Weightlifters, What's your training routine?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been thinking about adopting a more rigorous exercise regime these last few days and I think I’ve worked out one which will suit my needs quite well (basically my ‘needs’ are to look good naked as quickly as humanly possible).

I will be working out 6 days a week with Sunday as a general day off. I won’t be exercising the same muscle group 2 days in a row at any time so my muscles should get enough rest & time to grow in spite of the frequency of my gym visits.

I’ve included the full routine for your perusal and I warmly invite any comments you may wish to make. I’d also be interested in seeing your routines.

note: I’ve included my intended diet in this post as well and would deeply appreciate any advice you may have in this area as this is an area of some considerable uncertainty for me

Above all, I have one question for all of you to which I would like as many answers as possible:

Will this workout be effective and will the diet help?

I’ll be doing;

Monday, Wednesday & Friday:

cardio
5 Kilometer Run
(Short break)
2 Kilometer Row
3 Kilometer Cycle Ride.
10 mins on Stairmaster

(Short break)

Back

Lat Pulldowns - 3 sets of 10 - 42 Kilo’s.
Seated Row - 3 sets of 10 - 35 Kilo’s.
Pull Ups - 2 sets of as many as I can do.
Legs

Leg Extensions (Quads)- 3 sets of 10 - 42 Kilo’s
Leg Curls (Hamstrings) - 3 sets of 10 - 42 Kilo’s
Leg Press (Quads & Hamstrings) - 3 sets of 10 - 108 Kilo’s
Squats (Glutes) - 3 sets of 10 - (Don’t know what would be a good weight for these yet)
Hip Adductors (Inside leg) - 3 sets of 10 - 35 Kilo’s
Calf Raises - 3 sets of 10 - 56 Kilo’s

Abs

Crunches - 3 sets of 40 (currently my max for 1 set)
Leg Lifts - 3 sets of 10 (currently my max for 1 set)
Crunch Machine - 3 sets of 10 - 35 Kilo’s
Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays

cardio
5 Kilometer Run
(Short break)
2 Kilometer Row
3 Kilometer Cycle Ride.
10 mins on Stairmaster

(Short break)

Chest

Chest Press - 3 sets of 10 - 42 Kilo’s
Pec Fly - 3 sets of 10 - 42 Kilo’s
Bench Press - 3 sets of 10 - 30 Kilo’s
Bench Press again - 3 sets of 10 - 40 Kilo’s
Incline Bench Press - 3 sets of 10 - 20 Kilo’s
Bench Press with free weights - 3 sets of 10 - (Don’t know what would be a good weight for these yet)

Arms

Bicep Curl Machine - 3 sets of 10 - 30 Kilo’s
Tricep Extension Machine - 3 sets of 10 - 35 Kilo’s
Tricep Extensions on Cable Curl Machine - 3 sets of 10 - 35 Kilo’s
Tricep Dips - 2 sets of as many as I can do
Arm Curls with free weights (Biceps) - 3 sets of 10 - 12 Kilo’s
Barbell Curls - 2 sets of 10 - 20 Kilo’s
Barbell Curls - 2 sets of 10 - 25 Kilo’s
Barbell Curls - 1 set of 10 - 30 Kilo’s
Barbell Curls - 1 set of 6 - 35 Kilo’s
Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 10 - 35 Kilo’s

Abs

As for Monday, Wednesday & Friday

Crunches - 3 sets of 40
Leg Lifts - 3 sets of 10
Crunch Machine - 3 sets of 10 - 35 Kilo’s

Sunday, day of REST
phew
I also will be eating 6 small meals a day

                                                                     **Daily Menu**

Breakfast - 1 Bowl of Cornflakes with Skimmed milk - 1 glass of OJ - 2 or 3 rounds of toast with low fat margerine - 1 banana - 1 black coffee.

Brunch - 1 grilled chicken breast & stir fried vegetable rice & 1 protein drink (250 mls).

Lunch - 1 tuna sandwich - some sunflower/sesame seeds - some crackers & low fat cheese - 1 pint of skimmed milk.

Afternoon meal - 1 bowl of pasta with no sauce - some sunflower/sesame seeds.

Evening meal - 1 grilled chicken breast & stir fried vegetable rice - 1 tin of sweetcorn - 1 pint of skimmed milk.

Final meal - 1 protein drink (250 mls) & a ham sandwich & some grapes.

Well, that’s about it. What about you guys?

