66Kg Monster!

[Birds]

just out of interest as I havent seen them. But what do your workouts look like?

also height, weight bf% etc?

Talking to me or TTT?

[-FIGJAM-]

both out of interest.

[Birds]

I'm 188cm and 80kg, at a guess I'm below 10% BF and fairly thin framed. To give you an idea of that, I was 62kg at the same height.

I do a two day split routine, it gets repeated again later in the week, so four sessions per week. I could probably get away with two sessions per week, but I love the extra stamina of repeating the split and there is plenty of rest to allow this. At 6 sets of 10 reps per exercise, they take just over an hour each.

First day is predominantly push (Monday/Thursday), which includes flat bench, close grip lat pulldown, incline bench, tri pushdown, woodchops and situps.

Second day is predominantly pull (Tuesday/Friday), which includes behind neck shoulder press, seated row, decline cable crossovers, wide grip lat pulldown, SL deadlifts, squats and bi curls.

I don't calorie count. I eat what I want when I want (chocolate on a daily basis, for example), but live predominatly off bread, pasta, meat, cereal and water. I'm always hungry and I stuff my face every hour of the day just to fuel my workouts, they demand that much. If I skip a meal my pants don't fit me and fat people who don't exercise have been telling me for 10 years that one day my metabolism is going to fail me - I'm still waiting.

My workout is much "simpler" than yours, yet it probably works more muscles in the body. For someone trying to bulk up I'd simplify my workout even more (get rid of woodchops, situps etc.).

/lifestory

[vspecIInur]

My routine that I follow from now on is composed of a push day, pull day and leg day. SInce smashing my legs, my weight has gone up at a staggering weight i.e. 87kg to 94kg and with little to know bodyfat. Legs is my fav bodypart to train

Day 1: Chest, triceps & shoulders

Day 2: back & biceps

Day 3: Legs

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Chest, triceps & shoulders

Day 6: Back & Biceps

Day 7: Legs

At the end of the day, you just gonna have to listen to your body and see if you're getting results in the gym over a prolonged period.

[TTT]

35

5'10" (I guess)

92-93kg

bodyfat - ?? under 20% over 10% (I can still see my wang when I look down and can tie my own shoe laces)

Monday

Squat - 3 x 5 or 3 x 3

Front squat - 3 x 8 or 3 x 5

Tuesday

Flat Bench - 3 x 5 or 3 x 3 or 3 x 15

Inc Bench - 3 x 5 or 3 x 8-10

Wednesday

Rest

Thursday

Deadlift - 3 x 5 or 3 x 3

SLDL - 3 x 6 (light weight with 3 second pause at full stretch)

BB row - 3 x 10

or

chins - 3 x 5-8

or

Inverted rows - 3 x 15

Friday

Flat and Incline Bench - same as Tuesday but if I did heavy session one day, I do lighter on this day

Sat and Sun = Rest

repeat next week.

sometimes follow my work sets with singles with increasing weight till failure to see where I am in terms of 1rm progress.

[TM7GTR]

Didnt get to the gym last night, had a late meeting and oztag. Last weeks workout looked like this:

Shoulders:

Shoulder Press:

20kg x 10 reps

30kg x 10 reps

30 kg x 10 reps

Dumbbell Arnold Press: Really noticed my shoulder start to burn on this so I had to be real careful.

10kg x 10 reps

10kg x 10 reps

10kg x 8 reps

Dumbbell Lateral Raise:

7kg x 10 reps

7kg x 10 reps

8kg x 8 reps

Cable Front Raise:

10kg x 10 reps

10kg x 10 reps

10kg x 10 reps

Cable Rotator Cuff:

10kg x 10 reps

10kg x 10 reps

10 kg x 10 reps

Bent Over Delt Raise:

5kg x 10 reps

5kg x 10 reps

7.5kg x 8 reps

Had I made it last night, would have been the same workout only with 4 sets instead of 3.

Lol i'm sorry dude but this is a pretty poorly designed shoulder workout. Simple compound workout bro-science to the side, if you're gonna isolate the three heads, at least do it right. Cable front raises for instance, says it all . Your anterior (front) delts get worked an absolute ass-load with chest exercises, so to even think about doing front raises just completely gives you a program that is push movement dominant. Front raises are possibly the biggest wank exercise around when working with a well balanced program.

Why the hell are you doing shoulder press, and then Arnold Presses (which btw work the muscles no different if you know your anatomy)???

This is 2 front delt exercises, then front raises makes that 3. I see 1 lateral and 1 rear delt exercise in this program ... general rule of thumb is to achieve BALANCE.

For example, do:

DB Shoulder Press

Standing Lateral Raises

Seated Rear Delt Fly/Pull

DB Alternating Upright Row

Standing Cable Rear Delt Crossover

Variation of Shrug (bit of a wank too really)

IF you wanna work on a Bodybuilding (isolation) type program.. Shoulder days are for lateral and posterior delt development, not standing in the mirror with your mate doing front raises and multiple presses.

