A few questions about splitting. (And hello from a new member.)

[Silencer]

Hello everyone. I am very glad I finally found an objective and reliable source of information about weight training. 'Net is filled with ad garbage, steroid promotional "teary" eye stories about gaining 1400 pounds of lean weight in 20 minutes etc.. Basically glad to be here!

Personally I consider myself a workout newbie = 25 yo, started going to the gym a year ago. I totally understand that there are no overnight results, and it is a long process which requires focus and determination. (not to mention crazy diet)

First off I wanted to say that these forums are great, filled with real people who actually are willing to share their mistakes and successes: it is totally awesome. Thus I will not go and insult all of you by asking same questions that you all have already answered a few hundred times. I went and read almost all the posts/threads that interest me, so that hopefully I will not waste your time with repeating the same answers you have given already.

For a little over a year I have been doing my great "whole body" newbie routine:
all muscle groups, about 2-3 sets x 6-8 reps, usually based on how I "feel" at the time, and whether I am capable of forcing myself more. I am doing about 3 diff exercises on each group, trying to do more weight and less reps (because admittedly I heard its better for muscle gaining)

I am about 5'9 and when I started working out I was about 130 pounds. I am pretty thin, and I guess what they call "fast metabolism"/"hard gainer". Right now I am 155 pounds and I am very happy with the results. no, I am not going to scream "how do I gain more weight!!! aaaa!".

Now I have decided to split. And no, again I am not going to bug people for their routines: seems to me everyone can only agree on a few things in split routines: dont overtrain one muscle group, prefferably dont work same muscle group more than once per week or give plenty of time to recover, and most importantly; everyone has a different routine, so just experiment and find your thing.

My question is more on what exercises should I concentrate on once I split? There seems to be much variety, and I heard some exercises are not good for muscle gain while others are. Seems people do all kinds of stuff, and I just wanted to know if there are special things that should be done once you split, to let your body accomodate the change more smoothly.

Feel free to point me to the posts that contain this info, I might have missed it. Also feel free to throw at me that training mumbo jumbo talk such as (wg trp cg and stuff that you guys are saying all the time) I am using this site
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html for reference, so I am pretty confident I can look it up

Thanks again!

P.S. Oh yes, as you can guess I am trying to gain weight more than everything else.
P.P.S. Should I be worried about my "glyco" levels and such? My diet consists of "eat alot so you gain weight, and worry later". I try to eat alout of lean chicken, tuna, vegetables.. proteins and carbs I guess. Well that is a topic for Diet forum, so I will post my questions there

[CrazyR]

ok...

what exercises should I concentrate on once I split?

you want to concentrate on your compound exercises - those that target the largest muscle masses on the body eg. chest presses for chest, squats for your quads/legs

...because these will get you the biggest gains... by all means do 'isolation' exercises as well but ensure you do your 'core' muscles first

are [there] special things that should be done once you split

like you said... work yourself into it gradually... a split workout generally means you are working muscle groups harder... so dont jump into it trying to do 20 sets with low reps and heavy weights

the easiest way i've found to do it is to...

1. take your current workout and split it into muscle groups over say 3 days eg.chest/shoulders, back, legs

2. add some more exercises to each of those days to fill them out (of the same muscle group) - don't add too many

3. do your compound exercises first and don't push yourself too hard until you get adapted


hope this helps

[Tear]

Originally Posted by Silencer

'Net is filled with ad garbage, steroid promotional "teary" eye stories about gaining 1400 pounds of lean weight in 20 minutes etc..

geez Where can I find out more??

and btw, hi.

[Silencer]

Right, currently I am planning for the following routine

Monday:
Chest/Triceps

Tuesday
Legs/Abs

Wednesday
OFF

Thursday
Back/Biceps

Friday
OFF

Saturday
Shoulders/Forearms??

Sunday
OFF


Something basic to start off with anyhow. I read here somewhere that compound exercises are best for growth, so I am going to with that, before I really concentrate on isolating.

My personal reasoning for coupling chest/triceps and back/biceps is because I think working out a muscle group once per week intensly makes sense. Since triceps are indirectly involved while doing chest (just as biceps are related to the back) separating the two will ultimately put on too much strain on biceps/triceps. While I am new to the business, I dont want to overwork something already.

Thanks for the input!

P.S. hihi!