What My Current Workouts Look Like

[KS123]

Heres what I do currently. I am 20 years old, I weigh 190 pounds, and I'm 6'4". I get stronger but not bigger. I've gained 40 pounds in the bench over the last 12 weeks of school. I took Creatine for 3 weeks, loading one week and maintinence the next. Stopped that about a month ago. Don't even take protien. I am in no way as lean as I could be.

After school ends I'm gonna go to a 4 day plan. And probably a better diet, livin in the dorms can suck. And I am going to start doin cardio too.


Monday - Chest/Back 5 Sets of Each

1. Flat Bench Press - 225lbs, 4-6 reps
2. Decline Bench Press - 165lbs, 10-12 reps
3. Chest Flys - 55lbs (Each Hand), 10-12 reps
4. Straight Arm Lat Pulldown - 60lbs, 10-12 reps
5. Seated Rows - 110lbs, 10-12 reps
6. Lat Pulldowns - 140lbs, 12 reps
7. Buddy Curls - 45-55lbs up to 15 reps


Wednsday - Biceps/Triceps 5 Sets of Each

1. Close Grip Bench Press - 185lbs, 10 reps
2. Tricep Kickbacks - 30-35lbs (Each Hand), 12 reps
3. Seated Dumbell Curls - 30lbs, 10 reps
4. Standing Tricep Extention w/ Pulley & Rope - 90lbs, 12 reps
5. Barbell Preacher Curl - 70lbs, 12 reps
6. Standing Overhead Tricep Curl w/ Barbell - 60lbs 12 reps
7. Buddy Curls - 45-55lbs up to 15 reps

Friday - Shoulders/Legs 5 Sets Each

1. Seated Dumbell Press - 50lbs (Each Hand), 8-10 reps
2. Bent Over Lateral Raise - 20lbs (Each Hand), 12 reps
3. Upright Rows - 75-80lbs, 12 reps
4. Leg Press - 280-310lbs, 12 reps
5. Shoulder Shrugs - 85lbs (Each Hand), 12-15 reps
6. Leg Extentions - 90-120lbs, 12 reps
7. Calf Raises - 90lbs, 15 reps

Only thing to failure is the flat bench and bicep curls, all 5 sets.

Let me know what you think, and if i'm doin something wrong. And please, dont tell me to do squats, I'm too tall for that ****.

 

[semag]

that is WAY too much volume, like seriously. If you're a genetic mutant, maybe that works, but considering you already stated you're not putting on any mass, and you're kinda skinny sounding (190 @ 6'4?) then I'm betting you've got typical genetics, which can't handle that load.

Try this:

Eat.
Sleep.

and make up a routine that looks something like this...

Monday:
Squats 2 x 5
Leg presses 1 x 20
Calves (your choice of exercise) 2 x 10

Wednesday:
Wide grip flat bench 2 x 6 (index fingers on the rings)
Decline medium grip bench 2 x 6 (pinkies on the rings)
Weighted dips 2 x 10
front raise 1x10
side laterals 1 x 10
bent over raise 1x10

Friday:
Dead lifts (rotate variations each week) 2 x 5
hyperextension or leg curl 1 x 10-15
Bent over rows 2 x 4
Reverse grip narrow grip pull downs or weighted chinups 2 x 6
Standing wide grip curls 2 x 8 (or your favorite curl here)

And... you're not too tall to squat. Arnold's 6'2" and lou ferrigno is 6'5"

 

[C00L]

no deadlifts and no squats?

GTFOOH!

 

[Centaurion]

1) Incorperate deadlifts, squats and bench press into you routine.

2) Wipe the word 'kicbacks' from your vocabulary. They're totally crap.

3) Waaaay too much volume.

4) Do legs seperatly as they are a major muscle group, ie something like this Mon : chest/back, Wed: arms/sholders and Fri : Legs.


I'm too lazy to write more. But read up about training at www.wannabebig.com

 

[KS123]

Well, deadlifts I can add, but Squats, no thanks. And why do you think thats too much volume? And I just added kickbacks, and they feel ****ing awesome, my triceps are on fire after.

This is what I'm doing after school gets out...


