chest - any reason for all the incline? try varying it. incline one week, decline the next, etc. personally i don't even do incline. there's no such thing as upper, middle and lower pecs. also i wouldn't do dumbbell and barbell in the same session. nothing wrong with warming up with DB then doing your working sets on barbell, but no point in doing both for working sets. switch it up week to week. or better yet focus on barbell and when you start to stagnate switch it up to dumbbell for a couple weeks. also as far as flies go, if you have access to rings, set them up about 12 inches off the ground and do body weight flies with them. if no access to rings, buy some of those furniture sliders and use them on the ground for bodyweight flies. a lot harder than you think. trust me. (just saw your reasoning for all the incline, like i said the pec is one muscle. well two actually if you want to get technical but there is no upper middle and lower. heavy declines will hit the entire thing just fine. you cannot shape the muscle, that is all genetics, as it gets bigger it will all work out bro.)
Thanks for the tip about the flies, I'm gonna have to look into that. no rings in my gym, but I know what you're saying for those furniture sliders. I'll try some and if I have trouble I'll shoot you a PM. I completely agree about the pec being one muscle, I've read the studies. Yet when I do decline my lower pecs blow up, I can't explain it. So it goes against the science, but for some reason I see a difference in growth depending on the angle I use. Can't explain it. Good call about not doing db and bb in the same workout, didn't even consider that. what exercise would you suggest I replace those 3/4 sets with?
biceps - i would just do one exercise not two, the bicep is a tiny muscle and it's already getting hit hard on back days. think about it like this, you're hitting chest, legs and back once a week. you're hitting the smallest muscle (biceps) twice a week and hitting triceps (second smallest muscle) 3 times a week. they're getting hit on shoulders day as well when you are overhead pressing. honestly you don't even need to curl. my arms grow just fine and i don't curl at all.
noted, will drop to one set. felt like i was overtraining them, this seals the deal. thanks
legs - i would drop the leg press and focus more on squats whether that be front squats or back squats. lose the leg extensions and leg curls. add in glute ham raises if your gym has a glute ham raise machine. if not i would substitute for straight leg deadlifts. check your ego on calves and drop the weight, up the reps and sets. i mean really up the reps and sets. also hit calves twice a week atleast. try this, 100 bodyweight calve raises a day for a month or so, contracting and holding at the top. do these on the floor barefoot or wearing minimalist shoes or chuck taylors. work up to just holding a plate infront of you with arms bent at 90 degrees and continue your 100 calve raises a day but let's say 3 days a week now. watch your calves grow. also i would use bulgarian squats to warm up on leg days, isolate one leg at a time. i was really surprised when i started doing these and tried one legged squats with just body weight. i can do a few with my right leg but couldn't even get one with my left. really lets you know where your weaknesses lie.
So you'd do just squats and ghr/sldl for your leg workout? I understand that any workout with squatting can be brutal, but doesn't that seem like a bit too little for legs? my calves are stubborn, so I will try your methods of training. Also will youtube some bulgarian squats, thanks man
shoulders/triceps - do you know how to do hang cleans? if not then learn. do these on shoulders day, this will be your major compound movement for shoulders day. dumbbell presses are fine but a real man's lift i standing overhead press with a barbell. see how much you can do, i bet you'll be surprised. no one overhead presses with a barbell these days. it used to be a common lift back in the day. if you're going to do lateral raises, drop the weight and sets, they're not that important. lose the tricep pushdowns and overhead pulls, do dips. and lots of them. i believe reverse grip bench is better than close grip, but to each his own. i would switch out dips and a variation of bench from week to week for triceps. they don't need 30 minutes dedicated to them from every angle. and people wonder why their arms aren't growing
I don't, but I'll try to learn. Also will try the standing OHP, you're right no one really does them. I must disagree with you about the lateral raises, if only b/c they're one of my favorite exercises (; So less work for triceps similar to how I reduced work for biceps? Will do. Also will start adding dips and try reverse grip. So how many sets overall would you recommend for triceps? I know they're getting hit a bit with chest day as well
back - deads are your biggest mass builder inmy opinion. don't limit them to just 3 sets. and if you're doing 3 sets because you are doing 10 reps or so each set, then you are not doing enough weight. try sets of 2 or 3 reps. re set each rep if you have to to keep form correct. one week do 4 sets of 3, next week 4 sets of 4, next week 5 sets of 3. switch it up every week. there's no set guideline of how many sets you need to do each week. also i like to just deadlift from the floor once a month, the rest of the time either do rack pulls which you can lift heavier weight, or speed work with a lighter weight and some bands.
switch out bb rows from time to time with tbar rows. for lat pulldowns, do not use the lat pulldown machine. if your gym has a free motion machine, use that. get on your knees and do the exercise like normal. you may need to drop the weight, that's fine. nothing like pullups for building strength, lat pull downs for size. make sure you're pulling your elbows close to your body to really activate the lats. you'll feel it. i wouldn't end the workout with 2 sets of pullups to failure, if you feel like you have gas in the tank that's fine. you shouldn't though after those deadlifts. also there's no need to stick to 3 sets for everything, once again.
Yeah I left the deads at 3 since when I made this workout I was still getting my deadlift form now. Its not perfect yet, but its gotten a lot better, so I can probably add more sets. I usually do no more than 5 reps for deads b/c my form breaks down with high reps, I should have mentioned that. I know about activating the lats, my first workout when I actually could feel them working instead of biceps doing all the work... feltgoodman
saturday and sunday off is fine. i'd recommend it. rest/recovery and diet are more important than training.
got it
