Am I missing something in my routine?

Quoted message said:

First, a big thank you to TheBillRodgers in this group. I've been
mostly-lurking since January, and have learned a tremendous amount from
him. I don't think I could have gotten
started without the advice from him. Thanks too for the pointers to
Krista's Stumptuous site and fitday.com. that were worthless compared to TBR's advice and website.

You're welcome.

TBR

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day
the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Anyone with degrees from Yale and Harvard is presumed to be intelligent,
but George W. Bush has managed to overcome that presumption."

You are right in sticking to heavy and basic compound movements. These
are all pretty much the best exercises you could possibly do. If you
progressively (slowly but steadily) increase your training weights,
that is. But never sacrifice correct form just to slap on more weight!

I would add either dumbell (or barbell) shoulder presses or wide grip
upright rows for the shoulders and narrow grib barbell rows for the
back. Chins are the single best movement for the upper back (especially
lats), tough, and probably the best upper body exercise. Otherwise, I
think you're fine.

Time is probably not an issue. if you train hard, you can do with 3-4 x
45 minutes per week. In this regard bodybuilding is great and different
from many other sports that require infinite amounts of movement
repetitions.

Remember to stretch after a workout. Taking a cold shower or
alternating cold and hot is probably a good idea to reduce muscle
soreness. Soreness is good, but tuoo much is not.

Quoted message said:

I am looking for advice about how to keep this going while crunched for
time. My goals are overall strength and fitness, not hypertrophy. I
like being strong, I love what it does for my
skiing/biking/hiking/everything. But since I'm in the homestretch of
grad school, I need to stay fit without pissing off my advisor by
spending inordinate amounts of time at the gym.

The lifting routine I've migrated towards focuses on whole-body,
compound exercises. I have been continuing to add weight at a decent
clip to all of these lifts. I really want to get the most bang for my
buck in the gym - but I'm concerned that I may be missing some major
muscle groups by streamlining my workouts so much. My workouts are:

3x week:
o squats
o deadlifts
o pullups/chinups - now that I can finally do 'em!!
o bench press
o crunches
o weighted lunges (gotta get quads in shape for skiing)
o tricep dips

Based on the lifting routine above, am I missing any major muscle
groups by streamlining my lifting to this extent?

Yeah, the calves. You got to work them too, for skiing.

Otherwise sounds great. Congrats at your progress.

Rich

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

First, a big thank you to everyone in this group. I've been
mostly-lurking since January, and have learned a tremendous amount from
the discussions in this group. I don't think I could have gotten
started without the advice from here. Thanks too for the pointers to
Krista's Stumptuous site and fitday.com.

Background - I'm a 30-yo woman, 5'6", 138lb. I started lifting in
January at 175lb in order to combat repetitive strain injury from
typing all day (working on my dissertation). In the intervening months,
I've gotten hooked on the lifting, lost quite a bit of bodyfat, and
made significant strength improvements--gotta love those newbie gains.
I'm looking much leaner and as a bonus, have no more upper-body
problems when typing.

I am looking for advice about how to keep this going while crunched for
time. My goals are overall strength and fitness, not hypertrophy. I
like being strong, I love what it does for my
skiing/biking/hiking/everything. But since I'm in the homestretch of
grad school, I need to stay fit without pissing off my advisor by
spending inordinate amounts of time at the gym.

The lifting routine I've migrated towards focuses on whole-body,
compound exercises. I have been continuing to add weight at a decent
clip to all of these lifts. I really want to get the most bang for my
buck in the gym - but I'm concerned that I may be missing some major
muscle groups by streamlining my workouts so much. My workouts are:

3x week:
o squats
o deadlifts
o pullups/chinups - now that I can finally do 'em!!
o bench press
o crunches
o weighted lunges (gotta get quads in shape for skiing)
o tricep dips

Based on the lifting routine above, am I missing any major muscle
groups by streamlining my lifting to this extent? What I like about
this workout is that I've been making good gains while not needing to
spend hours in the gym. I've gained a lot of definition in my upper
and lower body. Is there anything wrong with sticking to a basic
routine like this for the longer term? In addition, I walk/bike 5 miles
a day and do 20-30 minutes of high-intensity interval training 2-3
times a week. My diet is good, thanks to the advice from here and
Krista - ~100g of protein a day, lots of veggies and olive oil, lots of
fish.

