Howdie folks,

Havent set foot into a gym in over 6mths after two seperate injuries that kept me laid up....after nearly going nuts and becoming nearly a shadow of my former self Im starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and thinking I can hit the gym again in maybe a week or two.

In the past Ive always done the ususal routine of arms one day, legs the next, back, then chest...etc etc etc work out 5-6 days st8 take a day off, yada yada yada. Id throw the odd change in now and then to keep it interesting but I want to change things up and try something completely different for a bit.

Im wondering what would be the best split for gaining back the lean muscle size and definition Ive lost over the last half a year(man Ive shrunk!!!). I was thinking kind of a body builder style routine(- the roids...lol) to maximize the gains(as long and my injured limbs feel good after a few weeks of light weights to get back into the groove...dont want to re injure my elbow).

Whats your thoughts group? Thanks!

Hey bro!

Glad you are able to get back in the gym! to be honest I think you should start with 2 - 3 weeks of circuit training. This will help you work on mobility and getting your strength back. I have a lot of intense total body circuits on youtube and on this site.

Would you be up for that?

Yeah Ive done a few circuits or crossfit style workouts before, like the 300 workout etc..painful, but in a good way. Sounds like a good idea for the inicial step.

Lately Ive just been doing a lot of tabata style HIIT mainly cardio with sprints and some with a bit of legs/plyo now that my foot is better. Other than that just been cutting BF% and working on abs, core, glute work every other day for the last two months so at least Im doing something.

My other fairly bad injury was bad elbow tendonitis that DID NOT want to get better, and it feels pretty good now, but I dont think Im quite at the point that I want to push it too hard right off the bat and re-agrivate it...did that with a rotator cuff injury years ago... I want to be symptom free for probably two weeks before I do start back.

So if in a week or two, if I do circuits for a few weeks for strength and that goes well with the recovery, what would you suggest as a good muscle group split to do for a few months, maybe til mid/end of summer for size?

Thanks for your help man! Appreciate it! Cheers

If you want size, you will want a split with some good volume @matt42van.

What was the last split you had? How many sets and reps were you working with?

Depending on your recovery ability, you could try something where you train muscle groups twice a week. Something traditional like...

Chest/Triceps

Back/Biceps/Shoulders

Legs

But you might also want two days for legs, to focus on just hams and quads and glutes and calves separately.

Another good idea for size would be to include some sort of compound movement each day you workout.

Just some ideas. There are plenty of great options when it comes to making a split. It's more about trying different ones to see which works best for you.

Jordan

Hey there, thanks for your input. Typically my days were similar to this,

1. Legs

2. Chest/back

3. Bis/Tris

4. Shoulder/traps

5. Id typically do a mashup of compound excersises like deadlifts, clean press, barbell walking lunges etc...sometimes with cardio, or do the 300 workout.

Id do core work on the end or to start about every second or third day dependant on how I felt.

Generally Id do cardio/run 3 days a week for 30-45 min

My ususal rep range was 8-10 for most exercises and would do a few drop or supersets sometimes to start or to finish the sets, and 3-5 sets per exercise but normally 4. Sometimes Id throw in one day per musvcle group every 2 mths or so and do 100's just to throw something different at them. I usually went about 1 min rest between sets, and two min between main groups of excerses(planning on dropping that one down to 30s and 1m)

I was thingng about something where I can hit legs(mon/Fri), chest/back(tue/Sat) twice a week. hit arms once a week, throwing an extra glute and calf day in every week, core still every second or third day, HIIT three days a week. Lowering my reps for certain exercises to 6-8 instead of 8-10(dependant on the exercise)

Sounds like you have a good plan in mind @matt42van, and sounds like your previous split was pretty solid.

Looking at the way you want to set things up, I have changed some of your planned days around, what do you think of this split?

Monday - Legs

Tuesday - Chest/Back

Wednesday - Arms & Shoulders

Thursday - Glutes & Calves

Friday - Chest/Back

Saturday - Legs

That gives you at least 1 day between leg days, and you still get 2 days between your chest/back days.

From there, you can choose some days to add some HIIT and abs.

Jordan

Well, elbow isnt better...haven't been able to get back into the gym yet....weighed myself yesterday...Im 164lbs. I havent been 164 since I graduated HS 12 years ago.....I used to be 190ish......BEYOND FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im not loosing a lot of fat but still loosing weight and shrinking....Im so pissed off!!! All that hard work over the years going down the trash.

Well, elbow isnt better...haven't been able to get back into the gym yet....weighed myself yesterday...Im 164lbs. I havent been 164 since I graduated HS 12 years ago.....I used to be 190ish......BEYOND FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im not loosing a lot of fat but still loosing weight and shrinking....Im so pissed off!!! All that hard work over the years going down the trash.