About Brian Expertise I can help set up a weightlifting program, give suggestions on specific exercises and how to deal with injuries. We can discuss your goals and effective ways to work towards them. I compete at powerlifting, and have been weightlifting for over 15 years.
Experience 15 years weightlifting experience, including competitive powerlifting.
Question Hi Brian! Thanks for the response! I have a few more questions I was hoping you could answer for me, and BTW I appreciate you spending some of your precious time to help me out too btw! =)
You mention to me that I may want to split up my routine further doing one muscle group in a session. Could you please check out my regimen again, because I thought I was doing only one muscle group per workout session.
Take for example my first day: On Monday I would do chest and triceps together. 8 total sets for chest(say decline and incline dumbell presses, 4 sets each) and then another 4 sets for triceps. I basically do 8 sets on a major muscle group using a compound style excercise, and then 4 for a minor muscle group.
Is 8 sets on a major and 4 sets on a minor group of muscles OK? I am afraid of doing too many sets and over training. But I want to do enough to get my athetic build back. It sounds to me like your suggesting I do 16-24 sets total on just one body part. Maybe clarify for me a bit.
Also, on the rest period recupperation, currently I hit each bodypart once per week, that gives me 6 days of rest for each body part. Going to my new 2 day on, one day off routine will mean each bodypart now gets 5 days rest. Is this still OK for the natural weightlifter? I may eventually go down to 4 days on and one day off in 6-9 months which will give me 4 days off, but again, Im worried about the overtraining aspect.
Thanks again Brian!
Zip
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Followup To
Question -
Hi Brian. This is long winded but hopefully its a good read. I am new to this site, but have been encouraged by the pros who help out people here to get in better physical(and mental)condition.
When I was in college about 15 years ago I minor'd in Health Ed. So I have a decent background in understanding weightlifting,nutrition etc.
Back in March of 06' (About 7 months ago) I weighed 370lbs. I didn't do any excercise, ate junk food for all meals and was a worthless couch potato due from my line of work being on the road all the time and personal life issues that have overwhelmed me the last 5 years.
Well I understood my life was out of control and on the 1st of March I started a crash no BS diet and excercise regimen.
The first month I concentrated on getting the diet and apetite under control(I was in such poor shape I couldn't even walk a mile)and in Month 2 I was doing 4 miles every morning when I got up. Month 3(May) I started to do 4 miles in the morning and either 4 miles in the evening or an hour cycling on my Schwinn HRC 910i stationary trainer.
In June I purchased an incline/flat/decline Powertec bench and a set of 5-130 Pro powerblocks. And have been weightlifting doing each body part once per week since the first of June.
Now my weight is down to 205lbs as of today. I plan to keep the weight loss diet on for one more month and then on November 1st. Will be switching my diet to maintain a specific weight while still trying to reduce body fat and increase muscle mass.
My own personal stats currently: Age 33 male, height 5'8 1/2", 205 pounds. I currently employ a basic taylor digital weight scale that measures weight,body fat and water %.
The scale has 2 settings on the body fat measurement. 1 for athlete(Which says Im around 14-15% body fat, and one setting for "Normal" which says Im around 27-28% body fat. Water percentage on both modes is about 58% Im not sure which one I should classify myself at though and this was one area I was hoping you could help out in. Taylor classifies an "Athelete as one who works out for at least an hour 10 times per week and who has a resting heartrate of 60 beats per second. I know I qualify for the times per week I work out(I do 4-5 weightlifiting sessions per week and about 14 sessions of cardio along with an occasional SERIOUS 4-6 hour hike in the White mountains of NH)and I do have a resting heartbeat of around 60 beats per second when I wake up in the morning I believe. When I was a teenager I was also played HS hockey,football,skiing,baseball)but the last 10 years I havent done much excercise and no sports. So should I consider myself to be an athlete again with 4 months of serious weightlifiting and 6 months of serious cardio under my belt? Have my bone density increased in such a short time? So anyway, which mode do you think my body is better suited to?
Also my current wieghtlifting regimen is as follows. Each body part once per week(8 sets major body parts,4 sets minor body parts) split up in the following:
Sunday:Morning when I wake up before breakfast: 75 minutes of cardio in morning(Normally a 4 mile walk with my dog or an hour on my schwinn)
Evening: Another walk or stationary bike. If its a day off from work and weather is good I may do a 4 hour hike in the mountains also.
Monday: Moring: Again walk or stationary bike: Evening: 20 minutes on bike(To get heartrate up and muscles primed, I do this for all days lifting)before and after weightlifting.
Triceps: 4 sets of dumbell tricep extentions(1st set I try for 16-20 reps with lighter weight/warmup, 2nd and 3rd sets 8-12 reps, 4th set 4-6 reps while pyramiding the weight up of course)
Chest: 4 sets of incline bench press's(Again 1st set warmup,2nd/3rd sets 8-12 reps, 4th set 4-6 reps). 4 sets of decline bench press, same routine pyramiding.
Tuesday: Biceps: 4 sets, same routine as with tricep and chest.
Back: 8 sets of bent over dumbell rows(Don't have a lat pulldown machine yet so I do extra sets of bent over rows with dumbells in varying positions with and without a bench)again pyramiding up in weight.
Wednesday: Day off from wieghtlifting. So again walk or bike in the morning before breakfast, possible hike midday if no work and again 60-75 minutes cardio in evening.
Thursday: Cardio morning, in evening Legs: 4 sets lunges(own body weight till I can do 4 sets of 25. Im almost there now)8 sets of dumbell squats in which I pyramid up from about 16 reps till about 2 reps. 4 sets of standing dumbell calf raises(on a block of wood).
Friday: Shoulders: 4 sets of dumbell military presses. 4 sets of upright rows. 4 sets of dumbell shrugs. Again all done pyramiding the weight.
