OK, I am going to make up my own routine now and try it for 8-12 weeks and see where it gets me before I change it up some. What I would like to know is if the muscle groups I put together below are a good way to go. After that, I will post what exercises I am planning on and see if that sounds good. Please let me know, thank you.
Monday -- Chest
Tuesday -- Biceps
Wednesday -- Back
Thursday -- Legs
Friday -- Shoulders/Abs
Is this good, or should I try for a 4-day split? Thanks for any advice you can give me.
Originally posted by DKing: Drop Friday and make Wednesday an off day. Shoulders really don't need there own day.
Danny
Danny: You're condoning a day (Tuesday) for biceps???
Steve:
Danny's right in regards to shoulders; in fact, they don't necessarily need any separate exercises at all on any day/any routine; if you are working compound movements, then you generally are hitting shoulders, biceps and triceps.
If you want to do a 4 day split, you might consider this:
Monday: Upper body (the right compound movements will get everything upper body)
Tuesday: Legs
Thursday: Chest & back
Friday or Saturday: Legs
Do abs/core work on two of the days.
This way, your muscle groups get worked twice per week each (instead of each body part getting one day per week) and your entire body also gets to rest.
Another solution is to do three full-body workouts.
Originally posted by Steve H.: So something more like the following?:
Monday - Chest
Tuesday - Biceps/Triceps
Thursday - Back/Shoulders
Friday or Saturday - Legs
Work your legs twice a week. And, your arms and shoulders get worked whenever you do back and chest work. So, I wouldn't do arms on a separate day, if you intend to do any specific arm exercises. If that's your desire, then maybe something like this, based on the movement patterns discussed in that article:
Tuesday: Knee Dominant Legs (Squat variations, lunges, calf raises)
Thursday: Vertical push/pull (Pullups/chinups, dips, overhead presses, upright rows, lateral raises -- NOTE: the dips and presses and pullups are working your biceps and triceps)
Friday/Saturday: Hip Dominant Legs (Deadlift, reverse lunge, step up, calf raises)
Again, throw in some ab/core work two or three days.
Let's see if this stands up to the scrutiny of others.
Chris: Do you consider Dips a vertical pushing excercise? I do as well, and i've read other article where they've mentioend that they are, but Alwyn told me that they are horizontal pushing.
I've been confused as to where they fit into my routine.
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Originally posted by sharkbait31: Chris: Do you consider Dips a vertical pushing excercise? I do as well, and i've read other article where they've mentioend that they are, but Alwyn told me that they are horizontal pushing.
I've been confused as to where they fit into my routine.
I have seen them listed as such (vertical) a few times, and I know Alwyn and someone else (GQ ?) have pointed out the "leaning into them = horizontal pushing". I think I see, in light of other vertical push & pull movements, how the dips are considered a horizontal push. I just kind of intuitively put them in that vertical category. (I can't recall how that MF article had them categorized, if it did.)
If they are horizontal, then they would then be a substitute for(or add on to) benching movements if one were working on a horizontal push/pull day.What I am not clear on is what training benefit/effect they offer that might be different than benching movements, or if they could be a flat-out substitute, essentially interchangeable.
That's really interesting. I have heard them categorized as both, but I tend to think it is a vertical push as well.
Alwyn, why would the lean make it a horizontal push? Since the move is still up and down, that kind of confuses me.
I remember the "lean" comment from someone (maybe not Alwyn), and maybe dips are hotizontal push with or without any extra leaning. But, think about it: particularly with any lean, your arms are essentially pushing away from you chest. I can understand that. It's a different movement than a chinup, a press, or an upright row.
Dips are a horizontal push. You need to look at the action of the primary limb in the movement not the movement of the resistance, in this case the body. Yes, the body is being moved in a vertical plane, but unless you are using a machine the resistance will always be in a vertical plane for an effective exercise. You must fight gravity. If you use how the resistance is moving than the bench press and bent over row are both verical movements because that barbell is going up and down vertically.
Instead, we look at the primary limb, in this case the arm and more specifically the upper arm. If you look at the movement of the upper arm, as you press up the humerus adducts (moves closer to the midline of the body) and doing so mimics the movement of any horizontal push. Look at the arm movement in a decline bench press in relation to the body position and then compare it to the arm movement in a dip keeping in mind that the different body position you will notice that they are really similar.
I hope this helps clear things up and was at least a little bit clear, I am really tired and should probably get some sleep.
Danny
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yeah, Danny, the "movement of limb" explanation is what I had in the back of my head in my last post, but I couldn't explain it off the top of my head and I was too lazy to look it up!
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