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Varying/Increasing workout intensity

  • 26-07-2006 08:42AM
    #1
    ZoltanVoros
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭


    Hi All

    I've been working out now for a good while and have made good progress. I want to change my routine and get away from the "3 sets of 6-8", and start thinking about supersets, or other variations to my workout. Any suggestions? Bear in mind, I go to a busy gym, so I couldn't superset with say a bench press and a cable cross over at the same time, so supersets suggestions involving dumbells would be good.

    My current workout split is

    Chest and Bis (Bench, incline, incline flyes; bb curl, EZ preacher curl, hammer or 1 arm row)

    Back, abs and traps (Row, lat pulldown, 1 arm row; shrugs)

    Shoulders and tris (press, arnold, lateral raises; dips, lying overheads and pushdowns)

    Legs and forearms (weird I know) (squats, calves, deadlifts; forearm curls, wrist thingys)

    I'm 6' 1, 230lb with about 20% bf.

    Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    Dermington
    Closed Accounts Posts: 395 ✭✭Dermington


    ZoltanVoros wrote:
    Chest and Bis (Bench, incline, incline flyes; bb curl, EZ preacher curl, hammer or 1 arm row)

    I wasn't aware that one arm rows worked either your chest or your biceps.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    ZoltanVoros wrote:
    I'm 6' 1, 200lb with about 20% bf.

    Try doing some cardio and fat burning maybe?

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Well at 6'1", 200lbs and 20% BF I'm guessing that your not in good shape at all.

    My suggestion would be do a 15 minute warmup on a cross trainer/bike/rowing machine and then do a 5km run on the treadmill.
    Then do your weights workout after. Do 3 sets of 12 reps with less than a minutes rest in between each set.
    You should be aiming for failure on the 12th rep for each and every set. Decrease the weight on consecutive sets if you cant lift it. If you miss reps take 10 seconds to get your strength back and then complete them. You should notice a major difference in your physique in a few weeks.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    ZoltanVoros wrote:
    My current workout split is...

    Your current workout split looks a bit too easy.

    Try doing this instead:

    Day 1: Chest, shoulders and triceps.
    Day 2: Legs, back, biceps.
    Day 3: Abs.

    Add a cardio session before the weights each day. The whole thing should take one and half hours tops.


  • #3
    justsomebloke
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,407 ✭✭✭✭justsomebloke


    you could also put in some drop sets aswell


  • #4
    ZoltanVoros
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭ZoltanVoros


    Dermington wrote:
    I wasn't aware that one arm rows worked either your chest or your biceps.

    Sorry I meant 1 arm curls
    Dermington wrote:


    Well at 6'1", 200lbs and 20% BF I'm guessing that your not in good shape at all.

    I'm guessing the 20% bf - I am lean all over with some weight on tummy. But yes - I do need to do more cardio. Before and after each workout, I do a 15 min run.

    Dermington wrote:
    Then do your weights workout after. Do 3 sets of 12 reps with less than a minutes rest in between each set.
    You should be aiming for failure on the 12th rep for each and every set. Decrease the weight on consecutive sets if you cant lift it. If you miss reps take 10 seconds to get your strength back and then complete them. You should notice a major difference in your physique in a few weeks.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    I thought to bulk up that you should be doing reps of 6 - 8 per set...?
    Dermington wrote:
    Your current workout split looks a bit too easy.

    Try doing this instead:

    Day 1: Chest, shoulders and triceps.
    Day 2: Legs, back, biceps.
    Day 3: Abs.

    Add a cardio session before the weights each day. The whole thing should take one and half hours tops.

    This is essentially a two day split - can you really give back your full effort after doing legs?

    Thanks for your comments


  • #5
    Dermington
    Closed Accounts Posts: 395 ✭✭Dermington


    Your 20lb's lighter than me, 2 inches shorter and you have 3% more BF. I'm not trying to annoy you but I'm fairly fit and strong but visibly I have a lot of work left to do.
    You need to do cardio exclusively before (or after) your workout instead of a 15 minute warm up and warm down run. If you try and do 45 mins of cardio and cant then do the rest at a lower intensity. So job for 25 mins and then cycle for 20 mins or something like that.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Yes you can effectively work your legs and back and biceps all in the same day. Your leg exercises are initially being done on machines so there is only a small amount of force on your back...if any at all.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Its a proper three day split. Trust me, with the amount of work it takes to do those ab exercises effectively it will feel like the other two days combined :D

    I find the ab day the hardest hands down. Planks are hard, hence why its only initially 3 reps per set.


  • #6
    t-ha
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,479 ✭✭✭t-ha


    Zoltan, what are you looking to achieve?


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  • #7
    ZoltanVoros
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭ZoltanVoros


    t-ha wrote:
    Zoltan, what are you looking to achieve?

