Luca Brasi's lean mass routine

[Luca Brasi]

Hello, I'm new here but I enjoy reading about other people's routines. Here is mine...its based off AST's MAX-OT philosophy, for those that know what i'm talking about. I'm all about gaining some serious weight but retaining form and definition. Diet is low 66% protein, 24% carbs, 10% fat
Any pos/neg criticism is always helpful to me!

mondays (biceps & triceps):
standing straight bar - 3 sets x 6 reps
standing dumbell cursl - 2x6
cable curl bar curls - 1x6
skullcrushers - 3x6
dumbell overhead tricep extension - 2x6
v bar pull down - 2x6

tues(legs):
Squats -4 sets x 6 reps
lunges - 2x6
dead lifts - 2x6
seated calf - 2x6
45 degree calf - 2x6

wed (back & forearms):
pull down (front of chest) - 3x6
standing leaned over curlbar rows- 2x6
rogers row - 1x6
lower back extensions - 3x6
benched curl-bar wrist curls - 2x6
standing dumbell wrist curls - 2x6

thurs (chest ):
bench - 3x6
incline - 2x6
decline - 2x6
dips - 2 x12

fri (shoulders & abs):
barbell military (front of chest) - 3x6
dumbell military - 1x6
standing lateral side rasies - 2x6
shrugs - 3x6
floor leg lifts - 2x20
weighted elevated leg lifts - 2x6
weighted ab crunches (cable) - 3x6

Diet:
7:00 AM 1 packet MESO-TECH in water, 5 g creatine
9:00 AM 8 oz T-bone, 2 eggs, hash browns, 12 oz black coffee
12:00 PM 1 packet MESO-TECH in water
1:00-4:00 PM misc. snacking on mixed nuts & seeds
6:00 PM (post workout) 1/2 of blender shake of 2 scoops Whey protein, 10 g
glutamine 2 teaspoon peanut butter, banana, 16 oz skim milk, 5 ice
cubes
6:00-7:00 PM (during workout) 5 g creatine, 5 g sugar mixed w/ 12 oz water in
sport bottle
8:00 PM (post workout) other half of blender shake, big dinner consisting of
pasta, meat, salad, bread
10:00 PM decent sized chunk of cheddar cheese, kava-kava sleep aid.

I'm 22 and I've been lifting for about 2 years, but only doing this routine since about july. I've gone up from 145 lbs to 175 lbs in two years, but i don't look ultra-swoll or flabby.

I'll post next with some weights & measurements!

[Luca Brasi]

anybody? someone must have some criticism, or else i've just discovered the perfect routine and i'm going to be rich!

[stencil]

The only thing I noticed is the dips on the chest day three days after triceps day. Personally, I'd have a hard time doing those. I consider dips more of a tricep exercise unless you're *really* leaning forward. Besides, you're doing plenty of press sets without them.

[TommyD]

Originally Posted by Luca Brasi

anybody? someone must have some criticism, or else i've just discovered the perfect routine and i'm going to be rich!

I'm not in this section of the forum very often otherwise I would have posted on this right away... not that anything's really wrong or anything, I just like to help people out with their routines. Now farbeit from me to criticize AST's MAX-OT program (I can't do it b/c I don't have all the equipment.. i.e. any cable machines), but I'll make a few suggestions nonetheless.

First off in your diet I noticed you take 10 g of creatine a day. Are you in the loading stage? At your weight you only need to take 5 g a creatine a day to mantain proper saturation.

Any reason for doing biceps and triceps together? or back and biceps? I find that when I do triceps on a seperate day than chest, I overtrain my triceps since they're used in a lot of chest exercises. The same goes for biceps being used a lot in back exercises. For biceps I'd encourage hammer curls cuz they really rip up the ol' biceps!

For your leg day, I usually do deadlifts on back day b/c it works my lower back but your glutes and upper legs get a great workout from them so I'd keep that there. I've found that by doing leg extensions (for quads) and curls (for hamstrings) not only has my muscle mass in my legs increased but so has my strength. I was stuck on the same squat weight for 4 weeks until I started doing those two exercises and went up a good 30 pounds in squats within 2 weeks. Straight-Leg Deadlifts are a good exercise for your hamstrings. Just a thought.

