Feedback on program to gain 10 LBS of muscle in 6 months

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hotwired99
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Feedback on program to gain 10 LBS of muscle in 6 months

Post by hotwired99 »

I am 53 years old. 6’4” and 170 lbs. I am definitely too “skinny” and would like to get back to younger weight of 180-185 but low body fat like I am right now. I’m around 14% and BMI test doctor has done recommends adding 5 lbs. of fat for optimum health, believe it or not. I don’t want that. I love having super low body fat. It’s very comfortable. So goal here is 10-15 LBS muscle.

To complicate things just a bit, I have scoliosis. Not debilitating but the advice I get, whether professional or not, is to stay away from squats and deadlifts, and focus more on higher rep lighter weight vs. low rep high weight. These of course are the “heavy hitters”. So given that, here’s current program. I’d like your input. Am I on the right track given restrictions? Should I change anything? How is schedule? Too much rest? Not enough? Whatever comes up I want to hear it. Thank you.

I use free weight dumbbells, a bowflex machine, body weight and just purchased a vertical leg press (cheaper one but I only have 80LBS on it so I’m safe until I get stronger. I make sure lower back stays put on the bench.) I do each set to failure the best I can. I do supersets but generally only between 1 set of each exercise (i.e. during bench press, I do air squats one time). I list 12-15 reps but usually can only do like 15-11-8-6. I rest 90 seconds give or take between each. I will often skip one thing per session. For example, I’ll skip flies one session then shrugs the next. workout takes just over an hour. I do upper, lower, rest rest, upper lower, like that. I do cardio which is 30 minutes on a lifecycle every rest day.

UPPER (12-4-2018)

Bench with bowflex or pushups 4 x 12-15
Superset air-squats x 25

Flies 1-2 x 12-15 on bowflex or laying on big exercise ball (10 lbs. dumbbells)
Superset hanging leg raises (15)

Lat Pulldowns 4 x 12-15 (all weight on bf, 205, but it’s NOT really 205 LBS)
Superset bicycle crunch (25)

Pull ups – I’ll do max, which is 2-3, then using a bench, jump up into the up position and do 2-3 “negative reps”

Shoulder press 3 x 10-12 (bowflex or 20 lb. dumbbells)
Superset plank

Curls 4 x 12-15
Superset Johnson curl

Triceps pulldowns 3 x 12-15
Superset various leg stretches

Row (Bowflex or bent over)
3 x 12-15

Shoulder shrugs (1-2 sets of 15-20 with 25 lb. dumbbells. I roll back a little at top)


LOWER
*I used to do goblet squat and Belgian split squat but now that I’ve gotten leg press I just do that for quads and hams. Should I add anything else?

Leg press 5 x 12-15 80LBS
Superset hanging leg raises (15)

Unweighted hip hinge (25)
Superset bicycle crunch (25)

Leg curls 3 x 15 using bowflex, hacking the leg extension piece

Leg Extensions 3 x 12-15
Superset plank (1/30/30/30)

Calf Raises 2 x 25 sec

Weighted Glute Bridges 2 x 25

Start day with 20 minute stretch routine with one cheat day per week

Diet: As usual. 4-5 times per day. PPB (primarily plant based) but plenty of protein as well. Do intermittent fasting (18 hour) 1-2 times per week.
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Boss Man
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Re: Feedback on program to gain 10 LBS of muscle in 6 months

Post by Boss Man »

Hi Hotwired99, good to talk to you.

Personally I'd move the rows to after the pull ups, as it's better to work big muscles before small ones, as you need the small ones as stabilisers and synergists so fatiguing small muscles before you train big ones, could compromise the work done on big muscle groups.

Apart from that I don't see too much wrong with what you're doing.
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