Critique My Home Workout Please!

[Arnold]

Man, don't tell him to do weighted squats unless he really knows what he's doing.  Most people don't even come close to proper squat form and are just begging for a knee injury.

Oh yeah and if you are working out at home, without a rack, you do not want to do back squats.  You will need to clean the bar and do front squats.

[Slayerik]

Thanks Arnold, that was my next question actually.

[Cyrrex]

Good point indeed.  Don't fuck with back squats without a rack.

I've never done front squats myself, but it seems to me that it would be more difficult to lift your max weight that way.  If that's true, and I really don't know, then I'd almost rather do Deads instead.

[K9]

Doing a few sets of squats with just the bar is a good warm up for any exercise session though. Get the legs working and then do deads. But yeah, don't do back squats without a power rack.

[Slayerik]

Good point indeed.  Don't fuck with back squats without a rack.

I've never done front squats myself, but it seems to me that it would be more difficult to lift your max weight that way.  If that's true, and I really don't know, then I'd almost rather do Deads instead.

I'm guessing that doing some is better than none regardless, no?

[Cyrrex]

Good point indeed.  Don't fuck with back squats without a rack.

I've never done front squats myself, but it seems to me that it would be more difficult to lift your max weight that way.  If that's true, and I really don't know, then I'd almost rather do Deads instead.

I'm guessing that doing some is better than none regardless, no?

To some extent, but consider what we've been talking about in this thread:  if you aren't lifting max weights at low reps, all you are training your muscles to do is to get good at lifting the weight you are currently lifting.  You need to be able to show your muscles their limits, otherwise they will have no reason to grow.  You will do more increasing of your endurance than actual muscle building.  The only reason a body ever grows big muscles is to lift heavy weights.  Large muscles are NOT, however, required for endurance.

All that said, if it is close to your max, then that's probably good enough.  When you feel you have your max weight, ask yourself this...are your legs about to fail, or are your arms about to fail from holding the weight up?  This is the same thing that often makes the Deads less beneficial....your grip will often fail before your legs and lower back.

[Salamok]

I wonder how well the 5x5 philosophy would carry over to other forms of exercise like running or swimming, I suspect the cardio aspect restricts it from working as well there. 

Also, I suppose after a certain amount of time the amount you are able to increase your personal best will be less than the smallest increment of weight you are able to add to the bar.

Fake Edit: this entire post keeps giving me King of the Hill flashbacks to Bill getting his pump on.

[Arnold]

Good point indeed.  Don't fuck with back squats without a rack.

I've never done front squats myself, but it seems to me that it would be more difficult to lift your max weight that way.  If that's true, and I really don't know, then I'd almost rather do Deads instead.

If you do ass to grass squats, it doesn't take that much weight for it to feel really heavy.  I tried out some front squats on the cheapo bar I have at home and it wasn't too different feeling.  They keep you from leaning too far forward because if you do, you will start falling forward!

The most awkward part is going to be the grip.  A cross-arm grip is more comfortable, but not as stable and requires you to shift your arms after the clean.  The clean grip is more stable and requires no hand shifting.  However, the clean grip can be a bitch on the wrists for someone who is unaccustomed to it.

[Nebu]

Curious what you guys do before a workout. How much energy do you have?

I stretch for a few minutes and then do a few light reps of each exercise to get the blood flowing to those muscle groups.  If I'm on a heavy cut phase, I may ride the stationary bike for 30 mins to get my body revved up.   Keep in mind that I'm in my 40's, so it takes a bit to get the blood flowing!

[K9]

I wonder how well the 5x5 philosophy would carry over to other forms of exercise like running or swimming, I suspect the cardio aspect restricts it from working as well there. 

It's not wholly dissimilar to doing interval training really. Rather than jogging, do really intense sprints to build power and strength. It's not an amazing correlation though, since exercises such as running or swimming tend to de-emphasise power in favour of endurance in contrast to weight training which generally emphasizes power over endurance.

[stray]

Sprinting (or rather anything power or speed focused) is fast twitch focused. Which will be the same muscle fibers you're trying to grow during a bulk up phase. Of course, you're not going to get any results close to a weight routine, but they could go hand in hand a bit.

[Slayerik]

Started my first (real) 5 x5 today, doing

5 x 5 - Bench - Ending up doing 6 sets as my max weight was slihtly off, ok cause the first set I could have called simply a warm up , it was too light.

5 x 5 - Front Squat - Tough on the wrists. Planned out weights almost exactly though, as my 5th in the last set was all I had. Might be walkin' funny tomorrow

5 x 5 - Barbell Rows - Didn't quite reach the right max 5 x 5, should be on it for next workout though.

Threw in 3 x 8 Tricep Kickbacks and budweisers for calorie intake :)

My overall impression is that it is a faster workout. Not sure if I'm going to keep with it, but I'm going to try it for a few weeks to see.

[Cyrrex]

Cool...it's okay to adjust in the beginning.  You may even find you have to make big adjustments to things like your squats once you get used to them.  Make sure you add are increasing weight all the time.

[stray]

You're not on the fence because it's a fast workout are you? You shouldn't work out more than 45-60 minutes, and on as intense a level as you can.

Anyhow, whatever you use (I don't do 5x5 either), just do something along the same lines. Progressive loading.

[Slayerik]

I guess I'm used to my full hour workouts. It's just different. Some of the early sets in these seem like they aren't doing shit, but I guess that's the point of progressing up. It seemed like before every set I was pushing it very hard (and with 5 x 5 only the last two seem like anything...well except for the squats those all sucked : ), but I'm going to give this a real go.

[Cyrrex]

There are a few reasons for doing the early, easy sets:  First, simple warmup to get the blood moving.  Second, it adds to the overall tonnage of what you are lifting on a weekly basis, which despite everything else we've been harping on, still counts for something.  Third, it helps you work on good form.

The last two sets are what really do it for you.  It's been fairly well proven that your body doesn't need much more stimulus than that.  Much of what is effective does seem counter-intuitive, though, I'll give you that much.  You won't even be getting sore after the first week or so.

[Nebu]

There are a few reasons for doing the early, easy sets:  First, simple warmup to get the blood moving.  Second, it adds to the overall tonnage of what you are lifting on a weekly basis, which despite everything else we've been harping on, still counts for something.  Third, it helps you work on good form.

The last two sets are what really do it for you.  It's been fairly well proven that your body doesn't need much more stimulus than that.  Much of what is effective does seem counter-intuitive, though, I'll give you that much.  You won't even be getting sore after the first week or so.

Exactly.  Listen to Cyrrex.  He's giving you some outstanding information.  It's all about breakdown and adaptation.  You are trying to force your body to do more than it's capable of.  To adapt, the body will build muscle to accomodate the work.  It's incredible what the human body will do to adapt to a new workload if you just give it what it needs.

Keep in mind that none of the work will payoff as well if you don't have a solid diet.  As one of my college trainers told me "Eat with a purpose". 

[Draegan]

Curious what you guys do before a workout. How much energy do you have?

I stretch for a few minutes and then do a few light reps of each exercise to get the blood flowing to those muscle groups.  If I'm on a heavy cut phase, I may ride the stationary bike for 30 mins to get my body revved up.   Keep in mind that I'm in my 40's, so it takes a bit to get the blood flowing!

I'm 28, I hit a cardio machine for about 5 minutes or so.

[stray]

Same here (cardio 5 mins, i mean. i'm not 28 ;) ).

I was more curious about your diets though. If you're supplementing with a pre workout drink. And I don't necessarily mean some prepackaged bullshit. I think even juice and sugar and some extra carbs is helpful beforehand (but probably should be avoided otherwise).

[Nebu]

Same here (cardio 5 mins, i mean. i'm not 28 ;) ).

I was more curious about your diets though. If you're supplementing with a pre workout drink. And I don't necessarily mean some prepackaged bullshit. I think even juice and sugar and some extra carbs is helpful beforehand (but probably should be avoided otherwise).

The most important thing you can do is to have some carbs immediately after your workout so that you're not burning as much muscle for calories.  As long as you have a healthy diet and adequate protein intake, that's about it.  I do drink protein shakes, but not for the hype.  I do it because my diet is primarily vegetarian and I get sick of beans and fish often. 

[Arnold]

As one of my college trainers told me "Eat with a purpose". 

I don't remember where I first heard it, but I love this quote - "You can't outrun your fork."

[stray]

That's where I'm educating myself a lot too. It's fascinating in general to hear good nutritional precepts too, and how everything plays out. Like Nebu said, it's incredible how the body works. [edit] And another thing, it doesn't take long to build an appetite up. There's a little trouble at first, but I guarantee you'll want to eat more as time goes by. I can't even function now if I accidentally miss even one meal.

[NiX]

The best medical advice I got about eating well was to make sure you setup a routine. The body stresses when it's not on a routine, which in turn makes your body create more fat than it normally would.

[Slayerik]

Another noob question. The way I have been working out I rotate through my sets.

Squats
Bench
Bentover rows

Squats
Bench
Bentover rows

and three more times like that.

Am I supposed to stick to one exercise and finish it out? I rotate through them to give some recovery time, but if that is incorrect thinking let me know.

[K9]

I usually do one exercise then the other, but that's mainly to minimise the hassle of having to switch a load of weights between every set. I'm not sure if there is a benefit to doing your exercises in series rather than in parallel. They are all compound exercises too, so that works; if you were rotating through a mix of compound and isolation exercises then I would suggest that you do the compound exercises in series before the isolation exercises.

It's a good question though; I'm sure someone else has a good answer.

[Cyrrex]

My immediate reaction to that is that by the time the fifth sets come around, you may be too tired to perform them effectively.  If you can handle that, and by that I mean that you are still able to hit your maximums and break through them, then go ahead.  I don't think I could.  There are programs out there that use this kind of approach, but I'm not sure this is a good one to be doing it with.

[Slayerik]

I am guessing you are responding to his technique and not mine?

[Cyrrex]

No, sorry, was responding to yours.  Shoulda quoted.

[Nebu]

Tips:

1) I work muscle groups each day that are found to be complimentary (i.e. Mon is Chest and Triceps, Thursday is Back and Biceps)

2) I work the larger of the muscles first.  On a chest/tricep day, I work chest then triceps. You'll get more growth from the larger muscle group.

3) Work the major group from different isolation points. Ex: When I work chest, I do incline, flat, decline, and flys. 

4) I do 5x5 for each exercise.  Set 1 will be declines.  I do 5 reps at low weight for form and a warmup.  Then I do an 5 reps at 80% effort.  The last 3 sets of 5 reps are at max weight. 

5) Add at least a little weight to your max every week.  This is how you get growth. 

Hope that helps.

[Slayerik]

Tweaked my delt a little on an early set.

I really need to stretch better.

Fought through it though and I am watching my bar starting to bend a bit from the weights. I like that :)

My other problem is front squats. I have to have a spotter now so I don't fall forward.

[Nebu]

The free weight room at my university is closed until the end of next week, so I'm almost finished with my "experiment".  I have to say that I like the type of build I get doing just natural exercises, but am really looking forward to getting back in the weight room.  I just can't get used to the type of fatigue I feel from doing naturals.  I never feel like I worked out hard enough... I just feel tired.  I'm also getting sick of logging so many road miles running and will look forward to that ending as well.  Between the naturals, cardio, and 1500 calorie diet, I'm REALLY looking forward to a good old-fashioned, pain-filled bulk phase. 

[Salamok]

So what is the 5x5 workout for abs, still 1 long set to failure?  I need to ditch my gut and am not interested in replacing it with a bigger gut made of muscles.

[K9]

If you want to ditch your gut you want to be jogging or cycling; you need to get your body burning fat. You probably also want to re-evaluate your diet. 5x5 is an exercise system aimed at building strength and mass in large muscle groups, it wouldn't really apply to abs. Do you do any exercise at all? If not, start small, aim for 20-30 minutes of exercise that's getting you into a sweat twice a week, and build from there. Don't go full retard and aim for some 1.5 hour, 6 day a week system which will crush you and kill your motivation to exercise.

[Nebu]

I do inclines with a 25 lb plate on top of my head doing a left, center, right to catch the obliques.  My second exercise is to do vertical knee raises to failure or extending the legs for more pain.  Third set I use a crunch machine on high weight for 10-12 reps.  

To add to K9's comments, the best way to get a gut is to change your diet.  Great abs come more from diet than exercise.  Working the abs just increases their size to make them more visible.  Lots of exercises work your core, so many people don't work abs much at all.  I only work abs twice a week myself. 

[Salamok]

6 weeks ago I started swimming 1200 yards 5 days a week and have modified my diet to include more fruit and less food.  Most of my visible excess weight is between my ribs and hips, I was looking to supplement my swim with something that targets those areas.