Weight Training: For Beginners - Critique my program/Q & A

[cptkirk]

he seems to be doing a pretty heavy wt for him with the bands on which is stupid, do them for some light sets to get activated then use the new activation pattern to do heavy squats...otherwise you'll only be able to do it with the bands on

core needs specific exercises too

 

[Caesar]

Re: Weight Training Program

To Caesar, I don't know enough about what's required with sailing (at least on bigger boats), but I would've imagined back would be up there? Things like rows, pullups etc that compliment your bigger lifts like deads?

Back is up there, definitely. 'Bigger boats' is relative - I'm still sailing relatively small keelboats, but to the point of maximum sail area without being big enough to require winches.

The main boat I'm on at the moment has a mainsail wind load of up to 250-300kgs in heaviest weather. You're hauling from a low point (down around knee height) but you need to be a big boy to bring it on quickly, even under lighter conditions

 

[TPM2011]

Hi,

As most preferred methods used by the AFL include day on day off. What must be stated is this method works most efficiently for young gym 'newbies'. Reason being you can push volume through young muscles by doing less but more frequently. Weekly sessions could be broken up into 1 and 1/2 leg sessions, 3 upper body sessions - the upper body working all directional lifts such as push and pull.

Hope this helps.

TPM

 

[ThePezDispenser]

Why double the upper body work compared to lower body work?

 

[cptkirk]

i would assume for recovery reasons, they still need to a lot of running and such...i would also assume it depends on where they are in the year

we're doing 2 leg workouts and 1 upper body for the main part for my footy program, legs are far more important

i don't have anything to go off but i think AFL don't do enough leg work going by all the soft tissue injuries, a little less fitness work vs less injuries during the year is a pretty good trade off

 

[estibador]

Hi guys

Just getting seriously back into weights for the first time since I was a teen. Over the last 2 months I've refined my program down to the following and thought I'd throw it up for some feedback.

I work out at home and find I can stay more motivated with short, sharp daily sessions rather than longer full body workouts every few days, so I've split my body parts into a 6 day routine.

I'm seeing decent progress so far but obviously most of that could be down to newbie gains.

Day 1 - Chest - 3 sets each

BB Bench (alternating flat & incline week by week)
DB Bench (ditto but opposite weeks - so I'm doing 1 incline & 1 flat bench each week)
Flyes
Pullovers

Day 2 - Back - 5 sets each

Chins/Pull ups
Deadlifts
BB Rows
Lat Pulldowns (these are just to help with building strength till I can do 10 pull ups - then I'll probably change to something like a T-bar row variation if I can rig that up at home)

Day 3 - Tri/Abs - 3 sets each

Skull Crushers
Pulldowns
Weighted Crunches
Weighted Leg Raises
Calf Raises - 5 sets

Day 4 - Shoulders - 3 sets each

BB Press
Side Laterals
Reverse Flyes
Shrugs

Day 5 - Legs - 5 sets each

Squats
Stiff Legged Deadlift
Hamstring Curls

Day 6 - Arms - 3 sets each

BB Curls
Incline Bench DB Curls
One forearm exercise alternating between: Reverse BB Curls & Wrist Curl variations
Calf Raise - 5 sets

Calf Raises are the only thing I've thrown in there twice because I've heard with the load they carry every day it's pointless only hitting them once a week.

I've tried to schedule a few days break between chest and tris/shoulders and also back and biceps to give the smaller muscles time to recoup from supporting the compound lifts.

At the moment I'm working out 7 days a week since I figure only hitting each bodypart once a week means little chance of over training. At the moment it's been fine but is this sustainable from a CNS perspective or am I better off scheduling rest days even if I don't feel like I need them yet?

I'm planning a deload week every 8 weeks where I'll drop to 50% of the weight and just focus on technique.

Is there anything there that stands out as being under trained? In an ideal world I'd like to add more volume to my leg day but my knees are stuffed so I have to be a little careful - plus I don't have access to things like a leg press machine.

