Hi all. At the end of the coming week I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks (woo hoo!) so no martial arts training (booo) and no weights for a bit. While I'm planning to do some body weight stuff and a bit of interval running as a change to keep my fitness progressing i have been thinking it's time for a change in the gym when i get back. My current routine is as below. All done 5x5 with 1 min break between sets unless stated. I've put the weight I'm doing too. Anything on a machine/cable is in ' ' as i don't believe these truely represent the resistance. Monday – Chest & upper back · Incline dumbbell press 5x8 @ 2x20kg · Dumbbell fly @ 16kg · Cable crossover @ '2x40kg' · Bent-over dumbbell row 8x5 @ 2x20kg · Lat pull down @ 70kg · Straight arm cable pull down @ '70kg' Wednesday – Shoulders & arms · Dumbbell shoulder press @ 2x20kg · Cable lateral raise 8x5 @ '20kg' · Bent-over lateral raise @ 15kg · Dumbbell curl @ 2x16kg · Two handed seated overhead tricep extension @ 35kg · Tricep push-up’s on a bench 12-12-10-8-6 reps w/30 sec breaks Friday – Legs & lower back · Leg press 8x5 @ '135kg' · Dumbbell dead lift @ 2x35kg · Leg extension @ '85kg' · Straight-leg dead lift @ 2x27.5kg · Leg curl @ '90kg' I quite enjoy the routine (well as much as you can do) but only the legs session really leaves me feeling it the next day now. I also don't think I'm that strong in the upper body. The trouble with my work gym is it's focussed on cardio and machines rather than free weights. We have a few fixed bar bells up to 30kg, then the rest is dumbbells. Even then the range is very good up to 20kg, then simply 27.5kg, 30kg, 35kg and nothing more. I do feel the dumbbells add something extra to the work. They feel much harder to control (compared doing our 30kg bar to 2x15kg back at the start of the year), which i'm sure is of benefit. The 7.5kg jump up to the 27.5kg has been particularly difficult on the chest press. Adding that extra 7.5kg in each hand is just a step too far. At the mo i've got up to doing 1 set of 5 reps using those, then do 4x8 using the 20's. Getting there very slowly. In theory i'd go somewhere else, but the convenience factor really helps to keep me going and training hard. I just wonder if anyone has any thoughts on what i could do to freshen things up bearing in mind I want to stay at this gym for now and the limited equipment. I've been trying to burn body fat, which is never great for building muscle I know, but I would like to keep going at the strength stuff! Perhaps a change to doing the same exercises but 3x10 rather than mostly 5x5? Then change back in 3 months time and so on?
P.S i have (again) emailed the two gym instructors suggesting they might want to use some of their budget on a few more dumbbells. A 22.5kg, 25kg, and 32.5kg would at least fill the gaps. Apparently we haven't got room for a Smith machine or even a single bar with plates on a rack
I actually wrote a response for this and it got lost in the bowels of MAP - not sure what happened. I'll turn out another response for you soon.
Even without changing it up much, I bet you'd see better progress by increasing your rest from 1 minute to 3-5 minutes. Also I would ditch all of the isolation movements and focus more on compound ones. Most importantly, I would ditch the leg presses, curls, and extensions. Since you're already doing DB deadlift (and I assume a DB squat would be about the same) you might want to try doing pistols. Beast Skills has a good tutorial here and you can start without weight and progress when you're ready. Also if you've got access to a back extension bench (or if you can rig one up) then they can make a nice addition. This is assuming you don't want to revamp your whole routine... If you do, I'd recommend a full-body workout, not a body part split.