Monday

Flat Barbell Bench Press
Incline Dumbell Press
Decline Barbell Bench Press
Tricep Pushdowns
Seated Overhead Tricep Extentions
Tricep Kickbacks


Tuesday

Leg Press
Leg Extentions
Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Standing Leg Press
Leg Ups
Ab Crunches


Thursday

Seated Dumbell Press
Lateral Raises
Bent Over Lateral Raises
Upright Rows
Dumbell Shrugs
Behind Back Machine Shrugs


Saturday

Lateral Pulldowns
Dumbell Rows
Straight Arm Pulldowns
Preacher Curls
Seated Alternating Dumbell Curls
Reverse Grip Curls
Barbell Wrist Curls

Still with 5 sets of each

 

[Centaurion]

whatever.

why don't you want to do squats?

kickbacks are useless no matter what you 'feel'. There are other much much better excersises that hit the triceps way better.

but you do as you please.

 

[semag]

i agree, you ain't goin no where without squats.

A ROUTINE WITHOUT SQUATS IS WORTH SQUAT.

just get someone to teach you the form... I've seen big ol' 7' basketball players squat. you can do it kiddo!

PS: Too much volume.

 

[KS123]

Ok, I'll think about the squats, but I hate holding the bar on my shoulders and hehind my neck.

And why the hell do you guys think thats too much volume? No one else has ever told me that before.

 

[semag]

Try a low volume workout like I posted for a couple weeks, and make sure you go heavy enough... you'll be amazed by the strength gains.

Remember, strength gains = muscle gains = mass gains.

Train like a powerlifter to get big.

 

[Centaurion]

wait a min here, are you including your warmup sets or your working sets?

5 working sets are overkill, unless you are arnold.

 

[KS123]

Originally posted by Centaurion
wait a min here, are you including your warmup sets or your working sets?

5 working sets are overkill, unless you are arnold.

Yeah, they are all working sets, I dont really warm up except for the bench. I just stretch.

 

[A-Unit]

Re:

Well think about it in a few ways...

I Your energy reserves WHILE lifting are fixed. You supply X amount of energy intensely and focused over 45 minutes, or drag it through volume training for 1.5 hours. In most cases, your glycogen is depleted during intense exercise after 45 minutes, and to use QUICK energy reserves you dip into protein, since the breakdown is more complete. In a nutshell, workouts LONGER than 1 hr lead to a reverse progress process.


II Anyone's goal in lifting is to push their peak each lifting period. Week 1 you do biceps, next week you must do the same. It doesn't matter if you feel the burn or not; that's not your guage of progress. Your gauge of progress is the weight and reps you do. Beat the previous week's high and move on. Simple right? Sure, but not everybody follows that mantra. With volume training, such as what you're doing, what's the goal?

If the goal was to beat the previous week's weight, would you take multiple Warm up and Working Sets to get there, OR would you Warm Up and then dive right in to beating it.

Put another, from the great Jim Rohn, if you can't start doing many pushups, you can at least do 1, then another, then another, even if you do single reps. Eventually, you do 20. And some day, you can do 20 straight. Sure you can't do 20 all at once now, but doing a little each day will get you to your goal. In the case of say bench press, maybe you can't lift 200 right now for a lot of reps, but think about doing 1 rep, resting for 10seconds, then doing another, and another rest. Getting the picture?

If you wanted to get as big as possible, and new that lifting heavy, heavy weights would do this, what weight would you focus on lifting? The heavy stuff or the light stuff? THE HEAVY STUFF. As a kid even, a kid who wants to be strong like his dad, will see what his father does, then try to lift it, and maybe he can't do 10 big reps like dad, but he can try 1, or a half, and eventually 2, then 4, then 7 then 10. But it takes time. What you wouldn't do is practice lifting 200lbs by lifting 150 or 180 12 times like most guys @ the gym do.

It took me awhile to get such a simple concept, but really, if your goal is to be big, and you know strength per a certain rep range = mass, then why aren't you goofing around with weight that will get you big?

And for guys who want to be cut, cutting is easy. Really. Medium intensity aerobic exercise for 45 minutes + on say a treadmill, walking fast, or a stepper, and done about 3+ times a week, while inhibiting carb in take a little and you'd get there. What you wouldn't have is a physique that all that "cutness" looks good on.

-------------------------

Back to my point...we work backwards from the goal.

I.e. Size

Large size is born from strength, since small muscles can't lift big weight.

To get bigger, you must constantly lift more each week. And to do that, you must lift heavy weights. It's just as confusing to a muscle to lift another 5 lbs or 2 more reps as it is to drop the weight by 25% and try "confusion" principles. The muscles only care about hypertrophy and tearing, from there it's eating.

--------------------------

My feeling on your workout is that, for the first exercise you might put forth true, 100% intensity, but for the remainder, you're nowhere near close to that because it would be impossible to sustain such high energy levels for the duration of your workout. OR, the converse is true, you just half ass the whole thing.

