Advice on improving my current bulking up plan

Waking Up said:

bump

trainer told me today that doing squats three times a week is counterproductive if you burn out each muscle group hard enough for a day. He said you should let it rest for the full week.

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CaptainJ said:

Either your trainer is an idiot, or he is thinking in terms of intermediates, in which case I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (Which I shouldn't seeing as he recommended such a dire routine). If you are a beginner, then you can get away with squatting 3x a week and increasing the weight each session, trust me and hundreds of others who do it successfully. It's only at intermediate level, around 1.5x bodyweight squat that you need to look at weekly increases, yet many intermediate programs still have you squatting 3x a week.

At your stage it's bs that it takes a full week for your muscles to recover from squatting, it takes 48 hours at most. This seems to be common bullsh1t circulated around by people who know little of what they are talking about.

I'll leave it to you to make the choice. If you want to make small-average gains with high risk of losing motivation in the face of such a dull/complicated program then go with your trainer. But if you want to make huge strength/muscle gains on a simple program that challenges you and keeps you driven, then go with Rippetoe's program.

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Waking Up said:

Hey all. I'm a really skinny guy. I started out at 6'0 137 lbs a couple of months ago. So far it's been slow progress but I've gained 10 lbs during that time span and I'm at 148 now, about to hit 149. My goal is to get up to about 175 lbs, which I'm assuming is average body weight for 6'0. I've been an ectomorph my whole life, basically scrawny (both my parents were) so genetically I've had a very fast metabolism and such. In this thread I'm looking for tips to speed up the process and make it better, and this pertains to both gym exercises and diet.

My workout plan (provided by trainer) has been this for the past two months:

(3 sets for everything ranging from 8-12 reps or more to failure. I don't know the name of any of the exercises hardly, but I'll try my best)

Monday - Chest
- Bench press
- Declining/Incline bench press (switch every week)
- Dumb bell flies decline/incline (switch every week)
- Isolated machine neutral flies

I would put tris or bis on your chest day or hit both on this day too. The only muscles I'd give their only day to would be only legs and back as they need lots of attention, chest not so much especially at your level.

Pick 2 pressing movements, I'd always do an incline movement first (lowest incline on bench is best) Than I would do either a decline movement for flat dumbbell movement after.

Could be like this
Low incline barbell bench press
ramp up/warm up to 2 Working sets
6-10 reps

Flat db/decline bb/db or Machine work
2 Working sets (everything should already be warmed up from first exercise)
8-15 reps


Yet lately I've just been doing one low incline pressing exercise dumb bell or barbell followed by a machine incline movement. To really hit my upper chest.

You only need one fly movement, which I think is all you need, standing low cable flys, machine flys or low incline bench cable flys are good.
2-3 sets 10-15 reps

Tuesday - Back
- Isolated back machine (lol I don't know the name of it, but you move your head up and pull it down in front of you)
- Cable machine rows (3 sets each for high row, mid row, low row)

Pick one width exercise, pull ups, chin ups, lat pullovers, hammerstrength pulldowns or lat pulldowns, ramp/warm up to 1-2 all out sets to failure (10-15 rep range)

Now on to back thickness movements pick 1-2

rack deadlifts, floor deadlifts are good also but I like rack deads cause you can focus on hitting the spinal erectors a lot better. (muscles that run parallel along the sides of your spine)

Dorian Yates rows, barbell rows, seated cable rows, hammerstrength low rows are good too, t-bar rows, are all good for hitting the back properly.

I'd pick one heavy row or deadlift and ramp up to 1-2 sets 6-10 heavy reps (heavy for you)

than follow that with some higher rep sets with something like seated cable rows or dumbbell rows done matt kroc style. 12-15 reps

And some shrug work also, one exercise either dumbbells or barbell work is suffice. deadlifts will hit them but you can always give them some extra work as I'm going to start hitting them more also.
1-2 work sets 8-15 rep area

You can also do some scapulae work at the end via face pulls or I like to do seated cable high rows with a lat bar, bringing it to the chest as a finisher. hits rear delts good too! 2-3 sets 10-15 reps!





Wednesday - Shoulder
- Isolated shoulder machine
- Dumbbell shoulder raise
- Smith machine shoulder bar raise

Again you could put tris here also if you don't do them when you do chest(as they get used when doing any pressing anyways.

1-2 main pressing movements are all you need
Seated barbell shoulder presses, hammerstrength machiens are good, seated db press, high incline smith machine press are all good

For dumbbell work always go higher rep 10-15 reps

I usually hit 1 heavy working set 6-10 rep area on say a seated barbell press and follow it with lower weight/higher rep set. 12-15.

Than one lateral raise movement is all , seated/standing db lateral raises, standing cable lateral raises or machine laterals (very good)

Thursday - Biceps/Triceps
- Cable machine triceps (high to descent)
- Dumbbell (lay on bench, arms behind head, tricep)
- Isolated machine triceps
- Bicep cable curls
- Dumbbell bicep curls
- Isolated machine biceps

I'd start off hitting triceps with a close grip bench press or a reverse grip bench press, free weights or done in a smith machine. 6-10 reps 1-2 heavy working sets

Than follow them with only one extension for tris, lying floor tri extensions (bar goes behind the head) pjrs, larry scott extensions, power pressdowns

12-15 rep area 2 working sets

For biceps 1-2 movements are all you need things like preacher curls, db alternating curls, ez bar drag curls, laying cable curls,

I just started doing some lighter work at first to really feel the biceps working and than I'll do some nice heavy work after

For example
Alternating curls 1-2 working sets 10-15 rep area

Than after
heavy preacher curls/drag curls
1-2 working sets 6-8 rep area

Noticed you didn't have a forearm exercise either, hammer curls, pinwheels or reverse cable curls. Add one of those in also after your other exercise(s)
1-2 sets 10-15 reps is all you need (cause they're already warmed up from previous curls) Get a good weight on those too and hit em hard.



Friday - Legs
- Smith machine bar squats
- Semi-squats
- Leg press
- Isolated machine leg curl

I'd alternate session to session between machine leg curls and stiff legged deadlifts for the hamstrings, especially if you're doing deadlifts/rack deadlifts that week, they really fatigue the lower back.

I'd also hit your leg curls first than quads.

Try front squats in the smith machine, hack squats and free weight front squats are great also. Go heavy on the leg press if you wish too

1-2 Working sets 6-10 rep area

Yates would always do leg extensions before all his leg work as to help him feel them working better. (something i just started doing)

After heavy work I always do a real high volume set on either leg press or the hack squat machine
15-20 reps


As for diet, I eat eggs with bread and peanut butter every morning. I usually get about 4-6 meals a day on average, usually five or six. I'm usually pretty consistent, occasionally I get off track though and I have to compensate for it the next day. I drink a weight gain powder that I mix with milk usually after breakfast, and after working out I just started mixing whey protein with milk and I drink that (I haven't tried creatine yet though. If anyone does let me know how many scoops you do and if it's benefited you or not.) I usually eat a turkey and beef sandwich for lunch (deli cut meats, though.) And the rest of the meals are basically whatever I can find even if it's macaroni or whatnot, or I'll get fast food and buy food out.

I feel like I'm hitting a stump at 148 though. It's really hard to get past this weight, it's like my body doesn't want me too. lol.

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