Considering throwing that leg day in twice every cycle though because it looks way too lopsided towards the upper body.

Any thoughts/feedback? Bearing in mind that I'm training mostly for vanity rather than strength/sporting functionality (said shot knees have forced me to retire from footy ). Any strength gains are a happy by-product rather than my specific aim.

 

[cptkirk]

5 sets of what?

reps are the most determining factor in as training program

 

[estibador]

5 sets of what?

reps are the most determining factor in as training program

I work on 10 reps as the max - if I can hit 10 I increase the weight.

As the muscle fatigues on the 2nd/3rd sets if I can't hit 10 I just do as many reps as I can, which usually works out to be 6-8.

Exception being deadlifts where I work on 6 as the max.

 

[cptkirk]

as you train at home, and not being able to do every exercise available to man, what would you do for your next program?

and when you mean vanity do you mean for size, definition or both?

 

[estibador]

as you train at home, and not being able to do every exercise available to man, what would you do for your next program?

Not sure, haven't thought that far ahead. Was just gunna stick with one till I started plateauing.

and when you mean vanity do you mean for size, definition or both?

Both.

 

[cptkirk]

thason i ask about the next program is that with boidypart splits you use a lot of exercise but as you're training at home you might not be able to do many exercises so i was going to suggest doing few exercises but more volume for them so you have somewhere to go for your next program

 

[estibador]

Ah ok. So for my next program could I get away with adding in different variations to increase the workload maybe?

How many different exercises would be too much for an intermediate program focussing on one bodypart per day? Would 5 or 6 for the bigger muscles and 3 or 4 for the smaller ones be an effective workload without overtraining?

 

[Big_D231]

Just a general question regarding bench press.


Iv been going to the gym for a few months and at the moment i can lift about 60kg, but thats on the smith machine. However if i switch to just a normal bench press i struggle to lift much more than 40-45. What would be a reason for this?

Also there is a fairly big descrepancy between my bench press (40-60 depending on the smith or not) and my pec flys (90). Is that normal?

 

[GeeUUess]

Just a general question regarding bench press.


Iv been going to the gym for a few months and at the moment i can lift about 60kg, but thats on the smith machine. However if i switch to just a normal bench press i struggle to lift much more than 40-45. What would be a reason for this?

Also there is a fairly big descrepancy between my bench press (40-60 depending on the smith or not) and my pec flys (90). Is that normal?

I don't smith machine bench, but one reason could be you are not accounting for a normal 20KG Barbell and normal 5kg smith machine.

 

[estibador]

Iv been going to the gym for a few months and at the moment i can lift about 60kg, but thats on the smith machine. However if i switch to just a normal bench press i struggle to lift much more than 40-45. What would be a reason for this?

I've never used a Smith Machine but from what I understand about them your smaller stabilizing muscles would be having to work much harder in the normal free weight bench press than on the machine.

 

[cptkirk]

Ah ok. So for my next program could I get away with adding in different variations to increase the workload maybe?

How many different exercises would be too much for an intermediate program focussing on one bodypart per day? Would 5 or 6 for the bigger muscles and 3 or 4 for the smaller ones be an effective workload without overtraining?

if you're just getting back into it then i'd use fewer exercises and do more total volume for them...an idea could be to get 50 total reps in for each major lift over the week so bench press, military press, rows (x 75 total reps), squats, deadlifts and chin/pull ups/downs

you can divide this out into strength and hypertrophy days as well

strength - 15 total reps x 1/week = 15 reps

hypertrophy x 35 reps x 1/week = 36 reps

36 + 15 = 50

how you break the days won't really matter...use the traditional variation for strength and then 1 variation for the hypertrophy work

each week increase strength or hypertrophy by 5 and 10 reps respectively until your at 100 total reps then you could switch

so 2 cycles might have these exercises:

military press / single arm shoulder press + db lateral raises / cable lateral raises
bench press / slight incline bench press / 45 degree incline press / wted push up
db row / bench row + chest supported row / seated row
chin ups / pronated grip pulldown
deadlifts / sumo deadlifts + hip thrusts / rdl's
back / front squats + step up / bulgarian split squat

makes sense??

