Hi all, I've been working out now about two and half months and would like to get some updated info and advice on questions I have thus far.
First of all, this is program, some of which I have added because of you guys recommendations and some from things that past has dictated I need (IE injuries and such).
program is a 3 day a week, so if you want to call it M,W,F, we'll go with that.
1. I start out with a quick warm up on treadmill 10 minutes to get heart rate up to about 145 (I'm 5'8", 155lbs).
2. I spend about 10 minutes stretching, low back, rotator cuff area, hams, hip flexors.
M,W,F CORE work
1. Crunches 3x20
2. Side dumbell raises 3x20
3. Nautilus machine crunches 3x15
Monday (chest and tris)
Incline bench press db 3x10x10x8
Smith Bench press machine 3x10x10x8
Flyes 2x10
Skull crushers 2x10
kickbacks 2x10
Wednesday (back and biceps)
Back ext raises 3x10
One arm bent over row 3x12x12x10
Chin ups (machine weight assisted) 3x6
Bicep Preacher curls with ez bar 3x8
Machine cable row 3x10
Wrist curls 2x10
Friday (Legs and shoulders)
Step ups 2x10
Squats db's 3x10x10x8
Seated calf raises 2x12
Shoulder db press 3x10x10x8
Shoulder side lateral raise 2x10
Reverse fly on incline 2x10
Db shoulder shrugs 3x10
Rotator cuff internal and external rotation 3x10x10x10
MWF, I then finish with about 15 minutes on treadmill before I leave
Before I ask questions, this is what I'm finding. No real big gains in mass but obviously I've only been at it two months, I do feel a little firmer. diet, I'm trying to eat a little more, but cleaner food, especially the days I work out, so I eat chicken, fish, a few dinners a week, and maybe a steak, lots of salads, etc. A protein shake after I work out. Very little bad food, chips, etc, no soda, I am drinking powerade or water now days. weight, well really it fluctuates, I initally started at 152, was at 153.5 for a while, last night was at 156, but I could recheck it in a couple days and it could be 154, so I don't put much stock in that, don't know if that is a little fat coming off and maybe a touch of muscle coming on, or maybe it's all irrelevant, lol.
I am usually sore, not one day but the second day after working out, and I can stay sore for day 3 and 4 after a work out of that muscle group. I am taking all excercises with weight slowly and educating myself, for proper form, hence squats with db I'm at 30lb db each on that one now. I have tried two different times to add dead lifts but that one is very difficult for me to get in head correct form, it goes against all natural things I have been taught, lift things with your legs and go up but this is bending over and lifting with your back or butt/hamms and I'm not ready to throw that in the mix, that's why I'm doing the back ext raises right now to get strength in back before I feel comfortable with deadlifts.
All areas that I work with weights, after 3-4 sessions of that excercise I push myself to go up a touch in weight, and drop a few reps, then when it becomes a little easier, I add the reps back, so say 3x6, 3x8, 3x10, 3x12 then on to a little more weight, repeat process.
Biceps, okay this one, I'm struggling. You guys recommend chinups, I can't really do much non assisted chinups as far as sets go, so I'm using the assisted machine set on 45lbs (I'm 155lbs), and 3x6 reps. If I do this first before preacher curls, chin ups blow bi's out, they barely get the last 5th and 6th rep on set 3. So when I go to bicep curls, I got not much left in the bicep tank. If I do the preacher curls first then I struggle with trying to do chin ups, what should I be doing here???
Lastly, I've added some things as I go, and I gotta feeling that some of the things may not be optimized for the day they are being done, can you review and tell me if I need to do a certain excercise on a certain day, example bent over one arm row, is that back day or shoulder day, I don't want to work the same muscle that hasn't had it's appropriate rest time.
Thanks for the advice.....
Russ
Update with progress and program
Moderators: Boss Man, cassiegose
Re: Update with progress and program
Well done on keeping up the hard work fella!
Weight will fluctuate from day to day, that's normal. What I do is weigh myself at around the same time on two consecutive days and take an average of the two to get a better idea of weight. I've had as much as a 1.4kg difference over two days before. Muscle soreness is part of the game really, but eating right and taking some supplements can help reduce this. Currently I can't stand up straight after a particularly brutal calf session the other day
You'll also find that the soreness you experience will lessen over time, and you'll probably even be able to predict when you will be sore, but that's more of an experience thing. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is where you might get sore about 2 days down the line from when you exercised, not necessarily the day directly after.
For your chinups, first advice would be to get off the assisted machine as it will take you forever to progress using that thing. What I would suggest is one of two things. Either you do a 30 second eccentric chin up. This consists of you jumping up to the top position of the chin up (arms bent with head above the bar) and then lowering yourself over 30 seconds until you are at the bottom of the movement. You do this once, take a rest period of 90-120 seconds then repeat 3-4 times. As you progress you can put a dumbell inbetween your legs so that there's more resistance. The other thing you can do is do as many reps as you can, then when you're at the top and you know you won't be able to pull yourself back up to complete another one, lower yourself as slowly as you can. So similar to above except you lower yourself really slowly on the last rep.
With the last method, what I found is that you should be able to improve (on average) 1 rep per session (week 1, 5 reps, week 2, 6 reps etc.) Be warned that you should expect to feel VERY sore from this, but that's normal. Eccentric training has that effect. I'd also recommend that you always try and improve upon your previous session, whether it be in amount of reps, or total weight lifted across the exercise. This is the Kaizen Theory approach as you make small consistent improvements. Hopefully it avoids any mental hurdles as you can really make the next weight tier of dumbells a big thing in your mind, when in reality you can easily accomplish it.
For your current exercises, I'd drop things like wrist curls. If you're wanting to do specific forearm work then I can give you a few pointers, but wrist curls aren't worth your time. Similar with kick backs. Very little bang for your buck. Change it for something like a french press or a rope pull down. I'd avoid the smith machine as well. Those things are more danger than they're worth! Go with the proper barbell bench, be sure to take care and be sensible if, like me, you use it without a spotter. Or ask someone to spot you, I've found people very accommodating about doing this.
Lastly, your core exercises, I would swap for exercises like swiss ball crunches and cable crunches and cable pull in. Swiss ball allows you to work the abs through their full range opposed to floor crunches as you curl slightly around the ball as you lie down. Single arm row is a back exercise, the uni-lateral version of the barbell row.
Yikes, essay much! Let me know if you've still got anymore questions!
Rich
Weight will fluctuate from day to day, that's normal. What I do is weigh myself at around the same time on two consecutive days and take an average of the two to get a better idea of weight. I've had as much as a 1.4kg difference over two days before. Muscle soreness is part of the game really, but eating right and taking some supplements can help reduce this. Currently I can't stand up straight after a particularly brutal calf session the other day
You'll also find that the soreness you experience will lessen over time, and you'll probably even be able to predict when you will be sore, but that's more of an experience thing. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is where you might get sore about 2 days down the line from when you exercised, not necessarily the day directly after.For your chinups, first advice would be to get off the assisted machine as it will take you forever to progress using that thing. What I would suggest is one of two things. Either you do a 30 second eccentric chin up. This consists of you jumping up to the top position of the chin up (arms bent with head above the bar) and then lowering yourself over 30 seconds until you are at the bottom of the movement. You do this once, take a rest period of 90-120 seconds then repeat 3-4 times. As you progress you can put a dumbell inbetween your legs so that there's more resistance. The other thing you can do is do as many reps as you can, then when you're at the top and you know you won't be able to pull yourself back up to complete another one, lower yourself as slowly as you can. So similar to above except you lower yourself really slowly on the last rep.
With the last method, what I found is that you should be able to improve (on average) 1 rep per session (week 1, 5 reps, week 2, 6 reps etc.) Be warned that you should expect to feel VERY sore from this, but that's normal. Eccentric training has that effect. I'd also recommend that you always try and improve upon your previous session, whether it be in amount of reps, or total weight lifted across the exercise. This is the Kaizen Theory approach as you make small consistent improvements. Hopefully it avoids any mental hurdles as you can really make the next weight tier of dumbells a big thing in your mind, when in reality you can easily accomplish it.
For your current exercises, I'd drop things like wrist curls. If you're wanting to do specific forearm work then I can give you a few pointers, but wrist curls aren't worth your time. Similar with kick backs. Very little bang for your buck. Change it for something like a french press or a rope pull down. I'd avoid the smith machine as well. Those things are more danger than they're worth! Go with the proper barbell bench, be sure to take care and be sensible if, like me, you use it without a spotter. Or ask someone to spot you, I've found people very accommodating about doing this.
Lastly, your core exercises, I would swap for exercises like swiss ball crunches and cable crunches and cable pull in. Swiss ball allows you to work the abs through their full range opposed to floor crunches as you curl slightly around the ball as you lie down. Single arm row is a back exercise, the uni-lateral version of the barbell row.
Yikes, essay much! Let me know if you've still got anymore questions!
Rich
Re: Update with progress and program
Thanks a ton for your feedback friend. Hmmmm, interesting input on the chin ups, I'm gonna check that out, and see how it plays out, also, do you recommend doing that in conjunction with curls if so, which one first.
I'm also going to look up your recommendations on the crunches, swiss ball etc, appreciate that.....
I'm also going to look up your recommendations on the crunches, swiss ball etc, appreciate that.....
Re: Update with progress and program
Ideally, during a routine you want to work the big muscle movements first, working down to the smaller ones. Unless you're doing a separate arms day then arms would tend to come at the end of a session. What I've been doing recently is double set bench press with pull ups.
Added to this I try to work agonist and antagonist muscles when doing double sets. For example, work the biceps, short rest, work the triceps, short rest, repeat. This gives the first muscle time to recover and continues to recover whilst you exercise the second. On your back/bicep day I'd start with the chin ups or one arm/cable rows as those are the bigger movements, especially if you swap the cable rows for barbell rows, then move downwards with the size of the muscle group (although one arm rows work the muscles unilaterally so the cable rows are slightly redundant, so think about swapping out the cable row for a different exercise).
Don't be scared if you feel that you're not very good at a particular exercise. The way to get better at them is to do that exercise. Don't be afraid to train what you're bad at! When you feel confident enough, do include some deadlifting. They are really good exercises. Perhaps get a PT down your gym to help you with them. Just start off lightly and work yourself in.
Good luck!
Rich
Added to this I try to work agonist and antagonist muscles when doing double sets. For example, work the biceps, short rest, work the triceps, short rest, repeat. This gives the first muscle time to recover and continues to recover whilst you exercise the second. On your back/bicep day I'd start with the chin ups or one arm/cable rows as those are the bigger movements, especially if you swap the cable rows for barbell rows, then move downwards with the size of the muscle group (although one arm rows work the muscles unilaterally so the cable rows are slightly redundant, so think about swapping out the cable row for a different exercise).
Don't be scared if you feel that you're not very good at a particular exercise. The way to get better at them is to do that exercise. Don't be afraid to train what you're bad at! When you feel confident enough, do include some deadlifting. They are really good exercises. Perhaps get a PT down your gym to help you with them. Just start off lightly and work yourself in.
Good luck!
Rich