Critique my routine I'm starting Monday!

[501s finest]

Okay trying to come up with a steady routine that I can do for the month of NOV. Here is what I have. All feedback welcome and asked for. positive or neg.
Turn 26 this month 5'6 161 lbs. I know the lifts I chose are good, but maybe I could do this in a more productive manner? I'm sure someone knows the science behind everything. All of these are going to be damn near to failure for the given reps as far as weight goes.

Monday: Chest
Parallel bar dips weighted 5x5
non peak dumb bell fly's 5x5
incline dumb bell press 5x8
Arnold Press 5x5
floor fly's 5x5

Tuesday: Back and biceps
21's 5x7
incline inner bicep curl 5x5
incline hammer curl 5x8
preacher curl 5x5
pull ups 5x5
seated rows 5x8
Cardio 25 min. bicycle treadmill w.e

Wednesday: Traps, legs, forearm
Dumb bell over a bench curls 5x5
behind the back wrist curls 5x5
squats 5x10
leg curls 5x10
leg press 5x8
calf machine shoulder shrugs 5x10

Thursday: Shoulders and Tri's
French Press 5x10
Rope pull downs 5x8
incline tricep extension 5x5
seated bent over kick backs 5x5
seated rev. grip tri ext. 5x8
barbell front raises 5x8
Arnold Press 5x5
side delt circles 5x5
static laterals 5x8
Cardio 20-30 min bike or treadmill maybe a jog.

 

[501s finest]

was hoping to have a reply to this. I'll just start it and critique it as needed to make sure it's enough or not too much.

 

[donjob]

no offense, looks like shit. no need to do 2 variations of flies. you're more focused on biceps than back on tuesday. where's the deadlifts? lifting for bodybuilding purposes and don't want to dead lift? then atleast throw in some back extensions good mornings for the spinal erectors, preferably good mornings but i would dead lift regardless of your goals. lose all the fuckin bicep work. just super set incline db curls for the long head with preacher curls for the short head. i would do this at the end of your workout, no need for huge volume or weight either. make wednesday an off day, then do thursday friday. your cns needs rest. replace shrugs with hang cleans or high pulls. no need for leg press, if you can do that after squats you didn't squat hard enough. you using front squats, high bar or lowbar? replace leg curls with glute ham raises if you can. drop all the faggy tricep iso exercises. clean and press on this day. if at the end of the day you got enough juice for some more tricep work pushdowns are preferable. fuck skull crushers and kick backs. you're not a chick in an aerobics class. you're a man and you eat copious amounts of animal flesh (i hope). drop the rest of the shoulder work. your shoulders will be fuckin smoked after a heavy session of clean and press. i do encourage some light shoulder isolation exercises to warm up though and get the blood flowing. also your posterior delt gets hit with rowing movements and medial and anterior get hit with bench, more than you think. screw the 30 minute yog sessions (and yes i meant yog not yoga, it's like jog but the j is soft, yuppie). does more harm than good and you got better things to do than waste 30 minutes jogging on a treadmill next to a fat bitch at globogym. ten minutes of intense sprinting will do wonders. actually I would finish one workout, preferably chest day, with sprinting. another day (most likely your shoulder tri day) with pulling a sled for 15 minutes or so.

 

[donjob]

also on squats, ass to grass, even if that means you're only squatting 135 for 3 reps. or else get out of the gym and pick up crossfit. spine neutral, chest up, shove knees out, spread the floor, hips back first, sit back, drive off heels flat footed, toes forward if you have the mobility, don't look up, don't look down, and this means your eyes to. your head will follow your eyes. deep breath in to your belly before the descent, squeeze and activate every muscle in your body after walking it out and before descending. go hard or go home, if you only do one thing in the gym that day, squat. if you have defencecies then address them with assistance work first, not to heavy, shouldn't interfere with your squats, not later because you will either not have time, will be to tired to do it, or won't give it max efforst after squatting til you puke. do calves last. posterior chain your weak point? glute ham raises. bodyweight, 3 sets of 8. quads weak point? focus on front squats for 4 or 5 weeks. spinal erectors weak point? good mornings or back extensions. glutes? weighted bridges. squat is main priority here though unless your weak point is really fucking you up and holding you back, it needs to be addressed. focus on it, fix it, come back kill it in the squat rack. just don't pick a bunch of exercises to do for the hell of it because you feel more is better.

