Current Events > Advice on my workout routine?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been hitting the gym daily for like 45 mins - an hour using this routine. I'm not trying to get shredded, just wanna add some muscle and gain weight. Right now I weigh like 140 and I'm 5'11" so I'm pretty lanky and scrawny.

I mostly do machines since I go alone and don't want to need a spotter.

I think one change I might make is do 15 reps per set.

Treadmill - 10 mins

Chest Press
Two Sets of 12 reps - 10 sec rest between sets

Leg Press
Two Sets of 12 reps - 10 secs between sets

Pec Fly
Two Sets of 12 reps - 10 secs between sets

Stair Climber - 8 mins

Lat Pulldown
Two Sets of 12 reps - 10 secs between sets

Ab Machine
Two Sets of 12 reps - 10 secs between sets

Row Machine
Two Sets of 12 reps - 10 secs between sets

End with dumbbell routines and stretches

more sets.

Robot2600 posted...

more sets.

Yeah that's a good plan. I dunno how many I can take before my muscles turn to mush but I could try 1 extra set per machine. Maybe lower the weight instead of pushing as much as I can handle.

I would personally try to do at least 3 active sets a workout and making sure to add weight gradually as it gets easier as you move along.

Also make sure you're eating enough with good amount of protien.

Simply, as long as you workout consistently and eat enough, should start getting the gains.

Also think that since you are trying to gain weight, maybe you can cut the stair climber and/or treadmill if you are short on time?

FLAMING_EVIL_HOMER posted...

Also think that since you are trying to gain weight, maybe you can cut the stair climber and/or treadmill if you are short on time?

For sure, I'm not trying to go crazy on cardio. I am using the gym as way to just improve overall health so I figured some cardio would be good.

trying "not to go crazy" is bad mentality. compared to an athlete u are nothing it is literally impossible to overdo it if you are normal person

I think you're putting the cart before the horse if you skip cardio. Slower reps with a focus on full motion should help out. Don't focus too much on count.

Robot2600 posted...

trying "not to go crazy" is bad mentality. compared to an athlete u are nothing it is literally impossible to overdo it if you are normal person

Oh for sure, I was just replying to the person who mentioned cutting out cardio if I'm short on time. I'll try to get some cardio in every time just for health reasons. I'm already skinny though so I don't wanna burn so many calories that it makes me lose weight.

I, personally, work out primary and secondary in a session.

chest/tris
back/bis
shoulders/legs

abs every session.

doing full body workouts every session isnt hitting them hard enough

also, more reps, lower weight. If you want to really shred you need to rep out as much as you can.

Sansoldier posted...

I think you're putting the cart before the horse if you skip cardio. Slower reps with a focus on full motion should help out. Don't focus too much on count.

Yeah that's what my gf does. She just hits a machine for a while on lower weights and doesn't even count her reps/sets.

chrono625 posted...

I, personally, work out primary and secondary in a session.

chest/tris
back/bis
shoulders/legs

abs every session.

doing full body workouts every session isnt hitting them hard enough

Eventually I wanna get to this point that I can have more focused days. I've only been doing this for a week thus far and I'm trying to get all my body parts acclimated to working out before I push anything harder.

Robot2600 posted...

trying "not to go crazy" is bad mentality. compared to an athlete u are nothing it is literally impossible to overdo it if you are normal person

This too.
If you arent actively trying trying to work on your cardio i would cut it out. Doing the workout sets with good intensity and short rest times is good cardio lol..

I think for most people like you, TC, making sure you get enough calories is the tough thing. Lucky.
Long as you wrk out with high intensity and add weight to the workout when you can consistently should be good.

People like to over complicate things.

Theres a lot not great going on here.

Youre doing this every day?

Youre impeding your gains. You grow when your muscles rest. You don't want to do the same muscles every single day.

Youre both not doing enough sets and if you can do two sets of 12 with 10 seconds in between youre not moving enough weight to trigger your body to grow. Challenge yourself more.

Your cardio should probably be at the end if you insist on this routine and weight loss isn't your primary goal. You're at your strongest at the beginning of a routine and you're wasting that on a treadmill.

The exercise choices themselves actually aren't bad tbh. Pec fly is probably not something you need at this point though. I'd replace that with simple bicep curls because everyone loves bigger biceps.

I'd switch your lifts to more weight and 3 sets, but at a weight you struggle at to get to 10ish on the first set. Then take a minute or two in between sets. Also, only lift every other day. Do your cardio on the other days. You can find a better split later, but give your muscles proper stimulus and time to grow.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

For normal people workouts everything I read is between 1 and 2 minutes for best results. The 3 minute thing is typically for folks training for like power lifting. Although iirc 3 minutes wasnt really much worse, just not as time efficient and if you need 3 minutes you're probably going to failure.

@totalnerdken and @Jiek_Fafn

Thanks for the insight! I'll switch some things up like cardio at the end and pushing harder weight with longer breaks.

I'm actually about to head to the Gym now. Thanks everyone for the advice

Robot2600 posted...

more sets.

This, youre doing hardly a warm up for any core

get in there and start flipping shit over. I mean really knocking over treadmills, throwing weights, slamming benches. dragon kick those mirrors and fucking flip, flip, flip those barbells!

Heavy_D_Forever posted...

@totalnerdken and @Jiek_Fafn

Thanks for the insight! I'll switch some things up like cardio at the end and pushing harder weight with longer breaks.

I'm actually about to head to the Gym now. Thanks everyone for the advice

You'll also want to Google "progressive overload". It's more or less just adding more weight as you get stronger. You'll make lots of progress crazy fast in the beginning, so don't be afraid to add a few extra lbs every week or so to your lifts.

Also, in the future you'll want to look into a more traditional split. You can still get really great newbie gains with a few tweaks to what you're doing, but in a year or so you'll not be able to recover quite as quickly.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Actually, as I look into I'm seeing a ton of conflicting info. Honestly, the main point is that 10 seconds isn't anywhere close. TC should be taking a lot more than what he's currently doing.

Diet is just as important as the workouts when trying to bulk up. I would aim for 175 g protein at least for a bulk

Solid advice from the posters above.

It sounds like you are not wanting to go crazy with it TC, so just have fun with it while taking the general advice.

175g protien is good, but i would start of with just adding more lean meats to your diet and an extra protein shake or 2 a day with bunch of extra calories. I would think adding 1000 calories to your usual amount of eating would be a good start.

You seem to be in a position to be able to start from scratch body wise so dont burn out on trying to do everything perfectly.
Do your workout in splits. Make sure your sets of 10 or 12 are heavy enough as in you should be feeling like you only have 1 or 2 reps left in you after each set and add weight as it gets easier in tiime. Get adequate rest between sets and workout splits.
But diet diet diet. I've worked out with plenty of people with your body type who never get enough food in them to see meaningful gains.

Already some pretty good advice in here, making me realize I need to get back to that gym life because I've been out way too long. But anyway my general advice for people new to the gym is to take it easy and find something you like to do and do that for awhile. If you're new to exercise you don't need to worry about getting into the nitty gritty just be safe and have fun.

When you've done it for a little while and find that you like it and have started to see some gains then maybe start seeing what you can do to maximize them. Your body will be more primed for it and you'll know the gym and equipment a bit better and you'll have a better idea of where you're at strength wise.

Keep it up though dude, people say showing up is half the battle but really it's like 70% of the battle lol so you're doing great man