Me and a buddy have been doing the following program for 2 months now.

I want to "shock" the workout. For all of you big lifters, how would you do this. I was thinking about incorporating a few days of straight sets instead of pyramid sets, not sure though.

Monday and Thursday:

Leg Extensions 12 - 10 - 8 (increasing each time on every pyramid set you see)
Leg Curls 12 - 10 - 8
Calf Raises
Pulldowns (front) 12 - 10 - 8
Shoulder Raises (in front and to the side, alternating) 10 - 10 - 10
Seated Rows 12 - 10 - 8
Pulldowns (back) 12 - 10 - 8
Shrugs 12 - 10 - 8
Abs


Tuesday and Friday

Bench Press 12 - 10 - 8
Tricep Pressdown 12 - 10 - 8
Incline Bench 12 - 10 - 8
Alternating Curls 10 - 10 - 10
Incline Flies 12 - 10 - 8
Concentration Curls 10 - 10 - 10
Low-Grip Bench 12 - 10 - 8
Hammer Curls 10 - 10 - 10
Tricep Extensions 12 - 10 - 8
Forearms

2/27/2007 10:00:16 PM

OVERTRAINING - look it up on the internets

2/27/2007 10:46:00 PM

if you're stuck on a plateau you might try focusing on eccentric muscle contractions i.e. quick contractions, and slowly returning to starting position

there's research on it

2/27/2007 10:51:46 PM

He shouldn't have plateaued after two months.

2/27/2007 10:55:24 PM

haven't plateaued

read I should shock my body every couple/few months

just trying to get an idea of how I'm gonna do it.

2/27/2007 10:57:38 PM

You probably don't need to worry about all that. Just keep the mix well rounded. If you are doing the exact same movements in every workout, then you are possibly neglecting things. If you typically do the bar on a flat bench, go to dumbbells for a session or two. Just switch things up, not so that your muscles don't get "used to it" (if you are always increasing the stimulus, and giving appropriate rest for recovery, they won't), but so that you hit everything in a more well rounded well.

There is no need to over complicate this unless you have some very specific goals in mind(competitions, etc).

2/27/2007 11:01:10 PM

First you should be rotating out exercises on a regular basis, so you "shock" your system almost all the time. I change Primary lift every two weeks and I rotate in my my accessory work every week.

You can also get rid of the following lifts...

Leg Extensions
Leg Curls
Pulldowns (back)
Shoulder Raises
Seated Rows (I assume you are using a machine)
Low-Grip Bench (Not even sure what that means)

Head on over to t-nation.com

and read.....DeFranco's Westside for Skinny Bastards I & II. They are great fucking programs.

2/27/2007 11:24:09 PM

we're both already pretty big guys, toning some and building muscle

[Edited on February 27, 2007 at 11:31 PM. Reason : i'll check it out tho]

2/27/2007 11:28:14 PM

The Skinny bastards is just a name, not an insult.

2/27/2007 11:33:10 PM

low-grip bench = close grip bench?

2/27/2007 11:44:15 PM

more of a machine version of the decline press

[Edited on February 27, 2007 at 11:46 PM. Reason : ^^ ]

2/27/2007 11:46:06 PM

maybe more compound exercises:

-bench
-squat
-deadlift
-military press
-dips
-pullups

I like:
http://wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=25&pageid=1

[Edited on February 28, 2007 at 1:25 AM. Reason : link]

2/28/2007 1:19:33 AM

Here's more or less my workout, exercises generally change on a monthly basis, but the basics stay the same. I pretty much always keep the bench, squat, bicep curl, etc. but I may vary between incline, decline, barbell, dumbell, cable, etc. I also throw in weird exercises occasionally. For example, I sometimes do rotator cuff exercises instead of front and side delt on shoulder days. Sometimes I'll do an olympic day instead of calisthenics and do 3 sets or low weight deadlift/snatch/clean and jerk. You have to keep it fresh and I personally don't like to isolate muscles too much. Compound exercises are fabulous for making your strength functional and not just for looks. Oh, and keep a log to monitor your progress and help you keep track of how long you've been on a particular set of exercises. So here's my current workout.

