This routine okay?

[blue17]

4x15 Bench Press
4x20 Dumbell Curl
3x15 Quad Curl
3x12 Hamstring Curl
3x15 Inverse Crunches
3x30 Calf Raises (w/ out weight)
3x15 Shoulder Raises (w/ weight)

Rest 2 days......repeat.


Alternatively, I was thinking of doing this....

4x15 Bench Press
4x12 Dumbell Flies
4x15 Dumbell Curl
4x20 Dumbell Bar Curl
3x15 Inverse Crunches

Rest 2 days.....

3x12 Hamstring Curl
3x30 Calf Raises (w/ out weight)
3x15 Quad Curl
4x15 Shoulder Raises (w/ weight)
3x15 Inverse Crunches

Rest 2 days.....repeat

 

[Lifeforce]

You can pretty much tell if a routine is good or not by looking after Squats and Deadlifts. Any routine without those will be severly weakened.

If you want mass, lower the rep count below ten, do less sets each workout, I find 17 is stretching it, you do additional 6. You work with most effeciency the first hour, after this you become fatiqued and rip up your muscles too much for them to grow back stronger.

Try building a routine that contains more basic exercises, squats, deadlifts, rows, military presses, and so fourth

 

[Heizen]

How long have you been lifting?

Working chest back and legs on the same day can be very hairy... you tend to just get exhausted and not work any of the groups really effectivly. I would suggest at least splitting it up into upper body and lower body days, and the best would be split up even further. Back, chest, and legs on separate days.

I would also lower the set number and rep number. Unless you are training for endurance, to build mass and strength 3X8 is best IMO. If you can do over 8, raise the weight. Under 8 reps, lower the weight.

There are also ALOT of sets per workout. I used to do 21 set workouts, but found more success with a 12 set workout instead. Just give each a few weeks try, and find out what works best for you.

When putting a routine together, it is best to start with one or two large compound movements as someone suggested. Things like squat, bench, clean, all those good exercises. Then more down to more isolated movements to finish out the workout.

 

[blue17]

I've been lifting for about 5 months. Started off at around 5'8.5'' 126 pounds and now I'm around 135 pounds. Not amazingly good results but it's a start.

Yesterday I tried doing 4 sets of biceps instead of my usual 3. Today for the first time in a while those muscles are a little bit sore, so I think that extra set did the trick. So I want to keep my sets at about 4 for the important muscle groups, namely chest and biceps. As for reps, I can prolly agree that doing 20 is a little too many. I'd like to cut that down to about 12 or so per set.

I was under the impression that in order to get nice cut muscles you do high number of reps. It's like the olympic weight lifters do 1 rep of 500 pounds....they're very big but their muscles don't look defined at all. So i figured that doing the opposite by lifting high number of reps would make your muscles nicely shaped. If I am wrong on this one then I would gladly do around 8 reps or so.

Fatigue is not a huge issue at this point for me. I usually do my workout throughout the day. As an example, I am doing sets in-between writing this post. I do one workout here and then do something else for a bit. Maybe an hour or two if I get bored I'll do 4 sets of biceps while watching TV....that kinda thing. Then when I actually have to get down to lifting before I go to bed, I only have a few exercises left to do. However, if I use exercise program #2 I am doing about 16 sets 2-3 times a week, I don't think that is too bad. I want to switch to that one, but essentially I would only be lifting each muscle group once per week. Although I would be doing like 8 sets of chest/biceps each, I'm not sure only working these muscles once a week would get any results. Would the second routine produce good results?

 

[Heizen]

Olympic lifters are big because they are power lifters. Nothing matters but strength to them.

Toned muscles are a direct effect of body fat. High body fat, and you arn't defined. Low BF and you are, as long as you have the muscles to show.

So to build mass, do 8-10 reps.

Number of sets you kind of need to experiment with. Everyone is different, so you should try to mix things up every now and then. Really, all you need to do is work enough to stimulate muscle growth, and then the rest of muscle growth is dependant on diet and rest. Working out is half the battle, which is why diet is so important.

As for how often you work your muscles, experient. Younger guys such as ourselves tend to overtrain muscle groups, which really hurts gains. Just keep in mind, and maybe give once a week per group a try. I would try to get 48 hours rest between groups, but otherwise do what you want.

Experiment. You will know what works with your body after working out for a while better then we will.