Tips/Advice/Comments on my Routine

[timtimtimmah19]

The way I currently have my workout set up is this:

-Day One (Chest and Shoulders)
-Morning
-Long Arm Crunch
-Floor Wipers
-Declined Crunch
-Leg Raises
-Bicycle Crunch
-Declined Knee-Ins
-Afternoon
-Bench Press 4 sets 8-6-4-2
-Inclined Bench Press 3x8
-Declined Bench Press 3x8
-Dumbbell Press 3x8
-Upright Row 3x8
-Pec Flys 3x8
-Side Raises 3x12
-Back Raises 3x12
-Front Raises 3x12

-Day Two (Quads, Hams, Calves)
-Morning
-3 mile run
-1 mile run
-Afternoon
-Squat 8-6-4-2
-Power Clean 3x5
-Deadlift 8-6-4-2
-Leg Press 3x8
-(Between sets of Leg Press) Calf Raises 3x12
-Split Squats 3x8
-Calf Raises (Feet angled out) 3x12
-Lunges 3x8
-Calf Raises (Feet angled in) 3x12
-Leg Extension 3x8
-Leg Curl 3x8

-Day Three (Back, Bis, Tris)
-Morning
-Side Bridge
-Plate Twists
-Bridge
-Twist
-Bridge Kicks
-High-Low Pulley Chop
-Afternoon
-Lat Overhand Grip Pulldowns 3x8
-Pull-ups 3x max
-Rows 3x8
-Chin-ups 3x max
-Close-Grip Bench Press 3x8
-Dumbbell Curls 3x8
-Skull Crushers 3x8
-Hammer Curls 3x8
-Behind Head Tricep Extension 3x8
-Preacher Curl 3x8
-Reverse Pulldown 3x8
-High Pulley Curl 3x8

-Day Four (Plyometric/Explosive Work)
-24'' Box Jumps
-12'' One Leg Box Jumps
-Plyometric Pushups
-Wide Skier Jumps
-100m x 6
-50m x 6
-400m x 2
-200m x 3
-Some exercise I made up that I call "Field Throws"

-Day Five (Rest)

I stretch after each section of the workout as well. The Morning exercises with the ab work is done by doing each exercise back to back and going through it three times. Any suggestions or suggestions concerning my splits, reps, or anything else would be greatly appreciated.

For the record I am 18, 5'11'', and 175 lb and have been lifting seriously for about four years. I play football and lacrosse, so any ideas of how to better tailor this routine to my sports needs would be awesome.

[swanso5]

- far too much ab work...if doing the big exercises hard and heavy you only need one core exercise per session which should be something like a prone ab brace, sidd ab brace, landmine, dragon flags etc...either a stability hold or an exercise in which you PREVENT rotation, not provide it
- train movements not muscles so full body workouts, ecspecially as your playing 2 sports you can't be wt training 4+hrs a week on top of training and playing
- too much exercise "overlap" and inefficiency...on monday you do 3 chest press variations which is basically the same thing...instead spread these over 3 days doing 1 each day...same volume but you'll be able to use more wt for the other 2 from increased rest...never do flies, upright rows and shoulder raises - waste of time
- don't do cardio before wts
- explosive exercises such as power cleans are always to be performed first in your routine and first in the week when your at your freshest...the point is to lift with speed and you can't lift quick when your tired
- squats and deads in the same day??? insane...again split over 2 days (mon and fri) and i would do deads on mon...maybe even do front squats instead of back squats if your planning on going heavy, you don't want too much spinal overload
- never do leg press
- calf work is really needed ecspecially with power cleans where you should be rising up onto your toes anyway which is a calf raise
- split squats / lunges again the same
- never do leg ext again and there are plenty of better options than leg curls
- if you can do pull ups than pulldowns are obsolete
- spread chins and pull ups over 2 days as well
- if you really need to "curl" than do reverse curls or even thick grip reverse curls
- avoid skullcrushers and overhead ext, excpsecially as your a lacross player (elbow stress)
- should have just said from the outset, but no machine or single joint exercises
- too many plyo exercises in one day...like power cleans they're all about quality not quantity
- not sure what days you train but it looks like mon - thu??
- you need to know if your static efficient or static inefficient before choosing plyo exercises...by this mean do you require strength or more plyometric ability...to find out do this:

1 - test vert with a straight up jump
2 - starting w/ a 12 - 18" box step off the box and as soon as you hit the ground jump up with the aim to be equal or higher than your vert
3 - keep increasing the box ht by 6" until you can't equal or jump higher than your regular vert test from earlier

- get back to me with your result
- what are thses feild throws?

[timtimtimmah19]

Thanks a million for your input. I have just a couple of questions about what you said.

First the things you wanted me to test:

I think (90% sure) that my vertical was about 32 inches last time I was tested.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to the equiptment needed to do the other test since even my current "box" jumps are actually onto a bench and lower platform that just happen to be 24'' and 12''. There is a higher platform that is definately at least 30 some inches that I've jumped off of and onto immediately that I've made, so I can probably do a box higher than my vert I think.

Concerning field throws, my school is lucky enough to have a turf football field almost adjacent from the weightroom. I take a bouncy 7kg medicine ball outside onto the field and go from one sideline to the other. What I do is squat down w/ the medicine ball, launch up through my legs, throw/push the ball during this motion, chase it down on one bounce, and repeat until I reach the other side.

About doing full-body workouts instead to save time, this is my off-season plan. In season I drastically cut down on the volume of exercises, train full body, and increase repetitions in order to guard against injury and over training.

I assume you noticed, but I did a poor job of clarifying, a lot of the ab workouts/the cardio is in the morning and the weights are in the afternoon. Were you suggesting cutting them out before weights even in a separate workout or was that thinking they were added on to one giant workout?

What would you suggest I do if I take out lunges/split squats, leg extension, leg curl, etc? What exercises should I replace them with?

In eliminating single-joint exercises, should I essentially rule out most bicep/tricep isolation work since iscolating those muscles usually entails using only the elbow?

I used to not do Lat Pulldowns because I would simply do pull-ups/chin-ups, but I got to a point where I could easily knock out 15-20 per set for plenty of sets. I know that there are things you can do to add weight, but unfortunately there is no way I know of (weight belt, hanging weight etc) to add weight to a pull-up that I have access to. I'm afraid that if I just do bodyweight pull-up/chin-ups that as I can do more reps, I will leave the optimal muscle building rep zone. Is this line of thinking unfounded or would I be okay sticking with body weight?

Thank you a ton for the help.

[swanso5]

well do the test again and work up to that higher 30" platform and see how you go...if it's higher than your vert than you won't even need plyo's, you'll simply need to get stronger
- overhead tosses thorwing over your head??
- exercise selection should stay the same but with more volume and intensity...for performance single joint and light exercises won't benefit you at all and will only hinder recovery from the big exercises that matter (deads, squats etc)
- i suugested cutting them all out completely they aren't making you stronger or faster...add 1 core exercise to the end of each session
- lunges are great but you don't need 2 lunge variations in the same workout that work the same movement...you want a lot of hamstring/glute focused exercises
- yes for the arm thing
- i add wt to pull ups with a regular pants belt and a chain...it has held 25kg before...make sure your not "kipping" though (hiking legs up etc)..there's many variations too (mixed grip, push away etc)
- you want optimal strength zone over muscle building zone..try the variations (search google) and see what reps they allow you to do but buy some gear of you have to i'd say

[timtimtimmah19]

Gotcha. Thanks a ton man.