For your back you could throw some power-cleans in, great back workout (among other muscles). Pull-ups are a great back workout too. For your forearms, reverse barbell curls are a great exercise. Some grip training could be beneficial, something like plate-pinching.

For your chest you might just want to alternate decline bench and dips since they work the same part of the chest. Adding weight to dips is great, gives a lot of upper body strength. Some people like doing to chest flyes, you might want to do them for a few weeks and see if you get some results from them. Some people swear by them, some hate them... everyone reacts differently though.

For shoulders, you want to hit every head of the deltoid. Military press will hit the anterior deltoid, I'm guessing you do one set of DB military press to work the stabilizer muscles, not a bad idea. For the medial deltoid, side laterals are good, but upright rows are even better. Give em a shot and see what you think. For the posterior deltoid, DB rows (with elbows out) is a good exercise. You can usually do more than you think you can for this exercise, so use some high weight but make sure you're getting the DB up high enough. Shoulder shrugs are about all you can do for the traps so that works... ab workout looks great.

[wanabe200]

i would say eat more real food i think your gains will come easier good luck

[Luca Brasi]

Tom, aren't upright rows a back exercise? I do them on back day.

I agree with you that the bi/tri thing is weird. That is what the Max-OT plan says to do, so I thought i'd give it a shot. I'm probably going to go back to back/bi and chest/tri.

I would love more than anything to eat more real food. Unfortunately, with a full-time job and 12 hours a week of school, its very hard to eat real food unless its fast food, and i try to stay away from that. With the holidays coming up I'm sure my eating habits will be getting better.

The reason i take 10g creatine is beacuse it is my understanding that not all the creatine that you take is properly absorbed into your system...is this correct? I think that by taking 10g I can hopefully get 6-7g absorbed.

Tom do you prefer isolated exercises or compound? The reason i ask is because you are recommending alot of isolated exercises like leg extensions, hamstrings, and chest flys.

Thanks alot for the advice!

[TommyD]

Originally Posted by Luca Brasi

Tom, aren't upright rows a back exercise? I do them on back day.

Actually they target the Lateral Deltoid:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/DeltoidLateral/BBUprightRow.html

The reason i take 10g creatine is beacuse it is my understanding that not all the creatine that you take is properly absorbed into your system...is this correct? I think that by taking 10g I can hopefully get 6-7g absorbed.

I'm not sure about that one, my creatine only costs 15 cents a serving so if yours is anything like mine, there's really no harm in taking an extra serving. If it works, great; if it doesn't, you're down 15 cents a day... big loss!

Tom do you prefer isolated exercises or compound? The reason i ask is because you are recommending alot of isolated exercises like leg extensions, hamstrings, and chest flys.

I'd have to say I'm more of a compound exercise sort of guy... I get more out of them...

I do leg extensions and leg curls mainly to warm-up my legs for my leg day. Sure I use a good amount of weight on them, but I focus on more compound exercises like squats, leg presses, and straight-leg deadlifts. Plus I try to give my quads a good workout as they are my weakest point of my body.

As far as chest flyes go, some people have good luck with them, some don't; I'm still trying to figure out if they're beneficial to me (sort of a trial and error deal). I'm pretty lean and flyes are more of a "sculpting" exercise so I figured I'd see if I could get a nicer looking chest with them. As of now they mainly just stretch my chest out

Even though I didn't put it in my first post, I also do tricep pushdowns occasionally. I do them if I have a difficult chest day and my chest is fatigued, I throw the pushdowns in there in place of close-grip bench.

Hope that clarified a few things!

[Luca Brasi]

Today's Results: Monday 11/24/03

7:00 AM protein/milk/PB shake
9:00 AM 8 oz T-bone, browns, 2 eggs, texas toast ($2.99 at Ronnie's, yeah!), 8 oz. black coffee ($1.40 at Intelligensia, no!)
12:00 PM 1 MESO-TECH in water, nuts & seeds
5:30 PM big bowl of some funky chicken-sausage-rice-veggie-tomato-soup thing my mom made
7:30 PM workout

Flat Bench: 165x8
175x6
175x6

Incline Dumbell: 65x6
65x6

Decline Dumbell: 65x5
65x5
70x4

Upright sitting fly: 125x6

8:30 PM protein shake
Uncle Bens rice & chicken bowl
5 g creatine
5 g glutamine

weight: 172 lbs. (should have ate more today!)