In any event, taking all that spread out energy and focus into one main exercise per day per body part you'd be amazed at what weight you'd lift, and how fast you'd recover. Now it takes me just 4 or 5 days and I'm at it again, whereas you're in the gym only 52x per year per body part, so there's only 52 growth phases per body part, assuming you're eating properly to grow.

Granted, you may in time get to where you want by being so dogmatic, but it will take a long, long time for such a devotion of time.

The other alternative is to spread your workouts down to 3 days/week or 4, and lift the same body parts withhin 4 or 5 days. Focus on 1 key exercise and gaining each time you do it. Eat fully and hugely and you'll grow. There's no way you can't. Doing so gives you 73 growth phases for workouts every 5 days or so. Drop it to every 4 days and you'll have 91 phases.

See it's...

STIMULUS from intensity
RECOVERY by food and nutrition
GROWTH by food + rest

Rinse and Repeat.

Our early ancestors did the same thing, minus the weights.

---------------------------

There's a story about a woman who had a baby pig. And everyday she had to carry it into town as her pet. She'd go up hill and back down hill to get there. As the pig grew, so did the woman's strength, but she didn't really realize it. Sure she'd struggle, but the gains in the pig were so marginal, that when the pig was 4x it's original size, it was very easy for her.

The same concepts applies to weights. While adding 2.5 or 5lbs each week sounds pithy, on some exercises that will correspond to a 180 lb increase. So if you're doing 150 on bench right now, and workout with bench say every 5 days, and adding 2.5 lbs, you would do 330lbs at the end of a year. NOW, if you eat properly, and big, that 2.5 will seem small, and you might now hit 330, but certainly 250 could happen...could that be achieved any other way???


A-unit

 

[A-Unit]

Re:

Well think about it in a few ways...

I Your energy reserves WHILE lifting are fixed. You supply X amount of energy intensely and focused over 45 minutes, or drag it through volume training for 1.5 hours. In most cases, your glycogen is depleted during intense exercise after 45 minutes, and to use QUICK energy reserves you dip into protein, since the breakdown is more complete. In a nutshell, workouts LONGER than 1 hr lead to a reverse progress process.


II Anyone's goal in lifting is to push their peak each lifting period. Week 1 you do biceps, next week you must do the same. It doesn't matter if you feel the burn or not; that's not your guage of progress. Your gauge of progress is the weight and reps you do. Beat the previous week's high and move on. Simple right? Sure, but not everybody follows that mantra. With volume training, such as what you're doing, what's the goal?

If the goal was to beat the previous week's weight, would you take multiple Warm up and Working Sets to get there, OR would you Warm Up and then dive right in to beating it.

Put another, from the great Jim Rohn, if you can't start doing many pushups, you can at least do 1, then another, then another, even if you do single reps. Eventually, you do 20. And some day, you can do 20 straight. Sure you can't do 20 all at once now, but doing a little each day will get you to your goal. In the case of say bench press, maybe you can't lift 200 right now for a lot of reps, but think about doing 1 rep, resting for 10seconds, then doing another, and another rest. Getting the picture?

If you wanted to get as big as possible, and new that lifting heavy, heavy weights would do this, what weight would you focus on lifting? The heavy stuff or the light stuff? THE HEAVY STUFF. As a kid even, a kid who wants to be strong like his dad, will see what his father does, then try to lift it, and maybe he can't do 10 big reps like dad, but he can try 1, or a half, and eventually 2, then 4, then 7 then 10. But it takes time. What you wouldn't do is practice lifting 200lbs by lifting 150 or 180 12 times like most guys @ the gym do.

It took me awhile to get such a simple concept, but really, if your goal is to be big, and you know strength per a certain rep range = mass, then why aren't you goofing around with weight that will get you big?

And for guys who want to be cut, cutting is easy. Really. Medium intensity aerobic exercise for 45 minutes + on say a treadmill, walking fast, or a stepper, and done about 3+ times a week, while inhibiting carb in take a little and you'd get there. What you wouldn't have is a physique that all that "cutness" looks good on.

-------------------------

Back to my point...we work backwards from the goal.

I.e. Size

Large size is born from strength, since small muscles can't lift big weight.

To get bigger, you must constantly lift more each week. And to do that, you must lift heavy weights. It's just as confusing to a muscle to lift another 5 lbs or 2 more reps as it is to drop the weight by 25% and try "confusion" principles. The muscles only care about hypertrophy and tearing, from there it's eating.

