Training advice

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

NotAGolf

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Hi guys, i'm goin back to uni next week and I'll be going back to the gym. I've been going to the gym for around 4 years, it started out just cardio work but moved towards weights and now its almost purely weight for the purpose of getting bigger. Problem is I've hit 'the wall' and i'm not seeing any improvement. So i'm after a bit of advice as to what I can do to improve, and yes I have read GordyR's guide but there's a couple of problems I have:
1. I'm quite a skinny frame; I'm 6'2 and naturally long and skinny limbed so this is a bad start straight away.
2. Food is a bit of a pain in the arse, i'm a student and therefore skint, so I cant always buy good food, I can easily eat enough calories and its not junk food, lack of meat is the main problem really.

So my proposed schedule is as follows:

Day 1:
Chest:
Incline press – 4 x 6 (Occasionaly swap with decline bench once every 3/4 sessions)
Flat bench press – 6 x 6
Cross Cables - 4 x 8
Dumbell press - 4 x 6

Core:
Back extensions - 4 x12
Sit ups - 5 x12

Day 2:
Back:
Lat pulldown - 6 x 6
Bent over rows – 4 x 6
Wide grip pull ups – 5x 4

Triceps:
Skull crushers - 5 x 6
Pull-downs (using rope) – 5 x 6


Day 3:
Shoulders:
Dumbbell press – 6 x 6
Side raises – 5 x 8
Military press – 5 x 6

Biceps:
Barbell curls - 5 x 6
Concentration curls – 5 x 6


Day 4:
Legs:
Leg extensions (machine) - 3 x8
Leg curls (machine) - 3 x 8
Squats - 6 x 5
Dead lifts – 6 x 4


I like to do alternate muscles groups, i.e. back and tri's instead of back and bi's cos otherwise I feel so much more fatigued that I cant finish sets properly, is this ok or am I better grouping them?

This will all be done over 7 days with a day of rest in between and is less than i'm doing at the moment which is 5/6 days a week but I've heard about the importance of rest so hopefully this should help.

I've also cut down to the main compund exercises, I used to do a lot more exercises on each muscle group but am I right in thinking that for a general increase in all overall muscle mass I should be looking at the main exercises?

Does this look ok to everyone or is ther is something I have missed?
Thanks for any advice.
 
might be worth looking to see if you can find ToxicToffees guide to bulking on a budget, he made up a good diet on hardly any money at all!
 
As a fellow student I feel your pain.

However dirt cheap gym membership goes along way to helping. I also take a shaker to uni each day with a couple of scoops of whey and nesquik in it - buy a 40p pint of milk from the uni shop and slurp it down between lectures.

Try and avoid the dodgy, expensive sandwiches at your uni shop/canteen. I buy frozen chicken in bulk, and nearly always have a super smoothie waiting for me in the fridge. I think the recipe was in muscle & fitness, all the ingredients stay fresh for a long time, and its cheap:

Makes 2 servings

400ml milk
2 apples
2 bananas
1 tbsp linseed
1 tbsp nesquik
1 tbsp peanut butter
3 scoops whey protein
3 tbsp fresh yogurt
Cup of oats

Tastes pretty good too ;) Although try and not look at how its settled after a while in the fridge :0

Regards your routine, its solid, certainly better than most of the people I see at our gym anyway ;)

One suggestion I would make is place more emphasis on squats and deads. Put them on separate days if you can. I for one can not contemplate doing 5 sets of heavy deads after punishing myself with 5 sets of squats!
 
mpledge52 said:
So my proposed schedule is as follows:

Day 1:
Chest:
Incline press – 4 x 6 (Occasionaly swap with decline bench once every 3/4 sessions) Don't alternate with incline, they hit different muscles.
Flat bench press – 6 x 6
Cross Cables - 4 x 8
Dumbell press - 4 x 6 Drop these or alternate with Flat Bench Press, don't do both! Do these on a decline :)

Core:
Back extensions - 4 x12
Sit ups - 5 x12 Crap exercise. If you insist on doing them then use a steep decline.

Day 2:
Back:
Lat pulldown - 6 x 6
Bent over rows – 4 x 6
Wide grip pull ups – 5x 4 Do these first. I'd do these close grip palms in and the lat pulldowns wide-grip for variation. Otherwise they're basically the same exercise

Triceps:
Skull crushers - 5 x 6
Pull-downs (using rope) – 5 x 6

Day 3:
Shoulders:
Dumbbell press – 6 x 6
Side raises – 5 x 8
Military press – 5 x 6 Do these first.

Biceps:
Barbell curls - 5 x 6
Concentration curls – 5 x 6 Waste of time!


Day 4:
Legs:
Leg extensions (machine) - 3 x8 Do you like your knee's? If yes then drop these, if not then by all means carry on.
Leg curls (machine) - 3 x 8 Drop these, you own't need them when squatting and deadlifting in same session ;)
Squats - 6 x 5
Dead lifts – 6 x 4
Click to expand...

Thoughts in red and you're doing too much on basically every exercise. 6 sets of 6? Drop them all to 4 sets. Keeps reps to 24-25 reps per exercise.

On legs day you could just stick to squats and deads maybe add some calf raises if you have any energy left. I wouldn't do anything else that day.
 
