Hi everyone! I do not use this much at all, but I decided I might give this forum a try for the new year!

So, one of my biggest fitness goals for this year is building a nice V-taper.

I hit back twice a week, and shoulders once a week. I designed my own workout program that I will be doing for the next 6-8 weeks to hopefull build that strong V-taper! Please give me some feedback on my routine! All comments, positive or negative are welcome! :)

Back (Day 1)

Warm-Up- 4 Sets of Wide-Grip Pull-ups

6 Sets of Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns- 12, 10, 8, 8, 6, 6. Last Set Triple Drop Set

5 Sets of Bent-Over Barbell Rows- 10, 8, 8, 8, 6

4 Sets of Seated Cable Rows- 8-12, Last Set Triple Drop Set

7 Sets of Lat Pushdown Rope or V-bar attachment- 10 reps (30 second Rest)

Back (Day 2)

Pre-Exhuast Warm-Up

4 Supersets of Dumbbel Pullovers and Wide- Grip Pull-ups

6 Sets of Reverse Grip Lat Pulldowns- 12-15 reps (Last Set Triple DS)

5 Sets of Reverse Grip Bent-Over Rows- 12-15

5 Sets of Single-Arm Dumbbell Rows- 12-15

7 Sets of Close Grip (V-bar attachment) Lat Pulldowns- 10 reps (30 second rest)

Shoulders

8 Sets of Barbell Seated Military Press- 8 reps

4 Sets of Seated Arnold Press- 8-12 Reps, Last Set Triple D.S.

6 Sets of Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise- 15 reps (Triple D.S.)

4 Sets of Single Arm Dumbbell Side Lateral Rise- 15 reps

3 Sets of Leaning single arm side lateral raise (cable)- 15 reps

5 Giant Sets- Wide Grip Seated Row, Bent-over Dumbbell Lateral Raise, Face Pulls.. - 15-20 reps

4 Sets of Reverse Flies (Cable)

I love training with high volume, my body responds best to that. I will be only training shoulders once a week, this is why I hit them with as much intesnity as possible. Let me know your thoughts and ideas! Thank you all! Have an awesome Christmas and a kickass new year!!!!

Diego,

I too am a huge fan of high volume training and I also respond very well to it. When creating a high volume training routine, however, it is best to focus on quality versus quantity. What I mean is it is best not to do too many exercises with the same movement for high volume. It is better to pick exercises with minimal movement overlap and do those for high volume.

For shoulders, you don't need to do both side laterals and then one arm side laterals. This is overkill and redundant. It is better to do 6 sets of 15 reps of side laterals than adding in another 4 sets of 15 reps single arm laterals. Try doing 10 sets of 10 DB presses with 30 second rest intervals or a superset of 10 reps of DB presses superseted with 10 reps of lateral raises. Do that 5 times for 100 reps total (20 reps x 5 sets). This is a better shoulder volume routine than what you have listed. Shoulders are very small muscles and you should do no more than 100 - 150 total reps for them. Larger muscles like back and legs can withstand 200-250 total reps.

For your back workout, you are too dependent on cable machines. Pull-ups, chin-ups, and DB/BB rowing movements are better as they are true compound exercises and stress multiple muscle groups simultaneously. It is OK to throw in 1 or 2 cable back machines but nothing is a better substitute for free weight back exercises. You have the right idea with pull-ups and rows in the routine but I would reduce and/or eliminate the cable-based stuff as the free weight stuff provides the same movement only more effectively as your body has to move the weight without the aid of a cable which reduces/eliminates some stabilizer muscle involvement.

The bottom line is when creating a high volume routine always choose free weight exercises over machine/cable versions and don't duplicate the same movements with multiple exercises. Keep total volume in the 100-150 rep range for small muscles (arms, shoulders) and 200-250 rep range for large muscles (back, chest, legs). There is such a thing as too much volume, especially when natural, so don't overdo it or else you will lose muscle mass versus build it.

John

Hey! Thanks alot for your input! I most definitely will take into account your advice, I sincerely appreciate it.

As for the shoulder volume, as you know, there are two sides to shoulder trainings. The first side saying they do not need much direct training as they are beat down in almost every other workout you do, and the other side saying in order to sculpt some boulder shoulders, you need to train them hard and smart.

I lean more towards side 1, but I just wanted to try annihilating my shoulders once a week for the next 6 weeks just to see how my body responds. I wanted a good amount of sets for the medial deltoid as that is the part that is most responsible for giving it that amazing round look.

For the back workout, I am not able to do more than 10 strict pull-ups. That is why I have many lat pulldowns and rows. You are right though, I would prefer doing pull-ups, they are much better! However, since I cannot perform many, I figured I would better hit my lats if I used a machine. By the 2nd or 3rd set on pull-ups, I'd simply be cheating myself.

I really want to thank you again! The advice was great and I will modify my routine! Best wishes :)

Diego,

Glad my advice helped. It is the result of decades of training experience. You need to be careful doing high volume training when you are natural. Your shoulders don't need a lot of volume and they are involved in every upper body movement so they get quite a bit of volume already. Too much volume DECREASES muscle size not increases it.

As for back, this is why you should be focusing on pull-ups. It is OK if you can't do a lot day 1. Keep working at it and make up the volume with other free weight back exercises. The weakness you have is exactly my point about cable machine work. You are taking all the stabilizer muscles out which is why you can do lat pull-downs but not pull-ups. You must gravitate TOWARDS the exercises you have a hard time doing not away from them. This will insure growth and strength gains :-)

John

Great advice. You are defintely right!! Thanks again :)