Muscle Building Routine

[Topher]

Thought I'd post this thread, so people can feel free to share their work out routines. As I'm seeing HUGE improvements with mine, I thought I'd give it a start. If you don't know what any of the exercises are, or know them by a different name, feel free to reply! And I know not everything is in there, but this stuff is the core of what I do!

Monday - Chest and Triceps

Exercise	Set 1 Reps	Set 2 Reps	Set 3 Reps	Set 4 Reps
Bench Press	10	8	8	6-8
Incline Bench Press	10	8	8	6-8
Decline Bench Press	10	8	8	6-8
Pec Deck	10	8	8	6-8
Cable Tricep Extensions	10	8	8	6-8
Cable Tricep Rope Extensions	10	8	8	6-8
Pectoral Flies (standing, cables)	8	8	x	x

The Pec flies are a low set and rep, as I use it as a finisher, to ensure my muscles are exhausted.

Tuesday - Cardio
Usually a 1.5 hour session of either Boxing, or Handball.

Wednesday - Back and Biceps

Exercise	Set 1 Reps	Set 2 Reps	Set 3 Reps	Set 4 Reps
Lateral Pull Down (Wide Grip)	10	8	8	6-8
Seated Cable Rows (Wide Grip)	10	8	8	6-8
Seated Cable Rows (Close Grip)	10	8	8	6-8
Standing Barbell rows	10	8	6-8	x
Cable Curls	10	8	8	6-8
One Arm Dumbell Curls	8	6-8	x	x
One Arm Cable Curls	8	6-8	x	x

Thursday - Legs

For Legs, I vary what I do massively each week, so I won't post a table. However, I will say that I follow the same rep patterns as above in terms of sets for exercises.

Friday - Shoulders

Exercise	Set 1 Reps	Set 2 Reps	Set 3 Reps	Set 4 Reps
Seated Smith Machine Press	10	8	8	6-8
Seated Dumbbell Press	10	8	6-8	x
Side Raises	8	8	6-8	x
Front Raises	8	8	6-8	x
Other	10	8	6-8

Saturday - Boxing

Sunday - Complete Rest

With the 6-8 repetition guides, I use this as a judge - If I do 6 or 7 reps, I will keep the weight the same the next week. If I do 8 reps, I increase the weight I lift the next week. Also, through the 2-4 sets, I progressively increase the weights I use.

Any comments, feel free to share!

- Topher

[Olly]

Topher, are you looking for strength or hypertrophy/mass gains? Or a mixture of both?
From a brief look at your routine, I would make the following points:

You put far too much emphasis on variations of the bench. I would stick to a max of two lifts. Forget the pec deck and the flies.

I think one and a half hours of cardio FOLLOWED by handball or boxing is WAAAAAAY too much. Unless you're eating tons of calories, and I really do mean TONS, you are going to eventually reach burnout.

When you say you progressively increase the weight you use, do you mean you work up at a %age max on a given day or stick to the same weight on one day but increase the reps with each set then increase the following week?

I see a distinct lack of compound lifts. I know you say you won't post your leg routine but I think most trainers would agree that not including squats and deads is sacrilegious. I notice that you are doing a lot of row variations but it's pull ups that will give you the most bang for your buck Like wise with your decision to do cable tricep work over dips. How long have you been training?

Forget the Smith Machine. Your joints will thank you.

Just my 2 cents.

[CTurbinado]

wheres the deadlift and squat?

add in a few deadlift and then some pull ups before all ur back exercises and remove 2 of ur rows.

also remove the smith shoulder press by military press.

then, like olly said, add in some dips at the begining of ur tricep workout and theres no need for the decline bench

for legs i would concentrate mainly around squats

[PaulAnderson]

Apart from the initial post I’m actually very impressed to see educated responses to this topic.

5 chest exercises (horizontal push)
3 upper back (horizontal pull)
5 shoulder exercises (vertical push)
1 upper back (vertical pull)
2 triceps exercises
3 biceps exercises

This is a very unbalanced routine and will lead to muscle imbalance, posture issues, and potentially injury.

It’s a shame so many people waste their time with badly structured, over complicated body part splits like this.

Like the others have said. Focus on big compound lifts, drop the isolation and avoid using a smith machine for anything. Incorporate Squats and Deadlifts into your routine and try to keep it balanced. Think about the 6 planes of motion:

Vertical push (shoulder press)
Vertical pull (chin ups)
Horizontal push (bench press)
Horizontal pull (bent over row)
Hip dominant (deadlift)
Quad dominant (squat)

I’d always recommend doing all of these per session (a full body routine) if time allows. If not, split it up into either a push/pull, or upper/lower split.

[NZJames]

"to ensure my muscles are exhausted."

Muscle exhaustion in no way correlates to size or strength gain. It just means your muscle has no more energy and/or the protein bonds have been destroyed sufficiently that they are no longer able to sustain it for any more heavy contractions. A lot of people train to exhaustion, which is counter productive. You should stress the muscle in a way that promotes anabolic growth, not to total destruction.

