Help me fix my workout

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Sueven
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Help me fix my workout

Post by Sueven »

Hello VV,

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:

Image

(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!
Sueven
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Sueven »

Well, I have a new routine, no thanks to y'all. Crossfit. There is a website (crossfit.com). They post once a day and tell you what to do. You do it, plus whatever you want (which, for me, is usually sports, yoga, and lately a little bit of gymnastics work). Workouts are usually fairly brief and high intensity, involving running, rowing, gymnastics, olympic weightlifting, etc. Diverse exercises, functional movement, maximum effort and intensity.

Results: In less than a month, I went from a max set of 15 pull ups to a max set of at least 25. And I've progressed from the above two pictures to this:

Image

I've also purchased myself a set of gymnastics rings. This allows me to do a killer workout without a gym. I'll go to a park and set them up, and then alternate short runs with sets of pull ups, dips, rows, push ups, or muscle ups (all on the rings). It's glorious. Heartily recommended.

I know that none of y'all care, and for all I know I may be the only person left on this board who actually works out, but fuck it, I'm posting anyway. Maybe Kwon will read this eventually or something.
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Fash
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Fash »

Before: Angry
After: Gay

I think I'll stick to over-eating.
Fash

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Naivety is dangerous.
Sueven
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Sueven »

You should see the REALLY gay pictures from that party.

Image
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Drasta
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Drasta »

uhh ... your straight arnt you? cuz those pictures scream homosexual to the extent that the fire sprinklers might go off lol

Edit:

And are those pleather pants?

good job those, it does looks like there is some definite body mass increase, i wish i had the time/drive to work out, i just rely on the high metabolism right now =-\
Sueven
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Sueven »

I am straight. Shockingly, at least one woman actually thought I looked good in that getup, and she woke up in my bed the next morning.

The pants are womens leggings from American Apparel.

And those shots are far from the gayest from that particular night.
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Drasta
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Drasta »

lord ... straight people :roll:
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Aabidano
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Aabidano »

Drasta wrote:uhh ... your straight arnt you? cuz those pictures scream homosexual to the extent that the fire sprinklers might go off
I had a mouth full of food when I read that, it's on my monitor now you butthead.
"Life is what happens while you're making plans for later."
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Drasta
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Drasta »

hey i just call em how i see them =P
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Kwonryu DragonFist
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Kwonryu DragonFist »

Sueven wrote:Well, I have a new routine, no thanks to y'all. Crossfit.

Image
Epic pussypulling physique right there Sueven. (almost like Huge Jackedmans physique in Wolverine)

One can clearly see you are the center of attention in any party / talk of the town etc.

You just need 20 lbs more mass and then lower your bodyfat for visible abs.

Cut the hair and lose the mascara if you really want to look impressive at the clubs.
Keep at it and the chicks will gather like flies to a turd!

If you mainly train for clubs/parties aka disco-training, just focus on pecs, delts, lats and arms.
But then you have to show your true colors when displaying your physique at the beach (aka No-legs McGee).

If you care more for overall strength and a balanced physique, you need to incorporate deadlifts, squats, lunges, calfraises etc as well.
Thanks to Thess
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Sueven
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Sueven »

Thanks!

I should point out that the hair and makeup are gone. I'm now short-haired and clean shaven.

And my current focus is developing strength in my posterior chain. So yes-- deadlifts, squats, lunges, power cleans. Really, the only exercises I do that explicitly focus on my chest are push ups and dips. Almost everything else is compound and involves a lot more back than chest.
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Kwonryu DragonFist
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Kwonryu DragonFist »

Sueven wrote:Thanks!

I should point out that the hair and makeup are gone.
Good for you! You don't need funky extravagant flamboyant hair or faggy makeup to look attractive in the clubs a la Mystery's peacocking methods, thats fairy emo metrosexual-stuff imho.

With a good build, positive attitude and a great outlook on life, you can be an even better pussypuller with a clean shaven look, no need to put it to the extremes with makeup and punk.hair for attention
And my current focus is developing strength in my posterior chain. So yes-- deadlifts, squats, lunges, power cleans. Really, the only exercises I do that explicitly focus on my chest are push ups and dips. Almost everything else is compound and involves a lot more back than chest.
Sure, but if you want Kwon-esque pecs when i was at my peak, i recommend the bench as well.

I used to do this on Chest-days.

1 warmup set flat bench.
3 x 8 flat benchpress

Rest and stretch the pecs

3 x 8 Incline benchpress

Rest and stretch

Pyramids
1 x 8 Decline Bench
1 x 6 (heavier weight) Decline Bench
1 x 4 (really heavy weight) Decline Bench

Final exercise was either pec-dec, cables or flies. (i changed these for every Chest workout i did, i e first Chest Day it was PecDec, second was flies etc )

And before heading home i did a final flat bench to failure (as many reps you can until you cant do anymore)

After that workout you had PUMP and Greatness in your Pecs.

I always end every workout with one set to failure to really shock the muscle-groups. Doing this for legs may cause you to vomit though.
Thanks to Thess
---xx0O0xx---
The best site known to man!
--++http://kwonryu.mybrute.com++--
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Cracc
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Re: Help me fix my workout

Post by Cracc »

And thus, Kwon developed what we in sweden call "LATS SOM EN ROCKA"!
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