Many thanks for any advice!

One of the requirements before giving sound advice in MFW, is the OP post
naked .jpegs. This is so a complete assessment can be made of the
individual, and a training regimen made accordingly.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

First, a big thank you to everyone in this group. I've been
mostly-lurking since January, and have learned a tremendous amount
from
the discussions in this group. I don't think I could have gotten
started without the advice from here. Thanks too for the pointers to
Krista's Stumptuous site and fitday.com.

Background - I'm a 30-yo woman, 5'6", 138lb. I started lifting in
January at 175lb in order to combat repetitive strain injury from
typing all day (working on my dissertation). In the intervening
months,
I've gotten hooked on the lifting, lost quite a bit of bodyfat, and
made significant strength improvements--gotta love those newbie gains.
I'm looking much leaner and as a bonus, have no more upper-body
problems when typing.

I am looking for advice about how to keep this going while crunched
for
time. My goals are overall strength and fitness, not hypertrophy. I
like being strong, I love what it does for my
skiing/biking/hiking/everything. But since I'm in the homestretch of
grad school, I need to stay fit without pissing off my advisor by
spending inordinate amounts of time at the gym.

The lifting routine I've migrated towards focuses on whole-body,
compound exercises. I have been continuing to add weight at a decent
clip to all of these lifts. I really want to get the most bang for my
buck in the gym - but I'm concerned that I may be missing some major
muscle groups by streamlining my workouts so much. My workouts are:

3x week:
o squats
o deadlifts
o pullups/chinups - now that I can finally do 'em!!
o bench press
o crunches
o weighted lunges (gotta get quads in shape for skiing)
o tricep dips

Based on the lifting routine above, am I missing any major muscle
groups by streamlining my lifting to this extent? What I like about
this workout is that I've been making good gains while not needing to
spend hours in the gym. I've gained a lot of definition in my upper
and lower body. Is there anything wrong with sticking to a basic
routine like this for the longer term? In addition, I walk/bike 5
miles
a day and do 20-30 minutes of high-intensity interval training 2-3
times a week. My diet is good, thanks to the advice from here and
Krista - ~100g of protein a day, lots of veggies and olive oil, lots
of
fish.

Many thanks for any advice!

There's nothing wrong with doing what you're doing long-term in
principle, but I think you'll find most people, after a few years at a
particular program, are ready for a change of some sort, so don't be
afraid to do something different when the time comes. And don't be
afraid to tweak your current routine as you feel the need. Personally,
I like abs at the very end because I find anything I do with already
tired abs suffers.

For your reading pleasure, you might investigate kettlebell training. I
train mostly with kettlebells for a few reasons - first, I can do them
at home as they require little space and little money; second, the style
of most kettlebell training includes "ballistic" movements such as the
swing and [censored], things you don't have in your current program that you
might like. My "program minimum" now is a combination of barbell and
kettlebell lifts, typically a kettlebell overhead press, squats or
deadlifts with a barbell, swings with a kettlebell, and ab work to
finish. If I'm on the road, I substitute the kettlebell [censored] for the
barbell lifts - different for sure but seems to keep many of the same
muscles strong. More at the site below, which I maintain. It's no
stumptuous but I call it home. 🙂

Congratulations on your progress this year - sounds great.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

First, a big thank you to everyone in this group. I've been
mostly-lurking since January, and have learned a tremendous amount
from
the discussions in this group. I don't think I could have gotten
started without the advice from here. Thanks too for the pointers to
Krista's Stumptuous site and fitday.com.

Background - I'm a 30-yo woman, 5'6", 138lb. I started lifting in
January at 175lb in order to combat repetitive strain injury from
typing all day (working on my dissertation). In the intervening
months,
I've gotten hooked on the lifting, lost quite a bit of bodyfat, and
made significant strength improvements--gotta love those newbie gains.
I'm looking much leaner and as a bonus, have no more upper-body
problems when typing.

