Please help me with my routine

[Richard]

OK so here's my routine to critique, I'd be grateful for any suggestions

I don't really fancy the push pull legs routine. I've got the opportunity to train a lot at the moment & I like separating my routine into body parts.

However, I think I am overtraining a bit & was thinking of scrapping Day 5 & integrating deadlifts & powercleans into my other routines - maybe deadlifts on a back day & powercleans - any suggestions?

I'm away for a couple of weeks on the 25th & thought it would be good to make some changes when I get back, I want to bulk up a bit this winter.

My body has taken quite a bit of damage over the years (sound like an old man don't I?) so whatever I do has to be done carefully.

I do some cv at the beginning of each session & some abs/core stuff at the end:

Day 1

Delts/Traps/forearms

Shoulders

Both my shoulders are a bit dodgy, one in particular so I try to warm them up very slowly with some light isolation exercises, & loosening & stretching, before going a bit heavier with behind the neck & military press. Even so I only go down to 10 reps on these.

Front Raises 3 sets of 15

Lateral Raises 3 sets of 15

Bent over lateral Raises 3 sets of 15

Seated behind the neck Press (smiths machine) 5 pyramid sets 15 to 10

Seated Military Press (smiths machine) 5 pyramid sets 15 to ten

Traps

It was aggravating my shoulder when I went heavy here but seems OK at the moment

Narrow grip upright rows pyramid sets 15 12 10

Shrugs (smiths machine) in front 6 pyramid sets 12 to 6

dumbell shrugs 3 or 4 sets 15 to 12 (gym only goes up to 25kg dumbells so can't go heavier)

I want to keep the forearm stuff for other sports:

dumbell wrist curls 5 sets 15 to 12

cable reverse curls 5 sets 15

Day 2

Back & triceps

Dumbell pullovers 4 or 5 sets 15 to 12 reps (again only 25kg dumbells)

Bent over barbell rows 6 sets 15 to however heavy I feel I can safely go on the day. Recently I've backed off the weight a bit here & gone for doing it slowly & really holding the squeeze at the top. Once I'm happy with that I'll start putting up the weight again

seated cable rows 4 sets of 12 - I'm lifting the stack here so I need to think about single arm cable rows or something - or scrapping it & concentrating on bent over rows

narrow grip lat pulldowns 4 pyramid sets 12 to 8

wide grip assisted chins 4 sets of about 8 reps

Triceps

I hurt my elbow 6 weeks ago, training when I was ill & locked it out with a fair bit of weight. Didn't train my triceps at all for a couple of weeks. Now I can do these 2 comfortably but can't do French Press.

tricep pushdowns - rope 6 pyramid sets 15 to 10

close grip press (smiths machine) 6 pyramid sets 15 to 10

Day 3

Chest & biceps

No flys in here because they hurt my shoulder

Pec deck 6 pyramid sets 15 to 8

Flat bench (smiths) 6 pyramid sets 15 to 8

Incline bench dumbell 4 sets 15 to 12 - if I go too heavy it hurts my shoulder

EZ curls 6 sets 15 to 8

barbell curls - just going to start these tomorrow instead of supinations as they build more mass? Probably same sets as EZ

Hammer dumbell curls 4 sets 15 to 10

Day 4 Legs

My knee plays up sometimes so I just see how I feel here:

Squats (smiths machine) 6 sets 15 to however heavy I feel is safe: 4 is the lowest so far

Quad extensions As above

Hamstring curls 6 sets 15 to 10

Calf raises (smiths) 6 sets 15 to however heavy...

Day 5 Powerlifting (not really)

Its not really powerlifting, I don't want to risk going so heavy at the moment. But they're all powerful compound moves

Flat bench (smiths) 5 pyramid sets 10 to...

Squats (smiths) 5 pyramid sets 10 to...

Deadlift 5 pyramid sets 10 to...

Bent over barbell rows 5 pyramid sets 10 to...

Power cleans (depending on how my knee feels) 3 sets of 10 - still working on my technique here

Neider press 3 sets of 15 - still working on this - don't even know if I like this one yet

Assisted chins 5 sets

It seems I'm just duplicating a lot of stuff on day 5. It started out because I wanted to fit deadlifts & powercleans in somewhere.

