Hi guys,

My goal is to gain weight/size in muscle.

So on monday and thursday I do chest/schoulder/tricep (A)

And on tuesday and friday I do back/legs/biceps (B)

This is what the workouts look like;

(A) =

Incline bench press with dumbell 3 sets 6/8 reps

Machine flat chest press 3 sets 6/8 reps

Shoulders press dumbelss 3 sets 6/8 reps

Chest flies flat with cables 3 sets 10/12 reps

Side shoulder raises 3 sets 6/8 reps

And I finish off tricep with 1 or 2 exercies like pushdown or extensions. (10/12reps and 2 or 3 sets each exercise)

(B) =

Squads 3 sets 6/8 reps

Legg extension 3 sets 6/8 reps

Legg curl 3 sets 6/8 reps

Dumbell row 3 sets 6/8 reps

Latt pulldown 3 sets 6/8 reps

Rowing machine 3 sets 6/8 reps

Bicep curl 3 sets 6/8 reps

Rear delt fly 3 sets 6/8 reps

Finish off bicep without some hammers or something.

I weight 68.5KG atm at 1.79m at 12%body fat.. Aiming for 75KG of solid MUSCCLEEE.

Any advice on this? is it OK? is it too much?

Im thinking of going to full body, but Scott said this isn't for muscle gains but for burning fat.

Please help me out!

Dann

Hey man. Personally i like your split it looks pretty good. But you doing 6-8 reps is mainly gonna help you get stronger. If you want to put on muscle and size i would try doing 10-15 reps but use heavy to moderate weight. Meaning if you are trying to get 10 reps on a set choose a weight you can only get 10 reps with. You must also make sure you have a good meal plan. Make sure you are getting sufficient amount of carbs, proteins, fats. You need to put as much into your eating as you put into training at the gym. Hope this helps man.

Yes Im eating around 3300 calories a day! 50% carbs 25% fat and protein! Thanks for the advice man!

Hey man,

You routine is "ok" but it is not optimal. Since you decided to split your program into 2 days, you cant afford to be doing small little isolation exercises like the leg curl or the tricep pushdown etc etc. Those are exercises that can be added in the future if you notice a specific body part lagging. Right now, all of your muscles are "lagging" so there is no point in isolation movements. What you want to do is establish a foundation of strength and mass. To do this, you want to progress. Progress can come by increasing weight or by increasing volume PROGRESSIVELY. So you understand its easier to progress with weight. To progress with weight, you need basic compound movemens that train your whole body. Squats, deadlifts, bench press, pullups, bent over row, dips etc etc.

What Scott probably said is that you can lose fat by doing total body circuit training. But you can build muscle by doing full body workouts which are done with normal rest periods and exerises and sets. So you have 2 choices. You can either split your program into upper body day and lower body day, OR you can do full body workout 2 times a week. I lean towards the second, because this way you can train each body part 2 times a week.

So, structure your program around those basic compound movements and maybe add 1-2 isolation movements that are absolutely necessary. For example, rear delts flys and lateral raises can be helpful. But doing any kind of leg isolation work is pointless in your situation.


Finally, I want to talk about your reps. You can build muscle with ANY rep range. 5 reps does NOT build less muscle than 8 reps or 12 reps. As I mentioned what matters is if you progress or not. And since its easier to progress with 5 reps, I will go ahead and tell you that 5 reps is a better range for building muscle and strength. But you can switch it up of course. I dont want you to think that 5 reps are for strength and 12 reps are for muscle building. If your strength increases, your muscle size increases as well.

Btw, since you want to add 7kg of solid muscle, its going to take you anywhere from 4-6 months. That is if you nutrition is correct and you apply progressive overload to your workouts.

Thats it. Hope it helped.
#HTH!
Kostas

Hi Kostas,

First of all thanks for all this information. Your very helpfull and I really appreciate that.

I love to go to the gym so only 2 times a week for a full body workout is not enough for me ghehe.

I will go for the upper lower split than!