 

[501s finest]

thanks man I appreciate it. I'm just getting into squats, I know it's a basic lift, did them in high school. I'm going to start squatting on leg day. I did legs today, I did leg presses though. stretched warmed up 15 reps with 2 plates, 10 sets with 4 plates, 10 wit 6,10 wit 8, and 3x8 with 10 plates. I did some flys afterwards just for the hell of it, 40lb dumb bells 5x8. Did some incline bench started with 50lb dumb bells 5x8, and 60lb dumbbells 5x8. I didn't get to the gym yesterday so I did some legs and chest. I'm def going to start doing squats every week, and Honestly i've never done a front squat. I watched some youtube videos on it to learn technique but haven't tried it yet. Basically do more power lifts.

 

[donjob]

yeah a squat is a basic lift in the sense of it being a primary lift, like think of your primary (or basic) colors. red blue yellow. but it's very technical. easy to learn by watching a lot of good tutorials and then having someone who knows how to squat watch you to let you know what you're doing wrong. or take a video of your self from the side and front and post it. the front squat is by far the easiest to learn and master by yourself though. you just naturally sit back more and go deeper in the hole. you will not be able to handle near as much weight in the front squat as you can back squat at first. i switched to front squats because my back squat was weak as fuck. i wanted to address some form issues and it did that. also helped with confidence in sitting back which translated into my back squat. i set a new 1rm in the front squat 2 weeks ago which was more than i could back squat beforehand. i never backsquatted this entire time while focusing on the front squat. I have now switched back to the highbar back squat and holy shit, my numbers and form have improved tremendously. now i front squat a couple sets of light weight as part of my warm up for back squats and front squat medium weight on my oly days. I would suggest strictly front squatting for 2 months and forget about the leg press. then come back and get into back squatting (i prefer high bar for many reasons).

 

[couch]

squats
cleans
prowler/sled
deadlift

i like you more every day, donjob.

 

[donjob]

i like you more every day, donjob.

thanks, i like you too.
Achieve a physique as the byproduct of strength training, you don't acheive strength as the byproduct of vanity training and hitting the mirror muscles with frilly isolation exercises. i just wish people would get this

 

[501s finest]

I appreciate it man, really do. there are subjects on forums that I'm knowledgeable about, and I know how it feels to have noobs on there asking stupid ass questions. so i know the frustration lol. So I don't take it personal, thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

 

[y4sm4ny]

donjob pretty much cleared it all out for you lol damn good job solid ass post all from one person.. now that is efficient

 

[501s finest]

Yea he has me squatting, and loving it. got where i wasn't getting sore anymore doing the same things. holy hell i'm sore as hell and lol i'm only doing 135 about 3-4 sets of 10, after warming up with 100 for about 15 reps. damn this is my weakest lift, so naturally it's my new favorite lol. I try to squat every day I go to the gym, even if it's just 1 set of 10 before I leave the gym. Mainly focusing on form. I'm going to focus on form before I go any heavier though. That's about all I can do for working sets right now. haha embarrassing but gotta start somewhere. Plus I moved out of my apartment (3rd floor) carried mattress and bed down by myself. So I'm pretty damn sore from that as well. Will be in the gym at 6am tomorrow doing squats.... then off to work. thanks a lot don.

