New Guy With Many Questions

[djplastik]

Hi everyone.

I have a few questions regarding weight training. I recently found this site and was amazed at the huge amount of info regarding different workout exercises. I began a few days ago, using many of the exercises I found on here. I have never been more sore in life. Everything hurts. I decided to split workouts into different body parts for each day.

Monday- Legs and Glutes
Tuesday- Triceps and Lats
Wednesday- Day Off/ Abdominal workout
Thursday- Chest
Friday- Biceps
Saturday- Shoulders and Back

Is this a good schedule? How many exercises for each muscle group should I do? How long should each day's workout be? Will I still see results only working out one or two muscle groups one time a week? 7 days seems like a long time to rest one muscle group. Is it not?

Also...I realize that cardio is important in losing weight and defining muscle. However I suffer from SVT (supra ventricular tachycardia) which means that sometimes heart will race over 200bpm and gets caught in a loop. If it continues too long i have to head to the ER to be averted chemically or sometimes electrically. Not fun! So anyhow, I was wondering if you have any advice on what I can do for cardio to maximize progress yet keep me from ending up in the hospital? I love to hit the boxing bag but that can be very risky. Sometimes I end up in SVT by simply yawning, so I am quite frustrated.

Anyhow, if anyone can give me some advice I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance. This is a great site btw.

[Baseballkid14]

I cant give you any advice on the cardio and fast heart rate but I would change your schedule to:

Monday: Legs/Glutes
Teusday: Triceps/Chest
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Abs/Shoulders
Friday: Biceps/Back

The order of these doesn't really matter but you should combine Triceps and chest, as most of the workouts that work one, work the other as well such as push ups, bench presses, and dips. Chin ups work biceps and back. If you want, move everything around and work the in any one of those twice. E.G.

Move Thursday to wednesday, friday to thursday, and put Triceps/Chest in both teusday and friday.

[djplastik]

Thanks for the reply Baseballkid14. I will move the schedule around as you stated. So how many exercises should I perform for each muscle group? IS there a specific amount of time one should spend each day working out each body part? There are so many different variations when it comes to exercising any given body part. Should I do them all or limit myself to a certain number? Thanks again.

[RK19]

you dont need anymore than 2 exercises per muscle group.

you should keep workouts to an hour max, or less (you will end up going backwards if you go any longer)

for exercises go for compound lifts:

legs=deadlifts,squats,lunges,reverse lunges

back=barbell rows,db rows,pullups-dont skip these

chest=bench press,flat, incline, decline

shoulders= clean and press,military press, bb or db.

arms=chinups,weighted diamond pushups (if you want to do curls then do reverse grip curls as theyre better than conventional ones.)

these exercises are listed in order of importance, which means dont start with bicep curls and end on legs!

these are the kind of exercises you should be concentrating on,check youtube if your unfamilliar with any of the above.

[djplastik]

you dont need anymore than 2 exercises per muscle group.

you should keep workouts to an hour max, or less (you will end up going backwards if you go any longer)

for exercises go for compound lifts:

legs=deadlifts,squats,lunges,reverse lunges

back=barbell rows,db rows,pullups-dont skip these

chest=bench press,flat, incline, decline

shoulders= clean and press,military press, bb or db.

arms=chinups,weighted diamond pushups (if you want to do curls then do reverse grip curls as theyre better than conventional ones.)

these exercises are listed in order of importance, which means dont start with bicep curls and end on legs!

these are the kind of exercises you should be concentrating on,check youtube if your unfamilliar with any of the above.

Thank you very much. So u mean that on each day I should do 3 sets of whatever per 2 -3 different exercises? For example:

Chest- 3 sets of 12-15 reps (bench press)
- 3 sets of 12-15 reps (dumbell flyes)

and that is good for one day for the chest? And then move to 2-3 tricep exercises?

Or do u mean to do a full body work out each day that consists of 3 sets of each of the exercises you mentioned? Im sorry I just really want to understand if what I am doing is going to get me results. I used to do a quick half hour work out each day that included a small amount of time on each muscle group. But that didnt seem to be doing me much good. Now that Im doing about 45 mins each day on one or 2 individual body parts, I feel like I may be doing a bit much, just based on how sore I am the next day or so after.

Also, how long should I work on abs and how many times per week should I do an ab workout? Thanks again in advance.