2

Just for referance, I am 5’9", 200lbs. I would add hyperextensions for your lower back. I do 7 sets of 12-15 reps. Shoulder shrugs or upright rowing 3 sets 10-15reps for trapezius. You need some kind of overhead pullovers to define your serratus, again, 3 sets 10-15reps. A Roman chair works for me for leg lifts, 7 sets of 12-15 reps. For deltoids, I do alternating forward dumbell raises, side raises, and bent over raises to hit the back, 3 sets each, 8-12 reps. Then finish with your military press. A rotary torso machine works your oblique abs, but keep the weight low, 10-15reps. You need to drink at least 2 liters of pure water per day. After everything, a jacuzzi or very hot bath will help limit soreness, as will the potassium from a banana.

3

Are you sure you’re eating enough?

What’s the daily calorie total? That diet looks a little light considering what an extensive workout you’re doing.

4

[Nitpick]
I thought hyperextensions were bad for your back. Definition: Extension of a bodily joint beyond its normal range of motion.

Back extensions are what you want to do. With hyperextensions you raise your torso above your legs, further back than you would normally.
[/Nitpick]

I’m sure this is just a semantic argument. But whatever you call it you want to raise your torso to be parallel with the ground, no more.

I also love the excercize BTW. I like to combine it with a high rep crunch routine. Really makes you stand up straight.

5

Kevja - I’m not exactly sure of the total calories but it’s roughly equivalent to what I would expend in a day + what I expect to burn off doing my new routine. If there is any disparity I’m thinking I could just add a couple of extra sandwiches to the diet and maybe switch from skimmed to semi skimmed milk.

The dietary aspect of all this seems so complicated. In order to build muscle I have to ensure I take in roughly 10% (I think) more calories than I expend each day (including the calories expended in my work out). However, if these calories are delivered in the wrong type of food it is actually counter productive. Meanwhile, I’ve got to ensure I don’t go too far over 10% more calories than I expend else the surplus will be converted to fat. It all just seems far too precise to be practically applicable.

Does my nut in :mad:

6

So, what are you trying to do, exactly? Gain muscle? Gain Strength? Gain weight in general? Lose weight? train for a marathon? Increase your endurance?

At first glance, it seems to me that you are working out too much. How long does it take to do your workout? How much are you eating?

7

I hope you are not trying for too much size. That is a lot of cardio. 5 days a week may be too much. Especially at all that volume. You need rest to recouperate, and it doesn’t look like you have much of that.

Like Hermann, I would inquire as to your goals as well.

Your diet seems low, but estimating your diet from what little you have given me (I.e I don’t know portion size), I would say it is about 3000kcals a day.

Your volume on your lifts seem very high. Especially on your curls.
My suggestions:

Alternate these. Do two of them per day, but not every other day. Monday do a 5km run and a row, then Wednesday, do a row and a cycle ride, and Friday do a cyle and 10-20 mins on the stairmaster. Better yet, Throw in some sprints, wind sprints, parachute sprints, etc. High intensity fun!

Too much for one day. Unless you are a Pro and have been doing it for years and have awesome genetics and recovery ability.

Drop the seated row, you do enough of these on the rows on cardio day. I would drop the lat pull downs, or cut em down to 1 or two sets, and do 2 sets of weighted pull ups.

Drop the leg extensions, leg curls and leg press. You get plenty of a workout from the squats and you do plenty of running during the week. Your poor legs will never get a rest. Throw in a Stiff legged deadlift for Hammies and glutes. Or some good mornings

Do some weighted crunches, no more than 15 reps, 4 sets. drop the crunch machine. Yech.

Way too much volume my friend. Don’t fall for that crap in your bodybuilding magazine. Drop the chest press, the pec fly and alternate the Incline and bench press. Do either 2 sets of each or 4 sets of one the first week, 4 sets of the other the next week. Stick to the freeweights. You are trying to stimulate muscle growth, not destroy the muscle totally.

Way too much volume on your biceps. They are a small muscle and don’t need that much volume. Your gains will stall quick and signs of overtraining will show up. Stick to 2-3 sets to biceps. Stick to freewieghts. Tricep dips are great, but if you do extensions, only do 2 sets of each. Don’t do as many as you can, if you can do more than 15, add weight so that is all that you can do. (most gyms have a belt that you can attach weights to with a chain, start with 10lbs, try 25 if that is too easy)

8

As far as weights and programs go, you’re the only one that can determine if it’s heavy enough. I think you’re doing a lot of things, and you don’t want to overtrain and burn out.

I personally do single set lifting. It works for me as I’m getting good results and I’m not in the gym for a long time. I try to not take any more time than I have to switching from arm to arm, and from subsequent exercises in order to keep my intensity level high.

