routine advice

telemachus

I’m about to start back seriously into the weights after a good eight months out of the country putting me back to square one. Before that I spent a year or so making the obvious mistakes and learning from them and by the end of it i’d made decent gains, moving from a skinny 70kg to a over 80. Since i’m starting afresh I figured i’d ask everyones advice and try and plan things from the start as opposed to my previous guesswork approach.

I’m 6”2 and a very skinny 70 kilos, and when I was lifting I found out clearly how vital the nutritional side was, I easily doubled and more the amount I was eating accross the whole day and still didn’t come close to putting on fat so this time around i’ll be doing this from the start as opposed to two months in wondering why i’m making very limited gains.
My other mistake was over training badly , lifting almost every day for the first few months and seeing the lifts increase very slowly as a result. While i’m perfectly willing to commit the time to see results this time i’m going to stick to a firm three days a week of big compound lifts to hopefully optimise progress.

I’m planning on keeping my routine as straightforward as possible given that i’m starting from scratch, there doesn’t seem any point messing around with a load of isolation exercises, maybe down the line for certain imbalances or deficencies but right now everywhere’s a deficency to be honest, so a simple solid routine based on compound lifts is what i’m aiming for, and just focus on steadily pushing up the weight on them.
I’m no expert and given my last attempts were largely trial and error i’d welcome any advice or suggestions from those with more experience.

Sofar i’m looking at: (adding weight to the dips and pullups over time)

-Monday: Squats 3x8 / Bench 3x8/ dips 3x12
-Wednesday: Standing press 3x8/ Deadlift 3x5/ pullups 3x12
-Friday: Squats 3x8 / bench 3x8/dips 3x12

Possibly adding a single isolation exercise to each day, barbell curl/ skullcrusher etc, three different body parts a week, and alternating dips and pullups, so dips twice the first week, and pullups twice the next etc.

BobbyOLeary

Six two and 70kgs? Sounds like a perfect candidate for Starting Strength.

Starting Strength is pimped on here whenever any novice wants to make any gains with the compound lifts. Its a simple work out:

Day A: Squats 3x5
Bench 3x5
Deadlift 3x5

Day B: Squats 3x5
Press 3x5
Power Clean 3x5

Every second day, all washed down with a gallon of milk a day. I did this program up until I left for America this summer (roughly 4-5 months of it) and I found it worked perfectly. It sounds simple but it is very demanding as the weights increase. As the name suggests it is primarily a strength program but, no offense intended here, seeing how skinny you are you don't need to worry about focusing on strict bodybuilding programs yet. Just get yourself a nice strength base and work from there.

You're best off buying the book: Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training (2nd Edition)

I can't think of the website off the top of my head but I ordered mine off of the aasguard company (the publisher) and it was delivered inside of a week. Look up aasguard company, Mark Rippetoe or Starting Strength on google and I'm sure you'll find it pretty quick.

Hope that helps

telemachus

Haha, it's a strange coincidence I was just looking at this recently after seeing it in a couple of posts and the simplicity really appeals to me. Cheers for pointing me to the book, I couldn't find it on amazon uk, wasn't sure you could get it in Europe.

The year I spent lifting I really got nowhere until halfway through I realised the size of the increase in food I needed, and started ignoring the program i got given at the gym (a body part a day barrage of isolation exercises) and focused everything on squatting and benching. The simplicity is great for me because given my lack of knowledge it's straightforward to stick to and requires little tinkering, and if there's little progress I can be sure without a doubt i'm either not pushing hard enough in the gym, or not piling on enough food!

I just have to get my head around power cleans , it's not something i've ever ventured before, visions of flailing loaded barbells in the air and falling over backwards after vigorously hitting myself in the head or devastating my back!