[James Copping]

Sweet mother of jesus, I only read the shoulder workout and it looks like ur overtraining just from that. KISS dude, you do way too much.

Chest:
DB bench 4x6
BB incline 3x10
Dips 3x10

Back
Deads 4x6
BB rows 3x6
pulldown or up 3x10
1 arm DB rows or cable rows 3x10

Shoulders
your warmup with the isolation stuff
Powercleans 8x3(8 sets, 3 reps, 1-2min rest. Dont wanna be going too high rep on these as it can lead to sloppy form and injury, dot make all the sets max effort, builu up to it)
Shoulder press 3x10

Legs
Squat 4x6
SLDL 3x6
Leg press or hack squat or leg extension 3x10
leg curl 2x10
Calf raises 3x6 2x10

Arms(optional)
Hammer curls 2x6
Close grip bench 2x6
DB curls 2x10
Pushdown 2x10

[Resurrected]

I've just seen this....I have to agree with Meaties sentiments. That has to be one of the worst routines I have seen in a long time.

Your doing way way way to much. You seem to have fell into the trap that most of us will have fallen into at one time (at least most of us oldies ), that more is better.

Well believe me it is not, unless of course you want to carry on with getting the results you are getting now.

I'd love to know why you do not like the push/pull/legs routine?.....

Let me guess. You don't think there is enough in it!

One of the hardest thing to do in my experience is to go from doing many exercises, sets etc (and stagnating) to realising that you do not have to train with LOTS of sets to progress. Its a big change but once you make it you'll be amazed at the effects it can have on your training and the subsequent development that it will bring.

[alexl]

Quote

Sweet mother of jesus

I'm having a similar reaction. Where did you get that routine? 6 sets of 15?? WTF.

counterproductive: Tending to hinder rather than serve one's purpose

[turtleboy]

Quote

One of the hardest thing to do in my experience is to go from doing many exercises, sets etc (and stagnating) to realising that you do not have to train with LOTS of sets to progress. Its a big change but once you make it you'll be amazed at the effects it can have on your training and the subsequent development that it will bring.

^
read again and absorb, then read again

[Wotan]

A lot of the pro b/bers have gone on record as saying it wasn't the weight that caused their growth as much as their attention to form.
Lifting a lighter weight but with perfect form and timing [ie slooooow] gives much better results than struggling to lift something and then slamming it down.
I sometimes get asked about this in the gym but no-one ever believes me. They nod frantically, zoom off and then start swinging stuff again around as if they were Tarzan.
Rant over - you can come out now.

[Richard]

Thanks 43 & meathead

I felt I was overtraining but...that's a lot less than I ever considered doing. I'll give that a go meathead

I don't think I can go straight into sets of 6 reps though, I get joint problems if I go that heavy without some light sets first. What do you think?

Yes you're right 43 the reason I didn't like the look of push pull legs is I felt there wasn't enough in it. OK I'll take your advice & do much less

Thanks

[Resurrected]

Quote

A lot of the pro b/bers have gone on record as saying it wasn't the weight that caused their growth as much as their attention to form.
Lifting a lighter weight but with perfect form and timing [ie slooooow] gives much better results than struggling to lift something and then slamming it down.
I sometimes get asked about this in the gym but no-one ever believes me. They nod frantically, zoom off and then start swinging stuff again around as if they were Tarzan.
Rant over - you can come out now.

I'd agree with those sentiments. But if you ever see videos of the pro's trainign it is rare many of then ever use perfect form.

Its a case of do as I say not as I do.

Although I used to have a video by Lee Haney and he was the closest I have seen to perfect form by any of the pros I have seen vids of.

[James Copping]

Most of the Pro's vids I see use terrible form, check out ronnies squats.

[Wotan]

Yes!! I've seen them on vid too - I couldn't believe just how sloppy some of them were.
Made me wonder how any of them managed to grow as big as they did. Well, for at least three milliseconds ... then I caught myself.
I hope they all bought shares in the big pharma companies!! Ha ha ha.