Routine Comments Please

[I. Kay]

Right now I'm on week 20 of The Book of Muscle's Intermediate level. 7 weeks to go.

Now, my arms are much smaller than I'd like (though overall strength has definitely increased) and BoM hasn't helped that. It's not designed for that.

When I finish it, I want to work on my arms. However, I don't want to sacrifice strength elsewhere.

In other words, I want to keep working on strength everywhere, while working on size for my arms only.

I took a look at Ian King's Great Guns, but it's TOO arm-centered, and the recommended 'maintenance work' for the rest of my body looks insufficient.

Anyway, with these factors in mind (arm work for size, strength work for everything else), here is a routine I put together. Ab work is not included yet, because I will break it into 2-3 days as I see fit (just like in BoM).

It's open for any and all criticism. It's certainly no 'personal statement' or anything, so don't hold back. It's just an idea anyway.

Thanks!

Day 1

Supersets:
Dips 2x10
Chinups 2x10

EZ Bar Curls 2x10
Lying Triceps Extensions 2x10

DB Isolation Curls 2x10
One-Arm Tri Pressdowns 2x10

Day 2

Superset:
Deadlift 8x3
Full-range Back Squats 8x3

Day 3
OFF

Day 4

Supersets:

Forearm Extensions 2x10
Forearm Curls 2x10

EZ Bar Preacher Curls 2x10
Supinated Triceps Pressdowns 2x10

DB Shoulder Presses 2x10
Lat Pulldowns 2x10

Day 5
OFF

Day 6

Superset:
Bench Presses 8x3
Bent-Over Rows 8x3

Day 7
OFF

[Ikan Twin]

ok, i'm not a trainer or nothing, but i'll give my thoughts from my own experience.

On Day 1 you have the 2 best exercises imo for arm development: chins & dips. i assume by chins you mean supinated pullups, right? these help my biceps & forearms & grip strength to boot. dips add thickness, i find. i do both of these weighted & 5x5, but if your body reacts better to high reps, then do the 10 rep thing. most of the westsiders love skullcrushers & they have big arms, so that looks like a good choice, but maybe for biceps i'd go hammer curls. if i read the article below correctly, they are the only arm curls that hit your biceps throughout the ROM.

http://www.ruggedmag.com/forums/inde...showtopic=4223

a lot of that info gets technical & over my head, so maybe you can decifer it better. So my suggestion would be chins 5x5, dips 5x5, then hammers 3x10 & skulls 3x10.

Days 2 & 6 look great. personally i love 8x3. that leg day could be hard though, 16 sets of heavy reps for legs...maybe deadlift & bench Day 2, then squats & rows Day 6?

Day 4, I don't know. that pre-exhaust stuff didn't work for me, but obviously you like it, you know your body better than anyone. It's good to get your shoulders here & they tag yer triceps pretty good too. i don't know if supersets are really that great for building mass.

another article that may help: http://www.ruggedmag.com/index.php?type=Article&i=1&a=6

i assuming you know all the "eat more, pwo, antioxidants, sleep, etc" stuff to grow. hope my uneducated opinion helps somewhat. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[I. Kay]

Thanks for your input!!! I was starting to wonder if my proposal was so awful that nobody had the heart to tell me! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

You're right about supersets and size, now that you bring it up. I have been so strength-oriented for so long that it had not crossed my mind as a potential hindrance.

The reason for the deads/squats, bench/rows breakdown is because I've recently done those exact pairings in Book of Muscle and I love it.

And you know, hammers instead of regular curls there is probably a darn good idea, seeing as how I've already got chinups there.

And yeah, I've read up on the rest of it!

Thanks again!

(Oh, funny you mentioned those two articles, because I had planned on following the diet advice from Maximum Muscularity over there at Rugged!

[Ikan Twin]

no problem. this forum has less traffic than some others, so yer bound to get less replies here, but i find the quality of info is much better. after i typed my previous reply, i went to rugged.com & joel marion has a new article on arm specialization. he has no rest day between 2 arm-day workouts which is puzzling me, but i like the whole idea of high reps/low sets one day & next arm day is low reps/high sets. it's worth checking out.