ExRx.net

Well, my first post on this forum was the 25th of November 2011, seems a very very long time and knowledge base ago. This forum has been invaluable to my learning experience concerning the gym and nutrition, and I thank everyone for helping me, as the majority of the time I'm the one asking questions!

A wanna share with you my workout, to allow more improvements to be made....so here goes....

Shoulders
Lateral raise, facepulls, seated dumbbell press, upright row, and rear delt flyes.

Back
Pull ups, machine low row (wide grip), shrugs, inverted rows

Legs
Squats, calf raises

Abs
Ab roller, leg raises, plank, side planks

Biceps
Hammer curl, normal curl

Triceps
Dips, cable pushdowns

Chest
Incline press (dumbbells or bar)

Regarding sets and reps, I've being doing say 4 sets, decreasing reps and increasing weight, normally starting on 15 reps, going down to 4/5/6 depending on how many I can do. For progression, I aim to do at least one rep extra on each weight, then starting on a higher weight after a few weeks of improvement, therefore finishing on a higher weight.

Questions....

1. Facepulls, what kinda angle should I be doing them at for maximum rear delt activation?

2. What are the most effective ways to hit/improve the rotator cuff and the infraspinatus? (just found out the infraspinatus is in the rotator cuff).

3. What is the most effective way to do rear delt flyes? I've been doing the ones where you sit on the edge of a bench, previously been doing the lieing down ones.

It has been mentioned that most people get the form wrong for rear delts, hence all the questions.

Feel free to critique everything

so.... you've been here 14 months and you present your workout like that?

Do you do all of those every time, every day?
Or perhaps you have a day just for Triceps?

Help me, help you.

ps. Add some hammy work
pps. Rear delts are often neglected that doesn't mean they s/b the most important concern, otherwise.

how do you organise the exercises?

two exercises for legs is lazy. Add a hamstring curl and a deadlift variation.

Face pulls I've always felt are more of an upper back exercise than shoulders. Just get your elbows back as far as you can, that'll get your shoulders as involved as they can be.

It seems that you fixate on your shoulders. While I admit that shoulders make the physique, having big, broad looking shoulders is about more than just hammering your rear/lateral delts. Big lats, a big upper back, a big chest and a small waist all give the illusion of wider shoulders, you should dedicate just as much time to those body parts as you do your delts.

By all means hammer your shoulders, but don't neglect your other body parts to do so.

You have 7 categories, and 1 of them is legs? Haven't you learned anything in 14 months here? Not even that people would yell at you for listing legs in a way that makes it look like it's only 1/7 of your training?

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

You would think that he would have at least learned the value of hinging and carrying.

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

easy now guys, all he's done is list exercises. We don't know how often he's doing them or how he splits them up yet...

I don't see any hamstring stuff up there.

Mike Reinold is a big advocate of the W exercise for the infraspinatus, as well as balancing upper and lower trap recruitment. I would suppose low to high external rotations would be similarly effective.

http://www.mikereinold.com/2011/04/the- ... rcise.html

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don't you know there ain't no devil
that's just god when he's drunk

So, stharrison, we've been answering your questions for 3 days. You still interested?

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

I match chest/bicep, back/tricep, shoulders on their own, then legs with a random area, abs get done twice a week at the end of a day when I feel like it.

I am lazy with legs yeah, for squats I do a warm up set, 3 tough sets and a reppin set (15 - 20), I am still getting seeing process though. Go do something else, then do calves.

Hinging and carrying means nothing to me......terms I've never come across.

Shoulder are just an area I play closer attention to due to it being easily injured. I was thinking, what would inverted rows with the opposite grip to normal do?

The W exercise looks good, my resistance bands are pretty much only used for shoulder health now.

Sorry people, I've been ill, had a killer migraine and cold.

carrying is walking with something in your hands/arms.
hinging is like swinging your hips back and forth, well, sort of like you are ...um...

Well.... At least moving your hips back and forth, presumably while your body is supporting a load.

Pavel's list of hinge moves:
Barbell deadlift
Barbell good morning
Barbell clean (power, hang, muscle, etc.)
Barbell snatch (power, hang, muscle, etc.)
Kettlebell snatch
Kettlebell swing

Pavel picks the swing (not surprisingly) as the "best" hinge move.

_________________
Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

What's the purpose of pairing biceps with chest and triceps with back? If you're going to go with a muscle split, wouldn't it make more sense to pair triceps with chest and biceps with back?

Otherwise you might try something like Legs/Push/Pull or Upper/Lower.

^^ What Matt said.

just to offer a slight difference of opinion, the back + triceps/chest + biceps pairing is how Dorian Yates used to split his training. The idea behind it is that your arms are fresh for when you train them, and not already fatigued from being ancillary muscles in the first half of the workout.

I'm not saying that it's a good or a bad idea, just that that's the thinking behind it.