Evilpie's get off your lazy arse and get back to the gym diaries

[ACE2M]

matt, how old are you? have you considered doing 5/3/1? very nice programming, can find torrents to get it for free

http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=370&pid=2976

35 mate. Never heard of it??

Have you got any cliffs?

day 1 shoulder press, day 2 deadlift, 3 bench, 4 squat, whatever assistance stuff you like, up to you. 3 weeks on 1 week go light, just really nice smooth programming, ebook is short, only take a minute to read it

I don't know the excersices that much. Any chance someone can chuck me a 4 day a week programme on here please? I got pretty buff/lean last year at 1 point before sustaining an injury that kept me out for 4 months and then xmas came upon us so i ended up getting a bit chunky again, just started back with some serious cardio for the last week.

Think i'll be a bit bored just hitting the same routine as before, i want it to be 30 minute max (lunch hour). Machines are pretty basic at the gym i go to, no smith machine.

Do they have free weights?

yep.

[GreekStein]

Had a late one in the office yday, left around 7.40, legged it to Sainsbury's to get something to eat so I could train when I got home as it had been a long gap since lunch. Nothing there but boots had a low fat chicken wrap (276 calories) which I ate and managed to get to the gym for 9 to do an hour of shoulders.

I was the only one in the weights room when I got there, which I don't mind hugely as I never train from 6-8 because it's too busy but I do prefer one or two people in the gym.

I did shoulders and all was going well but I overdid it a bit. Shoulder pressing was my last exercise and by this time my shoulders were quite burnt out. I was pressing 20kg dumbbells and struggling to get more than 6 reps out and think I overcompensated on my back a little bit and seemed to have pulled a muscle or trapped a nerve on the top right of my back. Nothing serious and won't keep me from training but it's pretty uncomfortable today. I should have simply done a lighter weight but I used to do 12 reps with the 30kg bells and I got a bit stubborn.

Think I will do a fitness session only tonight to give my back some recovery time and then hit arms on friday and back on saturday with sunday off, or just a fitness session.

[GreekStein]

matt, how old are you? have you considered doing 5/3/1? very nice programming, can find torrents to get it for free

http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=370&pid=2976

35 mate. Never heard of it??

Have you got any cliffs?

day 1 shoulder press, day 2 deadlift, 3 bench, 4 squat, whatever assistance stuff you like, up to you. 3 weeks on 1 week go light, just really nice smooth programming, ebook is short, only take a minute to read it

I don't know the excersices that much. Any chance someone can chuck me a 4 day a week programme on here please? I got pretty buff/lean last year at 1 point before sustaining an injury that kept me out for 4 months and then xmas came upon us so i ended up getting a bit chunky again, just started back with some serious cardio for the last week.

Think i'll be a bit bored just hitting the same routine as before, i want it to be 30 minute max (lunch hour). Machines are pretty basic at the gym i go to, no smith machine.

Do they have free weights?

yep.

Will put something together for you when I'm home later mate.

[ACE2M]

Right then. The first problem I notice with your weights routine is how you fit your arm training in. Personally I do an extra day to train arms separately but there is no problem with combining with another bodypart.

What I think you need to do though is swap your bicep and tricep days around. Chest and triceps are very closely linked so you shouldn't train them together. After your chest session your triceps will be fatigued so won't be performing well. Your biceps won't have done too much work though so they'll be fine.

On to the individual days.....

If you've hit a plateau then your routine needs a bit of a shake up. I'll outline a slightly different routine that I'd recommend you'd give a try for a few weeks. Your current routine will have got a bit stale and your body will be used to it. Changing your routine will give you a bit of a boost.

Mon - Chest and triceps
80 press ups
bench press with dumb bells - 4 sets of 10
Flyes - 3 sets of 10
One where you have shoulders on bench and lower the dumbell over your head - 2 sets of ten
Dips - 1 set of ten

Mon - Chest and biceps

First off sack the press ups. They can be a good exercise but hardly anyone does them properly and there's much better weight exercises to do. All you're doing is fatiguing your muscles before your weight training.

Start with barbell bench press. do 2 very light sets as a warm up then 3 proper sets aiming for 8 to 10 reps. Never pick a number and stop at it. You set a target for the weight but if you can do more you know you need more weight. You should always aim to fail.

