Workout routines

[captncaveman]

Just wanted to know what kind of routines people do here.

3 days out of the week i work on heavy power movements. I'll do snatchs both two and one arm, cleans, clean and jerks (sometimes clean and press), and deadlifts, squats (i alternated really heavy one week lighter the next).

3 days a week i'll do a higher rep range (lower weight) of full body movements. Thrusters, overhead front/back squats, kettle bell/dumbell swings, turkish get ups and so on.

I'll dedicate one day a week to just benching.

i'll do this for a bout 2 months. followed by 2 months of crossfit Workout Of the Days, then back to my routine. If i find something i like during my crossfit WODS i'll implement them into my routine. Or somedays i don't wanna write up a workout so i'll hit up crossfit.com and get a WOD.

What do you guys/gals do?

[Condor]

I do a lot of Cross Fit and a lot of BJJ. I work out on the trusty bowflex about 3-4 times a week and try to run a couple miles about 3 times a week. nothing too crazy or structured, I just make sure i do it.

[ShaulWolf]

I break up the muscle groups for different days. Generally I start on Mondays, though that's shifting to starting on Sundays.

Chest:
-Flat bench press
-Bench press, neutral grip
-Incline Bench press
-Dips
-Flyes
-Overhead Pull

Back:
-Pull ups
--Wide grip
--Close grip
-Lateral Pulldown (mainly for slow negatives)
--Wide grip
--Close grip
-Strait arm pulldown
-Bent over barbell row
-Dumbbell row
-Hyperextension

Shoulders:
-Seated press or Arnold press
-Front raises
-Lateral raises
-Bent over lateral raises
-Upright Row
-One arm reverse flyes
-Shrugs
-Internal rotation, cable
-External rotation, cable

-Arms:
-Biceps
--Curls, EZ-bar
--Drag curls, EZ-bar
--Preacher curl
--One arm cable curls
--Concentration curls

-Triceps
--Cable pulldown
--Tricep extension, cable
--One arm extensions, cable
--One arm reverse grip cable pulldown

-Forearms
--Wrist curls, dumbbells
--Reverse wrist curls, dumbbells
--Behind the back wrist curls, barbell

Abs done every other day:
-Weighted decline crunches
-Hanging reverse crunches
-Hanging pikes
-Hanging wipers (working on it)
-Torso twist, cables

Also add in deadlifts and starting to get into squats to work rear muscle train and lower muscles. Those are done a day after arms day so my forearms aren't completely burned out. Minimum of one mile during lifting days, minimum of 2 miles otherwise. Trying to do past 3 miles regularly since the Marine Corps PFT is a 3 mile run, and to max it I need to do it in under 18 minutes.

Running is the biggest obstacle I've got. My pace needs to be a 6 minute mile for three miles to max the run portion, and that's slow but steady progress. Once my 2 mile run is at 14 minutes that's going to be the minimum distance for each day, and pushing for 3 miles on my non-lifting days. I need to do 20 pullups to max that portion, and I can do 15 from a dead hang right now. Slow but steady progress on that. 100 crunches in 2 minutes, which isn't too difficult to do, but I want to make sure I can do that even on a bad day.

Heh, nothing like a bad breakup to motivate someone to get to the gym. Now it's fun for me, and it's nice knowing I don't have to get my shirts tailored to fill out the sleeves. And I should be able to max the USMC PFT by the time summer rolls around.

[Ainkor]

Interesting post here. I lost about 135 pounds about 6 years ago and the weight has slowly crept back up. I am still about 40 pounds lighter than at my heaviest but I need to get off my ass and work out some.

I usually did:

2 reps of 30 leg lifts, crunches and lat crunches

2 reps of arm curls mixed with overhead lifts with a 25 pound weight to work my trick shoulder

2 reps of 30 forearm curls

1/2 hour of inline skating or rowing

I did this for 3 years solid and looked and felt great! It is hard to get back into the swing once you stop for a while though.

Nothing to hardcore on the work out, just some basic core stuff and upper body work.

[Raddleman]

I swim a kilometre a few times a week. I don't do resistance at the moment, I'm trying to lose weight and cv is better for that.

[btrip]

What's the benefit of working different muscle groups every day?

Why not do every muscle group, maybe just different parts of every muscle, every day?

[ShaulWolf]

If you work each muscle group daily you have to lower intensity to let the muscles recover for the next day. Otherwise you tear apart more muscle than you rebuild and get little or no gains, and more than likely end up with an injury. If you do one muscle group that day you can go for high intensity and let those muscles rest for a while so they rebuild. This lets you get greater gains in strength, muscle density, and mass.

[reshumate]

Ugh, not the whole total body training vs splits debate. Do what you prefer. I do the Huge in a Hurry plan by Chad Waterbury, which is total body. Works pretty well if you keep your diet in check.

[ShaulWolf]

Oh crap, forgot that there's that debate... reshumate has some good advice in doing what you prefer that works best for you. I just split up my workout schedule like that because it works best for me and I have the time for it. If you're better off doing something different by all means go for it.

[bmwgsa]

I do 12 and 24oz curls every day of the week.....

[meta]

I agree. If you're not prepping for contest (in which case you should probably have a real coach rather than a message board dedicated to discussing alternative tobacco use), do what works for you.

I first re-started training a few years ago by following the 28 Day Experiment by Tim Ferris. (Google it, because I don't' how to make links work here). I think the HIT method is great for starting out and, depending on your previous experience and goals, it may even work long term. For me, though, I got bored.

Now I use a BowFlex for exercises unsafe to do alone, and free-weights otherwise. My goals were to lose a bit of body-fat and add a bit of mass without adjusting my eating habits (which were pretty light) unless it meant adding more.

I break up my routines by Push/Pull movements and only lift twice a week. When I lift, I push/pull myself to the end.

I do "push" exercises on Mondays (bench press, shoulder press, french press, leg press, calf-raises, etc). I do "pull" exercises on Thursdays (bicep curls, cross-overs, barbell shrugs, deadlifts, leg-curls, etc.) I do 3-5 sets of 8-15 reps, keeping the whole workout to about an hour. This allows plenty of time to rest between workouts per muscle group and keeps me from feeling overly sore or exhausted in between. I change the specific exercises every 4-6 weeks to prevent boredom.

Aside from that, I do resisted crunches when I'm the mood (3-5 times/week).

Finally, on my off-days and when I have time, I jump rope (about three times a week).

Now to the downer: I also watch my diet. And I do take a whey protein suppliment once a day, for what it's worth.

[snusjus]

I do 12 and 24oz curls every day of the week.....

I do 40oz curls. Beat ya.

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

Lol at the 40oz. Didn't Mickey's make a 64? What happened to that?

[ShaulWolf]

Christ, man... How can you drink a 64 by yourself, let alone a 40? I have trouble downing more than three beers... Granted, I am a lightweight and don't drink more than once a semester.

Raddle, swimming is awesome for building endurance, cardio, and weight loss. Can build a good amount of strength too. It's one of the things I wish I could do more often.

[captncaveman]

I don't have time to do splits these days. But to my goals are just for gaining strenght. So my routine matches what i like.

The worst thing about any routine is getting bored with it, the crossfit idea and the olympic lifts make this fun and intense every workout.

But the full body works well one month might not the next, the key is variety and breaking out of the comfort zone.