Workout routine?

[Marsh]

Hey everyone,
I'm thinking about what kind of routine to go on so I got to wondering what kind of routine you guys have, ie how often do you workout, # of sets/reps, meals you eat/supplements and such. I'm 511 160 looking to increase muscle mass as well lose the beer belly(its little but its there)

Thanks in advance,
Marsh

[Marsh]

comeon guys don't be lazy, i really need some ideas!!

[SinisterProbeGt]

I like working the peck deck in front of the girls thigh machine

[hockeybronx]

It's really something that I think needs to be personalized. Realize what you want to do to your body and search around the internet to find the best exercises for that particular area.

In my experience following somebody else's workout does not work too well, just start with a basic workout and keep doing it and as you learn you will add more and more exercises. The most important things is the balance between intake of food, exercise and rest.

It's really not a thing where you'll start and have a killer routine and program. You need to start with what you know works right now and then upgrade.

Here's what I started with:
20 proper pushups.
20 arm curls with dumbell in each hand.
Then get down and do say 50 of four different kinds of crunches.
20 proper pushups
20 arm curls with dumbell in each hand
Get down and do 50 of four more kinds of crunches.

It's basic but it's a start.

Muscles worked:
- upper and lower pecs
- shoulder girdle
- front and sides of abdomin
- lower back
- triceps
- biceps
- possibly forearms

Good luck.

[w3apon]

OK, I'm bored at work...
If you are talking about weight training, stick with BASICS the first 2-3 months.

Do NOT overtrain, you should only be hitting the gym no more than 4 out of 7 days.
If you over train you will get burned out within 3-4 weeks and will stop working out.

Your weight training workouts should not last any longer than 45-60 minutes. If you are taking longer you are either doing to many exercises, or too many sets or your rests in between are too long.

As far as actual exercises, here is a pretty good basic gym routine.
IMO stay away from trendy exercises-of-the-month crap.
Try to use dumbbells as much as possible this will strengthen your supporting mucles faster than bars.

Also use PROPER weight, you should be able to do all of your reps without any cheating. If you are cheating you are using too much weight. On your last 1-2 reps of your last set of each exercise you should really want to cheat but keep your form!

Day 1 Chest & Back
Inclined Dumbbell Bench Press 3x10
Wipe Grip Infront Lat Pulldown 3x10
Flat Dumbbell bench press 3x10
Narrow grip row machine 3x10
4x15 situps/crunches

Day 2 REST

Day 3 Legs
Squats 3x10 (make sure that you use PROPER form)
Leg hamstring Curls 3x10
Leg raises 3x10
Calf raises 4x10 (these should burn pretty good on 4th set)
4x15 situps/crunches
Day 4 REST

Day 5 Shoulders and Arms
Dumbbell Shoulder press 3x10
Standing Bar curls (yes use a bar for this one and do PROPER form)
Standing Dumbbell flies 3x10
Inclined seated Dumbell Curls 3x10
Dips 3x10
4x15 situps/crunches
Day 6 Cardio 45 minutes (Run, Bike, swim, or stair master, squash, or any active sport etc...)
Day 7 Rest

As far as food and supplements go, keep it simple at the begining, don't waste your money on creatine or protien powders.
Take a good multi vitamin like MegaMen from GNC.
All you need to do is don't eat crap (i.e. Mc Donalds, chips, pop, chocolate bars).
Drink lots of water 1-2 liters a day (yes you will have to pee a lot)
And eat 6 average meals a day instead of 3 big meals. (This is harder to do than it sounds)
Try and not eat too much butter, margarin, mayo, dressing, and other sauces. Use spices instead to make food taste better.
There are lots of sites that talk about what to eat, but the most important thing is what to try and not eat.
With that being said, you should have one day (Friday/Saturday) where you can eat whatever you want.

I'm sure others will recommend different things but this is pretty good start.

Oh and having a training partner that is your level or slightly better than you really helps to keep you motivated.

[Chim]

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/matt66.htm

I use this one, its towards the bottom

[Marsh]

Well thanks for the input guys, i've decided to go with a 4day a week cycle and it looks like this:
Sunday: Legs
Tuesday:Chest & Triceps
Thursday: Back & Biceps
Saturday:Shoulders & Forearms

8-10 sets each muscle group and 5 sets of abwork each workout. BTW I am not a new guy to weight training, i was just looking for something to change it up.

Let me know what you guys think if you don't mind.

Thanks,
Marsh

[pinoyhero]

One piece of advice. Dont start off to quick. Even the 4 day sched sounds like a bit much. Its a classic case: person starts of working out really hard for a long period of time and everything goes really good for a week. Then, they are sore and can't commit so much time and then you end up quitting. I would try to go really slow at first so you can't wait to get back inthe gym and you're sort of forcing yourself to leave. I would start with 2 days a week for no more than 40 mins. and build up from there.

