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Too much on shoulders/ legs ?

Legs/shoulders given 8 exercises in total.

sghermanite
sghermanite g Gym Hermanite
13 Post(s)
13 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: August 8, 2013
Posted

I am an ectomorph/thin. My goal is lean gains.

I devote a full day on legs (lower back) + shoulders on this program:

 

 

1. Barbell deadlift : 5 sets of 5 reps
2. Barbell full squat : 5 sets of 10 reps
3. Leg Press (machine) : 5 sets of 10 reps

--- shoulders :
4. Shoulder shrugs : 5 sets of 10 reps
6. Standing, dumbell, one-arm , front raise : 5 sets of 10 reps 
7. Bent-over, dumbell, raise : 5 sets of 10 reps
8. Incline bench,dumbell, one-arm incline lateral raise: 5 sets of 10 reps 

 

What changes would you recommend on this program, if any ?

jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: sghermanite

I am an ectomorph/thin. My goal is lean gains.

I devote a full day on legs (lower back) + shoulders on this program:

 

 

1. Barbell deadlift : 5 sets of 5 reps
2. Barbell full squat : 5 sets of 10 reps
3. Leg Press (machine) : 5 sets of 10 reps

--- shoulders :
4. Shoulder shrugs : 5 sets of 10 reps
6. Standing, dumbell, one-arm , front raise : 5 sets of 10 reps 
7. Bent-over, dumbell, raise : 5 sets of 10 reps
8. Incline bench,dumbell, one-arm incline lateral raise: 5 sets of 10 reps 

 

What changes would you recommend on this program, if any ?

Spyros,

 

First off, ectomorph really just means your body is much more efficient using calories than other people so you just need to eat more to grow :-)

 

The leg workout looks fine but I would also switch up the routines every once-in-a-while: Replace back squats with front squats. Replace leg press with hack squats or overhead leg press. Adding in some variety will hit all the muscle fibers in your legs.

 

Doing deadlifts and squats on the same day can be hard. I do them with back but it is up to you depending on your energy levels. Deadlifts are an entire body exercise whereas squats focus on legs.

 

The shoulder exercises look good but I would also cycle in some shoulder presses - either DB or BB and either behind-the-neck or front press/military press. You don't need a lot of exercises for shoulders as they are a small muscle group so I would alternate workouts where some you do the standing front raises and some you do shoulder presses.

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
sghermanite
sghermanite g Gym Hermanite
13 Post(s)
13 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: August 8, 2013
Posted

Hi John, I created a program out of your words. What would you suggest? (2 exercises legs + 4 exercises shoulders ? )

 

1. Barbell full squat / barbell front squat : 5 sets of 10 reps
2. Leg Press (machine) : 5 sets of 10 reps

3. Shoulder shrugs : 5 sets of 10 reps

4. Military press 5 sets of 10 reps

5. Standing, dumbell, one-arm , front raise 5 sets of 10 reps 
6. Incline bench,dumbell, one-arm incline lateral raise: 5 sets of 10 reps

Whisper
Whisper p+ Kostas Kroustaloudis
687 Post(s)
687 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Train for a sport Date Joined: September 9, 2011
Posted
Posted By: sghermanite

I am an ectomorph/thin. My goal is lean gains.

I devote a full day on legs (lower back) + shoulders on this program:

 

 

1. Barbell deadlift : 5 sets of 5 reps
2. Barbell full squat : 5 sets of 10 reps
3. Leg Press (machine) : 5 sets of 10 reps

--- shoulders :
4. Shoulder shrugs : 5 sets of 10 reps
6. Standing, dumbell, one-arm , front raise : 5 sets of 10 reps 
7. Bent-over, dumbell, raise : 5 sets of 10 reps
8. Incline bench,dumbell, one-arm incline lateral raise: 5 sets of 10 reps 

 

What changes would you recommend on this program, if any ?

Yea I agree with John on a lot of stuff. Lets see here.

The leg workout looks solid. You chose the best compound movements and the right rep ranges for them. What I would is this. Dump the leg press and replace it with either front squats or barbell glute bridges. This way you are working more of your upper hamstrings and glutes and both of those exercises can be very effective for building muscle because they are free weighted. The leg press machine is fine but as long as you are doing squats its not completely necessary. Maybe as John said, switch it on and off every time you switch your program. So to summarise, I would do this :

Deadlift 5x5
Back squat 5x8
Glute Bridges or Front squats or Leg Press 4x12 or 5x10

As for the shoulders you are doing the exact opposite which is small isolation movements. I would do it like this :

Standing barbell push press 5x5 ( this overloads the delts but it also goes nice with the leg workout)
Dumbell seated shoulder press 4x10
Face Pulls and bent over dumbell raise 4 supersets of 10 reps each.
Barbell shrugs ( optional, I actually dont want people doing too much shrugging because they end up with messed up shoulders and posture due to an internal rotation of the shoulder joints. Traps should grow from the other shoulder exercises and back exercises, I just dont want people learning the shrugging pattern)

Kostas

Muscular Strength Athlete and Content Manager 6 Years Lifting Experience Bachelors in Molecular Chemistry/Biochemistry, Working towards Masters Lifting Style & Philosophy : Aikido, Energy, Balance, Flexibility, Posture
sghermanite
sghermanite g Gym Hermanite
13 Post(s)
13 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: August 8, 2013
Posted

Thanks Kostas.

 

a) With regards to 'standing barbell push press' do you mean this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yjwXTZQDDI ?

 

b) Regarding the last one (facepulls with bent over dumbell raise) , by superset, you mean that one set = 10 reps of facepulls + 10 reps of bent-over dumbell raise ie 20 reps in total right ?

 

c) Hence I remove the barbell shrugs from the program. Do you think I should replace them with something else or it is enough?

Whisper
Whisper p+ Kostas Kroustaloudis
687 Post(s)
687 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Train for a sport Date Joined: September 9, 2011
Posted
Posted By: sghermanite

Thanks Kostas.

 

a) With regards to 'standing barbell push press' do you mean this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yjwXTZQDDI ?

 

b) Regarding the last one (facepulls with bent over dumbell raise) , by superset, you mean that one set = 10 reps of facepulls + 10 reps of bent-over dumbell raise ie 20 reps in total right ?

 

c) Hence I remove the barbell shrugs from the program. Do you think I should replace them with something else or it is enough?

a) No, I mean this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XgsJGTrts0
You can do a straight military press as well but as I said the push press requires leg activation ( mainly glutes) which is a nice combination for your particular split


b) Yea, one exercise after the other without any rest in between. Rest after you complete the superset.

c) Face pulls should activate the traps a lot. A good exercise that destroys the traps is the farmer walks ( if you have the space for it)

Muscular Strength Athlete and Content Manager 6 Years Lifting Experience Bachelors in Molecular Chemistry/Biochemistry, Working towards Masters Lifting Style & Philosophy : Aikido, Energy, Balance, Flexibility, Posture
muscular strength
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