I updated my routine. I need input! :)

[Gavin]

Monday - Upper Body
--Hindu Pushups
--Pushups
--Dips
--Pullups
--Self-resistance isotonics for forearms
--Crunches/bicycles

Tuesday - Lower Body
--Swim Class (1 hour)
--Toe presses
--Hindu Squats
--Squat hold
--Wall seat
--Lunges
--Crunches/bicycles

Wednesday - REST!

Thursday - Upper Body
--Swim Class (1 hour)
--Hindu Pushups
--Pushups
--Dips
--Pullups
--Self-resistance isotonics for forearms
--Crunches/bicycles

Friday - Lower Body
--Toe presses
--Hindu Squats
--Squat hold
--Wall seat
--Lunges
--Crunches/bicycles

Saturday and Sunday - REST!

Let me know what you think guys. Does my routine have too much stuff in it? I'm not trying to rush, I just don't see the point of going slower than I have to. I find it very hard to wear myself out to the point that the next day I feel very sore.

Anything I should take out or add, and why?

[Gavin]

Some things I would like to add are running on all fours, crab walk, and bear crawl. These seem to be 'total body' workouts and I don't know when I should add them.

Also, how often should I do my excersizes plyometrically? Is it okay to do plyometrics each workout? I read somewhere to do it once every two weeks or something like that.

Thanks guys.

[-TM-]

Some things I would like to add are running on all fours, crab walk, and bear crawl. These seem to be 'total body' workouts and I don't know when I should add them.

Also, how often should I do my excersizes plyometrically? Is it okay to do plyometrics each workout? I read somewhere to do it once every two weeks or something like that.

Thanks guys.

umm make sure you add in number of sets and reps and stuff.

[Gavin]

Why?

[-TM-]

Why?

so you know how many to do?

[koltz]

drop the hindu stuff first of all...

also hwo many sets and reps did you do?

also it seems that hindu pushups and the only thing that you do that ivolves the latheral(side) delts... well you also do swimming which is good for them on some styles ( butterfly ) but you shoud work them much more
also a lot of unnecesary leg work , do hack squats and deadlifts (buy a bar) or one legged squats if your a cheap fella and you dfon't need to do all that

[Gavin]

I'm sorry, I thought this was BODYweightculture.com....

Also you're telling me to do one-legged squats. How do you even know I'm capable of doing a single one-legged squat? You don't know anything about me and you're telling me to do potentially dangerous things to my body. I don't think I'm ever gonna follow your advice. Are you trying to get me hurt?

[koltz]

wth , one legged squats are listed on this site and are actually a rehab excersise (as some consider)

If you want to do zero ressistance excersises for about half of your muscle groups leaving the rest it's up to you...

[Gavin]

So what? If I can't do them, and I start doing them, I could hurt myself. I have to build up to doing them, so, I'm doing hindu squats until I have enough strength to do one-legged squats.

Should I take squat holds out of my routine? If I'm doing squats, won't holds be kinda redundant?

[koltz]

You do holds for weights near or greater your one RM , otherwise there useless , you cna hold your solid 1 RM for a about a minute if you know what your doing ,
that's why people do statics holds to train for one arm pullups for example (with one arm) or after a set when they reached faliure ,

as for one legged squats:
If you can't do them you won't do them sicne you won't be able to lower yourself down and if you try you "hurt" yourself by falling on your butt
unless your used to working otu with submaximal intensity then you think you could lift every weight possible in non life threatening conditions without hurting yourself cause , you jsut won't lift it if you can't

[Gavin]

Yea, I could either fall on my butt; or worse, tear a muscle. And I've done that before. It hurts a lot.

At any rate, even if I could do like, 3 one-legged squats.. is doing 6 (total) squats during a work out even worth it?

[eldus]

At any rate, even if I could do like, 3 one-legged squats.. is doing 6 (total) squats during a work out even worth it?

Take your time and space to feel comfortable with whatever you are doing.

I do one legged squats and plyo lunges. The rest of my leg work is done on the mx or bmx bike =) But in your case, those two excersises plus some calf work will be just enough. (in my opinion, of course)

I do sets of 5 or so reps on each leg, and I do 3 or 4 sets. Trust me, it gets you pretty pumped even with such low reps. For some reason I even feel them to be "safer" than regular or hindu squats so I stuck with them and I'm already going up in reps.

With plyo lunges what I mean is you get into a lunge position, jump and smoothly land with legs swapped, and repeat on and on..

Good luck, man

eldus

[koltz]

Yea, I could either fall on my butt; or worse, tear a muscle. And I've done that before. It hurts a lot.