 

[donjob]

no problem man. how deep are you able to go? i can pretty much guarantee you need to work on mobility because 90% of lifters and athletes need to work on mobility, especially hp mobility. this will help with strength gains and unlocking strength you have now, believe it or not. good idea to focus on form right now and picking a lighter weight you can bang out reps with. i guarantee you can do much more weight than that but those particular muscles and your nervous system aren't used to working together for that particular lift. also just feeling confident under the bar. once all that falls into place you'll be much stronger instantly. these things should happen fairly soon and then you need to not be afraid to really push yourself in the rack. you'll see some nice beginner gains in this lift fairly quickly so get out of it as much as you can. if you're not digging down deep and don't feel nauseous after hitting your 1rm or squatting 80% at 5x5+, then you're leaving some in the tank.

some great stretches for mobility:
quads - put your foot up a couch behind you, knee on the floor with shin running along side of couch or as close as you can get it. other leg infront of you proping your self up. torso straight ahead, start leaning back.
hams - your basic ham string stretch, but instead of letting your back round and trying to touch your toes, keep your lower spine neutral and bend at the hips. this will give your hamstrings as well as glutes a much better stretch.
there's also a great sretch that involves the couch once again but is just too hard to describe in words. you can find all of these stretches at 70sbig. just youtube 70sbig and you will see a guy with the username justinlascek or jlascek, one of the two. he has videos on various stretches.
i also like to get into the bottom of a squat position and just sit there, every day for as long as i can. toes pointed forward if you can. feet flat, weight on the heels. look ata picture of a baby squatting and that's what it should look like.

i'd also recommend some dynamic work as part of your warmup, not just 1 set of 15 with a lighter weight. with the weight you are working with you need to start with body weight squats, then the bar, then 65 pounds, then 105 or 115, then 135. your wrmup sets don't count as any working sets. a warmup could take as long as 15 or 20 minutes for some individuals and will look like a workout to the inexperienced. a proper warmup will help you lift greater weight ad prevent injuries. as for the dynamic portion of your warmup i would do some box jumps for say 3 sets of 5, and also so light weight snatches. like just the bar if you're snatching 135 or less.

 

[DD55]

no offense, looks like shit. no need to do 2 variations of flies. you're more focused on biceps than back on tuesday. where's the deadlifts? lifting for bodybuilding purposes and don't want to dead lift? then atleast throw in some back extensions good mornings for the spinal erectors, preferably good mornings but i would dead lift regardless of your goals. lose all the fuckin bicep work. just super set incline db curls for the long head with preacher curls for the short head. i would do this at the end of your workout, no need for huge volume or weight either. make wednesday an off day, then do thursday friday. your cns needs rest. replace shrugs with hang cleans or high pulls. no need for leg press, if you can do that after squats you didn't squat hard enough. you using front squats, high bar or lowbar? replace leg curls with glute ham raises if you can. drop all the faggy tricep iso exercises. clean and press on this day. if at the end of the day you got enough juice for some more tricep work pushdowns are preferable. fuck skull crushers and kick backs. you're not a chick in an aerobics class. you're a man and you eat copious amounts of animal flesh (i hope). drop the rest of the shoulder work. your shoulders will be fuckin smoked after a heavy session of clean and press. i do encourage some light shoulder isolation exercises to warm up though and get the blood flowing. also your posterior delt gets hit with rowing movements and medial and anterior get hit with bench, more than you think. screw the 30 minute yog sessions (and yes i meant yog not yoga, it's like jog but the j is soft, yuppie). does more harm than good and you got better things to do than waste 30 minutes jogging on a treadmill next to a fat bitch at globogym. ten minutes of intense sprinting will do wonders. actually I would finish one workout, preferably chest day, with sprinting. another day (most likely your shoulder tri day) with pulling a sled for 15 minutes or so.

when i write my book your fucking quotes are making it in there! I howled

 

[DD55]

he should keep the behind the back wrist curls, however. Those get you JACKED as fuck!

