Please help with Training split

[Keyser Söze]

Hi could anyone please give me advice on a good training split I want to take Monday & Friday off. How does the following sound ? I have nagging rotator cuff problem I'm trying to solve I don't want re-injury my shoulder again. I use to train Shoulders then next day Chest & found my shoulder would always act up. Thanks again.



Teus: Back
Wed: Legs
Thur: Chest
Fri: Off
Sat: Arms
Sun: Shoulders & Traps
Mon: Off
Abs EOD
20Min Cardio after workout

 

[joseph49853]

Day 1. Upper Body
Day 2. Lower Body
Day 3. Off
Repeat.

You can also fit ab work in there somewhere, and an extra day off every once in a while. And avoid behind-the-neck presses, behind-the-neck pulldowns and upright rows to keep your shoulders healthy. These exercises can actually cause stress, inflammation, and eventual structural damage to the integrity of the rotator cuff.

And make sure to place multi-jointed compound exercise at a much higher priority than single-jointed isolation exercises. If your exercise program doesn't have squats, chest presses, deadlifts, bent-over rows, military presses, chins at the foundation, it's simply inadequate. Good luck.

 

[Keyser Söze]

Thanks for the advice, anyone else care to comment Cheers.

 

[Harie]

Don't do any of the gay splits that you or anyone else can think of. Since you're a newbie to lifting, do a program that a professional has designed. You don't need to design a single workout program till you're an advanced lifter...Or unless you are training for a sport.

I'd highly recommend Starting Strength designed by Mark Rippetoe. Run it for a few months, then re-evaluate your situation/needs. A few people I've read logs from that were on the program still were making gains 4 and 5 months later. It has you in and out of the gym in around 45 minutes 3x/week, and will build a lot of muscle and strength in a short amt of time.

Link to a list of hundreds of exercise routines designed by pro bodybuilders, powerlifters, strength coaches, personal trainers etc.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=772206

 

[roki]

harie , i feel there is one problem with that program that it dosent let you desigen your body as you want
i have some muscels that i want to work on only because it makes me look beter and with starting strength ill have to wait a few months for it

 

[Harie]

harie , i feel there is one problem with that program that it dosent let you desigen your body as you want
i have some muscels that i want to work on only because it makes me look beter and with starting strength ill have to wait a few months for it

How does it not let you design the body you want? I'm assuming you're talking about biceps and triceps? If so, you can add curls and tricep exercises in at the beginning if you want. Though, all the pulling etc will hit your biceps pretty hard for the first few weeks.

The only thing I felt SS lacked was calves.

 

[Keyser Söze]

Good Read Thanks Harie, also I have been finding since I started hitting the gym a month ago I'm really sore for days on end. I trained Back two days ago & still feeling it I couldn't straighten my arms until today. I'm going to switch my routine, I could be over training. Anyway any suggestions on supplements that I can add to help out I just added ISOFLEX Whey Protein Isolate. how about L-Glutamine, Creatine gets me bloated water retention. etc. Any good supp out there. BTW I'm taking 1 capsule of Thermalean Ephedra Caffeine, made by West Pharm Its banned in Canada but is it okay to take one cap a day before Gym Thanks again everyone.

 

[roki]

harie , i feel there is one problem with that program that it dosent let you desigen your body as you want
i have some muscels that i want to work on only because it makes me look beter and with starting strength ill have to wait a few months for it

How does it not let you design the body you want? I'm assuming you're talking about biceps and triceps? If so, you can add curls and tricep exercises in at the beginning if you want. Though, all the pulling etc will hit your biceps pretty hard for the first few weeks.

The only thing I felt SS lacked was calves.

well biceps and triceps too but i like to work alot on my shoulders,i think the back part of the shoulder (dont know the name for it) makes me look much better if its pumped

 

[CCS]

That's what I do, but what is an upright row? Never heard of it.

Day 1. Upper Body
Day 2. Lower Body
Day 3. Off
Repeat.

You can also fit ab work in there somewhere, and an extra day off every once in a while. And avoid behind-the-neck presses, behind-the-neck pulldowns and upright rows to keep your shoulders healthy. These exercises can actually cause stress, inflammation, and eventual structural damage to the integrity of the rotator cuff.

And make sure to place multi-jointed compound exercise at a much higher priority than single-jointed isolation exercises. If your exercise program doesn't have squats, chest presses, deadlifts, bent-over rows, military presses, chins at the foundation, it's simply inadequate. Good luck.

except I don't have squates and dead lifts.

 

[CCS]

Do you work your upper and lower body in the same day? Can you recover from that?

Don't do any of the gay splits that you or anyone else can think of. Since you're a newbie to lifting, do a program that a professional has designed. You don't need to design a single workout program till you're an advanced lifter...Or unless you are training for a sport.

I'd highly recommend Starting Strength designed by Mark Rippetoe. Run it for a few months, then re-evaluate your situation/needs. A few people I've read logs from that were on the program still were making gains 4 and 5 months later. It has you in and out of the gym in around 45 minutes 3x/week, and will build a lot of muscle and strength in a short amt of time.