Oh and Tom thanks for the advice.

[tremere]

Hey Luca, I just want to say that you have great enthusiasm! Kudos! The only suggestion I have (some may not give that any weight, coming from a person with just one post here) is for you to (a) focus on eating healthily and (b) keep a close eye on how much you are intaking in the way of supplements. Supplements, I think, are processed by the liver at some stage and then obviously filtered by the kidneys. The last thing you want to is to have liver or kidney damage. The first person I think of, when talking about this, is Alonzo Mourning. He very likely over-did it with supplements and/or performance enhancers.

[Luca Brasi]

Hey tremere, its cool, i only have 36 posts so i'm not too far ahead of you. I just picked up USA Today this morning and was shocked at what I read! (no, i'm not talking about the Michael Jackson story ). I'm not a big fan of basketball but I definetly know who Alonzo Mourning is. That is definetly bad news.

I do try to stay away from the supps, i've taken andro twice before...and never again! That stuff is too ****ed up!

Basically I think that if you stay educated enough on a product, you should be able to know what your getting into. I know that creatine can damage your kidneys if you don't get enough water, so I'm careful. And I only stay on creatine for about 6 weeks on and 6 weeks off (compared to 8 on 4 off that many people do).

As far as the protein and MESO shakes go...its just that I'm so busy right now in life that its hard for me to sit down and have a decent meal. I never have time to cook, and I practically live out of my car. Once I get settled down with my own place, career, wife, etc. things will probably slow down. But as of right now I have to get those calories by any means possible!

RESULTS Tuesday 11/25/03

7:00 am 1/2 bag of MESOTECH in water
9:00 egg/sausage/cheese bagel sandwich, cup of coffee
3:00 personal 6" pepperoni pizza
5:00 jr. chicken burrito from Burritoville (8 oz?), can of coca-cola

7:30 workout:
straight bar curl
80x6, 80x5, 80x5
dumbell curl
40x8, 45x4
preacher EZ curl bar
65x5
skull-crushers
75x6, 75x6
seated overhead dumbell (2-hands)
75x7, 75x6
tricep press down v-bar
180x6, 180x6

9:30 big plate of cheese ravioli in red sauce, 2 meatballs, half loaf garlic bread
5 g creatine
5 g glutamine
10:30 protein/skim milk/PB shake

PERSONAL CRITIQUE: good workout
went up 5 lbs in straight bar curls
improved form on skull-crushers
too many carbs today (doesn't help that Mom is Italian and cooks like it!)

[Luca Brasi]

Okay its been a while since I posted so i have a bit catching up to do!

Friday 11/28/03 LEGS

Standing Calf
215x10
275x8
Hack Calf
360x8
360x8
Squats
175x6
195x5
195x5
195x5
45 deg Press
320x2 (got a little too confident!)
270x5
Stiff Leg Dead Lift
135x6
155x6
155x6


Mon 12/1/03 Chest & Triceps

Incline Dumbell
65x6
70x6
70x6
Flat Bench Dumbell
75x5
75x5
Decline Barbell
160x6
165x4

Tricep Cable Press Down
180x6
180x6
190x6
Skullcrushers
75x6
75x5
1-hand overhead dumbell extension
30x6
30x6


Tue 12/2/03 Back & Biceps

Wide-grip pulldown
140x6
130x6
130x6
Close-grip pulldown
160x6
160x6
Cable Row
130x8
140x6
Dumbell Row
40x8
Straight bar curl
80x3
75x5
Dumbell curl
35x6
40x6
Reverse Curl Barl Curl
55x8
65x3

[Luca Brasi]

Wed 12/3/03 Shoulders/Abs

Standing dumbell press 40x6, 45x6, 45x6
Barbell military press 120x5, 120x4
dumbell side lats 30x8, 30x6
barbell shrugs (smith) 265x6, 275x6
dumbell shrugs 100x6, 100x5

cable crunches 170x8, 170x10, 170x10
weighted leg lifts 20x12, 30x8

Diet:
9:30 am banana, 8 oz yogurt w/ granola & strawberries, 20 oz black coffee
12:00 pm ceasar salad, ham & spinach artopita
4:00 pm italian sausage & vegetables
9:00 pm workout
11:00 pm protein shake, 2 pb& j sandwiches