Since the beginning of the year the goal I set for myself was to dedicate myself to strength training to build muscle. In the 6 weeks that have passed so far I have noticed some considerable gains, I've gained close to 3 lbs of muscle. I'll continue this routine for the next 2 - 4 weeks and then move onto a more cardio-based work out to burn off any fat. Here's my current routine, I do 3 - 5 exercise per muscle group.

Monday [Chest and Triceps]
Tuesday [30 - 50 mins of cardio]
Wednesday [Back and Biceps]
Thursday [40 mins of cardio and ab work out]
Friday [Shoulders and legs]
Saturday/Sunday [Will use one day to rest and the other for cardio]

_________________
The set is my canvas, the lamps are my brushes, and the light is my paint ...

overtraining

It'd be great if you can suggest any modifications RVAIS.

_________________
The set is my canvas, the lamps are my brushes, and the light is my paint ...

Skip the cardio and you'll be better off...
I'm serious.


What you rather want to do is up the intensity and really focus on activating the entire muscle, and fatiguing it completely.
By that I mean you go for 60-70% of 1rm and push until positive muscle failure. That means through all the stress and anxiety that is guaranteed to come when you close in on failure, and all the way until your muscles Cannot physically do any more work. This should take somewhere around 2 minutes or less. (And be attentive to Form, so that you do not end up redistributing in order to take load of the targeted muscles, and avoid potentially damaging yourself.)

What you'll do is build up lactic acid, this is a good thing, and as the lactic acid is transported back to your liver to be transformed into pyruvate (that is what the muscles burn in order to do work,) you'll have equal metabolic work being done as you would have had from doing cardio. Without the damage to knees and stress on joints/sinews that you would have got from "cardio". Your body cannot tell the difference, the muscles cannot separate whether it is "cardio" or simply a by-product of high intensity resistance exercise.


(edit) Oh, and by the way, muscle is active tissue, so building muscle ends up ramping your metabolism so that you burn more fat. If you're really into lowering body fat % look into leangains.com

Thanks for the suggestions on cardio Bad Wolf - since I got a few weeks left over on my program I'll cut it out until I start my cardio program in mid-march.

I've definitely been increasing how much weight I do for each exercise about every two weeks or until I can comfortably do 4 sets with 10 reps each. This week I'm upping the weight for my back, shoulder, and leg muscles.

_________________
The set is my canvas, the lamps are my brushes, and the light is my paint ...

2 "sets" to FAILURE 10 reps , 12 reps mean nothing momentary muscular failures is what you need, if you gonna use movement go slow 5 second positive 5 second static hold 5-10 second negative if ROM permits, when i said 2 sets I meant for the whole workout 1 "push" (muscle dont push btw) or "pull" for lowerbody 1 for upperbody. Rest until youve fully recoverd and grown, you should improve every workout or dont train.

These two quotes are contradicting each other. The 8-12 rep range is typically considered hypertrophy work, while 1-5 reps is considered strength work. A strength program will also typically have you following a full body program, not anything like a 5 day split per muscle group.

An actual strength program might get you to your goals even faster. Search 'Stronglifts' or 'Starting Strength'.
I agree with this, but for a different reason. Any other exercise besides strength training (and what Big Bad Wolf suggested wasn't strength training, it seems like you'd be going quite a bit higher than the 1-5 rep range) will limit your strength gains. It will help keep fat off, sure, but I'm a fan of bulk/cut cycles and as such believe strength should be your #1 priority at this stage, and not worry about fat (within reason, of course).

In any case, cut the cardio.
Going to muscular failure every set hinders steady progression. You'll make more gains from that workout, but not overall.
RVAIS, we discussed this in another thread. Lifting slowly performs equal work but makes you LESS powerful. Plus it lets you lift less weight. There's really no good reason to be lifting slowly. Lift steadily (keep your form in check) but feel free to lift as fast as that permits.

I disagree with your sentiment that you should rest until 'fully recovered'. A person training 3x a week with only partial recovery each time (a day or two is sufficient for most of the growth to occur) will make better gains than a person training 1x a week with full recovery (since in the extra days they're waiting, they're gaining less per day than the person who has trained again).
Amen.

Another set of input regarding "Cardio".

