Critique My Weight Training Plan - Help Needed!

Monster

Monster

Monster

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Afternoon All,

Quick background - I've been going to the gym since about February, mainly doing cardio related activity to lose a couple of stone of weight. I play football every Monday and now that I'm at my desired weight (72kg) I'm looking to reduce the cardio to the football and spinning class once or twice a week (I enjoy both the cardio stuff so don't want to stop).

However, I'm looking to bulk up a little bit but need to be careful as I have a bad lower back (twisted pelvis and spine) which I'm getting treatment for but need to be sensible with what I do, especially with certain lifts.

I'm a member of a local gym which has a range of equipment and dumbbells but would prefer to use standard dumbbells to start with before maybe moving to smith machines and other fancy kit.

I've looked up a set of exercises I can most likely do and have put them into a list below. However, I'm not sure how many of each muscle exercise to do in each session. Do you do 2 chest ones to fail or only 1 to fail etc?

Chest / Shoulders / Triceps

Dumbbell Bench Press - Chest
Dumbbell Flies - Chest
Push Ups - Chest
Tricep Dumbbell Kickbacks - Triceps
Tricep Dips (Machine Assisted to begin) - Triceps
Dumbbell Shoulder Press - Shoulder
Alternating Deltoid Raises - Shoulder

Back / Biceps / Abs

Dumbbell Curls - Biceps
Hammer Curls - Biceps
Lat Pull Down - Lats
Pull Ups - Lats
Seated Cable Rows - Back
Bent Over Rows - Back
Russian Twist - Abs
Leg Raises - Abs
Plank - Abs

Legs / Traps / Calves

Kettlebell Deadlift - Hamstring? (Not sure)
Kettlebell Swing - Hamstring? (Not sure)
Dumbell Squat - Quads - Better for my back than a heavy bar, would leg press machine be better as can do much heavier weight.
Dumbbell Lunges - Quads
Dumbbell Shrug - Traps
Dumbbell Upright Rows - Traps
Farmers Walk - Forearms

Not sure what would be good for calves! Football and spinning might take care of that?

I'm only looking at these 3 sessions per week as with football and 2 spinning classes per week that is 6 days.

If anyone could advise about my training plan and paste it back in I would be very grateful!

Thanks in advance!
 
Just to put a bit of bulk on across my body in terms of muscle, I've lost about 8% body fat since January so I'm pretty happy with my overall progress since then but its been mainly cardio and diet.

I'm now back up to circa 2000-2500 calories and want to build some muscle. I'm not looking to go too heavy or anything exceptional and want to keep going with my football and spinning classes as I enjoy these and they help me maintain some better stamina.

I'd like to look decent on the beach and be more healthy overall I guess!
 
Twisted pelvis and spine... Assuming it is not a congenital skeletal defect, the best possible way of working out to get huge is doing a bucketload of back mobility (stretching) and stability (opposite leg/hand raised from kneeling, etc.) and then...

*drum roll please*

An absolute shed load of squats and deadlifts with heavy stuff.

Seriously.

Assuming you are being treated properly, most of the exercises in your list will actually work merry havoc with your motor patterns and potentially exacerbate your problems unless you are getting stable and stretchy

my personal preference is for two proper compounds each session and then two/three secondary/isolation lifts - better to do a few things really well than waste your time spread too thinly with stuff that doesn't help as much.

So get mobile, loose, and very strong. Back squats will be your ultimate salvation, as will deadlifts.
 
Thanks for the help so far and I will check out that thread.

Mrthingyx you make an interesting point I'd not overly considered. I was basing it on having tried most exercises to see how they make my back feel when doing them and after. The ones that made my back ache more the next day and whilst doing were the deadlifts (this is based only on a 28kg kettlebell) and therefore I was concerned as I see people doing over 100kgs and thought I might cause myself serious injury.

I will discuss this with my physio when I can next afford an appointment!
 
Monster said:
I will discuss this with my physio when I can next afford an appointment!
Click to expand...

Unless you've got a good sports based physio, the answer will almost certain be along the lines of

"YOU WANT TO DO WHAT!?!!?!?, oh no, no no no they'll leave you paralised for the rest of your life and possibly cause your head to fall off and the world to fall out your arse"
 
Monster said:
Thanks for the help so far and I will check out that thread.

Mrthingyx you make an interesting point I'd not overly considered. I was basing it on having tried most exercises to see how they make my back feel when doing them and after. The ones that made my back ache more the next day and whilst doing were the deadlifts (this is based only on a 28kg kettlebell) and therefore I was concerned as I see people doing over 100kgs and thought I might cause myself serious injury.

I will discuss this with my physio when I can next afford an appointment!
Click to expand...

Having suffered from scoliosis and uneven hips (leg break + scoliosis =/ great stable base), as well as structucal instability in my lumbar, the answer is not "hit it like a train" at all! :D

So whilst deadlifting and squatting all the weights looks epic, the idea is to work up to that. Soft-tissue problems that (generally) cause twists and misalignment of skeletal structures can be caused by a multitude of things, but the resolution is to stretch out and strengthen.

Your physio should be trying to support your objectives: it's much easier for them to take a very easy course and say "just don't do X/Y/Z" or "we'll help you manage your pain/symptoms" rather than "let's get you back to 100% or as close as possible so you can get huge/strong/athletic" so don't be fobbed off and denied your goals. :)
 
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