Let’s do the bicep curl:
I do a warmup set of 10 with a light weight (15lbs) with both arms. Set the weight down and then I pick up a heavy dumb bell that I can only lift (with good form) between 6-10 times before muscle failure with each arm. If I get to 10 reps, I increase the weight and do it again. (if I can’t get 6, I just start at that weight next time i hit the bicep curl)

Then, I wait a 45-60 seconds, then repeat the exercise until failure. If I don’t get to 6 the next time, don’t matter as long as I’m practicing good form. I record this all on a notecard to enter it into a spread sheet when I get back to my apartment to track my progress as well as to let myself know what weight to start on next week.

I can get a good workout done in 20-25 minutes (not counting running)

9

I’m just going to assume you want to put on a few pounds of muscle, while losing some fat around your middle. I’m also assuming you’re not training for any particular event.

I’m not sure why you want to do 4 different cardio exercises. Better to do only one or two per day, for a combined total of maybe 30-45 minutes. I also don’t feel rows are as effective as the others, so if you ditch one, ditch the rows. The cycling is also not as effective as the running or the stairmaster. Perhaps you could run every day for 20 minutes, and then alternate cycling and stairs for the second part of your cardio.

Chins are almost the same movement as pulldowns. I would do just 3 sets of chins or pulldowns, and 3 sets of a rowing movement.

Remember, if you intend to work each bodypart 3 times weekly, then 6 sets is plenty. In fact, it may be too much.

So your doing 9 sets for your quads? I would ditch the leg press. I would also do my squats before the leg extensions, unless you want to “pre exhaust” your quads. 3 sets of leg extensions followed by 3 sets of squats. I would also ditch the leg adductor exercise. The only people I ever see using those machines is women. 3 sets for calf and 3 for leg curls is good.

These exercises all do the same thing. Don’t fall for that crap that only leg lifts work the lower abs. I would simply do 3 sets of machine crunches per workout. 25 reps per set. That way, you are using a light enough weight you will use good form, and actually feel the abs contract.

Good G*d, man! 18 sets for chest, 3 times per week?

Cut that down to 3 sets of flat bench presses, followed by 3 sets of incline db press. If you want, do incline flys instead of the db presses.

You should only do total 6 total sets for triceps. Divide them up between dips and some kind of overhead extension. Same with biceps. Do 3 sets of bb curls and 3 sets of db curls.

Actually, you should probably do less than 6 sets for your arms because the muscles are relatively small, and you are working them 3 times weekly.

As far as shoulders, if you insist on working them with arms, then do them before arms.

It would probably be better for you to do legs, abs and shoulders one day, alternating with chest back and arms the next. And if you were to divide your body into 3 parts, working them twice per week, you would have legs and shoulders one day, abs, back and biceps one day, and chest and triceps the next.

10

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for all your advice. I’ve combined it all to produce a new, more effective routine which is as follows:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:

Cardio:
5 Kilometer Run
<short break>
10 mins Stair Master

Legs:
Squats – 3 sets of 10
Leg Curls – 3 sets of 10 – 42 kilo’s
Leg Extensions – 3 sets of 10 – 42 Kilo’s
Calf Raises – 3 sets of 10
Hip Adductors – 3 sets of 10

Shoulders
Shoulder Press – 3 sets of 10 – 35 kilo’s
Free weight overhead shoulder raises – 3 sets of 10 – 14 Kilo’s
Trapezius rolls – 3 sets of 10 – 16 Kilo’s

Abs
Crunches – 3 sets of 40
Crunch Machine – 3 sets of 25 – 25 Kilo’s

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

Cardio
5 Kilometer Run
<short break>
3 Kilometer Cycle Ride

Chest
Bench Press – 3 sets of 10 – 30 Kilo’s (Monday)
Incline db Press – 3 sets of 10 – 14 Kilo’s
Pec Fly – 3 sets of 10 – 56 Kilo’s

Arms
Tricep Extension Machine - 3 sets of 10 - 35 Kilo’s
Tricep dips – 2 sets to failure.

Barbells

3 sets of 10 – 25 Kilo’s

Free Weights

Arm Curls – 3 sets 0f 6-10 – Weight Variable

Abs
Crunches – 3 sets of 40
Crunch Machine – 3 sets of 25 – 25 Kilo’s

11

Looks good man! Just try to listen to your body. Only you can tell when you are doing too much or too little. It takes awhile but soon you will know instinctively. (Tired, aches all over, loss of appetite, etc)

12

Hey,

You might want to change up your shoulders a little bit day to day- throw in some heavy shrugs for trap mass, and maybe some front & side raises once a week to fully work the whole shoulder area.

