Frankus - 24/4/2014 03:51
Reading through the sticky and alot of what is on this thread has been super helpful considering I am a gym novice. Usually I do 4-5 sessions per week doing something along the lines.
1. Back (wide arm pull-ups, lat pull downs, 1 arm seated rows, double arm overhead rows, back extensions)
2. Triceps (skull crushers and close hand bench combined, weighted dips, rope tri extensions, overhead rope tri extensions, single arm tri extensions, diamond hand push ups)
3. Shoulders (over head standing db press, single arm front db raises, over head bb press, lateral flies, cable rear delt flies, internal and exteral rotation with theraband or low weighted cables)
4. Biceps (under hand chin ups, under hand over head pull downs, bb curls, db alt curls, bb preacher curls)
5. Chest (wide arms weighted dips, flat db bench press, standing cable flies, cable crossovers, pushups or clock pushups)
I usually throw in a partial legs session twice a week (combo of squats, leg press, extensions, stiff leg deads, calf raises).
Usually I do anywhere between 5 and 8 exercises (depending on body part) with 4 sets of 8 reps, increasing weight incrementally each set. Most of the time the final set I can only do 6 reps. I knowingly don't do abs sets as I ensure keeping very tight abs and core during exercises which helps me work on good form.
I've been doing this now for about 8-12 weeks and feel I'm getting a bit stale. My aim is to put on about another 2.5kg of lean muscle (already added about 2.5kg).
Any suggestions on mixing it up - i.e. new exercises, reducing or increasing sets or reps?
Mr Gym novice, I applaud your enthusiasm :1: but there is some serious overtraining going on, more is not always better, so let's move you past novice and get you moving in the right direction.
Back, wide grip pullups and lat pulldowns, same movement, choose one. the rest is cool
Triceps, GOOD GOD MAN! Choose two or three exercises max, using one arm perform a tricep exercise and with your other hand, feel where the exercise is hitting, you need to hit the three heads, so elbows in, elbows out and twist between the two usually does the damage.
Shoulders, starting the session with the theraband rotator exercises is best, I assume you have been advised to do those? Full range DB press, upright row, reverse flye (cable or DB), finishing with DB power press, power press starts in the bottom position, which is upper arm parallel to the floor, top position is only EIGHT INCHES from the bottom, this is continuous movement, you do not stop at the top or bottom, just smooth continuous movement till absolute muscle failure.
Biceps, Again too much, Bi as in two, so working the inner and outer heads to failure is enough! Surprise surprise, more males over train their biceps than any other muscle, the result is a smaller, tighter bicep : ) Look up concentration curls, be super strict, for your first exercise, rest the little finger edge of your hand against the inside head of the DB, this will help twist your little finger up towards your face throughout the full range of the exercise, when done, repeat the exercise in the hammer grip position.
Chest, do pressups in the feet up hands down position, followed by flat, followed by hands on a bench feet down, two sets of fifteen of each, followed by incline DB bench press, followed by flat, followed by decline, followed by a couple of sets of cable to stretch the chest out.
I do recommend you give yourself a leg and core day, failing that, chuck in as much leg work as possible.
I recommend running one body part per session, run in this way, Back, Chest, Arms, Shoulders, Legs, the leg and core session apart from the obvious benefits also allows your shoulders to recover a bit more before the back is hit again.
To grow you need to do 3 x 12 reps, what this means is 3 x working sets, I do not count your warm up, when you have reached a weight where you know you will struggle to get to 12 reps, that is when the work begins, you do 12 reps, on the following set you may only reach ten and the final set you may reach 8/9, if you manage more, put the weight up next time, so in reality it's more like 1 x 12, 2 x F, F for failure, and by this I mean total muscle failure and I don't care if you know 100% that you can't do another rep, you have to try your hardest, because it's the one you struggle to do that makes you grow, even if you only move it a couple of inches, that's the important one.
You should be using a 2/2 tempo, that means two seconds on the contraction and two seconds on the release, you should be resting 30 seconds between sets and 1 minute between exercises.
Follow these instructions and you will grow, FACT!