 

[estibador]

makes sense??

Yep cheers. Might look into giving something like that a go for a while.

 

[GeeUUess]

Maths not a strong point kirky

 

[cptkirk]

shit, forgot to change

doesn't matter still makes sense

 

[Slattery_20]

Just a general question regarding bench press.


Iv been going to the gym for a few months and at the moment i can lift about 60kg, but thats on the smith machine. However if i switch to just a normal bench press i struggle to lift much more than 40-45. What would be a reason for this?

Also there is a fairly big descrepancy between my bench press (40-60 depending on the smith or not) and my pec flys (90). Is that normal?

Because you're having to stabilise the free weights. You don't have to do that on the Smith. As others have said brings other muscles into it.
Easy solution is use free weights as much as you can!

The number doesn't matter, it's how much you're improving IMHO.

 

[Big_D231]

Thanks guys

 

[monty1104]

Hey all.

I've been out of the gym for about 2 years now (travelling and laziness got in the way), but I'm ready to head back. My last program was Wendler's 5/3/1 and I loved it, so I'm going to head straight back into it. I cant quite remember what I was doing for assistance though, from what I remember, I was doing a 5x10 assistance, plus one more exercise. Anyway, here is what I think I will be doing, if someone can let me know if/how I need to change it. I know its a long shot, this thread not being posted in for a year, but it seems like the best place for this post to go.

Monday:
5/3/1 Bench
5x10 Dumbell Bench
Chest Dips

Tuesday:
5/3/1 Deads
5x10 Kroc Row
3x10 Leg Curls
Abs

Thursday:
5/3/1 Military Press
Dumbell Press
Chinups

Friday
5/3/1 Squats
5x10 Squats
3x15 Calf Raises
Abs

I think that was roughly what I used to do, give or take an exercise here or there. Anyway, if someone can provide some feedback, that'd be great. Once I start (beginning of term 2) I'll start a log on here too, hopefully it will keep me motivated!

 

[cptkirk]

mon - bp 531, row, ibp
tue - dl 531, hip thrust, leg curl
thu - mp 531, cu, dips
fri - back squat 531, goblet squat or single leg exercise or even front squats, calves

i don't think you need db bench presses after bb bench presses and the same with shoulders and then back squats twice

also if you haven't done anything for a while then propbably just some simple 3 x 5 for main lifts will work better then 531 at the moment as it will give you more volume with the heavier wts (3 sets vs 1 set)

 

[MF]

Just wondering if anyone can tell me what the best approach is when my only option is hitting the weights on 3 consecutive days each week?

At the moment I can only go Tue,Wed,Thu mornings with maybe a weekend session here and there. So obviously recovery time doesn't really allow for a full body workout each day.

I was thinking a typical back/bi's, chest/tri's, legs/shoulders 3 day split.

I really want to incorporate the basic lifts like Squats, Deadlifts, Bench press etc. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Docker Clint]

Just wondering if anyone can tell me what the best approach is when my only option is hitting the weights on 3 consecutive days each week?

At the moment I can only go Tue,Wed,Thu mornings with maybe a weekend session here and there. So obviously recovery time doesn't really allow for a full body workout each day.

I was thinking a typical back/bi's, chest/tri's, legs/shoulders 3 day split.

I really want to incorporate the basic lifts like Squats, Deadlifts, Bench press etc. Any advice is appreciated.

Shame you cant spread those three days across the week a bit more evenly. Doing one body part per week wouldn't be enough.

I'd go with:

Tue - Back/Chest
Wed - Legs
Thurs - Back/Chest
Weekend session if you can get it in - Full body

Forget the "back/bi's" wank, a compound back exercise incorporates elbow flexion which means the biceps brachii etc are being activated. Same goes for chest/triceps.