Compound vs isolation

corribdude

Well I've been lifting weights now for the last 2 to 3 months and it's going fairly well, ive put on a stone and toned up alot. I would've been in decent shape fitness wise beforehand but I wanted to bulk up. The thing is since I started looking at this board recently I keep seeing people saying focus on compound lifting.

Here's what I do at the moment - All exercise are 3 sets of 10-12 reps (except pushups and ab exercises)

Monday
Legs - Squats, Lunges, Calf Raises
Shouders - Military Press, Shrugs, Upright Row, Lateral Raises

Wednesday
Biceps - Dumbell Curls, Hammer Curls
Triceps - Dumbell One Arm Triceps Extensions, Dumbbell Kickbacks

Friday
Chest - Dumbell Bench Press, Dumbell Flys, Push ups
Abs - Jack-Knife Sit-ups, Leg Raises

I swim or cycle on the off days.

So is this routine ok, am I maximizing my time exercising, or should I be doing Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts and Bench Press, Military Press every second day and just forget about the isolation exercises altogether til Im more experienced?

And should I be doing lower reps/sets with higher weights?

Cheers.

Hanley

You're not doign any back work. I can't understate how important it is.

Add the tricep work on wednesday to the end of the workout on Monday.

On Wednesday do:
deadlift 3x6 (make sure youre doing them right)
Chin ups/pulldowns
Seated Cable Rows or Barbell Rows or Chest Supported rows
Bicep work as listed in your original post.

EDIT: oh and drop the upright rows for your shoulders sake!!

Baldie

Hanley wrote: »

EDIT: oh and drop the upright rows for your shoulders sake!!

Why don't you like upright rows?

Colm_OReilly

Briefly, and I mightn't be too coherant - it's Friday and I'm tired:

Compuond exercises are natural, safe at post max loads, deliver a better hormonal hit and develop strength/mass quicker.

I would suggest you go onto a Starting Strength routine: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224

Most people are novices when it comes to weight lifting, and this isn't a bad thing, you can make great gains as a novice, so you don't need to split your routine for body parts yet.

Read the thread, it's worth it. Buy his book too, it's well worth it.

Hanley

Baldie wrote: »

Why don't you like upright rows?

They put your shoulders in an extremely internally rotated position and put you at an increased risk of impingement. There's alot of safer and in my opinion more effective exercises for your upper back than upright rows.I can think of at least 5 off the top of my head that I'd pick ahead of them. I just see no need to put in an exercise that is known to be so high risk.

Hope that makes sense!

KERPAL

Hanley wrote: »

They put your shoulders in an extremely internally rotated position and put you at an increased risk of impingement. There's alot of safer and in my opinion more effective exercises for your upper back than upright rows.I can think of at least 5 off the top of my head that I'd pick ahead of them. I just see no need to put in an exercise that is known to be so high risk.

Hope that makes sense!

Ye our rugby coach told us to stay as far away from upright rows as possible

cunnins4

Hanley wrote: »

They put your shoulders in an extremely internally rotated position and put you at an increased risk of impingement. There's alot of safer and in my opinion more effective exercises for your upper back than upright rows.I can think of at least 5 off the top of my head that I'd pick ahead of them. I just see no need to put in an exercise that is known to be so high risk.

Hope that makes sense!

I've always been a bit worried about this. What would those 5 be Hanley?
Cheers

Transform

Upright rows - no need for them in ever program for one single reason:

The front of the shoulders (anterior delts) which are heavily worked in the upright rows are already getting a bashing if your benching, shoulder pressing, dipping, biceps curls etc 99.9% of trainers do nothing for their rotator cuffs, and most of the upper back but will gladly put in another chest or arm exercise into the program.

OP the program is just ok - same old, same old i see most in the gyms doing and thats exactly why most look pretty much the same 12 months later.

Focus ALL your attention on getting stronger, period! Lets see more deadlifts, dips (weighted) chins (weighted and none of that going half way down and coming back up crap), single leg work e.g. lunges, split squats etc Get sronger, get stronger, get bloody stronger

Hanley

Hanley wrote: »

They put your shoulders in an extremely internally rotated position and put you at an increased risk of impingement. There's alot of safer and in my opinion more effective exercises for your upper back than upright rows.I can think of at least 5 off the top of my head that I'd pick ahead of them. I just see no need to put in an exercise that is known to be so high risk.

Hope that makes sense!

Do cleans, high pulls, bent over or t-bar rows have similar problems?

flywheel

Baldie wrote: »

Why don't you like upright rows?

There are several articles linked at the bottom of the Upright Row Wiki entry that go through explanations why many don't rate this exercise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upright_row

Hanley

cunnins4 wrote: »

I've always been a bit worried about this. What would those 5 be Hanley?
Cheers

1) Shrugs
2) Face Pulls
3) Seated Dumbbell Powercleans
4) Prone Rows (chest supported dumbbell rows on a shallow incline bench)
5) Halbert Raises http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=Q52t3xlmjEs

Hanley

Deleted User wrote: »

Do cleans, high pulls, bent over or t-bar rows have similar problems?

Nope.... with the cleans and the high pulls you're not "stopping" the bar with your small rotator cuff muscles. And with both the rows and the cleans, your shoulders aren't internally rotated.

Mikel

and with cleans you're not pulling up the weight with your arms, you're pulling yourself under the bar. Agree that upright rows are one of the worst things you can do to your shoulders

corribdude

Cheers for the advice, I'm after making some pretty drastic changes to my regime, hopefully I'll see some pretty drastic improvements in strength to match.

One other thing I'd like some advice on - it's to do with the cardio I do on the off days (exercise bikes/cross trainers). Would I be better off using small resistances and moving much faster as opposed to using high resistances and grinding out the kilometres slowly and steadily - which is what I'm doing at the moment. I think I read something recently about high resistances having a negative impact on muscle recovery after doing weights as it is too intense.

Transform

Do intervals on one day and steady pace on the other - get off the bike and if you can and on to the treadmill/crosstrainer (with arm movement) as you will burn more calories and get HR up more.

E.g. monday 25mins intervals
5mins warm-up - walk or light jog
1mins run followed by 2 mins walk/light jog repeat 6-7time and walk or light jog for any remaining time left.

Wenesday - 45mins steady pace e.g. jog/crosstrainer.

Keep rotating - if you have only 2 days to do cardio make them intervals or if your not feeling 100% do steady pace training.

Finally, its nothing to do with resistance and everything to do with your heart rate so monitor that.