Link to a list of hundreds of exercise routines designed by pro bodybuilders, powerlifters, strength coaches, personal trainers etc.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=772206

 

[CCS]

harie , i feel there is one problem with that program that it dosent let you desigen your body as you want
i have some muscels that i want to work on only because it makes me look beter and with starting strength ill have to wait a few months for it

How does it not let you design the body you want? I'm assuming you're talking about biceps and triceps? If so, you can add curls and tricep exercises in at the beginning if you want. Though, all the pulling etc will hit your biceps pretty hard for the first few weeks.

The only thing I felt SS lacked was calves.

I think he RT has "extras" at the end, not the beginning, of the workout. And when you isolate, you are supposed to do high reps. Only do low reps on the core movements.

 

[Harie]

Do you work your upper and lower body in the same day? Can you recover from that?

Yes, you work upper and lower in the same day. It's very easy to recover from that, especially since you start out light and work you way heavy. If you tried to do 3x5 on all exercises at a weight close to your personal best, you may not be able to recover in the beginning. But your body adapts quickly.

 

[roki]

I think he RT has "extras" at the end, not the beginning, of the workout. And when you isolate, you are supposed to do high reps. Only do low reps on the core movements.

really?
but dont low reps make me more pumped?

 

[Harie]

well biceps and triceps too but i like to work alot on my shoulders,i think the back part of the shoulder (dont know the name for it) makes me look much better if its pumped

Your shoulders get worked from benching and from doing Pendlay Rows, since they're a secondary muscle for those lifts...Plus you're doing militaries, which directly stimulates the shoulders. Shoulders are easy to overtrain since they're involved in almost all upper body exercises.

As for arms - doing reverse grip chins will hit your biceps pretty well and bench hits your triceps. You're also still able to add in biceps and triceps once a week if you want to. On any other program, you'd usually only lift those mucles once/week anyway.

Oh, and back of shoulders = rear deltoids.

 

[Harie]

And when you isolate, you are supposed to do high reps. Only do low reps on the core movements.

That's not true.

You can, and should, do both low and high reps at some point in the year. If you only do sets of 5 reps forever, your endurance will be crap...And your muscles will adapt, thus making them that much harder to get to grow.

Conversely, if you only do sets of 10, 12, 15, 20 etc, your endurance will be great, but you will have low strength. Low reps = strength. High reps = endurance. All lifting = muscle growth.

I knew a guy that could kick the crap out of every huge guy in the gym when it came to # of reps he could do. He could do light weight exercises with an insane amt of reps that no huge guy could even come close. But the guy remained small because he only concentrated on super high reps. Once he switched it up and started doing both low and high reps at different parts of the year, he got huge.

His muscles were used to doing high reps, so they didn't need to grow to accomodate his workload. Thus, he remained small. When he switched things up, his muscles got shocked into growing.

 

[CCS]

I meant "the only time to do low reps is during the core movements". I did not mean "the core movements should only consist of low reps". I should have worded that differently.

I do 5, 8, and 12 on my core, and then one set of 20 reps for my extras, but don't always do the extras.

 

[Keyser Söze]

Harie, could you list the supplements you take for workout purposes ?
also I'm taking a product called Thermalean by West Pharm, Epdera/Caffeine based product. Would it affect my hair ? I only take 1 cap before Gym as a energy booster Thanks...

 

[Harie]

I meant "the only time to do low reps is during the core movements". I did not mean "the core movements should only consist of low reps". I should have worded that differently.

I do 5, 8, and 12 on my core, and then one set of 20 reps for my extras, but don't always do the extras.

You can, and should do low reps for isolation exercises too. Just because they are your biceps and triceps doesn't mean you have to totally train them differently than any other muscle. Mix it up with all muscle groups.

*edit* Now that I'm re-reading your posts, I think we may be talking about 2 different things. I thought you meant that you needed to do only high reps for things like biceps and triceps...When you may not be saying that.

 

[Harie]

Harie, could you list the supplements you take for workout purposes ?
also I'm taking a product called Thermalean by West Pharm, Epdera/Caffeine based product. Would it affect my hair ? I only take 1 cap before Gym as a energy booster Thanks...

Before a workout I take caffeine, taurine, Kre-Alkalyn (creatine) and whey protein. The caffeine/taurine is because my energy levels drop pretty quickly in the gym, so I think it helps with that. After a workout, I take protein. I'd say if you have ephedra/caffeine and can take it before working out, it's a great idea.

As for effecting hair, I don't think it would do that. I know caffeine does not, but ephedra, I really dont' know.

 

[CCS]

ephedra sounds risky. I think the reason the caffeine gives you energy is it encouranges fat burn, which means your glycogen is not usesd up as fast. But I also heard that after a while your body gets used to caffeine, and you no longer get this effect. I hope it does not burn less fat when you get back off. I do know that people get addicted to caffeine when they drink it to stay up, and people who drink 4+ cups of coffee (500mg per day) find it hard to quit. It is about 1/3 as addicting as nicotine, according to a guy addicted to both, based on comparing withdrawal symptoms.


The Riptoe guy said to do heavy compound exercises (that gets the bicepts with rows) and if you have left over energy, you can do high reps of isolation stuff, but only if they don't detract from the compound stuff. That is just for the beginning. Later, after you've accumulated bulk, you can do heavier isolation stuff to change the muscle ratios a bit. But in the beginning, only the compound movements get low reps. And they get a mix.