- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
You’re clearly a bit of a noob, and that’s good it means we can start you off on the right track.So I’m wondering if this gym routine works. On arm day I do biceps, triceps, shoulders, and pecs. On leg day I do calf’s, whatever all the thigh muscles are, and abs. Should I give my abs and pecs their own designated day or am I good as is?
The basics are that we want to hit every muscle, so we make a workout split. You’re doing a bit of a bro-split that’s missing massive areas.
To fix that but still keeping it similar, I would go Shoulders/Arms, Chest/Back, Legs, Abs every day, with rest days wherever you like your rest days. I think of this as the Golden Bro Split, it was the big training split back in the Golden Era and I’m personally a fan of it.
For arms and shoulders, the exercises I recommend are Barbell/EZ Bar Curls and Hammer Curls for biceps, Dips and Overhead Cable Extensions for triceps, a really high Incline Press and Side Lateral Raises and Reverse Pec Dec for the delts.
For chest and back, Chin Ups and One Armed Dumbbell Rows for back, and Bench Press/Dips and Cable Flies for chest. Also, Pullovers. Do Pullovers, they are the best for lats and mandatory in my book.
For legs, Squats and RDLs and Calf Raises.
For the abs, Hanging Leg Raises and Russian Twists are phenomenal. Just finishing off your workout with these and progressively overloading them is the way to go.
For how to progress, here’s the system I really like:
Hope that helps some.I am a big fan of Double Progression. It's super simple and works like a charm.
Say we are benching for three working sets. Our rep range is 5-12. It would look like this on a program:
Bench Press (100x10, 100x10, 100x7)
So, we just add reps each workout until we hit three sets of twelve with our weight.
Bench Press (100x12, 100x12, 100x12)
At this point, we increase the load. How much you increase really depends on a lot of things, but for our example we will just add five pounds.
Bench Press (105x10, 105x8, 105x5)
We repeat this cycle ad infinitum, it allows for consistent progress week to week. Sometimes I only get one more rep, sometimes I smash my numbers, but the system remains the same and I still progress.
In short, you pick a rep range for your working weight, and once you hit the end of that rep range you increase the weight and just keep going.
The true magic of this system, especially for bodybuilding and general weightlifting, is that you are milking the weight for all the progress it can give you. Rather than chase heavier weights, you outgrow lighter weights.
For powerlifting and such there are different systems, but Double Progression has always been my bread and butter.