This coming Monday, I'm going to embark on a month-long workout project. I plan to lift lots of weights and eat shitloads of food with the aim of gaining as much muscle and strength as possible in a one-month period. Once the weather gets warm in late March or so, I'll be spending less time lifting weights in the gym and more time playing sports and hiking outdoors, so I'd like to gain as much strength as possible before my schedule makes it impossible for me to do so. After this point, I'll probably also be focusing my gym time primarily on conditioning and cardiovascular fitness, as I'll need that to be effective at sports and hiking.
I plan to lift weights 5 days a week, Monday through Friday. I'm willing to devote up to two hours a day in the gym, and I plan to increase my food intake proportionally-- probably about 4000 calories and a minimum of 200 grams of protein daily.
What I need is some advice on how to go about making the most of my time in the gym. Particular exercises or techniques and all that.
I have access to a pretty solid gym, with free weights, benches, machines, mats, medicine balls, cables, and all that good stuff. I'm familiar with all of the equipment and should be able to use all of it without much of a learning curve. I'm also generally capable of doing most non-weighted muscle building exercises-- mat exercises, dips, pull ups, decline/handstand pushups, and so on.
I typically go to the gym 5 days a week already, but my gym trips are a bit shorter (around an hour) and not solely focused on building strength. As it is, I usually do three generic upper-body days, which usually involves 2 or 3 chest exercises (always including the bench press, usually four sets, 12 reps @ 155, 10 reps @ 175, 8 reps @ 185, 12 reps @ 135, although sometimes I'll pyramid from 12 reps @ 135 to 1 rep @ 225 or so and back down, as well as pec flies, decline push ups, that exercise where you lie on a bench and lift a dumbell from behind your head to over your chest and back, etc), 2 or 3 back exercises (compound rows, lat pulldowns, pull ups (usually a wide-grip set to exhaustion, followed immediately by a mid-grip set to exhaustion, followed immediately by a close-grip set to exhaustion, then rest and repeat), rear delt rows, etc), isolation exercises for my arm muscles (bicep curls, lateral raises, tricep extensions or skullcrushers), and a minimal amount of ab/core work (back extensions, weighted leg raises, using that little rolly thing with the wheel on it, decline crunches w/ medicine ball). I'll also do two leg days, which usually involve some combination of running a few miles, hopping on the stairmaster for awhile, doing pyramids on the squat rack (usually around 200 lbs), doing long sets of lunges (usually about 20 with 70 pounds followed immediately by another 20 with no weight, then rest and repeat), and a few of the machines, especially calf raises and abuductor/adductors, but occasionally quads and hams and presses as well.
This basic regimen has gotten me from about 144 pounds to about 160 pounds (I'm 5'11) over the course of two years, along with substantial increases in strength and athleticism. This is approximately my progress over that time frame:
(yes, I did clip down my chest hair at some point between point A and point B, feel free to mock me if you like)
Over the past 6-8 months, my size has remained relatively constant (157-161 pounds), while my strength has increased slightly and my athleticism has increased substantially (probably due to an increase in running and more explosive and compound weight-lifting). I need to reverse this order of priority for the next month, and focus on my size and strength instead of my athleticism, which isn't something I'm used to doing. That's why I need your help!
I'm thinking of two basic setups:
Option 1: Upper Body on Monday, Legs & Abs on Tuesday, Upper Body Wednesday, Legs & Abs on Thursday, Upper Body Friday
Option 2: Push (chest-centric) and abs Monday, Pull (back-centric) Tuesday, Legs Wednesday, Push (triceps-centric) and abs Thursday, Pull (biceps-centric) Friday.
I know a reasonable number of isolation exercises for most body parts, and, if left to my own devices, would probably do triple drop-sets with the aim of isolated each muscle group on the upper body days. If you have any better ideas, or any specific exercises that you think would be particularly useful, share them! On legs days, I'll probably do something like-- stairmaster, followed by heavy squats, followed by long lunge sets as described above, followed by abductor/adductors and calves (with more intensity if I'm doing it only once a week). I particularly need help designing a good ab/core workout, which I'd like to devote 30+ minutes to twice a week. Again, I know plenty of ab exercises, but I struggle to shape them into a coherent whole.
As for the eating: I plan to eat breakfast, which I'm not always so good at now, hopefully involving eggs and bananas daily. I'll have a protein shake after I work out and before bed, make sure I get 8 hours of sleep a night, and eat plenty of tuna, chicken, fish, and tofu, along with my usual exorbitant level of green leafy vegetable consumption. And lots of peanut butter.
I don't really expect VV to design an ultra-detailed workout regimen for me, but I know that we have a few exercisey folks here, so I figured I'd cast a line for some suggestions. If you've got any thoughts on either the exercise or the nutrition aspect of things, let me know!