Incline dumbell press - 4 sets of 8 to 10. Alternate for decline press every other week.

Cable crossover. 3 sets of 12 to 15. Substitute for flyes if there isn't a crossover machine.

Standing alternating dumbell curl. 3 set of 10 to 12

Standing barbell curl. 3 sets of 10 to 12

Tue - Legs
Squats with weights - 4 sets
Leg extensions - 2 sets
The one where you pull your ankles to your arse - 2 sets
Calf raises - 4 sets with wieghts

Start with leg extensions but make sure you squeeze every rep at the top. 2 light sets as a warm up then pyramid up through 4 more sets to your max. Aim for 8 reps on your last set more on your lighter sets up to about 16.

Leg press - 4 sets of 10 to 12. Heavy as possible

Stiff legged dead lift. Works the same muscles as the one where you pull your ankles to your arse. 4 sets of 10 to 12. Make sure you feel a full stretch through your hamstrings. Stand on a box if necessary to get the stretch.

Calf raises. 4 sets of as many as you can possibly do.

Thurs - Back and Biceps
Curls -  3 sets of 10
Preacher curls - 1 set of 10
pulldowns - 3 sets of 01
deadlift (i think its called that) - 4 sets of ten (pure evil)
2 sets of some small of the back machine they have in the gym

Thurs - Back and triceps

Pull downs - 4 sets of 10 to 12
Narrow grip pull down - 4 sets of 10 to 12
Dumbell row. The one where you have one knee on a bench and one foot on the floor. - 4 set of 10 to 12

Tricep pushdowns on cable machine (straight bar) - 4 sets of 12 to 15
As above but with rope. - 3 sets of 12 to 15
Dips - 3 sets to failure.

Friday - Shoulders
Shrugs - 4 sets of 10
Seated press - 3 sets of 10
lateral raises - 2 sets of 10

Seated smith machine press. (Bar down in front not behind the neck) - 2 warm up sets then 4 sets or 8 to 10
Dumbell press - 4 sets of 8 to 10
Sideways lateral raises - 3 sets 10 to 12
Bent over lateral raises - 3 sets 10 to 12
Shrugs - 4 sets to failure



Give this a go and see how you feel after a couple of weeks. It might seem like a major shake up but if you've got stuck in a rut believe me it's exactly what you need.  GL and keep posting your updates here.

This is what evilpie suggested last time and i did it for ages and it worked well. Just need a change for a mental boost really.

[EvilPie]

Why not try the 5/3/1 routine that Byron suggested? Looks good to me and I'll certainly be giving it a go at some point.

[EvilPie]

I've decided to take today as a day off.

I trained chest on Tuedsay and was aching yesterday so did legs.

Unfortunately I'm hurting even more today and I don't think I'd be doing myself any favours by training.

My plan has always been to have a day off midweek but this week has been a bit screwed because of the gym being closed on Monday.

So tomorrow will be shoulders and Saturday back with another day off on Sunday ready for next week.

This means that arms don't get trained this week but that really isn't a problem at all.

In these early stages it's more important to pace myself and not get injured.

[Marky147]

That routine you put together for Ace was almost the same as the one I'm doing now. I got told by a guy that owns a gym to keep Back and Legs as far apart as possible to let them recover.

I'm doing

Mon: Chest/Bi
Tue : Back

Thurs: Shoulder/Tri
Friday: Legs

We did intend to do Legs Tuesday and Back Friday but the lad I train with has Footy Tuesday nights. Would be amusing to watch him go play after doing legs....


The guy also said when I had 3 arm exercises for each arm muscle that it was too much. Said you only really need 2 for each as it's a small muscle and gets trained most body parts anyway.

[ACE2M]

Why not try the 5/3/1 routine that Byron suggested? Looks good to me and I'll certainly be giving it a go at some point.

Sounds good but is there a link that tells me the specific excercises to do in a full routine?

[GreekStein]

Back and Legs as far apart as possible to let them recover.

I always do Chest / Back / Legs on different days but don't get why you'd need to do them far apart for max recovery.

The guy also said when I had 3 arm exercises for each arm muscle that it was too much. Said you only really need 2 for each as it's a small muscle and gets trained most body parts anyway.