Same goes with the diet. If you go gung ho you'll never stick to it, start slow. Make little changes. Instead of 3 meals a day go with 4 don't try to jump to 6. Drink an extra 2 cups of water per day and work up to 8. Replace pop with water as much as possible. Instead of two parts starch one part meat and one part veggies at dinner, go with 2 parts meat 1 part veggie and one part starch. Make little changes and they will become second nature if you try to do more, failure will be that much easier to avoid.

[Ekliptix]

I lift drinks to my mouth. 4-5 reps.

[hockeybronx]

Originally posted by pinoyhero
One piece of advice. Dont start off to quick. Even the 4 day sched sounds like a bit much. Its a classic case: person starts of working out really hard for a long period of time and everything goes really good for a week. Then, they are sore and can't commit so much time and then you end up quitting. I would try to go really slow at first so you can't wait to get back inthe gym and you're sort of forcing yourself to leave. I would start with 2 days a week for no more than 40 mins. and build up from there.

Same goes with the diet. If you go gung ho you'll never stick to it, start slow. Make little changes. Instead of 3 meals a day go with 4 don't try to jump to 6. Drink an extra 2 cups of water per day and work up to 8. Replace pop with water as much as possible. Instead of two parts starch one part meat and one part veggies at dinner, go with 2 parts meat 1 part veggie and one part starch. Make little changes and they will become second nature if you try to do more, failure will be that much easier to avoid.

Dude read the posts, he just said he ISN'T NEW TO WEIGHT TRAINING, he was just looking for a change.

[Tyler883]

Originally posted by Marsh
Well thanks for the input guys, i've decided to go with a 4day a week cycle and it looks like this:
Sunday: Legs
Tuesday:Chest & Triceps
Thursday: Back & Biceps
Saturday:Shoulders & Forearms

8-10 sets each muscle group and 5 sets of abwork each workout. BTW I am not a new guy to weight training, i was just looking for something to change it up.

Let me know what you guys think if you don't mind.

Thanks,
Marsh

Pairing up you muscles so that you can work one group while resting the other gives you the option of creating a hybrid workout that isn't old school, nor circuit training.

If you do it right, you should still be able to maintain an intensity level of 8-9 by choosing heavier weights than a circuit trainer, and keeping a pace that raises your body temperature(sweat, heart rate, heavy breathing - all that fun stuff). This kind of workout is easily matched up with a cardio session, yet done in a relatively short time.

I heard some of the guys in the gym using this kind of workout when they start to lose progress with the 1hr cardio and 1hr weights.

[600cc's]

Day 1 Upper body training: Chest, shoulders, triceps, back , biceps

Day 2 Cardio

Day 3 Lower body and Abs Training: Quads, hamstrings, CAlves , Abs

Day 4 Cardio

day 5 Upper body training: Chest, shoulders, triceps, back , biceps

day 6 Cardio

Day 7 Rest

[badseed]

So many people, so many ideas, so are ineffective. Read or do some research from a reliable source that is recognizable. ex. ACE, AFLCA,CFC,PFT.

[Chim]

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/matt66.htm

At the bottom of the page is a good 3-day split

[EDM]

Monday: Chest, Back, Shoulders, Abs, Cardio

Tuesday: Cardio or nothing

Wednesday: Chest, Biceps, Triceps, Abs

Thursday: Cardio or nothing

Friday: Chest, Legs, Abs, Cardio

Saturday: Cardio

[1badPT]

Monday: Abs
http://www.netfit.co.uk/abdominals-web-site.htm

Tuesday: Cardio - usually jogging

Wednesday: Upper body
http://www.netfit.co.uk/upper-body-web.htm

Thursday: Cardio - either swimming or biking

Friday: Lower Body
http://www.netfit.co.uk/lower-body-web.htm

Saturday: Cardio - whatever i didn't do Thursday


Matched with a diet that includes proteins (for muscles), healthy fats (for hormones) and a mix of complex and simple carbs with fibre. Only supplements I take are a multivitamin in case I missed something in my diet and whey shakes about an hour before workouts. Meals are breakfast, lunch 1, lunch 2, supper, evening snack.

[Skylinelover]

What do you guys do for forearms?

[Melinda]

^^ Wrist curls work pretty well for forearms, just dont over do the weight, or else you will strain your muscles and be very sore for a long while.

[Chim]

Originally posted by Skylinelover
What do you guys do for forearms?

Deadlifts, chinups, barbell shoulder shrugs, calf raises with barbell

Anything where you gotta hold the weights for a long time, by the time you are done any of the exercises above you won't want to do any more forearm exercises

[Skylinelover]

^ Hmm I would of never thought deadlifts.

But thanks.