At any rate, even if I could do like, 3 one-legged squats.. is doing 6 (total) squats during a work out even worth it?
You can't tear a muscle , youd risk tearing muscle if you were a powerlifter recuiting 90% of the fibers on steroids ,

at this point dude , you only probably use no more then 30%-40% and poor ratecodign and intermuscular coordination , almost nothing you do can't tear your muscle especially nto one legged squats , to tear a muscle in your condition you need to be one of thoose guys streching staticly for 30 minutes before a workout , then doign a high intensity workout that consists of super maximal 1RM holds and dropsets , and overtrain like that for a few weeks ignoring soreness , only then probably youll tear a muscle ,
also kids are prone to it a bit too since thier tendons are udnerdeveloped


I only recently gained the grip to deadhang into a pullup bar , although I did negetive one arm pullups like two monthes ago already , in the end I got "away" with tendonitis which hurt like hell but passed in two weeks without any rest on my side

anyway if you can't do enough reps you shouldn't I only meant you should do something you do for 10RM for example and for many people it's one legged squats you missunderstood me

[Gavin]

What does "RM" stand for anyway?

For my (normal) pushups, these are what my reps look like:

2 sets of 10 on my knuckles (the one's you punch with; the pointer and middle finger knuckle)
1 set of 10 with my hands near my shoulders and my elbows pointing towards my feet (I think this is the "planck" position? I'm not sure. This position works the triceps)
1 set of 10 wide grip (to work the chest more)
My "hindu pushups"** are 2 sets of 8.

I want to work up to 4 sets of 10 on my knuckles, 3 sets of 10 in the "planck" position (???), 3 sets of 10 wide grip, and 30 non-stop "hindu pushups"**.

**Also, I've just realized (by watching a video) that the "hindu pushups" I do are actually dive-bomber pushups. Should I stick to doing the dive-bomber pushups? I can do 2 sets of 8.

I can do 3 sets of 10 dips. I wanna build this up to 5 sets of 10.

Also for pullups:
I can do one set of 4 "chest ups" (I bring my chest up to my fists) and the second set I can only do 3 (does that mean I need to rest longer?). I do the sets with about 10 seconds of rest inbetween, supinated grip (is semi-supinated grip good? I know I have to start working on my pronated grip). My goal is either 2 sets of 10 or 1 set of 20.

[koltz]

How many of each is your maximum , this is nice for a daily workout I think if there about 70% at your state, add in some sets for the divebombers ( yes there simular but the diverbomber works more muscules and is more compleate \ harder )

for pullups use all four basic grips , supinated and prontate wide and narrow grips ,

Also progress into the number of the reps \ difficulty , not the amount of sets , although this could be done this is only good for mostly hypotrophy , if you are too tierd you should add in rest time , (Actually I said this after reading on your dips , theres no way you can only do 10 pushups be able to do 10 dips , since dips are almost 2x more ressistance and bigger range of motion , if you want to do 10 pushups i reccomend doing them with a wide grip side to side for more bang)

--p.s 1RM = one rep max , 2 rm = 2rep max etc ,

[Gavin]

So I should increase the amount of reps I do per set, not the amount of sets I do per workout. So 2 sets of 25 pushups is better than 5 sets of 10 pushups?

Should I be doing my pushups until failure, and then rest for a few minutes and do my pushups until failure again, or am I doing the right thing by breaking it up into more sets and resting for only a short period?

[koltz]

Depends on yo0ur goals ? what are your goals?

[eldus]

I'm not sure if this is your case, Gavin, but most people confuse dips with "bench/chair dips" and that's why we have these misunderstandings...

Bench/chair dips are the ones where you are seated with a bench or chair or block behind you and you lift your body like in regular dips but with your feet on the ground.

Dips are done on parallel bars (and variations) and you are pushing up your whole body.

;)

[koltz]

I'm not sure if this is your case, Gavin, but most people confuse dips with "bench/chair dips" and that's why we have these misunderstandings...

Bench/chair dips are the ones where you are seated with a bench or chair or block behind you and you lift your body like in regular dips but with your feet on the ground.

Dips are done on parallel bars (and variations) and you are pushing up your whole body.

;)
Bench dips are stull harder then pushups...

speaking of dips I think I overdone them combined with handstand training =\ I pulled my shoulder \ RA so I can't do them cause it could get worse maybe........................

[Gavin]

I do my dips using two chairs of equal height; my hands on one chair, and my feet on the other.

My goal is to become much stronger, higher endurance, and speed without increases mass at all. Increased definition and vasculatiryt would be cool.