I am looking for advice about how to keep this going while crunched
for
time. My goals are overall strength and fitness, not hypertrophy. I
like being strong, I love what it does for my
skiing/biking/hiking/everything. But since I'm in the homestretch of
grad school, I need to stay fit without pissing off my advisor by
spending inordinate amounts of time at the gym.

The lifting routine I've migrated towards focuses on whole-body,
compound exercises. I have been continuing to add weight at a decent
clip to all of these lifts. I really want to get the most bang for my
buck in the gym - but I'm concerned that I may be missing some major
muscle groups by streamlining my workouts so much. My workouts are:

3x week:
o squats
o deadlifts
o pullups/chinups - now that I can finally do 'em!!
o bench press
o crunches
o weighted lunges (gotta get quads in shape for skiing)
o tricep dips

Based on the lifting routine above, am I missing any major muscle
groups by streamlining my lifting to this extent? What I like about
this workout is that I've been making good gains while not needing to
spend hours in the gym. I've gained a lot of definition in my upper
and lower body. Is there anything wrong with sticking to a basic
routine like this for the longer term? In addition, I walk/bike 5
miles
a day and do 20-30 minutes of high-intensity interval training 2-3
times a week. My diet is good, thanks to the advice from here and
Krista - ~100g of protein a day, lots of veggies and olive oil, lots
of
fish.

Many thanks for any advice!

There's nothing wrong with doing what you're doing long-term in
principle, but I think you'll find most people, after a few years at a
particular program, are ready for a change of some sort, so don't be
afraid to do something different when the time comes. And don't be
afraid to tweak your current routine as you feel the need. Personally,
I like abs at the very end because I find anything I do with already
tired abs suffers.

For your reading pleasure, you might investigate kettlebell training. I
train mostly with kettlebells for a few reasons - first, I can do them
at home as they require little space and little money; second, the style
of most kettlebell training includes "ballistic" movements such as the
swing and [censored], things you don't have in your current program that you
might like. My "program minimum" now is a combination of barbell and
kettlebell lifts, typically a kettlebell overhead press, squats or
deadlifts with a barbell, swings with a kettlebell, and ab work to
finish. If I'm on the road, I substitute the kettlebell [censored] for the
barbell lifts - different for sure but seems to keep many of the same
muscles strong. More at the site below, which I maintain. It's no
stumptuous but I call it home. 🙂

Congratulations on your progress this year - sounds great.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

John said:

One of the requirements before giving sound advice in MFW, is the OP post
naked .jpegs. This is so a complete assessment can be made of the
individual, and a training regimen made accordingly.

You just want to see his weiner.
TBR

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day
the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Anyone with degrees from Yale and Harvard is presumed to be intelligent,
but George W. Bush has managed to overcome that presumption."

John said:

One of the requirements before giving sound advice in MFW, is the OP post
naked .jpegs. This is so a complete assessment can be made of the
individual, and a training regimen made accordingly.

You just want to see his weiner.
TBR

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day
the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Anyone with degrees from Yale and Harvard is presumed to be intelligent,
but George W. Bush has managed to overcome that presumption."

Quoted message said:

I am looking for advice about how to keep this going while crunched for
time.

During my busy season my mantra is "push something, pull something,
squat something, get out. Three sets of squats of 8 reps with suitably
heavy weights on 3 exercises: squat every time, but do different pulls
(deadlifts, chin-ups) and different pushes (bench press, dips, military
press) each time. Skip everything else until you're through the busy time.

Quoted message said:

The lifting routine I've migrated towards focuses on whole-body,
compound exercises. I have been continuing to add weight at a decent
clip to all of these lifts. I really want to get the most bang for my
buck in the gym - but I'm concerned that I may be missing some major
muscle groups by streamlining my workouts so much. My workouts are:

Have you looked at Hypertrophy specific training? It took me some time
to get my rep maxes and set up the spreadsheet, but one of the things I
liked about it was the workouts were laid out for me, brief, and only
really tough about once every two weeks. Plus it introduced me to the
lovely concept of "strategic deconditioning" which I have integrated
quite successfully into my consciousness. (Lying around on a beach
drinking margaritas for a week? I'm not goofing off getting fat, I'm
doing "strategic deconditioning"!)