It seems that doing steady state exercise actually inhibits the hormonal response that you get from doing real exercise (read: resistance training with meaningful load (upwards of 70% of 1rm(that's around 4-8 reps or approx 90 seconds TUL )))

Note: I'm of similar opinions as these guys: http://www.renaissanceexercise.com


Now, I always increase either the weight or the TUL (Time under load, more specifically, how long I manage to keep working the muscles doing continuous work until momentary muscle failure (That means that I am physically unable to lift the weight))


So, tooothpick, I don't totally agree with what you state about muscular failure hindering steady progression. This, as far as I understand, is only dependent upon whether or not you get adequate restitution between exercise days. (Which in the case of muscular failure generally varies within 4-10 days.)
At least if you're talking about momentary muscle failure, in the positive/contraction phase of the movement. (doing negative reps until failure, to my knowledge, produces too deep inroad for the muscle to manage full recovery within reasonable time. )

Here's a few studies regarding frequency, (basically, once a week get's you largely the same results, though you may argue that 3x a week will let you drill more technique and thus gain a tiny advantage in that sphere.):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17313289
http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstr ... _of.6.aspx Journal of strength and conditioning Research
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10522954 (older subjects but still valid.)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2144914 Applied to Lumbar extension

Some strength programs having you squatting every second day and adding 5lbs (or 2.5kg) each workout. Over a week, adding 7.5kg to your squat is certainly achievable with proper rest. However, training once a week, even going to failure, would make it very hard to add 7.5kg to your squat the next workout.
As far as I read, those studies didn't contrast failure vs non-failure, which is what I'm getting at. In any case, while I was following a strength program, there were times that I knew I wouldn't be able to work out for the next week (vacation, closed gym, etc) and would go to failure on my sets with the knowledge that I'd be having sufficient recovery. I was never able to add as much to my lift when I began working out again as if I had continued to follow my program normally.

So my experience, for what it's worth, is that it's certainly easier to make progress training non-failure frequently.

All I want to say to you right now mate, is be careful with the avice you get of this forum in regards to health and fitness...I actually think there are some pretty good points made above, but some I believe (not neccesarily 100% correct) is not good advice...best real advice I can give you is talk to a Persoanl trainer at your gym, if they are any good they should be able to point you in the right direction, and they should be happy to give you some advice for free...(any real PT is doing the job coz they wanna help people, so this shouldnt be a problem!)

Agreed. As the old saying goes: take it with a grain of salt.

I also follow posts in a body building forum and feel that many people make it too intricate and complex.

_________________
The set is my canvas, the lamps are my brushes, and the light is my paint ...

actually I add either 4,8 or 7,6 kgs to the leg press every week. Depending on the amount of reps/TUL last time (which sometimes goes way beyond what I would expect.)
It doesn't seem like a lot, actually, since it works out to only about 2,5% of the total weight. But as long as it keeps climbing I'm happy.

Last week I did 200 kgs and this week I did 206,8 kgs.
And I expect it to climb to at least 212 by tuesday.
There's no reason why it shouldn't since I am able to do almost 10 reps with this. (going to failure, remember, which took me 1:55 this week)

Training as large a group as your legs every second day seems way too much. You'll hit a plateau very quickly following a routine like that, (that is, your progress will stagnate as you reach the maximum amount of inroad your body can cope with in such a short period of time)

btw. Take a peek at Mike Mentzer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTk4R22DFDo&NR=1 (the rest of that seminar is also worth looking at.)

Also, look into Doug McGuff MD of Bodybyscience.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PdJFbjWHEU
and Renaissanceexercise.com

Hey buddy,
You have done at your best of.... I like your daily work out routine and wanna say that that's a good one routine you have make for your self... Surely you will do the best of for your body and fitness...... Best of luck buddy.....

_________________
Oakland Bootcamp

Beginning with a 50kg squat, I only began to reach plateaus around the 110kg mark. Training legs every second day is perfectly viable for someone not yet at that strength level with adequate nutrition.

Waht is it with this whole metric system?

We (americans) started the internet knock it off!!!


start w/ ...kg blah blah blah NO POUNDS mother fuckers respect us!

speak in our language or dont fuckin speak!!!!