 

[501s finest]

no problem man. how deep are you able to go? i can pretty much guarantee you need to work on mobility because 90% of lifters and athletes need to work on mobility, especially hp mobility. this will help with strength gains and unlocking strength you have now, believe it or not. good idea to focus on form right now and picking a lighter weight you can bang out reps with. i guarantee you can do much more weight than that but those particular muscles and your nervous system aren't used to working together for that particular lift. also just feeling confident under the bar. once all that falls into place you'll be much stronger instantly. these things should happen fairly soon and then you need to not be afraid to really push yourself in the rack. you'll see some nice beginner gains in this lift fairly quickly so get out of it as much as you can. if you're not digging down deep and don't feel nauseous after hitting your 1rm or squatting 80% at 5x5+, then you're leaving some in the tank.

some great stretches for mobility:
quads - put your foot up a couch behind you, knee on the floor with shin running along side of couch or as close as you can get it. other leg infront of you proping your self up. torso straight ahead, start leaning back.
hams - your basic ham string stretch, but instead of letting your back round and trying to touch your toes, keep your lower spine neutral and bend at the hips. this will give your hamstrings as well as glutes a much better stretch.
there's also a great sretch that involves the couch once again but is just too hard to describe in words. you can find all of these stretches at 70sbig. just youtube 70sbig and you will see a guy with the username justinlascek or jlascek, one of the two. he has videos on various stretches.
i also like to get into the bottom of a squat position and just sit there, every day for as long as i can. toes pointed forward if you can. feet flat, weight on the heels. look ata picture of a baby squatting and that's what it should look like.

i'd also recommend some dynamic work as part of your warmup, not just 1 set of 15 with a lighter weight. with the weight you are working with you need to start with body weight squats, then the bar, then 65 pounds, then 105 or 115, then 135. your wrmup sets don't count as any working sets. a warmup could take as long as 15 or 20 minutes for some individuals and will look like a workout to the inexperienced. a proper warmup will help you lift greater weight ad prevent injuries. as for the dynamic portion of your warmup i would do some box jumps for say 3 sets of 5, and also so light weight snatches. like just the bar if you're snatching 135 or less.

I'm pretty freakin deep. When I get all the way down my ass is below my knees. Yea i'm mainly working on form. probably a dumb question but what are you referring to when you say snatching? and box jumps? I"m going to youtube it nevermind ,lol. Just letting you know I don't think I've done either of these, if I did it was called something diff. yea I'm sure I have the strength to squat a lot more than 135 but I agree, those muscles are not used to working at the same time to accomplish the lift, so I'm going to stay light to get comfortable with weight on there at all. When I go down I let my knees come together a bit and try to spread the floor coming up correct? No head or eye movement, straight ahead. I've never been one to halfass do a lift. I'm a firm believer of do it right or not at all. I preach that to my little cousin every time, he likes to squat to where his ass if still above his knee caps and it becomes higher each squat. once i get to where I don't go all the way down, I quit counting those as a rep. If I go down and don't complete the motion, I skip that one and redo it, and I have caught myself not going down all the way. I did the same with benching, I gained 25lbs to my bench just by fixing form, not recently but back when I started lifting frequently. I'm hooked now though. I enjoy the shit out of going in the gym and walking out feeling like I got hit by a mack truck, because I feel so much better once I get my wind back and shit. haha

 

[couch]

Snatches are an olympic lift. Here's a fairly good example of Sage Burgener doing it:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/cfj-nov-05/snatch.mov

The idea of giving newbs snatches for a warmup worries me greatly. I just don't see it being especially likely that someone's going to be doing it safely. I do like box jumps for a warmup, but you'd want to throw something like an erg or something in to get the rest of you moving. Personally, I use the bear complex as a warmup:

CrossFit - Rob Orlando's Bear Complex at 200lbs - YouTube

Although I don't go to 200lbs (Rob Orlando is a stud).

Regarding your squat technique, in a squat, you want to push through your heels, keep your knees out the whole time, and keep your back upright (although you can come a bit forward for a low bar squat).

I hope you're resting enough. You can't just go and destroy yourself every day.