Thanks for the advice from everyone. I shall drop the afore mentioned ones that need dropping and cut down on the sets, as regard for the order of exercises I didnt actually put it in the order I will do them. I generally do the hardest (usually heaviest) first, after a warm up obviously, is this wise?

As for the food, I'm not that bad I never buy junk or get takeaways and whatnot, its always 'smart shopping' and tesco's frozen chicken is a life saver, its just I cant afford a nice steak everyday.

So this leaves me with a couple more questions:

1. Cutting down on the sets - doing 5 exercises with just 4 sets that wont take me very long to do, I do rest for at least a minute or two between sets. Is this ok or should I stick in some smaller exercises in between?

2. Protein shakes - Would I be better off spending the money on better food or should I get some cheap whey protein?

3. If concentration curls are no good chongWarrior, what would you recommend instead?

Thanks again.
 
Tbh mate I don't like that split at all. You'll only be hitting muscle groups once every 8-9 days? This isn't enough for optimal gains in my opinion. Also you don't need a whole session just for chest, I know you're also doing a little ab work but that doesn't count in my book, at least not what you're doing.

A push/pull/legs split is much better and there's a reason why it's so popular. even if you don't want to do this I'd still squash your routine up and get it done in 3 sessions so you're hitting each muscle group at least once a week.

OR

You could do it in 4 and split like this:
Mon - Gym
Tues - Gym
Weds - Rest
Thurs - Gym
Fri - Gym
Weekend - Rest
 
When was the last time you changed your diet? Have you been eating the same food and more importantly the same portion sizes? Is it possible that you've reached the limit of the calories available to your body? You could very cheaply and easily add some more calories from oils and/or peanut butter.

On the subject of whey if you bought 5kg of MP euro80 for ~£35 (stoopid chinese ;)) and took 100gms on training days and 50-75gms on rest days it'd last you 2 months. In fact the that addition alone would increase your calorie intake by 300-400cals a day :)
 
Lol, yep the tesco heatly living chciken for me as well!

I'm not eating that great at the minute and I'm not training properly because I'm at home and I only have a flatbench and some light weights and I'm working funny hours so my eating pattern is all screwed up. I think i'll give the program a go for the first term at uni and i'll be eating normally then so I'll see how that goes before I look inot protein shakes etc.

So my final question is what to do instead of concentration curls as ChongWarrior thinks they are "a waste of time!"?
 
Mate close-grip chins are quite possibly "The Daddy" of bicep builders, so if you listen to what I said earlier then those along with Barbell Bicep Curls will be plenty enough to stimulate growth.

The bicep is probably the most overtrained muscle on the planet! It's one of the smallest muscles and yet people think they need to hit it with loads of different exercises from different angles.

Biceps also get hit hard from other back exercises, as you know as you've changed your split becasue you've noticed they're alreayd fatigued from training back ;)

Concentration curls won't build any muscle. They can be useful for building the all important mind to muscle connection though, so maybe do 1 set of 12-15 reps at the end of a workout if you really feel the need for a "pump" :D
 
So my ammended schedule is as follows:

Monday:
Chest:
Flat bench press – 4 x 6
Cross Cables - 4 x 8
Incline press – 4 x 6
Dumbbell press (decline) - 4 x 6

Back extensions - 4 x12
Sit ups - 4 x12


Wednesday:
Legs:
Squats - 5 x 5
Dead lifts – 5 x 4


Friday:
Shoulders:
Military press – 4 x 6
Side raises – 4 x 8
Dumbbell press – 4 x 6

Biceps:
Barbell curls - 4 x 6
Close grip chins – 4 x 5


Saturday:
Back:
Lat pulldown - 4 x 6
Bent over rows – 4 x 6
Wide grip pull ups – 4 x 4

Triceps:
Skull crushers - 4 x 6
Pull-downs (using rope) – 4 x 6


Just a couple more points though; I missed out chest flyes, should I replace cable cross with them? (bearing in mind i'm not very good with flyes cos I have long arms and quite weak shoulders). And the other thing I missed out was dips? Should I include them some where? Thanks.

edit: oh and I forgot, how many grams of protein should I be aiming for (ish)?
 
Last edited:
dont need 3 pressing movements for chest - replace one of the with dips

for legs - deadlifts im assuming you are talking about SLDL? stiff/straight legged deadlifts

If so - do regular deadlifts on back day

as for protein - what are your stats? (height, weight)

also not the best 4 day split IMO
 
A2Z said:
dont need 3 pressing movements for chest - replace one of the with dips
Click to expand...
Which part of the chest does dips hit most? I'd guess lower so i'll swap that with the decline bench.

A2Z said:
for legs - deadlifts im assuming you are talking about SLDL? stiff/straight legged deadlifts

If so - do regular deadlifts on back day
Click to expand...
No I was thinking traditional deadlift (like this), would SLDL's be better. (I know its not perfect to do them and squats on the same day but I cant really think of a better way round it)

A2Z said:
as for protein - what are your stats? (height, weight)
Click to expand...
6'2", 78kg, and long limbed :(
A2Z said:
also not the best 4 day split IMO
Click to expand...
Any suggestions how to better it?
 
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