Have you thought about a split routine ? I’ve found that doing cardio and weightlifting separately (IE with meals and a longer gap in between) was much more effective- but it can take more time, since you have to go to the gym twice in one day.
For myself, when I was doing cardio 1-2 hours a day I found I couldn’t gain much mass- I got stronger faster when I dropped the cardio down to 2-3 times per week total, and ate ALOT (like 4-5000 calories per day).

But it depends on your goals- If you’re trying to bulk up, you’re probably still doing too much cardio, and not eating enough. On the other hand, if you’re training for track/cross country (or just general aerobic fitness/weight loss), then you’re probably doing ok, since the weight training is more to complement the cardio than the other way around.

13

If these are what I am thinking they are, drop em. Trapezius work should be with shrugs. Rolling the shoulders with weights can damage your rotator cuff very easily. Movement for the Traps should be straight up and straight down, never roll.

14

Unless you’re using a very light weight, you’re working your abs too hard. They need as much recovery time as any other muscle. Since your abs are involved in pulldowns and squats, you could drop all specific ab work and be good to go.

15

That’s quite a workout.

If you can already do that routine, you’re in good shape and probably don’t need advice from us.

If that’s your goal, then might I suggest the following:

  1. save your cardio until after your lifting, that way your heart rate is already up a little (or alot depending on how fast you lift)
  2. have some alternate exercises for each muscle and do them every other workout so as to spice things up.
  3. increase the distance on your runs at least one day a week so that you have a long run day, and try to build it up as long as possible.
  4. are you doing hard ground or treadmill? Hard ground is better, you can always do treadmill if the weather is bad.
  5. skip a workout day a month (one monday, one tuesday one wednesday… per month) I think you might be over training if you stick to your regimen. Of course you know yourself better than we do, so FWIW.
16

Not a big lifter, but I am trained in nutrition and what I can see from you diet is that you are waaaay short on veg and fruit and heavy on protein. The body doesn’t need that much protein even when trying to build muscle mass. Too much protein will deplete your calcium.

Also, do you really plan to eat exactly this menu every day? You’d probably be better off planing to eat a carb, a protein, a veg and a fruit at each meal and not trying to plan to eat the same thing every day. Here is your menu again with the catagories of food added. You can get a better idea of where you’re unbalanced.
Breakfast - 1 Bowl of Cornflakes Carbs with Skimmed milk Protein - 1 glass of OJ Fruit - 2 or 3 rounds of toast Carbs with low fat margerine Fat - 1 banana Fruit - 1 black coffee.

Brunch - 1 grilled chicken breast Protein & stir fried vegetable rice Protein, Carbs, Veg & 1 protein drink Protien(250 mls).

Lunch - 1 tuna sandwich Protein, Fat, maybe some Veg - some sunflower/sesame seeds Protein, Fat - some crackers Carbs & low fat cheese Protein, Fat - 1 pint of skimmed milk Protein.

Afternoon meal - 1 bowl of pasta Carbs with no sauce - some sunflower/sesame seeds Protein, Fat.

Evening meal - 1 grilled chicken breast Protein & stir fried vegetable rice Protein, Carbs, Veg - 1 tin of sweetcorn Carbs, Insoluable Fiber - 1 pint of skimmed milk Protein.

Final meal - 1 protein drink Protein (250 mls) & a ham sandwich Protein, Carbs, Veg & some grapes Fruit.

17

Thanks for the layout Leifsmama. How about if I were to stick to the above diet but add 2 oranges to my lunch and 2 apples to my Afternoon meal?

However, wouldn’t you count sweetcorn as veg? And why have you described the Tuna sandwich as containing Protein, fat and maybe some veg?

Thanks again.

18

Adding oranges and apples will help. Considering substituting the sweet corn with carrots, green beans, broccoli; you get the idea. Corn is a grain and nutritionally is counts more as a grain.

Tuna, unless your going to grill an ahi tuna steak and put it on bread, I’m assuming that it’s a tuna salad. Mayo-fat, unless you use fat-free, tuna-protein, celery, onion, tomato, lettuce, cucumber, or what ever else you like on your sandwich and in your salad-Veg. Though, I did forget carbs for the bread.

By the way, putting raw veg on you sandwiches is an excellent way to get a veg in.

I hope this helps. Feel free to email me if you want.