Also in light of this, your body needs to rebuild and repair for 48 hours after your session, yet within 24 hours you are doing a 90 minute intense aerobic workout, which will interrupt the anabolic muscle build process and set your body back into a catabolic state, preventing growth and repair.

Also far too many exercises. You don't need to hit a muscle from multiple angles to promote growth, thats a myth. You would get greater chest gains from doing one exercise.

Incline DB press. 10 sets of 10 reps, Explosive up movement, 4 second controlled down movement.

You only need to do 3 workouts a week to gain steadily and well. Rest is as important (if not more important) than the workouts themselves. Muscle strength and size gain is made during recovery, not at the gym. If you do not give your body adequate recovery, sleep and nutrition, you will get no gains despite beasting it in the weights room.

I would switch this to

Mon-Wed-Fri do weights, but cut down the exercises, target what you are looking to improve on in this phase, and be more specific. eg

Monday : Squat, Single leg hamstring curls (10 sets of 10 each, 3-4 second controlled down movements), followed by say 3 sets of single leg box step ups, slow controlled down movements and 3 sets of single leg incline leg plate press, no plates, but 20 reps each leg.

Wednesday : Incline DB bench press and close grip chin ups. 10 sets of 10 each, 3-4 second controlled down movements). You can jump up from a step with the chin ups, the slow down motion is more important than the contraction. Followed by 3 sets each arm of single arm db preacher curls, 4 second down movements, and 3 sets each arm of single arm tricep DB extensions, again with slow motions.

Friday : Military press and wide grip pull ups. 10 sets of each as before. Followed by 3 sets of signle arm slow tricep extensions, and 3 sets of DB shrugs, holding for 5 seconds at the top of each one.

Tuesday/Thursday - Either rest, or low intensity hill walking on treadmill for 30-40 minutes. 6-7kph max.

[NZJames]

Ps the other thing I would mention is if you can do 4 sets of bench, 4 sets of incline, 4 sets of decline....... then 4 sets of tricep extensions and 4 sets of tricep rope extensions.. you arent lifting heavy enough.

After 4 sets on the bench for me, if Im going for only 4 sets - im f***ed. I can barely open the door let alone do another 8 sets!

Similarly with triceps. Youve already worked triceps in the bench, so 4 sets of heavy bench will hammer triceps. Add 3 set of tricep isolation controlled slow after that and your triceps should be totally spent.

[Olly]

I think a classic 5x5 routine would be a much better bet to tax your CNS (heavy as NZJames says) and prime you for later on would be best. Maybe follow that with the Westside for skinny bastards III.

[PaulAnderson]

I think a classic 5x5 routine would be a much better bet to tax your CNS (heavy as NZJames says) and prime you for later on would be best. Maybe follow that with the Westside for skinny bastards III.

I guess that all depends on the starting point of the OP. I still regard any strength program like the 5x5 or 3x3 as an advanced program. A beginner would certainly be better off starting with some muscle endurance training to promote capillary density before starting on a strength or hypertrophy routine. Priming the muscles for work will lead to better gains.

[Olly]

I see where you're coming from , Paul but at a guess, looking at his original post, Topher is not a complete lifting newbie (correct me if I'm wrong Topher-how long have you been training?) and should have built up some level of tendon strength and capillary density through the number of reps he seems to be doing.
I'm pretty sure that Mark Rippetoe is a firm advocate of a 3/5x5 for relative newcomers. As we have said, compounds are what are going to build him.

[Topher]

I've been training for roughly 3 years now - and to take notes to what people have said
firstly, not an hour and a half of cardio, and then boxing or handball, the cardio generally is the boxing or handball.
The reason for the variation on my bench is to work out different areas - prior to doing so, and staying with one variety of bench press, i found that the lower and upper areas of my chest weren't developing as well as they should have been - a problem rectified by such.
I eat plenty, I find my diet to be an essential part of keeping fit - eating enough.
I generally do do squats and deads, but as I said, didn't post so
Also, the variety of rows targets different areas of my back - therefore why there is the variety.
To reply to paul andersons post - I used to have posture issues. Since doing it this way, I have found to have improved my posture, and reduced the backache I had significantly.
But yes, through the 3 years of training, I have tried a lot of routines, some very similar to the ones suggested - but I have found this works best for my body.
I am managing to build muscle well, and am improving my strength - however, this does not stop my endurance training. I have found that I can do the cardio work a day after the more strength based work - I can still run a marathon, I can go for hours of cardio work. I'm glad it has caused a bit of debate though, it's nice to see different opinions.
And to those questioning the plan - it was developed between me and a personal trainer - and hey, it works! It's started to become adapted by a couple of other individuals, as yes, it does work for them too. But hey, it's whatever works for whoever.