Routine critique and a few Q's

[pseudonym]

G'day all ... been a while since I posted here ... glad my account still works

to make the proverbial 'long story short' I'm on a study exchange here in Seoul for the duration of this year and I've managed to find myself a very nice little gym nearby (for free no less ) and so, given I have nothing much else do to I've started lifting heavy things again (well heavy for a skinnyman like myself ).

My routine looks like this, I've been on it for about 3 weeks solid now and have put on c.600g... I am quite satisfied with this. All ex's are 3 sets of 6-10 (I try and keep it heavy enough that I am failing at the 7 or 8 mark). Abs are every day in case it is important.

Mon
chest:
(pushups)
flat bench
pec deck
incline bench

back:
(chinups)
bent over row
lat pulldown
dumbell row

Tues
arms:
standing barbell curl
seated dumbell curl
tricep dips
skullcrushers
tricep pulldown

shoulders:
upright row
shoulder press
dunbell lateral raise

Wed
Legs
squat
leg press
calf raise
stiff leg dead lift

Thurs
repeat mon

Fri
repeat tues

Any critiques are greatly appreciated, my main trouble spots are:
my back, I am just too chicken to go super heavy
my shoulders, my delts are never sore the day after, no matter how hard I pound them (and they always fail super fast)

I really only have 2 big questions,
first: is one day per week on legs enough ? (the gym is closed on weekends so a saturday leg workout, which seems logical to me is not an option). Bearing in mind I train taekwondo every day I feel that it's ok.

second: are upright rows considered a back or shoulder exercise by the learned folk here ?? I find I am often a bit sore in my upper back after a good session of rows (which sometimes hinders my bent over rows)

thanks in advance guys.

Colin

[threenorns]

looks good to me - instead of a "mon, tues", wed" thing, why not a "day 1, day 2, day 3" rotation? that way, you'll be working all body parts evenly.

upright rows are mainly shoulders - likely your back is sore because of the shoulder problem you mentioned.

as for your shoulders, sounds like overtraining, possibly - they get worked on chest and back day, too. put the weight up and drop the reps to 6 with long rests (2 min) between sets, see if that helps. i had horrible shoulders until i tried that system (MaxOT) and now shoulders is one of my favourite workouts.

[midgetcop]

The way that you're hitting your legs, once a week should be enough. You might even be able to cut out those calf raises, as they'll be getting worked through those squats.

As for shoulders - I never feel sore afterwards either. Are you making any gains?

And I'm with threenorns - why repeat Monday & Tuesday's workout in the same week? But hey, if it's working for you so far.... *shrug*

[raheel]

i had similar problems, doing should press kills me, but soon it vanishes. im an ectomorph too.
btw, someone told me that inorder for my muscles to grow., then i need to workout only 3days a week. is this true? or im slowing down?

[threenorns]

three days a week IF you are exercising at sufficient intensity to need that kind of recovery time. we're talking majorly low reps - 4 to 6 or even lower (this means, of course, that the weight being used only allows that number of reps so would be alot higher than one used for 10 or 12).

[pseudonym]

cheers for the replies guys

I absically structure my workouts mon/tues etc... as opposed to day 1, 2 etc. because the gym only opens on weekdays and essentially I'm trying to fit two 3 day splits into the 5 days I have to workout (I basically omit saturdays leg workout and hope once on wednesday is enough ). I do this mainly because I find it takes my about 3 days for my DOMS to disappear and my thinking is once the muscle is not sore any more it is time to hurt it again (bad idea??)

midgetcop: yeah I am seeing gains, mainly only in my traps (the little knobbles we skinny folk have at the end of each shoulder are slowly disappering) my delts are not noticeably different but my lateral raise weight is rising every session, lot of the guys I talk to say the delts are hard to really smash.

And as for my calves, I hit them after the leg presses and squats and was still lifting 110kg's (almost twice my bodyweight) for 15 reps no troubles (ergo I figured they must still have some work left in 'em ... flawed thinking ??)

threenorns: will try that idea mate, I admit I generlly use higher reps on the shoulders, just cause I am a little dodgy on the idea of having a big(ish ) weight fail whalst I am holding it above my head .. yeah I'm yella I know

thanks again guys, I'll make some tweaks as per the ideas here and let ya know how it goes.

Colin

[midgetcop]

My traps are really exploding in strength right now too! Those heavy upright rows will really work 'em. As for your delts, the only thing I can recommend is to do the shoulder press first in your shoulder workout (you have upright rows listed first), so that you can put your intial energy into that lift. Actually, looking back at your routine, I would put your shoulder-work before your arm work, so that you can work your larger muscle groups before the smaller ones. You've got a lot of arm work on that day, so I'm thinking that maybe you're getting tired before attacking those shoulders.

[pseudonym]

Originally Posted by midgetcop

As for your delts, the only thing I can recommend is to do the shoulder press first in your shoulder workout (you have upright rows listed first), so that you can put your intial energy into that lift. Actually, looking back at your routine, I would put your shoulder-work before your arm work, so that you can work your larger muscle groups before the smaller ones. You've got a lot of arm work on that day, so I'm thinking that maybe you're getting tired before attacking those shoulders.

hhhmmm nice thought, my routine is pretty much as listed (order and all) will switch it up and see what happens.

cheers again guys

had a killer chest session today for anyone that cares :

Colin