Oakesy2001uk said:
cheers gordy.
This is what I'm doing at the minute seems to be doing ok, I'll stick with it for annother month or 2 I think. Then is it true I should have a week or so off??
Any changes noI have been doing it a couple of months and know what I'm doing??
If it isn't broken then don't fix it.
As for a week off, it's totally your call mate. A lot of people swear by it. There are some very valid reasons for doing so but then again everyone is different.
Oakesy2001uk said:
The other thing is I sometimes go in on saturdays aswell is that overtraining? My mate goes and askes me to go with him for company as I go alone its welcome! I end up doing a bit of an all round hard workout. is this overtraining or is 4 times ok? its not every week 2/3 times a month I'd say.
It's difficult to know whether you would be overtraining or not without knowing exactly what you are doing, but in all honesty I doubt you are. If you are growing then you are not overtraining. Again, everyone varies so much in what they can handle. Listen to your body and you should be fine.
Contrary to popular belief, training a muscle more than once per week does not necessarily mean you will be overtraining. It depends on how much volume and intensity you put in to each day. For instance take your average joe who has flat bench, incline bench, dips and flyes all for chest, all on the same day. For most people this sort of thing
would require a weeks rest in order to grow because the CNS (central nervous system) is getting fried. However, instead Joe could switch to doing just flat bench for chest three times per week and possibly get even better results depending on how his body responds. So basically you can spread the fatigue out accross the week. There is no right or wrong way to do things, it's just down to what you respond to personally.
Though i'm sure many will disagree I personally like the classic splits for beginners as it gives you the opportunity to learn about your body, and to get your form right on your lifts. But there are many other types of routine which can be more optimal once someone knows what they are doing.
If you are gaining nicely right now then stick with what you are doing for another month or so. But it definately is a good idea to change things up frequently. For your next course of action I would personally recommend a full body 2x to 3x per week routine. Less exercises (Just the compounds with a little isolation thrown in) something along the lines of this.
The 5X5:
Monday:
Olympic Squats 5x5
Benching 5x5
Rows 5x5
Accessory (low volume triceps and abs)
Wednesday:
Olympic Squats 5x5 (weight reduced 15-20% from Monday)
Standing Military Press 5x5
Deadlifts 5x5
Pull ups 5x5
Accessory (biceps and abs)
Friday:
Olympic Squats 5x5
Benching 5x5 (flat or incline)
Rows 5x5
Accessory (low volume triceps and abs)
The above is primarily a strength building routine, but if you are eating for hypertrophy then you should grow fantastically well on that.
Or alternatively try an upper/lower split.
Monday - Upper
Tuesday - Lower
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - Upper
Friday - Lower
Obviously again on this type of routine you would be doing less exercises per muscle group (mostly compounds again) than you would on your standard split this enables you to hit them more than once per week without fear of overtraining.
When designing your own routine you just need to bear in mind the fatigue that you will be accumulating and make sure you plan in enough rest based on that. Less sets and exercises mean you can probably hit that bodypart more often. etc...
Hope this helps a little mate.
). Thank you loads Gordy 
for the past month or so ive been focusing on the compounds with a few isolations chucked in. Now im thinking of trying out a bills stars routine, something like this: