Weight Lifting Guide - Everything You Need To Know - Page 23

quote Phil Anselmo

Is this a good routine to get started with? I work out occasionally, but don't really have a structure. I want a full body workout for strength & gaining muscle. I lost around 75lbs over the last year, mostly fat, but I know I've lost strength as well.

Assuming that routine is fine, is it best to do all workouts on all three days or split it up somehow?

HBK619

Yeah, that looks fine. Might take a while to complete, lots of equipment changes and so on, especially in a busy gym, doing it all 3x/week is fine for a novice. Lazarra linked another good beginner routine which requires less time and equipment. As long as you're working your full body hard 3x/week, and aiming to do more weight/reps/sets each workout, you'll get stronger and make good progress.

If you do the one you linked, after 2-3 months you might want to split it into an upper body day and a lower body day, and do double the amount of sets, working out either 3x/week alternating upper and lower (upper/lower/upper, lower/upper/lower) or 4x/week (upper/lower/upper/lower). If you stall on Lazarra's linked routine, you'd probably make wednesday a light day (lift weights that are 70-85% of what you could, same exercises) after 2-3 months to milk another few months of progress out of it. Either one stuck to with the right hard working attitude and a focus on progression will work very well.

yeah, it's pretty simple. just read through the thread, and you should be doing fine. Test your 10 rep max first, though! You don't wanna start too light but you don't wanna stall after the first 2 weeks either.

it's forgiving when you're on cut too. so if you're still trying to lose weight, it'd be fine. if not, eat in maintenance/ more than you usually do is also fine. shouldn't take you too long to complete it either, which is a plus if you have a pretty tight schedule. People also suggest you to do cardio (light cardio) and abs workout on tuesday/ thursday too. i think they're optional, though.

yeah, sdl/rdl primarily hits your hams whereas the regular deadlift hits more muscles. imo it depends on your routine. eg, if you're doing allpro's beginner routine, SDL is the way to go because you've pretty much destroyed your muscles with squat/ bench/ bb row prior to doing deadlifts (since the primary compounds are squat/ bench/ bb row)

however, if you're using deadlift as your primary compound (eg, starting strength, or stronglifts) then regular deadlift is definitely more recommended.

Cool, thanks for the reply Lazzara. & yeah, that's exactly why I wanted to know haha, figured now that I know the basics & got familiar with the equipment, I'd try sticking to allpro's plan.

I have a 5 pound weight in the computer room here. I did 1 set of 30 for each arm just now. I plan on doing it in a bit agian.

Question for the regulars: HBK619 Iceguy2003 Lazzara

What's your take on smith machines? When I squat out of a rack, I don't really feel it in my glutes. I squatted using a smith machine last night for the first time since high school (coaches were always hating those things, didn't like us using them, "crutch") and I really felt a good stretch in my glutes.

I've read it restricts your form and all and they're bad for joints, etc... any substance to this?

And what about benching out of one if you lack a spotter? Thanks.

Oh yeah, what's a good balance as far as what your lifts should be, weight wise? My squat is weak-- pretty much the same as my bench. What's a good general rule of thumb to aim for? Squats 2x body weight? Bench = body weight? Thanks again guys.

Yeah, I'd avoid the smith machines in 90% of cases. If you're benching alone, don't go to failure (stop 1-2 reps short), don't put collars on the bar (so you can tilt the bar and slide the plates off if you get pinned) and never decline bench without a spotter. Or if you're super worried just do overhead presses, DB bench presses and weighted dips instead.

The exact proportions will vary, but 200lb shoulder press, 300lb bench press, 400lb back squat, 500lb deadlift is pretty standard balance, so if you scale the numbers back for example if you can only shoulder press 100lbs, then you would want to have approximately a 150lb bench press, 200lb back squat and 250lb deadlift to be in proportion. A glaring outlier like benching as much as you squat would indicate some imbalance in your training.

Some other good measures of upper body balance, assuming you bench press say 200lbs, is to be able to do 200lb chinups (include bodyweight) x 3, pendlay row 200lbs, and dip 250lbs. You would also want to be able to do DB external rotations with 20lbs x 10/side. This shows that all the muscles around the shoulder are roughly balanced, and that your training is giving appropriate attention to your back as well as your front.

If you want to work your glutes, barbell hip thrusts are unbeatable. Still do squats, deadlifts, lunges, RDLs and so on, but hip thrusts allow you to move a lot of weight (more than your squat but less than your deadlift usually), target the glutes directly, to build strong hips and a sexy butt. They look a bit funny but don't let that put you off. Start off with light weights (or just bodyweight), focus on squeezing your butt cheeks, if you feel your low back or hamstrings, you're doing it wrong.

Hey HBK619 I'm in need of a routine and was hoping you could help. I realise you get this a lot so I will try to give you as much info as possible. In actual fact I'm kinda wanting two routines, one for the next 8 weeks (getting married) and then one for afterwards. 
So I'm male, 25y/o, 6ft3 and 192lbs. Ive got pretty skinny limbs and carry most of my excess weight around my stomach. My body fat% is like 25 I've been going up the gym on and off for about 6 months, recently I've been going 3-4 times a week but my routine (or lack of) and diet have been letting me down. In the past I've tried going to the gym, hoping it would encourage me to eat better. This time I tried sort my diet out first and it seems (so far anyway) to be working much better. I feel much healthier and energised to do a session at the gym. Now this isn't my long term diet, its just till I get married. My current diet is: 
Meal 1 - omelette (4egg whites, 100g of meat, half a green pepper and cayenne pepper)
Meal 2 - protein shake (40g oats, 200ml skimmed milk, half a banana and choc whey)
Meal 3 - protein bar
Meal 4 - choc whey protein and skimmed milk (only on workout days) and an apple
Meal 5- 200g meat with salad and vinaigrette
Meal 6- 10 almonds, 100ml skimmed milk, 250g cottage cheese,  cinnamon, tablespoon of peanut butter and vanilla whey all bended together. 
 I realise there is a lot of powdered whey and bars but I currently work shifts with no access to cooking equipment. If you've got any concerns about my diet let me know.

So I'm looking for a 3-4 day a week routine that will primarily target growth in my arms and help me lose weight on my stomach. I'd also prefer to split days and not full body workouts. My current routine is full body and don't get that aching feeling that makes you feel good cos you know you worked (if that makes sense).
I'd also like a more rounded routine for after the wedding