--------------------------

My feeling on your workout is that, for the first exercise you might put forth true, 100% intensity, but for the remainder, you're nowhere near close to that because it would be impossible to sustain such high energy levels for the duration of your workout. OR, the converse is true, you just half ass the whole thing.

In any event, taking all that spread out energy and focus into one main exercise per day per body part you'd be amazed at what weight you'd lift, and how fast you'd recover. Now it takes me just 4 or 5 days and I'm at it again, whereas you're in the gym only 52x per year per body part, so there's only 52 growth phases per body part, assuming you're eating properly to grow.

Granted, you may in time get to where you want by being so dogmatic, but it will take a long, long time for such a devotion of time.

The other alternative is to spread your workouts down to 3 days/week or 4, and lift the same body parts withhin 4 or 5 days. Focus on 1 key exercise and gaining each time you do it. Eat fully and hugely and you'll grow. There's no way you can't. Doing so gives you 73 growth phases for workouts every 5 days or so. Drop it to every 4 days and you'll have 91 phases.

See it's...

STIMULUS from intensity
RECOVERY by food and nutrition
GROWTH by food + rest

Rinse and Repeat.

Our early ancestors did the same thing, minus the weights.

---------------------------

There's a story about a woman who had a baby pig. And everyday she had to carry it into town as her pet. She'd go up hill and back down hill to get there. As the pig grew, so did the woman's strength, but she didn't really realize it. Sure she'd struggle, but the gains in the pig were so marginal, that when the pig was 4x it's original size, it was very easy for her.

The same concepts applies to weights. While adding 2.5 or 5lbs each week sounds pithy, on some exercises that will correspond to a 180 lb increase. So if you're doing 150 on bench right now, and workout with bench say every 5 days, and adding 2.5 lbs, you would do 330lbs at the end of a year. NOW, if you eat properly, and big, that 2.5 will seem small, and you might now hit 330, but certainly 250 could happen...could that be achieved any other way???


A-unit

 

[KS123]

I really dont know guys. When I started workout out for real again at the beggining of the semester, my bench sets went like this....

180lbs - 10reps, 10reps, 9reps, 6reps and 5reps.

Now, only 10 weeks later, I do...

225lbs - 7reps, 6reps, 6reps, 5reps and 4 reps.

I've never been this strong. I just dont see how its wrong.

 

[C00L]

Originally posted by KS123
I really dont know guys. When I started workout out for real again at the beggining of the semester, my bench sets went like this....

180lbs - 10reps, 10reps, 9reps, 6reps and 5reps.

Now, only 10 weeks later, I do...

225lbs - 7reps, 6reps, 6reps, 5reps and 4 reps.

I've never been this strong. I just dont see how its wrong.

well how does your chest look? at the end of the day its not about how much weight you move, its how you look.

 

[KS123]

Originally posted by C00L
well how does your chest look? at the end of the day its not about how much weight you move, its how you look.

Oh its big, but its not as lean as I want it to be.

 

[manuva]

Thats waay too much volume. You're overtraining yourself, hence your gains aren't what they could be.

If you can bench 225 for 10, 8... etc, then you can prolly bench 260 for 6 or 8. 260 is a bigger weight than 225, which means more stress on the muscle, which means more growth. More growth equals more strength.

An intense chest workout should include 2 exercises, with 2 sets per exercise. You're entire chest workout can be done in 15 minutes. Same with back. Legs usually take a little longer.

 

[Neo187H]

For the beginnger the best bicep exercises you can do are pullups, the best tricep exercises you can do are dips. Really the most important aspect is nutrition though, youll never get big no matter how much you lift if you dont eat right and enough. If your hitting your chest so hard make sure to hit your back and shoulders equally as hard too or else your just asking for a shoulder injury at some point down the road.

 

[KS123]

Originally posted by Neo187H
For the beginnger the best bicep exercises you can do are pullups, the best tricep exercises you can do are dips. Really the most important aspect is nutrition though, youll never get big no matter how much you lift if you dont eat right and enough. If your hitting your chest so hard make sure to hit your back and shoulders equally as hard too or else your just asking for a shoulder injury at some point down the road.

Yeah, Im not exactly a beginner. Ive been at this for a few years now, on and off. I still remember when I maxed out at 135...

 

[Neo187H]

Originally posted by KS123
Yeah, Im not exactly a beginner. Ive been at this for a few years now, on and off. I still remember when I maxed out at 135...

my bad, still holds true though. they are great exercises. Many ppl swear by weighted dips for huge triceps. try out this site, it has many many good articles and random information.

t-nation