My routine now, any good?

icecold said:
One more time for luck :D

If you make your own routine up at your level of knowledge you will really hinder your progress. Trial and error is one way of doing things, provided you have a few years to isolate the variables that you probably aren't even aware of. I'm a gym geek and have been reading around this subject for probably 5 years and I still wouldn't consider myself to be anywhere near an expert.

Funnily enough, that Scott Herman chap is EXACTLY who I had in mind when I read that you found a routine on youtube. That guy is a tool. Just to make a brief point, on what basis did you decide his routines were good?

There is no "cheat" way of growing muscle/whatever your goal is, the only answer is a lot of time and a lot of hard work and dedication.

As a noob training on your own, the best thing to do is do a routine based on some simple exercises. Then look on youtube or ask on here about the best way to perform those exercises and spend a week or so with light weights doing the reps slowly so you can learn the movement properly.
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That's how learnt - years of trial and error, wish I had started earlier, read the books about nutrition/body science, and spoken to professionals and learned how to train. I'd probably be a good year or two ahead of where I am now. :(
 
I know I'm a pain in the rear guys! It's just I would like everything laid out in-front of me all of the time and I guess It's not going to happen when it comes to weight routines. I promise you I will start with the sticky on here and see where it goes. I guess I'm kinda nervous about being on my own in there, so don't want to try anything new. (Terrible Gym)

So I am going to start taking this seriously, as boxman and benny said I will start to cook a bit more and learn about different foods and how they affect me.

And to answer your question icecold, I basically made the decision that he was good by his body. I have no idea if the stuff he does is any good or not!
 
Yep exactly. I wish I had known where to find good resources when I first started, the internet is a mess of crap and I didn't start out knowing anyone with any good experience.

What I kind of find funny, and I'm not specifically talking about this situation with sponge, is when you meet someone who asks for advice and when you leave them you know they haven't taken it on board at all. Part of the problem that everyone starting out has is not knowing where to find the good advice/information, but also perhaps knowing good advice when you see it AND being willing to reject what you previously thought was true.
 
sponge999 said:
I know I'm a pain in the rear guys! It's just I would like everything laid out in-front of me all of the time and I guess It's not going to happen when it comes to weight routines. I promise you I will start with the sticky on here and see where it goes. I guess I'm kinda nervous about being on my own in there, so don't want to try anything new. (Terrible Gym)

So I am going to start taking this seriously, as boxman and benny said I will start to cook a bit more and learn about different foods and how they affect me.

And to answer your question icecold, I basically made the decision that he was good by his body. I have no idea if the stuff he does is any good or not!
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:)

That's fairly standard, and an easy trap to fall into! Personally I don't think his body is that great, but I understand why you would listen to that. There are several problems with guys like that though (there are a few in my gym at the moment) but I won't go into it. The best advice comes from the haggered old veterans, and there are pleanty of guys who aren't huge (and obviously many who are) who are extremely knowledgeable. Interestingly the guy who I consider to be one of the besdt in terms of technical knowledge of the gym isn't actually big at all, but then he has had some medical problems.

As for the rest of your post, good stuff! Don't worry too much about being on your own, that's how most people start out. In fact although it's harder to get going it might well be easier to keep going as you aren't relying on anyone else for motivation. I probably train on my own half the time, and while a gym buddy is a perk it isn't that important.
 
The 3 day structure is:
DAY 1 – PULL

Deadlifts or Power Cleans
Barbell Rows, Dumbbell Rows, or Wide Grip Chins
Barbell Curls, Close Grip Underhand Chins, or Hammer Curls

DAY 2 – PUSH

Incline or Flat Barbell or Dumbbell Bench Press
Barbell or Dumbbell Shoulder Presses
Tricep Dips or Close Grip Bench Press

DAY 3 – LEGS

Front or Back Squats
Barbell or Dumbbell Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Calf Raises (3x12) - only if a seriously lagging bodypart
Weighted Crunches or Weighted Hanging Leg Raises (3x12)
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You could include your leg day on the push/pull, adding your squats to your push day and SLDL's to your pull day and then adding calf raises and your crunches/leg raises to which ever day you want. This would give you a slightly higher frequency for legs which might be useful if you're doing a lower volume workout.
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Pinched from the Gymratz thread pg7.

Would be something I'd suggest. If you want to do something similar or routine each time you go. A push/pull split like this won't take long to do at all. And the exercises could be substituted for relevant machines until you're comfortable with freeweights/form.