[TM7GTR]

I'm 188cm and 80kg, at a guess I'm below 10% BF and fairly thin framed. To give you an idea of that, I was 62kg at the same height.

I do a two day split routine, it gets repeated again later in the week, so four sessions per week. I could probably get away with two sessions per week, but I love the extra stamina of repeating the split and there is plenty of rest to allow this. At 6 sets of 10 reps per exercise, they take just over an hour each.

First day is predominantly push (Monday/Thursday), which includes flat bench, close grip lat pulldown, incline bench, tri pushdown, woodchops and situps.

Second day is predominantly pull (Tuesday/Friday), which includes behind neck shoulder press, seated row, decline cable crossovers, wide grip lat pulldown, SL deadlifts, squats and bi curls.

I don't calorie count. I eat what I want when I want (chocolate on a daily basis, for example), but live predominatly off bread, pasta, meat, cereal and water. I'm always hungry and I stuff my face every hour of the day just to fuel my workouts, they demand that much. If I skip a meal my pants don't fit me and fat people who don't exercise have been telling me for 10 years that one day my metabolism is going to fail me - I'm still waiting.

My workout is much "simpler" than yours, yet it probably works more muscles in the body. For someone trying to bulk up I'd simplify my workout even more (get rid of woodchops, situps etc.).

/lifestory

YOU DA FAT-ASS

[TM7GTR]

lol whoops whoring up posts here, but TTT what kind of training are you doing? Power, strength, endurance, hypertrophy? Just curious as you don't seem to have a constant rep range.

[TTT]

I compete in power lifting when I'm not injured.

So I train for strength

all the reps more than 5 are purely for active recovery.

[-FIGJAM-]

Alrighty, my spotter is going away for awhile, so I am going back to a simpler routine which I know works.

I (think) have harped on about a Tri Phase routine that I gave ago awhile ago and saw some real good gains, possibly noob gains but gains none the less.

Routine is simple. Three phases designed to his your muscles in different ways. Link to all the nitty and gritty info is http://www.scivationbooks.com/books/TriPhaseVol2.pdf otherwise workouts are below.

9 week routine. Each phase is 3 weeks each.

Phase 1 - Volume:

The goal of Phase 1 is to increase the volume (number of sets) each week. In

addition to adding sets each week, you should always strive to lift a greater load each

workout.

• Week 1 = 3 sets per exercise.

• Week 2 = 4 sets per exercise.

• Week 3 = 5 sets per exercise.

Rest time = 90 seconds between sets

Back+Traps

Deadlift 3-5 X 6-10

Pull-Up 3-5 X 6-10

Bent Over Row 3-5 X 6-10

BB Shrug 3-5 X 6-10

DB Shrug 3-5 X 6-10

Chest+Shoulder

Bench Press 3-5 X 6-10

Incline DB Press 3-5 X 6-10

Dips 3-5 X 6-10

Military or DB Press 3-5 X 6-10

DB Side Lateral 3-5 X 6-10

Legs

Squats 3-5 X 6-10

Stiff Leg Deadlift 3-5 X 6-10

Leg Extension 3-5 X 6-10

Leg Curl 3-5 X 6-10

Lunges 3-5 X 6-10

Arms+Calves

BB Curl 3-5 X 6-10

Close Grip Bench 3-5 X 6-10

Skull Crusher 3-5 X 6-10

DB Curl 3-5 X 6-10

Standing Calf Raise 3-5 X 6-10

Seated Calf Raise 3-5 X 6-10

Phase 2—Intensity

The Goal of Phase 2 is to lift a near maximal load for low reps. There will be no

changes in the number of sets you complete, just the load you lift.

• Week 1 = 6-RM

• Week 2 = 4-RM

• Week 3 = 2-RM

Rest time = 2-3 minutes between sets.

Upper Body A:

Bench Press

Bent Over Row

Military Press

Barbell Shrug

Close Grip Bench

Barbell Curl

Lower Body A:

Squats

Deadlifts

Seated Calf Raise

Upper Body B:

Incline Dumbell Press

Pull Up

DB Shoulder Press

Skull crusher

DB Curl

Lower Body B:

Deadlift

Leg Press

Standing Calf Raises

Phase 3—Frequency

The goal of Phase 3 is to hit each muscle more frequently than Phase 1 & 2.

Each workout uses different exercises and different rep ranges, though the same exercises

can be used for each workout if one prefers. The goal is to do two sets of an exercise for

each muscle group. Here is an example of how this workout could be set up:

Workout A 4-6 Reps 2min Rest:

Squats

Deadlift

Calf Raises

Bench Press

Bent Over Row

Military Press

Barbell Shrug

Close Grip Bench

Barbell Curl

Workout B 6-10 reps 90sec rest:

Leg Press

Leg Curl

Calf Raises

Incline Press

Pull Ups

DB Side Lateral

DB Shrug

Skull Crusher

DB Curl

Workout C 10-12 reps 30sec rest:

Leg Extension

Leg Curl

Calf Raises

Dips

Seated Cable Row

Cable Lateral

low pulley high row

Tricep Pushdown

Cable Curl

Then you rinse and repeat.

[TTT]

so how effective was it in the past?

going by that ,what do you expect in 9 weeks time?

[Birds]

That's a simplified workout? Dude...take it back to the basics. Ditch this article shit until you're at a serious plateau and have the foundations to make it work. 5-6 compound exercises, 5-6 sets of each, repeat the workout a few times a week, eat and sleep a lot - winning much?

[-FIGJAM-]

so how effective was it in the past?

going by that ,what do you expect in 9 weeks time?

How much weight I actually gained is debatable as far as lean mass goes. After the full cycle my measurements all grew by about an inch each. From the time that I started and finished, I went from 66kg to about 70-72kg.

I dont think I will see that type of improvement again, because my diet hasnt increased that much as far as calories go. My goal at the end of this year is 75kg. I doubt i'd reach that in 9 weeks, but I am going back to something that I know has worked. After I finished cycle most people commented about how much bigger I had gotten, except dad.... his comments were "still a little twig"

Birds, I don't mind this cycle, it hurts, its a challenge, I get to do a little bit of every type of training and it keeps me entertained and focused. Alot of what you said, is what makes up this workout. To be honest If I was to modify this, I'd drop the frequency phase and increase Volume and Intensity by 3 weeks.

[TTT]

Your dad sounds old skool cool.

everyone else sounds like a bunch of "everyones a winner for participating" faggots.

I always wish someone had told me that I was wasting my time with shit I found in articles or mens health mags when I was in my early 20s.

but now with everything being available so easily and a good trend of people going back to basics (and your post up there is not a basic or simple program), I just don't understand why some people insist on wasting time over and over again.

[Birds]

I'd like to blame others taking after me at my gym, because the racks were always empty before I started deads/squats and now, a few months later, I struggle to get on them...but I think that's just a shitty, shitty coincidence...and more likely the result of a mass information spread across the internet for the last year or so, that has resulted in big muscle building techniques becoming more mainstream, over the usual "5kg dumbell fly" shit from personal trainers.

However...this has also started a trend of idiocy where some personal trainers think that deadlifts and bent over rows are a good idea for a 100kg 60 year old woman. Some have no idea how to customise a workout and instead put the same person, regardless of demographic, through the exact same workout they give everyone else.

Man I hate commercial gym PTs.

[-FIGJAM-]

so been training a bit lately, but diet has been a bit funky which is stopping any weight gains. I'll be going to the doctor concerning this as I am having a couple issues which i wont divulge into...

anyway here to ask a question.

I struggle in my upper body lifts, noticeably the bench and my pull ups (wide overhand grip). Also I only barbell curl round 25-30kg for 8 to 10 reps. I was thinking about dropping the curls and doing some close grip chinups to try and help improve my upper body strength. Anyone have any thoughts or opinion? My workout is as above and done with a spotter.

Cheers,

[NickR33]

I love pull ups... I could barely do 3 when I started back in the gym... so to get better at them I would just do a few whenever I walked past a pull up bar... I mixed up my grips, underhand / overhand / wide / narrow

your fairly light so you should kill it on pull ups... there is a technique to them though... you need to concentrate on the first motion by pulling your shoulder blades back and down, getting tension in your back first... most people try to pull with their arms... the arm shouldn't really come into it until the second half of the motion... think about pulling your elbows back, down and in towards your body... lastly try and lean back a bit as you come up and bring your chest up to the bar rather than your chin... this will recruit your lats better

I curl every now and then at the end of a session... I'm very average at them but I can do 8-10 pull ups with 20kg hanging off a belt no worries... I can also row very heavy no problem so my lack of curl strenght isn't holding me back in those areas

I've never seen a guy with a big back and tiny arms;)

[-FIGJAM-]

cheers for the technique tip ill try to concentrate on it when i do them next.

My arms are in proportion so I am not concerned about that, was just thinking of different ways to increase my upper body strength.

[Dani Boi]

Why not do curls and chin ups? Don't rely on compound movements to build a muscle it isnt targetting directly, if you want a particular muscle to be bigger work it directly.

[NickR33]

he was asking about increasing upper body strength, not getting bigger arms... curls for arm size, pull ups for a stronger upper body... you won't get better at pull ups by doing curls but you might get bigger arms by doing pull ups

but I agree, why not do both... just do the pull ups first