Saturday: Day off(which I end up doing cardio of some form 1-2 times again)
I do all freeweight dumbbell excersises. I feel dumbells give me the greatest freedom of range and muscle stretch. They also help build up stabalizer mucles quicker too I believe and keeping perfect form is harder and makes me concentrate harder. Plus I love my powerblocks! =) Am thinking of buying a rack(with lat machine attachment and switching in some barbell excercises too eventually). Whats your take and using dumbells exclusively?
Also now that I have 3-4 months back under my belt. I am thinking about wieghtlifitng a bit more frequently. Going to a 2 day on/ one day off 2 day on/one day off mode on the lifting sessions, where now Im on a 2 day on/ one day off/ 2 day on/2 day off routing. In other words I hit each body part on every 6th day instead of the 7th. My target muscles should have no issues with one less day of rest? What I was taught years back was your muscles needed 100-120 hours to 100% recuperate between sessions. This still hold true? Also whats the feeling on the rep ranges(16-20 first set, 8-12 reps on sets 2 and 3, 4-6 reps on last set. Should I change this slightly?)I currently employ?
Also, since Im 100% natural(drug free) am I doing to many or too little sets for major and minor body parts? Also, what about the rep range. I do want to add size, but strength and tone are important too. I dont want to be huge with no strength. I want to have good size WITH good strength and endurance.
As for my diet. I was originally eating only 3 meals per day, heavy calorie restriction. I was eating about 600 calories per meal originally, all basic foods including, whole milk,cheese,eggs,whole wheat pasta, OJ,grapefruit juice,peas,carrots,spinach,beans,peanuts,peanut butter,natural fruit spread,93% lean hamburg,lean turkey and other deli meats,cottage cheese, high fiber/protein multigrain bread. I may also have a cup of coffee in the morning and I use Splenda in place of sugar. Whats your take on Splenda? I try and stay away from all refined sugars. I normally kept the higher carb meals in the morning and cut down carbs for the last meal of the day(which also was my highest protein meal since it was after lifting). I went up in strength the first 2 months slowly, and over the last month I plateaued and have felt a bit weak when lifting. I figured my body wasnt getting enough calories and protein. I figured I was getting around 100-120g of protein during the first months of my diet. Since I assume my lean body mass is around 150-175lbs I assumed it may have not been enough. So in the last few weeks, I changed my diet to a 4 meal per day regimen, and now supplement with a protein powder(whey protein)and creatine monohydrate(loading right now taking about 5-6 teaspons per day), I also take a multivitamin in the morning and at night, along with fish oil(omega 3) and vitamin C.
So am I getting enough protein now? I figure I eat between 40-50 grams of protein at each meal. Should I be getting 1 gram of proten per pound of lean body mass, or total body weight(fat and all)?
So anyway please critque my routing. I am always looking for ways to improve it, my diet and cardio programs.
A detailed response to all the questions I pose would be highly appreciated and very beneficial!
Zippy =)
Answer -
Hi. First off, congratulations on coming so far and changing your life around! As you know, not many people are able to do that. I'll try to get to all your questions, so let me know if I miss anything.
Bodyfat scale: I'm sure you know the way the scale measures bodyfat is by BIA...basically testing your body's electrical impedance and calculating a value based on the fact that muscle is a better conductor than fat. Frankly, this will not provide a very accurate measurement, and is easily effect by non-bodyfat things, like how well hydrated you are at the time of measurement. I couldn't find any product literature on that scale, so I don't know what to tell you. If you are looking to get your bodyfat to a particular number, you should have it measured a more accurate way. Some doctors can do this. You can use the scale to see that you're still moving in the right direction, but I wouldn't base any decisions on the numbers it gives you.
Dumbbells - I think you can use dumbbells exclusively if you want to. The powerblocks are awesome, so I know what you mean there! Using barbell for some exercises also will help with left-right coordination in addition to stabilizer muscles that you get from dumbbells. For me personally, I prefer barbells and dumbbells both, and use machines sparingly (lats and calf raises mostly).
2-on 1-off - I think either way is fine. For me, it's easier for me to keep track of a set schedule based on day of the week. But if you can keep track of it, go for it.
Reps - I think what you are doing now is a pretty good balance, considering where you are and what you're trying to achieve. Once you get to the weight you want to, I would make your lightest set no more than 8 reps--and so increase the amount of weight you're lifting. Much more than 8 reps and you're really fatiguing the muscle more than challenging it. I wouldn't do pyramids on every exercise, because then you're swinging a little too far in the other direction and you'll have no stamina. So, maybe your first exercise could be pyramids (four sets 8-6-4-2 reps!) and then do 4 sets of 8 for the rest of the workout.
Other ideas - You might consider splitting up your workout even more...do one muscle group in a day's workout, doing 4 exercises on that muscle group for 4 (or up to 6) sets on each exercise. This is kind of the "next level" from where you are now. In this way, you'd still be hitting each muscle group once per week, but a lot more intense focus.
I'm really not much of an "expert" on nutrition. If you go back to AllExperts.com and search on "nutrition" I think you'd be better off with someone else's opinion on that stuff.
--Brian
Answer Yes, 16-24 sets per muscle group is exactly what I was suggesting! And when I said one muscle group, I meant one muscle group (e.g., chest & triceps is really two muscle groups). Here's something more specific:
Day 1 - chest
Day 2 - back
Day 3 - legs
Day 4 - shoulders
Day 5 - triceps
Day 6 - biceps
Overtraining is when you work a muscle group too often, not when you do a lot of sets...so, I'm not as worried about that with the program above.
You mentioned doing a 4 day cycle, with one day rest and then restarting. I think in that scenario you'd be coming pretty close to overtraining...for most people, this would be counterproductive, so I don't recommend that.
