My Current Split / Help with Next

March 5th 2015 5'11" 212 lbs 25 % BFP

May 26th 2015 5'11" 183 lbs 18 % BFP



Day 1 Early AM Cardio (30 min 15% incline walk at 4 mph) Evening Chest followed by HIIT 20 on 40 off elliptical

Day 2 Back followed by ab work (Body weight only)

Day 3 Early AM Cardio 5 k run Evening Legs followed by low intensity elliptical

Day 4 Early AM Cardio (30 min 15% incline walk at 4 mph) Evening Shoulders followed by HIIT 20 on 40 off elliptical

Day 5 Evening arms followed by weighted Ab work

Day 6 Rest

Day 7 Repeat day one with routine variation.


I completely let myself go over the last year, and trying to get back as quickly as possible. Seeing fantastic progress so motivation is high and body is holding up. I don't think I can maintain this intensity through a plateau and would like some of the old pros to give me a variation.

My goal is to hit 12% BFP without losing much mass.

“I will not be outworked. Period,” Smith says . “You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things. You got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there’s two things: You’re getting off first, or I’m gonna die. It’s really that simple.” Will Smith

Why make changes to something that is currently working? You've already made progress.

Krueg said:

Why make changes to something that is currently working? You've already made progress.

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I am talking about down the line... Like, once summer is finished and I switch to a bulking routine before starting again. There are some good journals on here that I've been looking through.

Right now, I plan to switch to a 4 day on, one off split that combines chest and tris, back and bis. Have plenty of time, so I will keep reading what is successful for you all.

Instinct1978 said:

I am talking about down the line... Like, once summer is finished and I switch to a bulking routine before starting again. There are some good journals on here that I've been looking through.

Right now, I plan to switch to a 4 day on, one off split that combines chest and tris, back and bis. Have plenty of time, so I will keep reading what is successful for you all.

Click to expand...

I'd reconsider your plan of action. There really is no such thing as "bulking and cutting", unless you are taking copious amounts of anabolic steroids.

For a normal person, "bulking" means you are going to add a lot of excess fat weight, and "cutting" means you are going to lose a lot of muscle weight that you added when you "bulked". The end result will be that you are the same lean body mass as you started at, if not lower.

Without anabolic compounds, the maximum muscle weight you could add under absolutely perfect conditions is about 2 lbs per month(.5 lbs per week). This means you are eating the exact right amount of calories in the perfect macros, sleeping the ideal amount of time to recooperate, and creating the right kind of stimulation in the gym from your workouts to give optimal muscle growth. Also, the closer to your natural genetic potential you get, the less muscle you will be adding in any given timeframe, no matter what type of stimulus you add or how perfect you sleep or eat. So realistically, most people are looking at between 1-1.25 lbs per month.

There are a lot of theories out there regarding training, but I personally believe the further away you are from your genetic potential, the more you should focus on increasing the weight being used and/or lessen the time in which you do it, aka increasing the volume.

What happens when you train volume is that at first you likely will have to drop the weight you are used to using because you are lifting more weight in a shorter period of time. For instance, let's say you are training Bench Press and do 185 lbs for 3 sets of 10 reps and rest 2 minutes between sets. Let's say you complete the 3 sets in 10 minutes total time. You've lifted 5,550 lbs in 10 minutes, or 555 lbs per minute.

Now, let's say you drop the weight to 165 lbs and do the same 3 sets of 10 reps but now only rest 1 minute between sets instead of 2 minutes. Let's say this takes you 6 minutes of total time. You've lifted less overall weight---only 4,950 lbs total, but you've also done in it in 4 minutes less time. This results in 825 lbs per minute being lifted, a significantly greater workload for your body than the 555 lbs/minute you were doing, even though each rep was more weight.

Most people will react exceptionally well to training volume because so few people do it. Your goal is to either increase the weight and/or decrease the time each week on all your exercises. Within 2-3 weeks you will be able to do the same amount of weight as you could do with 2 minute rest periods in a much shorter time...likely about 45 seconds between sets. So at this point you will have lifted the same 5,550 lbs but in about 4 minutes instead of 10, resulting in a workload of 1387.5 lbs/minute or an increase of 832.5 lbs/minute.

If you don't think your body is going to respond to that like crazy...well, YOU are crazy, lol

I'd train volume for 6-8 weeks then go back to heavier weights with lower reps in the 4-6 range, 3-5 sets...you will have made significant progress from training volume to allow you to see a significant increase in weight you are able to use which in turn will drive your body to grow even more...

Good luck, happy growing

Good stuff, Marmel. Definitely appreciate your feedback! I will update once I put that knowledge into a routine.

Thanks!

What if you don't want this part to grow but remain firm, and you want this other body part to experience growth?

DaddyLongShanks said:

What if you don't want this part to grow but remain firm, and you want this other body part to experience growth?

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Train the lagging bodypart more often and train the other bodypart once a week or once every 10 days...

For instance, if your biceps are lagging, maybe train them 3 times a week by throwing them into other routines here and there...if legs are good then back off training them more than once a week or can even go to every 10 days...its pretty easy to maintain muscle mass once developed and takes much less stimulus than you would think...