[koltz]

I do my dips using two chairs of equal height; my hands on one chair, and my feet on the other.

My goal is to become much stronger, higher endurance, and speed without increases mass at all. Increased definition and vasculatiryt would be cool.
Yup thosoe are bench dips


You controll your size (bf% and muscle size ) through energy intake \ expediture adn nutrition , training merely promotes hypotrophy for repairs , you won't get bigger by training for hypotrophy and probably just more ripped...
Although such training for performance isn't effective

although I don't knwo why am I givign advice to you you seem to doubt everything I say

[eldus]

speaking of dips I think I overdone them combined with handstand training =\ I pulled my shoulder \ RA so I can't do them cause it could get worse maybe........................

Damn, man! Hope it heals fast

eldus

[amorelli]

An increase in strenght, endurance, and speed will most likely be accompanied by a slight increase in mass. For instance, I am a runner - i do cross country in the fall to burn off the little excess fat I acquire over the summer, and then I begin lifting/sprinting/hurdling for winter and spring track. I eat like a runner - 4-5 pretty well sized meals a day with a vast mojority of my food intake being focused around carbs, though I have to scrambled eggs every morning as part of my breakfast. Despite the fact that these eating habits are not designed for mass gain, and the fact that I run 6 days a week and lift for lean muscle mass/endurance, I will still gain about 5-7 pounds of muscle by the end of spring track. However, I am still very lean, and the little bit of added muscle does not impede me in any way.

It's possible that you could stay at constant mass if you have a decent amount of fat on you right now, since you will burn fat as you add muscle.

Also, if you're shooting for added cardio-vascular endurance, run a lot. Although there are many cardio exercises, running is one of the best, as it will tone your core, legs, and back if you run correctly, especially if you do sprint workouts.

[Gavin]

Okay, so if I keep my energy intake pretty much the same as it was before I started working out, and just do the bodyweight excersizes, I won't experience a lot of hypertrophy, I'll just increase a little bit in muscle, but mostly in strength (building strength to do harder excersizes) and endurance (doing more reps per set), and by doing plyometrics I will increase my speed, correct?

[koltz]

An increase in strenght, endurance, and speed will most likely be accompanied by a slight increase in mass. For instance, I am a runner - i do cross country in the fall to burn off the little excess fat I acquire over the summer, and then I begin lifting/sprinting/hurdling for winter and spring track. I eat like a runner - 4-5 pretty well sized meals a day with a vast mojority of my food intake being focused around carbs, though I have to scrambled eggs every morning as part of my breakfast. Despite the fact that these eating habits are not designed for mass gain, and the fact that I run 6 days a week and lift for lean muscle mass/endurance, I will still gain about 5-7 pounds of muscle by the end of spring track. However, I am still very lean, and the little bit of added muscle does not impede me in any way.

It's possible that you could stay at constant mass if you have a decent amount of fat on you right now, since you will burn fat as you add muscle.

Also, if you're shooting for added cardio-vascular endurance, run a lot. Although there are many cardio exercises, running is one of the best, as it will tone your core, legs, and back if you run correctly, especially if you do sprint workouts.
you are aware that "toning" is a myth , and the real mmeaning for tonus is having a muscle be more stiff , in other words reducing flexibility , and nothing more.

please don't use the word toning , or any excersise mythes (I will enforce it in the forums I modrate)

[Gavin]

Okay ow. I did 3 sets of 20 normal squats, and now my thighs are like... locking up and not wanting to work. I was only able to do 1 set of 8 lunges and it's so hard to walk.

WTF I used to be able to do 100 squats straight....

[amorelli]

perhaps toning was the incorrect word, and I appologize for using it. I meant that running will help keep you leaner than if you just lift, an effect that seems to be in accordance with gavin's goals.

About the legs locking up - make sure you do some sort of cool down after a leg workout - something that moves the legs through their range of motion such as running or biking. This will loosen up the legs and get rid of lactic acid that might build up as a result of a leg workout.

[Gavin]

Well, it's day Sunday, and I worked them on Friday, and they're starting to feel better... I hope they're all better by Tuesday, which is when I'm supposed to work them again.

Hey I was wondering:

I can do 4 sets of 10 dips, but afterwards my arms are too jellified to do any pushups. Is it okay to do all my pushups and pullups on Monday, and on Thursday do my dips and forearm excersizes? Or do I have to do these exersizes more often during the week to achieve results?

How long do the benefits of a workout last? Like if I work out on Monday really hard, how long before I lose what I gained?