Yea, but you can do too much ya know. The more is not always the better. An important part of training is recovery.

Also, breaking your body up into specific body parts to train each day is a very inefficient way of training. We don't isolate our bodies in the real world. We shouldn't train that way in the gym either. Following your basic body part split takes the functionality out of your training.

Also, tons of volume and worrying about your arms and neck is stupid at this point. You are dieting. That means you're in an energy deficit. Adding any new muscle isn't going to happen, so why focus on such ineffective exercises. Rather, you should be focusing on compound exercises. Something like "the basic lifts" stickie would serve you well.

That's the entire premise of full body training. Train 3 days per week to give your muslces a break.

My suggestion to you is to erase all the stuff from your mind and break it down into why you do what you do in the gym.

What is all that volume and blasting each and every body part with isolation movements going to do for you?

That's not what creates muscle growth and/or maintenance.

What does?

Progressive overload of the compound lifts.

That means, get stronger in each of the basic lifts.

Most people don't need more than 3 full body sessions with a handful of compounds, low reps, and a focus on adding weight to the bar. This is what generates the majority of your gains until you reach a point where that doesn't work. Don't muddy the waters until you have to.

Again, if you are dieting, you aren't going to add any appreciable amounts of muscle.

Your legs are genetically big. That doesn't mean you shouldn't train them. Think of your body as a unit. Leaving out one particular section of the unit leads to inefficiencies across the board.

A couple of compound exercises for a handful of sets isn't going to cause you any hare, each week. You could simply do squats and deads and be done.

Hi there! This is great information and thank you for posting this! But then, the videos are all not working? Do you know why?

Yea, that was a fantastic website that went down unfortunately. You can see many of these exercises if you just type them into youtube.

Here are a few more sites that have vids:

Workout Routines & Exercises - New iPod Videos! (last i checked this site was temporarily down)
Web Page Under Construction
Video Index
Strength Training
Olympic Full Body
CrossFit Exercises
Overall Body
Exercise Directory
Exercise Demos
Strength Exercises, Weight Training exercises, types of exercise, weight training technique, types of weight training

Steve,

Been reading over this thread and the one about myths and I've seen the light in a few areas. But I do have a couple of questions...

First off, what do you think about so-called advanced workout techniques such as pyramiding, drop sets, or super sets? I know you wouldn't recommend these for beginners, but I've been lifting for a long time (admittedly though with a split routine of training a body part only once/week, and too much work on smaller muscle groups)

I've always done a pyramid with my sets, either 12-10-8-6 or 10-8-6-4 with progressively heavier weight, and occasionally would incorporate drop sets.

Second, I just wanted an opinion on my proposed schedule

Monday - Active rest
Tuesday - Upper body workout, HIIT
Wednesday - Lower body workout
Thursday - Steady-state cardio
Friday - Off
Saturday - Upper body workout, steady-state cardio
Sunday - Lower body workout, HIIT

I know it's kinda irregular, but it works with my schedule

In case you need it, I'm male, 5'11", started at 290lbs and now I'm 232lbs. My goal is to maintain muscle while losing the last 40 lbs to reach my goal.

Thanks!

Depends on goals and the individual.

But all training parameters have a place.... they just need to be used in context.

If you haven't trained using an optimal split such as full body or upper/lower splits yet, I'd put money on the fact that you're not ready to be doing things like drop sets.

Again, it's all dependent on your goals.

Give me context to work with.

I don't have a real problem with pyramid sets.

Define active rest.

If you're doing true HIIT, move it to your lower body workout day.

Upper/lower splits are my favorite, so there's nothing wrong here. But that's dependent on what you're doing each of these days.

Hahaha, obviously I'm replying as I read the thread. If I had read the entire thing first I would have known your goal.

I can tell you that you don't need to be doing any advanced techniques at this stage in the game. There's no reason to train as if you were putting on muscle when you're in a caloric deficit..... tends to cause more 'harm' than good.

Sorry, when I said active rest, I mean 30-60 mins of light cardio, elliptical, treadmill, bike, stairs, whatever strikes my fancy. But just to get the blood flowing and the joints warm.

Ok, I'm planning to keep the pyramid because I like doing it that way. As long as it's not counter-productive. I'll drop the drop sets. (See how I did that?)

As far as moving the HIIT, that's a scheduling issue. And with the upper/lower splits, I'm going to use the basic compound movements. I'll probably throw a little work on the smaller muscles but probably only like 20% of my workout.

That sounds good to me.

As a general rule of thumb, it's best to consolidate high intensity bouts together to allow more time for recovery, which is why I suggested doing HIIT on your leg day.

Steve, Exrx is not a ".com". It is a ".net".

Exrx.net

fixedededed

Thanks for that catch!

I didn't even check the links.

Did my first lower body workout comprised of squats, lunges, calf raises, and deadlifts yesterday. Felt like I was going to hurl at the end but that works for me!

I am new here and I am sorry if this has been asked before but I have a couple of questions. My stats if need be are- male, 6'4" 235. I started at 260 and have a goal of 200. I then want to work back up to 210 or so by building muscle mass- I am 100% aware that I wil not gain muscle mass while losing weight. My caloric intake is 2600-2900.
Is there any alternative to the squat or the deadlift? I get nervous putting the additional stress on the knees. I really do think it is all in my mind though and could try both with low weight to start.
Also, if the total body workout is the way to go why do so many people do the once a week per muscle group thing? I only ask because I have seen on here multiple times that those people do not know 100% what they are doing yet the strongest & most in shape people at the gym I go to work out like that. This cannot be a new thing- that is why I am asking.
Sorry for asking a question I am sure has been asked before.
Thank you

Don't confuse genetics and/or steroids with knowledge. Some people are gifted or medicated, and they can attain what you are seeing with less than optimal workouts. Only working a muscle once a week leaves a lot of time for the muscle to detrain.

I do hear what you are saying as I have often wondered about several of there...ahem, chemical make-ups. However, as almost everyone here does I am sure, I look at what people who clearly know what they are doing for advise or proper form or whatever. When I say clearly know what they are doing- they are outwardly in great physical shape.
Not implying that you do not know what you are doing of course.

It can happen.

If you don't want to try them out.... you could start with the leg press and romanian deadlifts.

Most of the people who are considered 'in shape' by today's standards are pulling their information from shitty sources which promote such routines. Magazines to name the most common.

As James eluded to as well.... the once per week body part splits didn't come about until the advent of dianabol.