Quoted message said:

3x week:
o squats
o deadlifts
o pullups/chinups - now that I can finally do 'em!!
o bench press
o crunches
o weighted lunges (gotta get quads in shape for skiing)
o tricep dips

Where's the shoulder work? Don't you want sexy shoulders? I also like
the seated row and tricep rope pulldown alternating with the chins/dips.

I'm with you on skipping calves and biceps when I'm pressed for time.

Another thing I do is split the upper body and lower body into workouts
that are about 35 minutes long, doing ab work in each session, and hit
each body part every four or five days, i.e., every part gets three
workouts over two weeks. If I have time to do a full body one day then
I might do both on a day, but don't sweat it if you can only fit in half.

Quoted message said:

Is there anything wrong with sticking to a basic
routine like this for the longer term?

Yes. If you want to keep the gains coming then you're going to have to
shake up your routine from time to time. I do a program for about four
months then re-evaluate and start fresh. (Usually after some "strategic
deconditioning".)

Quoted message said:

In addition, I walk/bike 5 miles a day

Which is it? I walk two miles a day and it's barely any exercise at
all. (I'm doing it to get someplace.) Riding five miles isn't exercise
at all, in my opinion. Walking five miles a day is just a waste of
perfectly good exercise time if that's why you're doing it.

Quoted message said:

and do 20-30 minutes of high-intensity interval training 2-3
times a week.

BFL? I like HIIT and it certainly is good for tight time restrictions,
but I did it for about two years and blew my endurance all the hell.
I've spent the past year and a half regaining it. If I had it to do
over again I would have done at least one day a week of long slow distance.

Keep looking for ways to change it up, shake up your routine, add
something fun. I've got sort of a New Year's Resolution that I'll do
any stupid idea that comes into my head. Rollerblading? Why not?
Swimming? Sure, time I learned. Yoga? Well, it's supposed to be good
for me. And then, of course, there's the story about how I became a
triathlete. But you said you lurk (and can google) so I'll spare you
that one. The point is that it's important to keep having fun with your
body. Find what appeals to you and do it. Do the HIIT in different
mediums: 20 laps instead of 20 minutes, do hills outside for the
intensity rather than sprints. Take up cycling or volleyball or join a
rugby team.

Have fun with this.

Dally

sentience_soma said:

Background - I'm a 30-yo woman, 5'6", 138lb. I started lifting in
January at 175lb in order to combat repetitive strain injury from
typing all day (working on my dissertation). In the intervening months,
I've gotten hooked on the lifting, lost quite a bit of bodyfat, and
made significant strength improvements--gotta love those newbie gains.
I'm looking much leaner and as a bonus, have no more upper-body
problems when typing.

I am looking for advice about how to keep this going while crunched for
time. My goals are overall strength and fitness, not hypertrophy.

Quoted message said:

I need to stay fit without pissing off my advisor by
spending inordinate amounts of time at the gym.

The lifting routine I've migrated towards focuses on whole-body,
compound exercises. I have been continuing to add weight at a decent
clip to all of these lifts. My workouts are:

3x week:

Quoted message said:

o squats
o deadlifts

With all you're doing, you could alternate squats and deadlifts
each workout.

Quoted message said:

o pullups/chinups - now that I can finally do 'em!!
o bench press
o crunches

Do ab work last or at least after the lunges.

Quoted message said:

o weighted lunges (gotta get quads in shape for skiing)

Maybe add a row exercise (upper back). This is optional since
you have this covered with pull-ups.

Quoted message said:

o tricep dips

Based on the lifting routine above, am I missing any major muscle
groups by streamlining my lifting to this extent?
I've gained a lot of definition in my upper and lower body. Is there
anything wrong with sticking to a basic routine like this for the longer term?

Not the exercises. You should vary the weights and/or reps (a cycle)
to prevent plateuing. Just a long term suggestion here.

