i’ll do 3 sets of 8-12 reps for most exercises. Should I start with heavy weight or start with light weight?
Like 100 x12, 130 x 10, 150 x 8
or 150 x 8, 130 x 10, 100 x 12?
I was thinking training each bodypart (except legs) would be good because I really don’t see many ripped people who train each bodypart 1x/week. It seems like most of the ripped guys train with higher volume and more than once/week. Usually they get called “Genetic freaks” and since i’m new, I might as well see if i’m a genetic freak right from the start. Only way to tell, in my opinion.
Getting ripped has more to do with diet than how many days a week you work out each bodypart. As for the workouts, the volume is a little high for a beginner. But if you can get enough rest and calories and depening on your recovery levels, you might not overtrain. I would probably stick with the same exercises for day 1 as day 5. In other words I wouldn’t switch from barbell to dumbells in the same week. This will allow you to become accustomed to the movement and experience neural learning of the movement. Switching up to soon will also make it harder to tell how well you are progressing. I usually switch new exercises every 4 weeks. On day one it also seems like to much ab workout. You can probably drop one of the movements. I would also start out with a lighter weight and work to a heavier weight.
Another thing, the way a 3 on 1 off schedule works is that on monday of the second week you would work out legs again then chest on tuesday, back on wednesday, and off on thursday. Friday you would repeat legs. Feel free to ask any more questions.
I also feel that you are spending way too much time and energy on abdominals. If you are initiating a bulking phase your calories should be well in a surplus. So if you’re eating enough - you shouldn’t see too much abs anyways. Besides why would you do more excersises, to hypertrophy a thin muscle like your stomach, than you would for bis and tris combined.
Well, it’s hard to critique this at all. If you haven’t been lifting at all, this should work fine as long as you stick to it and get enough good clean food. It just looks a bit sloppy.
My suggestion - You are a beginner, so why not let a few experts help you out.
If you know how to do all of the exercises that you listed, then you should have no problem doing a routine from Ian King like his Limping and Super Strength (FAQ for links) program, which is very balanced and has plenty of volume. Or something like EDT from Charles Staley if you want to focus on hypertrophy.
We all should be our own strength coach, but even the world’s top strength coaches had to start somewhere and that was by listening and trusting people who know more than them.
If the goal is spending as much time in the gym as possible, use most of the available equipment at the gym, and develop a postural problem due to long term inbalance between push /pull movements then that will acomplish it for sure.
For hypertrophy on a natural trainer it’s the typical high volume routine that won’t produce much results unless you’re one of the genetic freaks with extreme recovery abilities (that you might be, I don’t know).
That’s my opinion. Did you get it from Flex or MF?
Jason Norcross is actually right here, in a way. A beginner WILL respond to virtually any routine because his body is untrained (provided adequate nutrition and rest). However you want to OPTIMISE the gains, not just see some.
If you are a complete beginner, then just mastering technique on each exercise will take time. That’s why I think your best bet is choosing a FEW COMPOUND LIFTS that can be learned and perfected WHILST using a lot of your muscle mass simultaneously. Your co-ordination will undoubtedly improve leaps and bounds initially too.
Best advice so far I think has come from Fitone. A whole body workout using compound exercises will work wonders for your untrained/unadapted body. You can break it down into bits when you actually have the basic muscular grounding to develop. You’ll find a nice full body routine here:
In fact, just go to the search engine and read all the Dawg school articles. -They’re taylor made for people like you! Just make sure you do your research on diet too, and don’t worry you’ll be making gains in no time.
I actually made that routine myself. If I do use it, I guess i’ll use the same exercises for both days but then rotate between barbells and dumbells every 2-3 weeks or so and also change the order of exercises.
I read over the EDT article, a lot of the exercises I haven’t heard of. Has anyone done it and gained a significant amount of LBM?
I might try a lower volume routine to start but i’ve always heard it’s hard for teenagers to overtrain, so that’s why I thought it would be smart to try higher volume now and see how my body responds.
My diet, i’m gonna aim for around 2700-3000 calories, Over 300g carbs/day, 250g+ protein (Basically get as much as I can), and let the fat fall where it does from those foods but eat as clean as possible. I would rather be lean throughout the whole year than gain a lot of weight (a lot of it being fat) then cut and basically be at the same spot.
What do you think of that split? Better than the other? I might cut down on some volume (especially shoulders since they’re worked a lot on chest too), but I think I would benefit from training each bodypart 2x/week. How many sets do you recommend for each bodypart and how many different exercises?
i would pair the deadlifts with my leg day. as much of the lower back exercise that it is, it also works your hams and quads, so i’d do this along w/ squats and other leg exercises.
Sorry, I didn’t see that you were a complete beginner. I agree with the others that you should take the basic compound movements and stick with them, so you can get accustomed to them. Getting form down takes time. You may think that you have the form down but in actuality you may not. You might want to try one of t-mag’s routines.
are u listen to us ONE or just writting routine down? train the whole body. w/ compound movements!!! 2-3 times a week! Use what restless gave decent routine for u to follow. it looks pretty decent… rep wise I would start of w/ ten and then work form there. I do really think you should read up on some infor in this mag. Tons of info out here…
I’m not understanding your routine. Are you saying to perform day 2 after day 1 without a rest day or are you giving an alternative to do one of these days 3 times a week?
"I’m not understanding your routine. Are you saying to perform day 2 after day 1 without a rest day or are you giving an alternative to do one of these days 3 times a week? "
Like I said, train 3 X week and alternate between both workouts. M-A,W-B,F-A,M-B,W-A,F-B etc…
I have a feeling he’s gonna waste a few months on his routine no matter what we say.