 

[501s finest]

Snatches are an olympic lift. Here's a fairly good example of Sage Burgener doing it:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/cfj-nov-05/snatch.mov

The idea of giving newbs snatches for a warmup worries me greatly. I just don't see it being especially likely that someone's going to be doing it safely. I do like box jumps for a warmup, but you'd want to throw something like an erg or something in to get the rest of you moving. Personally, I use the bear complex as a warmup:

CrossFit - Rob Orlando's Bear Complex at 200lbs - YouTube

Although I don't go to 200lbs (Rob Orlando is a stud).

Regarding your squat technique, in a squat, you want to push through your heels, keep your knees out the whole time, and keep your back upright (although you can come a bit forward for a low bar squat).

I hope you're resting enough. You can't just go and destroy yourself every day.

I've been making it to the gym 4-5 days a week. I'm resting plenty, 6-8 hours of sleep a night. HOLY SHIT @ the bear complex. WTF lol. Looks pretty intense, I like it. I'm going to give that a shot. The snatch, I won't be doing that anytime soon, at least not with any weights. I may get the bar and get the form down and maybe add some weights, no way in hell i'm putting any weight on there and getting a injury. I'm sure you didn't mean put a bunch of weight on there, You were saying do it for a warm up. I can see doing that with VERY light weights for a warm up. I'm not going to go do something stupid bro don't worry, thanks for the videos too bro. I appreciate all you guys help on everything. Good bro's here!!

 

[donjob]

when i write my book your fucking quotes are making it in there! I howled

just credit me by my real name and don't forget to send royalties. jk

 

[donjob]

I'm pretty freakin deep. When I get all the way down my ass is below my knees. Yea i'm mainly working on form. probably a dumb question but what are you referring to when you say snatching? and box jumps? I"m going to youtube it nevermind ,lol. Just letting you know I don't think I've done either of these, if I did it was called something diff. yea I'm sure I have the strength to squat a lot more than 135 but I agree, those muscles are not used to working at the same time to accomplish the lift, so I'm going to stay light to get comfortable with weight on there at all. When I go down I let my knees come together a bit and try to spread the floor coming up correct? No head or eye movement, straight ahead. I've never been one to halfass do a lift. I'm a firm believer of do it right or not at all. I preach that to my little cousin every time, he likes to squat to where his ass if still above his knee caps and it becomes higher each squat. once i get to where I don't go all the way down, I quit counting those as a rep. If I go down and don't complete the motion, I skip that one and redo it, and I have caught myself not going down all the way. I did the same with benching, I gained 25lbs to my bench just by fixing form, not recently but back when I started lifting frequently. I'm hooked now though. I enjoy the shit out of going in the gym and walking out feeling like I got hit by a mack truck, because I feel so much better once I get my wind back and shit. haha

knees out. sit back, hips should start the movement, not the knees. when coming out of the hole think chest up. head stays neutral but imagine you are trying to touch your chin with your chest. weight on heels, feet flat.

 

[donjob]

Snatches are an olympic lift. Here's a fairly good example of Sage Burgener doing it:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/cfj-nov-05/snatch.mov

The idea of giving newbs snatches for a warmup worries me greatly. I just don't see it being especially likely that someone's going to be doing it safely. I do like box jumps for a warmup, but you'd want to throw something like an erg or something in to get the rest of you moving. Personally, I use the bear complex as a warmup:

CrossFit - Rob Orlando's Bear Complex at 200lbs - YouTube

Although I don't go to 200lbs (Rob Orlando is a stud).

Regarding your squat technique, in a squat, you want to push through your heels, keep your knees out the whole time, and keep your back upright (although you can come a bit forward for a low bar squat).

I hope you're resting enough. You can't just go and destroy yourself every day.

well i didn't mean half ass the lift, i meant learn it and then use it as part of your warmup. well, sort of ayways. he had posted earlier that he had done some oly liftings, or atleast learnt the lifts. unless i'm thinking of someone else.