Mon: Legs and Chest
Squat or front squat (alternate weekly)
Calf raise (seated or leg press machine alternate week)
Bench
Incline dumbell bench
Flies (flat bench or machine)

Tue: Biceps and heavy abs
Bicep curl
Slide curl
Hammer curl
Abs (weighted decline sit up, captain's chair, crunches, more crunches, even more crunches)
Cardio (usually a 5k run or equivalent on eliptical or bike)

Wed: girly workout day/off day if I'm really exhausted
Cardio
Abs

Thu: BACK DAY (by far the hardest day of my week)
Deadlift
Pullups
Upright row
usually 3 or more of the following:
Weighted back extensions
bent over row
reverse pullups (laying on the ground, pulling body up to a bar set low on a smith machine)
seated row
Power clean

Fri: Shoulders and Tricep
shoulder press/Arnold press
front delt raise
side delt raise
Bench dip
tricep press down
3 way (pullovers, skull crushers, narrow grip bench)
cardio

Sat: circuit training/calisthenics

Sun: off day

It seems to work fairly well for me.

2/28/2007 2:56:53 AM

Quote :

"maybe more compound exercises: -bench -squat -deadlift -military press -dips -pullups "

Exactly. Throw out all of your curls. You're putting way too much strain on your joints. Add compound lifts especially squat and deadlift. You're also doing a lot of reps. Up the weight and minimize the reps to pack on more muscle.

2/28/2007 9:02:05 AM

get rid of all the machines and stick to the basic compound movements.

2/28/2007 9:30:38 AM

Dead weights will help you more it makes you control the weight more. If you want to shock your body go and get some dang Logging chains and throw them on the bar. It helps with shock because the closer you get to finishing the more weight is being added. Run with that idea I used to use logging chains on Bench, Incline, Decline, squat, pushpress and a lighter chain with curls.

2/28/2007 9:35:06 AM

If you'd like a program already made for you, take a look at this:

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=fitness&conitem=9bd999edbbbd201099edbbbd2010cfe793cd____

It's a year long program that I saw posted on here a while back. I was kind of it a rut with my workouts and I needed something new to try. I'm almost half way through it (almost done with phase 4) and I've seen good results. I've coupled it with cardio, and its giving me better strength, size, and less body fat.

Just a suggestion if you want to try something new that will vary up almost every month.

2/28/2007 9:37:40 AM

I think you'd see much better results if you didn't train every muscle group twice a week. it looks to me like either you're overtraining. cut your workouts in half and see how that goes.

also, some of your exercises are redundant. pulldowns to the front and pulldowns to the back really don't change the way you hit your lat width. at the same time, you're not doing anything for back thickness. throw out pulldowns behind your neck and replace them with either deadlifts or bentover rows. also, you'd get better results from doing pullups if you're capable of doing them.

shrugs are unncessary if you do bentover rows and deadlifts.

you do an incredible amount of work for your arms, and that is not good. you do bench and incline bench for your chest, and that exercise also uses your triceps heavily. then you turn around and do two more exercises for your triceps. total it up: you're doing 6 sets for chest and 12 for triceps. think about how big your chest muscle group is compared to your tricep. do you think you need twice as much work for a muscle that's not even half the size? a lot of people try to negate this by saying that you have to hit the muscle from different angles, but that's usually rubbish. the elbow only pivots one way, and the tricep has little effect on the pivot of the forearm.

[Edited on February 28, 2007 at 9:50 AM. Reason : typo]

2/28/2007 9:49:46 AM

yee haw

[Edited on February 28, 2007 at 10:58 AM. Reason : i have to post in these once]

2/28/2007 10:58:20 AM

The thing I don't get is you people say to take out the curls, pull downs and all for the sake of your joints but then these guides tell you to do them.

I'll be sure to do this exercise next time I'm at the gym though, courtesy of the menshealth.com year-long program

2/28/2007 12:36:51 PM

the only thing you need to do to preserve your joints is use good form and controlled movements at all time.

2/28/2007 1:12:44 PM

thanks

2/28/2007 7:19:44 PM