Quoted message said:

In addition, I walk/bike 5 miles a day and do 20-30 minutes of
high-intensity interval training 2-3 times a week.

Dally said:

Quoted message said:

I am looking for advice about how to keep this going while crunched for
time.

During my busy season my mantra is "push something, pull something,
squat something, get out. Three sets of squats of 8 reps with suitably
heavy weights on 3 exercises: squat every time, but do different pulls
(deadlifts, chin-ups)

How long have you been doing chin-ups Dolly?

max said:

You are right in sticking to heavy and basic compound movements. These
are all pretty much the best exercises you could possibly do. If you
progressively (slowly but steadily) increase your training weights,
that is. But never sacrifice correct form just to slap on more weight!

Yup - I think I did bodyweight squats for a month until I felt
confident enough in my form to actually add weight. I'm still
progressively increasing the weights, though the rate isn't quite what
it was in the first 3-4 months. That's normal, from what I've read.

Quoted message said:

I would add either dumbell (or barbell) shoulder presses or wide grip
upright rows for the shoulders and narrow grib barbell rows for the
back. Chins are the single best movement for the upper back (especially
lats), tough, and probably the best upper body exercise. Otherwise, I
think you're fine.

Thanks. I had been doing rows (upright and seated) for the first 6
months or so and tapered off. It's probably good to keep them in the
rotation.

Quoted message said:

Time is probably not an issue. if you train hard, you can do with 3-4 x
45 minutes per week. In this regard bodybuilding is great and different
from many other sports that require infinite amounts of movement
repetitions.

No kidding - I wish I hadn't waited until I was 30 to realize this. I
just can't believe the gains that come with modest time, steady effort,
and good form.

Thanks for the advice

AD

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Based on the lifting routine above, am I missing any major muscle
groups by streamlining my lifting to this extent?

Yeah, the calves. You got to work them too, for skiing.

Oh yeah, those things. They're pretty strong for some reason without
my targeting them in my workouts, but it couldn't hurt my skiing to
work them in occasionally. I want to zoom past my husband on the
slopes!

AD

Dally said:

During my busy season my mantra is "push something, pull something,
squat something, get out. Three sets of squats of 8 reps with suitably
heavy weights on 3 exercises: squat every time, but do different pulls
(deadlifts, chin-ups) and different pushes (bench press, dips, military
press) each time. Skip everything else until you're through the busy time.

Thanks for the ideas. I guess I'd been doing something similar without
realizing it; i.e., on crazy days, making sure I got my squats and DLs
in and maybe one or two other lifts. Your groupings make sense.

Quoted message said:

Have you looked at Hypertrophy specific training? It took me some time
to get my rep maxes and set up the spreadsheet, but one of the things I
liked about it was the workouts were laid out for me, brief, and only
really tough about once every two weeks. Plus it introduced me to the
lovely concept of "strategic deconditioning" which I have integrated
quite successfully into my consciousness. (Lying around on a beach
drinking margaritas for a week? I'm not goofing off getting fat, I'm
doing "strategic deconditioning"!)

Sounds interesting - I'll definitely look into it. I could definitely
get into terming my post-dissertation alcohol-driven sloth as
"strategic deconditioning"!

Quoted message said:

Where's the shoulder work? Don't you want sexy shoulders? I also like
the seated row and tricep rope pulldown alternating with the chins/dips.

Yeah, as others have pointed out, I should probably keep that in there.
I had been doing different rows and tricep pulldowns, but phased them
out while in the throes of Chapter 1. I think I'll put something like
that back into the ~2x/weekly rotation.

Quoted message said:

Another thing I do is split the upper body and lower body into workouts
that are about 35 minutes long, doing ab work in each session, and hit
each body part every four or five days, i.e., every part gets three
workouts over two weeks. If I have time to do a full body one day then
I might do both on a day, but don't sweat it if you can only fit in half.