Is this ok? ;

Upper day 1:monday (3 sets each exercise, 5 reps)

Pull ups

Bench press dumbell

Dumbel row

Shoulder press barbell

Dips for chest

Upper day 2;thursday (3 sets each exercise, 8-12 reps)

Incline bench dumbell

Deadlift

Flat machine press

Latt pulldown

Barbell bentover row

Shoulder press dumbell

Lower day 1; tuesday (4 sets each exercise, 5 reps)

Squads

lunges

Legg press

Lower day 2; friday(4 sets each exercise, 8-12 reps)

Squads

Lunges

Legg press

Sorry for my bad english! Please give me some feedback on this :)!

Great forum guys!

Dann

No problem man, we will help you reach your goals. And your english is great.

So now you have chosen to go to the gym 4 times a week which is great for gains. You have a solid program here, MUCH better than the first one. Let me do some corrections if you like :

Your 1st upper body day is perfect. Exercises are perfect, well done. You could add some face pullls here if you notice that your rear delts start lagging. This is optional though.

Your 2nd upper day can be a little better. You have 3 back exercises, the deadlift, the bent over row and the lat pulldown. I would say, lose the lat pulldown and exchange it for a bicep exercise like the standing barbell curl. I know I told you that you shouldt add isolation exercises but this is an important one because you are not really stimulating your biceps on this day. Furthermore, lose the flat machine press. Generally, you want to avoid machines as much as possible. Exchange it for the close grip barbell bench press which will target your chest and your triceps at the same time. I say this, because there is not much tricep work on this day too.

Your 1st lower day. Its good that you start with squats and lunges. I dont really think that the leg press is necessary here. I would exhange it with the front squat and i would also add some romanian deadlifts to hit the hamstrings a little better.

Your 2nd lower day. Keep it the same as your 1st lower day. Now lets talk about reps and sets. I dont want you to have heavy days and light days. I want you to have heavy exercises and light exercises. Its pointless to do 3x8-12 on the deadlift and its pointless to do 3x5 on the face pull. I would recommend you stick to 5 reps for the BIG exercises like the squats, the deadlifts, the bench presses, the shoulder presses, stick to the 8 reps for the medium type exercises like the bent over row, the dips, the lunges, and finally stick to 10-15 reps for the small exercises like the face pulls, the bicep curls, your abdominal exercises etc etc.

I hope this was not too complicated. Tell me what you think.

Kostas

Wauw man! What a great advice. I copied everything you said into a word document, I bring this with me to the gym the first few weeks. Just two more little things;

How long do I stick to this programm and what about supersets/dropsets?

Thanks Kostas, I really appreciate your help and advice. Scott will also be very thankful, your helping him out alot with all the work you do for his forums!

Dann

Good. I m glad you understand my points. About your questions now.

- How long do you stick to this program. In theory, you stick to it until you cant make any more progress using it. Its a very basic program so you could even use it for 12-15 months successfully. If you notice that you cant increase your strength in the heaviest movements no matter what you do, then its time to change the program. If you get tired of it in 4-6 months, you can also change it of course.

- Drops sets and supersets are advanced bodybuilding tools. They are used to bust through plateaus. For example if after a year of bench pressing you cant increase your bench press any more, you can incorporate some drop sets for a few weeks. This way you throw dramatically more volume into the muscle ( increased work capacity) and this should basically increase your strength. So if you are stuck at 250lbs, after a few weeks of drop sets you will probably be able to push out 260lbs easily. Or you can just change your program as I mentioned above and bust through the plateau this way. Or you can add an accessory movement like the floor press or the incline dumbell press to help you with the sticking point of your bench press. I wouldnt recommend advanced bodybuilding techniques until you are really advanced. That is after 4-5 years of training. Trust me, you dont want to be advanced, it sucks. You must bust your a** for MONTHS to increase your squats by 25lbs.

Alright thanks for the advice! You really helped me out man.

Now let's make some gainss!

A very bad schedule since you are focusing on some parts to much.

Your front delt gets to work in 12 sets while side delt and back delt only gets to work in 3 sets.

Your front leg gets to work in 6 sets while back leg works only 3 sets, also i see no work for calves.

It's been cleared up for me already, thanks anyway!