iThink said:

I would recommend lifting with a much more rounded routine. Do exercises for all of your muscle groups.

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4 fish oil capsules daily

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ya.  personally i do full body workouts 3 times a week.  and rest (or jog) every tue/thurs/weekend.  but that works for me... maybe ur workouts will work for u

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Sharpstuff said:

Hey everybody thanks for the responses, much appreciated

By legs i mean i do this program (no weights involved)it really strains the muscles in my legs ill get a link to the program soon.

im gonna change those Ab workout days to lifting for my back aswell, should be alright for now =)

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XUL said:

I am assuming that when you say "legs" you mean weight lifting and not running.


Monday: Legs, Abs
Tuesday: Bench my max weight, Dumbells, cardio
Wednsday: Legs, Long cardio seshion (semi rest)
Thursday: Bench/dumbells, bit of cardio.
Friday: Legs, Abs
Saturday: Rest.
Sunday: Rest.


I am going to critique this workout. In my opinion it is not a good one at all. But then again you didnt really get too specific. Its hard to know what you mean when you say 'dumbells' and 'legs'.

Just from looking at your workout I can tell you that you are probably over working. Especially as a skinny guy. You do not need to lift legs 3 times a week. That is a big no no. Doing deadlifts and squats is a major stress factor on your body and in order to make gains, grow, and recover, you need to back off to just 2 leg days a week.  You seem fixated on bench press which is a common symptom for skinny men, if not all men. You dont need to bench press twice a week at all. This workout might make you look big because you are constantly experience "the pump" but really it is not optimal for gaining muscle.

I could literally sit here and type out a 10 page workout guide for you but I am not going to. I am going to inform you with some basic ideas and you can do any extra research yourself.

Here is what I suggest...

Monday: Exercises like rows, pullups, lat pull downs, high pulls, upright rows, seated rows, etc..

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Things like squats, lunges, step ups, quarter squats, dynamic lunge, static lunge, good mornings, etc..

Thursday: Things like bench press, over head press, push press, tricep extension, lateral raises, dumbell chek press (Arnold's), incline bench, etc..

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Things like deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, snatch grip deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, step ups, lunges, etc...

Sunday: Rest

**abs every lifting day.

One great rule of safety is to never weightlift more than 2 days in a row. I grouped Wednesday and Thursday together for a specific reason. Its because I believe its safer to have a rest day between deadlift days and rowing days. Thats because in exercises like those you must stabilize your torso and use perfect posture to ensure the safety of you back. I think that rowing the day immediately after deadlift day offers a greater potential for injury in amateur lifters. Inexperienced lifters tend to push through workouts like champs but sometimes they get sloppy and lose posture in their back which creates a great potential for injury. Doing that 2 days in a row creates an even greater potential for spinal disc injuries.

This schedule is intended for strength or power training and that is why I separated the days into push and pull days. Push = squats and bench. Pull = Deadlifts and rows. I separate the days into push and pull because lifters tend to become fatigued after the main compound lifts such as bench press. I feel it is more sufficient to separate bench press and overhead press into separate days in order to maximize energy outputs during the lifting session. Strength sessions are short and you should expel most of your energy. Doing a heavy bench press and heavy overhead press in the same day combined with other complimentary single jointed exercises is too much for one day of strength training in my opinion.

Here are a few strength rep changes I have always enjoyed..

6 , 1, 6, 1, 10, 15.

4, 4, 4, 12

3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1,

5, 5, 5, 5, 5

These rep changes accompany rest periods from 2 minutes all the way up to 4 minutes. The idea behind longer rest periods during strength training is to maximize energy levels during each lift.

Example  6, 1, 6, 1, 10, 15, for a squat:

6 reps of 225
1 rep of 250
6 reps of 230
1 rep of 255
10 reps of 200
15 reps of 180

The idea behind the 10 and 15 is to preserve some of the work you do when you are in hypertrophy. Most lifters wont strength train forever and will eventually alternate to hypertrophy which is commonly lifting reps like 8, 10, or 12. And vise versa - During hypertrophy lifters will often alternate through rep changes as low as 6 and as high as 25 just so that you can preserve the work you did during strength or toning routines.

I have already said too much. I can sit here and keep typing about fitness and not even realize how much time has passed.


Good luke mang!

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