A lot of people seem to do these split routines, and that's something I
may consider in the future. Right now, I like the fact that I can
spend 30-45mins doing the whole-body about 3x/week and make gains. I
know I'll have to shake it up before too long, though - whether by
doing a split routine or shifting the types of exercises (doing
different DLs, incline presses, other tweaks).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

In addition, I walk/bike 5 miles a day

Which is it? I walk two miles a day and it's barely any exercise at
all. (I'm doing it to get someplace.) Riding five miles isn't exercise
at all, in my opinion. Walking five miles a day is just a waste of
perfectly good exercise time if that's why you're doing it.

It's my commute--Cambridge has gotten too damned expensive for graduate
students. So I walk or bike depending on mood. I don't pretend that
it's serious exercise, but it certainly is a good habit (and biking is
a helluva lot faster than driving around here).

Quoted message said:

BFL? I like HIIT and it certainly is good for tight time restrictions,
but I did it for about two years and blew my endurance all the hell.
I've spent the past year and a half regaining it. If I had it to do
over again I would have done at least one day a week of long slow distance.

I'm not doing by-the-book BFL at all; I've just done a sort of
"roll-your-own" approach based on the hussman.org site, stumptuous, and
bits and pieces from here. That's an interesting point about the
effect on endurance - I never thought of that as a consequence, and can
see how frustrating it would be to a triathlete. I like the HIIT for
the time savings, but your point about keeping some endurance work in
there is well-taken. Hiking the Franconia Ridge next week will help
with that!

Thanks for your ideas for keeping it fun in the short- and long-hauls.

Cheers,
AD

Dnia 2005-09-20 [email hidden] napisa³(a):

Quoted message said:

The lifting routine I've migrated towards focuses on whole-body,
compound exercises. I have been continuing to add weight at a decent
clip to all of these lifts. I really want to get the most bang for my
buck in the gym - but I'm concerned that I may be missing some major
muscle groups by streamlining my workouts so much. My workouts are:

3x week:

When I trained 3x/week i used push/pull split.

Quoted message said:

o squats
o deadlifts

I'd alternate them even without any split. If I did squats and
deadlifts on the same workout the rest of my routine would be a joke.

Quoted message said:

o pullups/chinups - now that I can finally do 'em!!
o bench press
o crunches

I'd replace crounches with hang-clean and press. Especially when done
one hand at a time they seem to hit my traps all right.

Quoted message said:

o weighted lunges (gotta get quads in shape for skiing)
o tricep dips

Here you train muscles which already got some attention. Not
necessarily a bad thing, if you like it this way.

Quoted message said:

Based on the lifting routine above, am I missing any major muscle
groups by streamlining my lifting to this extent?

Just shoulders, a bit.

BTW - all I do is pullups, dips, clean&press and split squats. Mostly
one exercise per day whenever I find some time. Of course I train at
home so no time is lost for traveling. Also very time efficient
approach and minimal equipment is necessary.

--
Andrzej Rosa 1127R

Andrzej Rosa said:

Dnia 2005-09-20 [email hidden] napisa³(a):

Quoted message said:

The lifting routine I've migrated towards focuses on whole-body,
compound exercises. I have been continuing to add weight at a decent
clip to all of these lifts. I really want to get the most bang for my
buck in the gym - but I'm concerned that I may be missing some major
muscle groups by streamlining my workouts so much. My workouts are:

3x week:

When I trained 3x/week i used push/pull split.

Quoted message said:

o squats
o deadlifts

I'd alternate them even without any split. If I did squats and
deadlifts on the same workout the rest of my routine would be a joke.

Quoted message said:

o pullups/chinups - now that I can finally do 'em!!
o bench press
o crunches

I'd replace crounches with hang-clean and press. Especially when done
one hand at a time they seem to hit my traps all right.

That remarks sounds like you're confusing crunches with shrugs.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

o weighted lunges (gotta get quads in shape for skiing)
o tricep dips

Here you train muscles which already got some attention. Not
necessarily a bad thing, if you like it this way.

Quoted message said:

Based on the lifting routine above, am I missing any major muscle
groups by streamlining my lifting to this extent?

Just shoulders, a bit.

BTW - all I do is pullups, dips, clean&press and split squats. Mostly
one exercise per day whenever I find some time. Of course I train at
home so no time is lost for traveling. Also very time efficient
approach and minimal equipment is necessary.