Need some weight training/advice...

I am in need of a change in my current routine. I have been in the same weight training/cardio routine now for about two years. I'll list it below...

It is a 5 day training routine where I do one part of the body a day.

Day 1 = Chest (4 - 5 exercises with 3 - 4 sets a piece)
Day 2 = Back (4 - 5 ''''' )
Day 3 = legs (4 - 5 )
Day 4 = shoulders (4 - 5''''')
Day 5 = Arms ( 2- 3 exercises for both biceps and triceps with 1 - 2 sets for my forearms.)

Now I do concentrate on a lot of the classic exercises for each day. I have continued to use dumbells when ever possible. I am not so much concerned as trying to increase the amount of weight as much as I am concerned about reaching muscle faliure between 8 - 12 reps. Once I can perform 12 reps at a certain weight I will increase the weight very slightly.

It normally takes me about 45 minutes per day to complete my routine. I then will work on my abs, and then I will 30 - 60 minutes of cardio.

I go by myself so if I skip a day I don't have to skip a part I just pick off where I left off the last time. I would however like try to condence my workouts so I am able to have a chance to work chest, back etc sooner then every 5 - 6 days. What is a good way to acomlish this? What parts or types of exercises are good parings?

I am 5'3" 145lbs ~20% body fat. I would like to reduce down to about 15% body fat, and possible shed another 10 pounds (though the body fat is more important to me then the weight)

Any advice would be much appreciated. If you wish you may private message me or send me e-mail or just reply to this post. I will be greatfull in any event.

Try serious kayaking. Works the hell out of the chest, and due to the balancing on the boat with the hips/knees (*or if sitting really flat legged like the aleuts - the abs). And pumps cardio like no one knows.

Use greenland paddles, and a skin on frame kayak as you get used to it.

You sweat off weight every damn time.

I have thought about try to kayak every so often. It really looks like a great way to get an awsome work-out.

It''s that simple. I went from 25% body fat to 12% in 6 months running 5 miles 4 times a week. Best time to do that is in the summer but it doesnt really matter as long as you work up a good sweat.

I do a program similar to yours. Except I do chest and back on Monday and Thursday, Shoulders and arms on Tuesday and Friday, and legs on Wednesday and Saturday.

I went from 145 pounds to 165 pounds on this program. It is not really a fat burning program but a mass building program. It could be a fat burning program if you use a little bit lighter weight and minimal rest between sets.

It takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes or so to complete the program not including cardio and warm up.

As for your diet try a high fat, high protein, and low carb diet. It will increase your metabolism and put your body in an anabolic state.

I have been trying to formulate one very close to this. The hour and ten minutes is probably the time frame I will be looking at. It would just mean that I'll have to get to the gym a bit earlier. The biggest difference between the two programs was that the Legs where done the day after Chest/Back and before Arms/shoulders. I was told that this was to let the upper body muscles rest a day before trying to perfrom shoulders and arms, since many of the chest and back exercises will work the arms a bit.

Is there any particular reason that shoulders/arms are performed right after chest/back?

is best done by thinking of push - pull exercises.

example chest - bench press is a pushing exercise. you can combine say, overhead press / military press as a shoulder exercise because that is also a pushing movement.

triceps & chest generally are pushing exercises
biceps & back are pulling exercises.

legs are separate from upper body, so you can combine or leave them as completely separate. The only pulling exercise for legs, really is hamstring curls. It probably doesn't hurt anything to combine them with all the pushing leg movements.

as a ps. I'd say you may not need to do so many sets/exercise. First chest set should be light for warm up purposes, but it should warm, loosen all the chest, so it becomes superfluous to do another set of a different chest exercise as a 'warm up'

so, maybe bench press 3-4 sets, but for each other chest exercise 1-2 sets should be all you need.

if you go to The Meeting Room forum, there was thread there for a while all about exercising. It dies due to lack of KCDem participating, but you could probably still find it.

considered this type of combining also.

Thanks for the advice!! :hi:

that makes a major difference in how much you ought to trim that body fat.

oooh - on edit - also, how old are you? if you're a post-menopausal woman you can trim more fat. By the way, if you're a post-menopausal woman doing that much exercise, Way To Go!

monday chest/triceps


incline dumbbell presses.. slight incline no more than 20-30 degrees
one LIGHT set of approx 40% of your target weight, go very slow and dont bounce at the bottom.

select a weight that will allow approx 7-10 reps till failure.. failure is defined as the inability to
lift the weight under your own power, do not rest and then attempt to lift again.. as soon as you are unable to continue, stop and the set is over. make sure you reallyy give it a shot though, if you are
not used to going to failure it will be a little odd.


cable crossovers-7-10 reps to failure again.(if no crossover machine is available, use freeweights or a nautilus type machine)


tricep pushdowns. 7-10 reps to failure once again.(these are to be performed close grip with the pulley approx. 6 inches in front of you, do not lean over or "push" with your chest in any way.you are looking for a very mechanical push at the elbow only)

that's it for monday..



wed back/biceps


close-grip underhanded pulldowns- grip the bar as close together as you can, and select an appropriate warm up weight (40% or so) light warmup set no more than ten reps.. you want to keep your elbows together and pull down the front of your body until your elbows stop moving rearward. you dont want any tricep involvement.


seated bicep curls--these are done best seated on a chair/bench with a slight rearward angle to prevent bodyy movement. start with palms rearward and twist as you pull up until palms are parallel with floor midway. as always.. failure with 7-10 reps being the goal.

that's it for wednesday




fri- legs..this is gonna hurt..

i reccommend the leg press because it allows you to go to failure without any safety concerns. if you have a smith machine you can do squats but i reccomend the leg press initially.

light warmup.. legs even with shoulders..

go to failure 7-10 reps.. nothing special here, just go slow and steady.


optional leg curls in same manner as all other excercises..

done for the week..



notes--


keep a log of your weights you do so you can adjust the amounts to suit the range of reps needed.

ALL EXERCISES ARE TO BE PERFORMED IN A SLOW, CONTROLLED MANNER!! NO BOUNCING OR SWINGING!!

it will take at least one week, maybe two for you to get used to this type of training.. but many people find that either reps or the amount of weight goes up every week, if not both.

DO NOT DO ANY OTHER SETS/REPS AT ALL!! the whole system is designed to allow sufficient time for recovery AND GROWTH.. if you think "i'll just do one more".. if you've already driven the muscle group to failure, you've created a stimulus.. the response the body has is to grow stronger/bigger. if you beat it into submission it will take that much longer to recover and the stimulus will change from "get stronger" to "get more endurance".



you already know about failure, so ignore some of this. what you should be concerned with is the "crossover" you are getting from doing several bodyparts spread out over a few days. whenever you work chest, you are most always working triceps,same goes for back/biceps so you really should condense those into a single day for maximum effect and best recovery.

i'm going to bed now but i'll check back tomorrow and see if any of this makes sense :-)