ExRx.net

Hi, I know this is my first post and I hope this is in the right place. But I recently started going from pure cardio into weights as well and I was given a workout by a friend which I have tinkered with, however I am not sure if it is any good.

my current program is:

Monday
- Pull-Ups 3 sets of 25 reps
- Lat Pulls 3 sets of 25, 15, 8 reps
- Cable Rows 3 sets of 25, 15, 8
- crunches
- 45mins @ 8.5kph

Tuesday
- 1hr @ 8.5kph
- crunches
- incline dumbbell fly 25,15,8 reps

Wednesday
-Dumbbell Fly 3 sets of 25, 15, 8
-Bench Press 3 sets of 25, 15, 8
-Stability Ball Push Ups - 25, 15, 8
-Close Grip Pull Downs 3 sets of 25, 15, 8
-Dead Lifts 3 sets of 25, 15, 8
-1hr arc train
-crunches

Thursday
-1hr arc train
-crunches
-tri dips 3 x 10

Friday – Rest Day

Saturday and Sunday – Slow, Long Cardio
- 1hr arc train
- crunches

I know this is cheeky but some help would really be appreciated :)

Thanks for any advice

M

you can do 3 sets of 25 pull-ups?

oh yeah and your routine sucks, sorry pal.

there's a sticky on beginner routines, give it a look

Doesn't 6 days of Arc Trainer get boring after a while?

The program does suck, but you probably want to know why.

You have one day of pulling and one whole body day, crunches 5 days/week and cardio 5days/week. Everything is done with 25,15,8 reps.

You need to practice the basic movements with more frequency. Do one pull, 1 push and either a squat or deadlift every second day.
You don't need to do multiple movements that work the same body parts. 1 is enough of each.
Crunches are not the best ab exercise. Try planks instead.
You should mix up the cardio, getting a variety of intensities, up to and including sprints.
Cut the volume unless you're gearing up for the Arc Trainer Olympics. Use the time to recover and relax. Get out of the gym once in a while and take a walk, maybe on the Slow, Long Cardio days.
25,15,8 is just weird. You'll be worn out before you get to the heavy stuff which is where the benefit comes from. Do a warm-up, the 15 reps set would be enough, then your heaviest set(s) when you're still fresh, then if you want more volume, add more sets of lighter weights, but I don't think a beginner needs that.

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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

thankfully my gym has TVs in front of the cardio stuff... I just zone out and run/arc

what is Arc Training?

Add weight, your reps are a bit high.

Its just a variation of an elliptical trainer




I am looking there now but may I ask what makes it so bad?

what do you want to achieve by changing your routine?

I expanded my earlier post.

_________________
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
_________________
Thanks TimD

it just doesn't make any sense. Lots of redundant exercises, lots of stuff missing.

Firstly, on your 1st day, I am not sure why you think you would need to do three sets of pulldowns after having just done 75 pull-ups (I have a very hard time believing you can actually do that but whatever, that's not so important I guess...)

On tuesday the only weights you lift are in the form of incline dumbell flyes, that doesn't make any sense either.

Then, on Wednesday, after working your chest the day before (albeit with only one rather strange choice of exercise), you work chest again, doing obscenely high reps (25 is way too high, stick to 8-12).

You do not train your shoulders

You spend way too much time doing crunches (crunches aren't very good, at the very least switch to reverse crunches or leg lowering or something...)

You do not train your arms, except for dips the day after working your chest. Again, this makes no sense. Do not work the same muscle two days in a row. Ever.

Your only leg training is in the form of the deadlift, where once again your reps are far too high. Use 5x5 for your deadlift. Also, where is your squat? Or lunge? Or just anything for your quads? And no, the Arc trainer is not enough to develop your legs.

So basically, I would scrap it completely. It's just awful. I would maybe even go as far as to say it's the worst routine I've ever seen. Maybe not the very worst, but certainly close. Don't worry though, there's loads of good routines out there, I would personally recommend something like WS4SB. I assume with all the cardio you do that you want to stay athletic, and WS4SB is geared towards athletes. Give it a gander.

But hey, you can do 75 pull-ups in one session, so you're much stronger than I am so maybe you should disregard my advice, haha!

I should point out that firstly I did not make this, its was given to me by someone who I assumed knew what they were doing. as for the pull-ups I cant do 75, I can do a few but not that many

But I see what you mean, I just get so confused by all the routines it just seemed easy to stick with the one I was given.

To be honest my training is all driven for athletics and maybe joining the army after uni, those are my only major goals

Thanks for the help though, really appreciated.

If I knock up a routine and post it here would it be ok if someone could inform me if I had screwed up again?

don't feel too bad, Robert S hates just about all routines that aren't Upper/Lower 4days a week with 2x Pulling/Pushing and ample shoulder work.

:shrug:
:devil:

it's cool man, we were all beginners once. Believe me, I have done some APPALLING routines in my time so don't worry about it.

By all means post up a new routine if you like, however, seeing as you are quite inexperienced, it would make more sense just to do a program written by a professional, as opposed to trying to write your own. Once you've done a pre-written routine for a few months (or, even better, a few years) you'll have a much better understanding of what a program should entail, and will be better equipped to write one tailor made for your own needs.

I would give serious consideration to Westside for Skinny Bastards (WS4SB) by Joe DeFranco. It really is perfect for people wanting to get big, strong and athletic. Coach DeFranco is well known for taking skinny high school kids and turning them into NFL stars. Very good program.

Any other questions you have just ask.

And ignore Oscar, he's still a little sore from when I insulted his last shambolic attempt to write a program...

What kind of athletics? How'd you rate your current fitness? What's your training program over the last say 6 months?

If you've a reasonable fitness base some high intensity interval work could be suitable. A push/pull or upper/lower split could complement this, but if you're new to resistance training doing the big three/four (squat, press/bench, deadlift ) for strength will allow you to make some wonderful gains that can then be pushed back into your general athletic preparation.

Given the diverse range of aptitudes here, I think most of us could find a dozen flaws with just about any program somebody posts. I think it would benefit everybody if instead of diving into a critique we encouraged newbies to post actual specific goals so we could build up a program around something concrete.

To medic002: "athletics" is not a good goal. It's not even a goal at all. If you get more "athletic," how will you know? How would you measure that? Good goals are measurable and can be achieved within some kind of timeframe. If you're interested in joining the army, a good goal might be to pass all of the PT requirements with a 10% margin. Then you could look up the requirements for army and determine where you need to be, and we'd be able to find a way to get you there. As it stands, your program just looks like a typical mirror muscle routine from a fitness rag that's only going to leave you with chicken legs and an appointment with an othropedic surgeon who specializes in shoulder reconstruction. I'm a weapons manufacturer; I'd rather build a more devastating medic.

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