First off, I don't see any dips or pullups in your routine. I'd add some pullups and dips. If you can't do 5 or so of each, start out with negatives. Another exercise you might try on your push day is a floor press. Good exercise, easy to do without a spotter, and good for either bar or dumbells. You should also consider adding some bulgarian split squats - an excellent leg exercise that works well when you have limited equipment. I would actually stick with the 5x5 rather than switching to the 3x10, and start doing some intervals for your fat loss. Additionally, let's talk about how you've got your workouts divided up. Currently, you've got it set up like: See you've got all your pull and push lifts mixed up on different days. I'd put all my push lifts on one day and all my pull lifts on another day. You should go back and check www.exrx.net and confirm that I've classed all those exercises correctly. You are pretty balanced between pull and push lifts which is good.
Interesting on the rest front. I'm not sure I'd feel like i was doing any work mind. Worth a try though to see. I'm not sure we have sufficient weight with the dumbbells to use those more, although i all honesty my grip limits me at the moment rather than my legs and back. I'll take a look at whatever Pistols are though. What would you say the advantage of doing a full body work out 3 times a week is over body part splits? This was what i did previously (although i was doing 8/10x3). Sadly we don't have a back extension bench (had one at my old gym years ago and they are useful). The tricep push-up is a dip of sorts. We don't have any parallel bars for proper ones though. Pull-ups i can do (well have the equipment). Might be able to manage 3x5. Maybe. Will try doing as many full as i can and then do negatives. Will replace the pull down (which i hate) with these. I'll look up what a floor press is. Sadly i train alone though. Same with the Bulgarian split squats. I had never thought about push/pull days even though i've seen it mentioned. What are the advantages/disadvantages of that approach?
I don't exactly know why but I'll hazard a guess - because the pull system is a bunch of muscles that generally work together, same with the push system. So you work the muscles that tend to work together, together. I personally like to do a full body workout every time I go - I usually lift 2 times a week.
Makes sense to me! Thanks for the help. Much appreciated. Looks like i'll change a few bits around, have a look at these suggested exercises and see what i can change. Doing some body weight stuff instead of machine (e.g. the pull ups) sounds good (but hard!) I just had a look back to April when i started the current routine. I really havent upped the numbers that much. A typical example is the shoulder/military press. I was doing 2.5 sets using the 20kg, then having to finish with an 18kg. Up to pretty much failing on the last set with the 20kg now. However, this with my other training means I feel i can throw more (hard) punches in a round. Enough that my instructor has noticed (and gladly upped his game lol!).
Had a thought on pull ups today... This potentially could be two exercises right? Wide grip with palms facing away is basically my lat pull down machine in reverse (with a bigger weight - me!) and narrow grip palms facing in would replace the bicep curls but give added benefit of using other muscles rather than isolating?
Yes. http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/LatissimusDorsi/WtUnderhandChinup.html http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/LatissimusDorsi/WtPullup.html
Regarding the rest... Shorter rest periods are generally reserved for metabolic activity. With 5x5, your goal is maximum strength. When working to increase maximum strength, it is best to manage fatigue. I suggested the pistols (one-legged squat) specifically because you don't need as much weight to train them heavy. If you don't know what they are, check the beast skills tutorial (which will also show you how to do one) here: http://www.beastskills.com/Pistol.htm The advantage to working full-body is that you can work your major muscle groups more often. Rather than "killing" your legs, back, and chest once a week each, you can work them each out 3 times a week. This goes with the concept of managing your fatigue. When you're doing a 3 sets of 8 or 10, you're using more hypertrophy parameters, in which case managing fatigue is less important, and a body part split might be desirable. Think about it, if you do 4 different leg exercises all in the same session, only the first one (or maybe 2) is really getting the most out of it, the others are fighting fatigue. But if you do 1 leg exercise, 1 push, and 1 pull, you get less interference, and you're basically fresh for each exercise. You don't even have to make them strict as to what exercises you do each time. You could just have a list of leg exercises, a list of push exercises, and a list of pull exercises, and each time you go to work out, choose an exercise from each list. Of course if you're doing 3 exercises per session - they should all be compound lifts. If you want to keep doing some isolation work, give yourself 15 minutes at the end of each workout to do any isolation work that you want, but don't overdo it or you'll start to interfere with your next session.
