Views on my workout plan

Jigsaw

Hi folks,

I was wondering if anyone could pass some opinion on this workout plan a mate did for me ages ago. I plan to be in the gym for this plan on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday every week (fingers crossed)!

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Push Day 1

Chest
Bench Press
Dumbell Incline Press

Front Legs
Squats
Leg extentions

Shoulders
Dumbell Press (stand or seated)
Lateral Raises

Abdominals
Twist Crunches (on Bench)

Triceps
Dips (also works chest)
Pully Pushdowns

Pull Day 1

Back Legs
Seated Hamstring Curls
Calf Raises

Back
Lat Pulldowns, Palms away (or Chins)
Dumbell Rows

Abdominals
Crunches(floor)
Leg Raises(floor)

Biceps
Barbell Curls
Hammer Curls


Push Day 2

Chest
Dumbell Bench Press
Incline Bar Press

Front Legs
Seated Leg Press
Leg Extentions

Shoulders
Barbell Press
Front Dumbell Raises

Abdominals
Twist Crunches(on Bench)

Triceps
Overhead Cable Pull
Dips between benches


Pull Day 2

Back Legs
Lying Hamstring Curls
Calf Raises

Back
Lat Pulldowns, Palms facing (or chins)
Cable Rows

Abdominals
Crunches(floor)
Leg raises(floor)

Biceps
Preacher or Concentration Curls
Hammer Curls


Work your training week like this:

1st and 3rd Day: Push Day
2nd and 4th Day: Pull Day

For example::
Monday + Thursday: Push Days 1 and 2
Tuesday + Friday: Pull Days 1 and 2

This gives your muscle groups the maximum amount of recovery time between sessions. Never work a muscle group two days on the run. You will receive no benefit from this, remember muscles need time to grow and recover, and they don’t start growing until 24 hours after they are worked.

They also need food. Don’t starve yourself, but try and steer away from high fat foods, high carbohydrate foods and cut down on alcohol. Ask me about this as there are some basic rules you can follow and you’ll not feel like you’re on a diet.

Work your routine as follows:

Warm up for 5 -10 minutes before each session (Running on a treadmill at reasonable pace does for me). This is essential. You WILL injure yourself if you don’t warm up.

Spend no longer than 50-60 mins on weight training. Any longer than this is no good for you. Keep an eye on how long you are spending between exercises and sets. If you’re going over an hour, you’re resting too much.

With Each exercise do 3 Sets of 10 – 15 Repetitions (i.e. 3 x 10 -15)
Rest for only a minute or so between Each set (unless you’re ****ed! Then 1min 30sec!). If you rest too long you’ll cool down and you increase the risk of injury.

As for what weight to use, don’t try and run before you can walk. To start, use weight enough so you can manage 3 sets of 10 reps. By your third set it should be difficult but manageable. When 3 sets of 10 gets easy, increase to 3 sets of 11, and so on until you get to 3 x 15. Then increase the weight and go back to 3 x 10. This way you will constantly get stronger over the weeks, but be patient. It takes time to get strong and you’ll hit things called ‘sticking points’. Ask me about this and I’ll explain.


If possible do the exercises in the order shown here. This is for a reason. You are using the largest muscles first and working your way to the smallest on each day. If you do them out of order, you may find you can’t use as much weight on an exercise e.g. because you did triceps before shoulders, your triceps are fatigued and you need them for shoulder exercises.

If you are feeling tired on a day, lower your weight used slightly, but don’t lower your reps!

Each day, when you’ve finished on the weights, do some cardio work, preferably Cross Trainer or running. This will cool down your body, stop you being as sore the next day and burn some fat. Do 20 -30 mins at a fairly easy pace. When you’re feeling fitter, only then increase the pace.

Altogether, you shouldn’t be spending more than an hour and a half in the gym (that’s IN the gym, not including shower etc)

This sort of routine will get you stronger, leaner, and fitter. It’s not a ‘bodybuilding’ program as those guys are big but dreadfully unfit. This program will give you a good balance of strength and fitness, with compact muscle with mid range endurance. Ask me about this as it’s too much to put here.

Good luck and good training!

Mike

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Sorry for the long post but I am serious about trying to get some results and want to make sure that I am doing everything right to give myself the bet chance possible.

I have been reading some of the stickies and am well aware that this will only be useful if done in conjunction with a proper diet, and I will take some advice from those stickies.

If I were to do that workout on the abovementioned days, would it harm me to do some light cardio work on the Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday if I felt like it? I know muscles need time to rest and rebuild after the weights, but sometimes I might feel like doing something on the rest days.

Finally, I would also be grateful if someone could give me advice on these protein shakes. I see people drinking them in my gym. Are they any good? I am still far from being in great shape so might it be best for me to work out for a while before starting on them. I'd be grateful for any hints.

If it helps, I am 5ft 10" and am about 15st. I am not fat at all but I'd say stocky would be fair. My goal is not to be competing for Mr Universe or anything but rather, I'd like to get into playing rugby again.

Sorry again for the mad long post, but I just want to make sure that everything I am doing is worthwhile.

Cheers guys.

daveirl

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