Something simipler would be:
Workout A:

Shoulder Press
Leg Press
Chest Press
Tricep Pushdown
Calf Raise

Workout B:

Hamstring Curl
Seated Row
Side Raise
Pullup/Pulldown
BB curl
Ab isolation
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Volume would depend but for a beginner 2 sets of 12 reps or 4 weeks. Then up the load, decrease the reps to 8-10 and maybe add in a third set after that. Once you've done this for about 8-10 weeks then you can start to learn the freeweight equivalents and start to reap the benefits of a proper compound movement :) and start to lift heavy :cool:
 
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Definitely looks interesting Benny, something which I would never have thought of doing. I fancy the 'a' and 'b' workouts more though. Would definitely get me used to the freeweights after that and I would find them a lot easier. Would you recommend doing these workouts only 2 times a week? Or a little more?
 
I'd say to start the A workout and then have a day or 2's rest, then the B and then again a day or twos rest. When you feel recovered start the cycle again. In the beginning you might find it'll take you a while to recover from DOMS (aches) so will just want to do each workout once a week for the first 2 or 3 weeks but your recovery should soon speed up. In which case a rolling Monday, Weds, Friday will work well. For example:

Monday: A
Weds: B
Friday: A
Monday: B
Weds: A
Friday: B

and so on...
 
BennyC said:
I'd say to start the A workout and then have a day or 2's rest, then the B and then again a day or twos rest. When you feel recovered start the cycle again. In the beginning you might find it'll take you a while to recover from DOMS (aches) so will just want to do each workout once a week for the first 2 or 3 weeks but your recovery should soon speed up. In which case a rolling Monday, Weds, Friday will work well. For example:

Monday: A
Weds: B
Friday: A
Monday: B
Weds: A
Friday: B

and so on...
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Thanks mate you have been a brilliant help, I will start that on Friday and keep you updated. Once again, thankyou.

Sponge x
 
Are you for real sponge? Every bit of advice people have offered you have ignored.

Honestly mate you need to change everything and start again or your going to end up wasting 3 years of your life training and then realise youve been doing it wrong all those years and then start to do everything the guys are telling you above.

I have a 3 day split, chest and tris, back and bis, legs and shoulders (sometimes split legs and shoulders if I have time) There is also the stronglifts as people keep saying but my 3 day split works well for me.

Start off with light weights and keep your form right. To put on mass though you really need to be training your legs hard.
 
Mark M said:
Are you for real sponge? Every bit of advice people have offered you have ignored.

Honestly mate you need to change everything and start again or your going to end up wasting 3 years of your life training and then realise youve been doing it wrong all those years and then start to do everything the guys are telling you above.

I have a 3 day split, chest and tris, back and bis, legs and shoulders (sometimes split legs and shoulders if I have time) There is also the stronglifts as people keep saying but my 3 day split works well for me.

Start off with light weights and keep your form right. To put on mass though you really need to be training your legs hard.
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That's what I was going to do before, but I don't really know many exercises for each muscle that's why I'm asking for advice.
 
And you have been suggested to look at the sticky and a few other well known routines.
You clearly have not taken this advice ;)
 
Morba said:
And you have been suggested to look at the sticky and a few other well known routines.
You clearly have not taken this advice ;)
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Nooooo! Don't get me wrong you guys have given me loads of good advice. I just don't find the sticky all that helpful to be honest. And every time I suggest something, somebody else comes in and says no that's no good, when I thought I was on to a winner, and then they suggest me something else. And then when I have a routine in my head somebody else comes in and tells me to do something else. Trust me I am listening to all the great advice and I thank you all very much it's just knowing how to do each exercise properly that's all.

Sponge
 
Look at the 3 things we have told you :
Sticky
Riptoes starting strength
Stronglifts.

Take your pick of the 3 and follow it for 6 -8 weeks. Then look at changing if you need it.

Stop readin about lots of routines, stop trying to devise your own.
Go and train :p
 
King85 said:
Curls at 20kg and deads at 30kg? Your deads should be much higher than what you curl.
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Should be yes, but for someone who has never really picked anything up from the ground its to be exepcted. with training that will fly up in, terms of weight lifted, quite quickly. The curling will not go up as fast ;)
 
Start light and try and watch yourself in the mirror. Keep your back straight and if anything is moving that shouldnt be moving then its too heavy.

Post up your new routine that your planning on doing and we can give you an indication of weight to start on.

Although for certain exercises (squats, deads, bent over row) that you havent done before you might as well start on the bar (assuming its an olympic bar) and work from there as the last thing you want to do is do your back in.
 
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