Everyone trains differently, I find 3 is pretty much perfect for arms. 2 is too little. I usually do 4 on tris.

[EvilPie]

Back and Legs as far apart as possible to let them recover.

I always do Chest / Back / Legs on different days but don't get why you'd need to do them far apart for max recovery.

The guy also said when I had 3 arm exercises for each arm muscle that it was too much. Said you only really need 2 for each as it's a small muscle and gets trained most body parts anyway.

Everyone trains differently, I find 3 is pretty much perfect for arms. 2 is too little. I usually do 4 on tris.

If you're deadlifting I'd say it's sensible to have a gap between legs and back but other then that I personally don't understand it.

I try to train arms as a single body part and it's almost a rest day tbh.

Arms recover fast and don't need much training because they're little.

2 excercsies for biceps and 3 for triceps on a Saturday morning always did the trick for me.

[Marky147]

Yeah we're doing deadlifts (pretty uselessly) and obv that's a whole body exercise. I've just taken some advice as it's the first time I've put together a routine, after 6 weeks if I'm not showing improvements we'll change it about.

We were doing arms before as a single day but no legs and obv legs is pretty important. I'd happily go 5x a week and do arms say Sat morning, the other guy is hard enough to get there 4 days though

We tacked biceps onto Back as we didn't have time to do them Monday with Chest because gym was shutting earlier than we had been told. That sure was fun, we were pretty rinsed from back and on the max set of 2nd exercise it was gg us.

[GreekStein]

Arms recover fast and don't need much training because they're little.

Speak for yourself.

These swans is sickkk

[vegaslover]

matt, how old are you? have you considered doing 5/3/1? very nice programming, can find torrents to get it for free

http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=370&pid=2976

35 mate. Never heard of it??

Have you got any cliffs?

day 1 shoulder press, day 2 deadlift, 3 bench, 4 squat, whatever assistance stuff you like, up to you. 3 weeks on 1 week go light, just really nice smooth programming, ebook is short, only take a minute to read it

I don't know the excersices that much. Any chance someone can chuck me a 4 day a week programme on here please? I got pretty buff/lean last year at 1 point before sustaining an injury that kept me out for 4 months and then xmas came upon us so i ended up getting a bit chunky again, just started back with some serious cardio for the last week.

Think i'll be a bit bored just hitting the same routine as before, i want it to be 30 minute max (lunch hour). Machines are pretty basic at the gym i go to, no smith machine.

Do they have free weights?

yep.

Hi ACE"
If your looking for a 30 minute weights workout then take a look at stronglifts 5x5. Pretty much ideal for short, hard workouts.
These fit perfectly with free weights

[ACE2M]

matt, how old are you? have you considered doing 5/3/1? very nice programming, can find torrents to get it for free

http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=370&pid=2976

35 mate. Never heard of it??

Have you got any cliffs?

day 1 shoulder press, day 2 deadlift, 3 bench, 4 squat, whatever assistance stuff you like, up to you. 3 weeks on 1 week go light, just really nice smooth programming, ebook is short, only take a minute to read it

I don't know the excersices that much. Any chance someone can chuck me a 4 day a week programme on here please? I got pretty buff/lean last year at 1 point before sustaining an injury that kept me out for 4 months and then xmas came upon us so i ended up getting a bit chunky again, just started back with some serious cardio for the last week.

Think i'll be a bit bored just hitting the same routine as before, i want it to be 30 minute max (lunch hour). Machines are pretty basic at the gym i go to, no smith machine.

Do they have free weights?

yep.

Hi ACE"
If your looking for a 30 minute weights workout then take a look at stronglifts 5x5. Pretty much ideal for short, hard workouts.
These fit perfectly with free weights

cheers.

[EvilPie]

Just got back from tonight's session. Back on track to get the 4 in this week. Shoulders tomorrow then rest Sunday ready to start again.

I'm still struggling to get there but once there I'm really enjoying it.

Hopefully the difficulties will pass soon and it will just become routine.

The diet's looking reasonable at the moment. No more pizzas in the freezer, just lean mince and chicken in the fridge.

I'm not going to go stupid on the diet but I'm going to cut down on lazy food, pizza, burgers, chip shop stuff etc.

I'm still feeling very weak at the gym and lifting very light weights. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to get back to something decent. Hopefully not too long.