I would like some advice on my weight training routine just to make sure I’m on the right track. I’m a beginner and just started working out about 2 months ago. My goal is to add some solid lean muscle to my body and bulk up a little since I currently only weigh about 155 pounds and I’m on the skinnier side. My routine looks like this:
- Monday: Back, Biceps, Abs
- Wednesday: Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Calves, Forearms
- Friday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
- Saturday: Off
- Sunday: Off
I would also like to know if I should change up my workout routine every few weeks or just keep it the same. Any help would be great!
Your current 3 day split workout routine looks pretty good but I recommend making a few small changes. Move your forearms to your Monday workout when you’re training biceps. This way on Wednesday when you train legs, you can focus 100% on training this large muscle group with super high intensity exercises without worrying about getting in a forearm workout at the very end. It’s also better to include forearms with biceps since it’s a secondary muscle group and you will have already taxed the forearm muscles earlier in the biceps workout.
In terms of whether you should stick with the same workout routine or switch it up, you definitely want to change things up every few weeks to shock your muscles and stimulate growth. First, I recommend using a push pull workout style where you train opposing muscle groups. For example, you will train chest and back on the same day. To get the most out of the push pull workout routine, you will do a set of chest (pushing movement) and then immediately do a set of back (pulling movement) and do this back to back with no rest in between. After you have finished this first set of both exercises, you will rest for 30-60 seconds. You will follow this same style for all of your muscle groups in the push pull format. I have included a weekly push pull workout below that you can follow:
Monday: Chest and Back
- Barbell Bench Press, followed up with
- Bent Over Barbell Rows (rest for 30-60 seconds)
- 4 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
- Incline Bench Dumbbell Press, followed up with
- Seated Cable Rows (rest for 30-60 seconds)
- 4 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Calves
- Barbell Squats, followed up with
- Romanian Deadlifts (rest for 30-60 seconds)
- 4 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
- Leg Press Machine, followed up with
- Lying Leg Curls (rest for 30-60 seconds)
- 4 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
- Barbell Calf Raises
- Leg Press Machine Calf Press
- 4 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
Thursday: Off
Friday: Shoulders, Traps, Biceps and Triceps
- Seated Barbell Press followed up with
- Dumbbell Shrugs (rest for 30-60 seconds)
- 3 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press followed up with
- Rear Deltoid Raises (rest for 30-60 seconds)
- 3 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
- Barbell Curls, followed up with
- Skull Crushers (rest for 30-60 seconds)
- 3 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
- Preacher Curls, followed up with
- Straight Bar Pushdowns (rest for 30-60 seconds)
- 3 sets of each exercise with 8-10 reps per set
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Try to follow a specific training routine for about a month before switching up the overall layout. Another very important aspect of designing your workout routines is to also change up the exercises that you include for each muscle group. So, you will be changing your overall workout routine once every month but you will also change the exercises you use every week within that specific plan. For the push pull workout routine I included above, you will use different exercises each week for a total of 4 changes within a month. This way you will truly be able to stimulate your muscles from a wide variety of different stimuli from changing up your exercises each week.