    Looking to increase muscle mass significantly


  • #8
    ZoltanVoros
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭ZoltanVoros


    ZoltanVoros wrote:

    I'm 6' 1, 200lb with about 20% bf.

    Sorry - miscalc - I'm 104 kg, which google tells me is 229 lbs.


  • #9
    Dermington
    Closed Accounts Posts: 395 ✭✭Dermington


    ZoltanVoros wrote:
    Sorry - miscalc - I'm 104 kg, which google tells me is 229 lbs.

    Yeah 200lb's with 20% Bf @ 6'1" is actually hard to imagine :p

    I cant stress enough how hard you need to work on cardio. It pours the fat off you and the workouts you do after each cardio session is rock hard muscle which doesnt fade after a few days off. Its honestly not worth your time trying to build up serious muscle until your in a good state of fitness. The program I'm on would really help you. Doing 12 reps per set builds good muscle and the cardio keeps the intensity up for the whole workout.


  • #10
    t-ha
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,479 ✭✭✭t-ha


    ZoltanVoros wrote:
    Hi All

    I've been working out now for a good while and have made good progress. I want to change my routine and get away from the "3 sets of 6-8", and start thinking about supersets, or other variations to my workout. Any suggestions? Bear in mind, I go to a busy gym, so I couldn't superset with say a bench press and a cable cross over at the same time, so supersets suggestions involving dumbells would be good.

    My current workout split is

    Chest and Bis (Bench, incline, incline flyes; bb curl, EZ preacher curl, hammer or 1 arm row)

    Back, abs and traps (Row, lat pulldown, 1 arm row; shrugs)

    Shoulders and tris (press, arnold, lateral raises; dips, lying overheads and pushdowns)

    Legs and forearms (weird I know) (squats, calves, deadlifts; forearm curls, wrist thingys)

    I'm 6' 1, 230lb with about 20% bf.

    Thanks
    Getting away from a standard 3 sets of 8 is a good idea. To be honest I would say to divide your workouts into low, medium and high rep workouts (in other words changing the weight so that one day it's heavy day and you can only do a few reps, while another day the weight is light enough to do 12 or so, and then one day in between). It's not so much that this will make you huge, but it will give you valuable information on what kind of reps each bodypart responds best to.

    DO NOT do alot of cardio before you weight training as this will absolutely effect how much weight you can lift. Ideally do your cardio in a different session or day (& don't forget to replace the calories you burn while doing cardio). Dermington's advice is based around making you leaner, if you don't want to be leaner then it's not appropriate (which is why I asked for your goals). Getting bigger and leaning up do not mix well unless you're a beginner.

    Nutrition-wise give this a read, and also obviously the stickies in this forum if you haven't seen them. At 6'1" and 230lbs you sound like you may be an endomorph body type. As such, getting in most of your starchy carbs around your workout times should help to minimise fat gain. Again, there is more detail on that in the stickies here.

    And finally the workout programme, well this kind of thing is totally individual. I will say that I think that wrist curls are a waste of time, and that lying pull-overs can be dangerous if you're moving alot of weight. One thing you might like to try is doing a light set of flies directly after your bench pressing. This is a technique known as post-fatigueing where the aim is to focus on a specific muscle group straight after doing a compound where it is partially involved. The same principle can be applied to other exercises too, shoulder presses followed immediately by lateral raises, squats followed by leg extensions etc. all without any rest in between the compound exercise and the isolation post-fatigueing exercise.


  • #11
    Dermington
    Closed Accounts Posts: 395 ✭✭Dermington


    t-ha wrote:
    DO NOT do alot of cardio before you weight training as this will absolutely effect how much weight you can lift. Ideally do your cardio in a different session or day (& don't forget to replace the calories you burn while doing cardio). Dermington's advice is based around making you leaner, if you don't want to be leaner then it's not appropriate (which is why I asked for your goals). Getting bigger and leaning up do not mix well unless you're a beginner.

    I completely agree with what your saying.

    the fact is that at 6'1", 230lbs and 20% BF your overweight. Your carrying a large amount of fat (over 20kg's). Of course you can just lift weights to build muscle but you will not be able to see the majority of the muscle if its covered in fat. Lifting heavy uses a lot of calories and does burn fat and I'm the first to admit that but by doing your workout as I suggested progress may be slower (strength wise) but you will feel better, lose more weight, look better and become progressively stronger as you go on.

    If your happy with the way you look then go lift weights. Personally I would aim for the whole package.


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  • #12
    ZoltanVoros
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭ZoltanVoros


    Thanks for such detailed answers.

    I'll keep going at it. Have a few ideas for supersets, so will give those a go. My aim is to keep bulking for another while, and then try to strip down a bit. :cool:

    thanks again


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