[djplastik]

I guess I mainly want to know if doing a full body work out is better than splitting muscle groups over the week? What are some examples of routines you guys do? Ill figure out the cardio on own as only I know what limitations are. Ive also read that weight training in itself is a great way to get your heart rate going. And the more muscle you have, the more fat your body burns.

Another question I have is this. I like to hit the boxing bag for cardio workout usually. Because I can somewhat control the rate of the routine. Not like running or jogging where the heart is constantly at a high bpm. I usually do 3 minute "rounds" with one minute rests. As a warm up I do a few rounds. As a cardio workout I do many more. No more than 10 though. I was told that you should never box after lifting weights. Doing so could tear muscles. Has anyone heard that before?

[RK19]

for rep/set range do something like 6x4 or 8x3 rather than 3x15. the reason being,you can lift heavier weight with lower reps.

i would recomend fullbody workouts as you work all major muscle groups 3x a week. if you go down this road,you only need 1 exercise per muscle group per workout. the workout should be short but intense,it shouldnt take you any longer than an hour.

i personally dont work abs as i think its a wasted effort( abs show through anyway) lifting heavy works your abs better than any number of crunches or situps you could manage.

try not obsess about mirror muscles(abs,bis,tris) as youll be doomed to failure.concentrate more on legs, back,and chest,never sacrifice any of these for the mirror muscles.

[swanso5]

just search the waterbury method will be easier

boxing after wts is fine but i'd do it all on off days

[djplastik]

Thanks guys. So if I do full body work outs...should I do one exercise per each area of each muscle group? IE For chest I would do 3 sets of whatever per each incline, decline and flat bench? Is it important to work each section of each muscle group every day. Like should I do front shoulder, mid shoulder and rear shoulder exercises. Obviously I know they all need to be worked on, but how do you keep a workout short if youre doing 3 sets on each individual part of the body?

I will check out the Waterbury method. Thanks for that.

[Mystik]

I box after weight lifting quite frequently. It won't hurt you, but you may notice your technique isn't as sharp because your body has already been worked.

[djplastik]

I box after weight lifting quite frequently. It won't hurt you, but you may notice your technique isn't as sharp because your body has already been worked.

Thanks. Yeah Ill give it a try. I imagine the arms will feel a bit like jell-o.

[djplastik]

So I decided to do a full body workout today. I chose between 2 and 4 different exercises per muscle group. For example:

Chest= bench press, dumbell flyes, dumbell hammer presses, and isometric presses.

Legs= dumbell lunges, dumbell squats, leg extensions and leg curls also threw in two different calf raises.

Shoulders= military presses, behind head delt presses, plate raises, and a couple shrug exercises for the Traps.

For the Biceps I only did a couple different curls.

I managed to work out every part of body but I only made it through 2 sets on each exercise and it still took over an hour. I didnt rest at all the entire time either.

So what can I do to compress routine?

I know I definitely need more weight, which would in turn lower the amount of reps I need to do. Is that the only problem or am I doing too many exercises on each body part?

I do enjoy the full body routine better than splitting over the week. That is for sure. But I really need to do it right. Please help. Thanks.

[RK19]

you only need one exercise per body part for fully body workouts.

for instance for chest just do flat bench and your done chest for that workout,no need to do flat,incline and decline in the one sitting.

also drop the number of reps to 3 or 4 and up the sets to between 6-8 youll be able to lift heavier that way.

[swanso5]

even better train movements (which the body recognises) not muscles

each session do 1 variatioon of the folleoing:

1 - deadlift or squat
2 - row
3 - chin/pull up
4 - benc press
5 - shoulder press
6 - single leg exercise
7 - core stabilsiation

eotate reps through the week so maybe try:

day 1 - 4 x 6

day 2 - 3 x 15

day 3 - 4 x 10

the rep range for that day will dictate which exercises you'll do i.e. you won't do chin ups on 3 x 15 day obviously

[djplastik]

Thank you guys. It is starting to make much more sense now. Truly appreciated.

So each day I can then do a different exercise per body part if I want?

Day One - Bench Press
Day Two - Dumbell Flyes
Day Three - Hammer Presses
Day Four - Incline or Decline Bench Presses

Something like that?

Also...I would want to have one exercise for the hamstrings, quads and calves right? Not just one leg exercise. Is that right?

I am working on new routine now. Thanks again.