Thanks for taking a look at my post. I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself and ask a few questions. I’m so glad that I found this forum. I haven’t had the time to look around in great detail, but so far everything looks great. I'm 38 years old, 6'1", 182#, 21% bodyfat (according to my weight/bodyfat scale). I need a productive, flexible workout that I can be do while still having time for parental duties, work/home responsibilities, and "me time". My goals are to gain some muscle and loose body fat as well.

Would you folks mind taking a look at the program I put together for myself? The idea behind my split is that I can lift three days in a row and not work the same bodyparts, or even upper body parts, i.e. working chest (and shoulders indirectly) on Day 1 and then back (and shoulders again indirectly) on Day 2. This split will be giving each part about a one week rest before they get hit again, directly. Many times when I work legs hard, I can’t work them again for 5-6 days anyway.

Day 1: chest/back

Day 2: legs/abs

Day 3: arms/shoulders/traps


Now for the specific questions:
1. Do you have to work a bodypart more than twice a week in order for it to grow? I'm 38 so I don't recover nearly as quickly as someone who's 18 or 20, keep in mind.

2. What do you think of my suggested schedule? Any improvements you can think of?

3. If you have any other ideas for my schedule, please let me know. The Fri, Sat, Sun seems to be working for me time wise, but I want to get the most out of my time lifting. I definitely don’t want to spend my time on a program that will just leave me spinning my wheels.

4. I know some people will advocate hitting each bodypart twice a week, but isn't that overtraining for most people, especially ‘slightly older’ natural trainers?

5. What's a general rule to follow as far as number of sets per bodypart? Like I said, I don't want to over train, but I don't want to under train either.

I know that the split I set up might be the best, but I need a schedule that can be somewhat flexible. Since I live in the ‘real world’ and have other things to do besides workout, I need to be able to grab my workouts when I can, be it in the evening, morning or afternoon. I want to get them in, I just have a hard time planning on exactly when I’ll be lifting. Funny how a family & kids and a career do that to you, lol.

Looks ok, you would have to post your parameters for any suggestions on your set/rep volume and load.

When i do a split, each bodypart once per week, i try to get 6 to 9 sets on smaller muscles and 9 to 12 on the larger groups. That's using traditional hypertropy training IE 3x8, 3x10, 3x12 etc.

Welcome to JSF, but please don't cross-post. ;)

And read gtx's reply, its much better.:nod:

Thanks for taking a look at my post. I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself and ask a few questions. I’m so glad that I found this forum. I haven’t had the time to look around in great detail, but so far everything looks great. I'm 38 years old, 6'1", 182#, 21% bodyfat (according to my weight/bodyfat scale). I need a productive, flexible workout that I can be do while still having time for parental duties, work/home responsibilities, and "me time". My goals are to gain some muscle and loose body fat as well.

Would you folks mind taking a look at the program I put together for myself? The idea behind my split is that I can lift three days in a row and not work the same bodyparts, or even upper body parts, i.e. working chest (and shoulders indirectly) on Day 1 and then back (and shoulders again indirectly) on Day 2. This split will be giving each part about a one week rest before they get hit again, directly. Many times when I work legs hard, I can’t work them again for 5-6 days anyway.

Day 1: chest/back

Day 2: legs/abs

Day 3: arms/shoulders/traps


Now for the specific questions:
1. Do you have to work a bodypart more than twice a week in order for it to grow? I'm 38 so I don't recover nearly as quickly as someone who's 18 or 20, keep in mind.

2. What do you think of my suggested schedule? Any improvements you can think of?

3. If you have any other ideas for my schedule, please let me know. The Fri, Sat, Sun seems to be working for me time wise, but I want to get the most out of my time lifting. I definitely don’t want to spend my time on a program that will just leave me spinning my wheels.

4. I know some people will advocate hitting each bodypart twice a week, but isn't that overtraining for most people, especially ‘slightly older’ natural trainers?

5. What's a general rule to follow as far as number of sets per bodypart? Like I said, I don't want to over train, but I don't want to under train either.

I know that the split I set up might be the best, but I need a schedule that can be somewhat flexible. Since I live in the ‘real world’ and have other things to do besides workout, I need to be able to grab my workouts when I can, be it in the evening, morning or afternoon. I want to get them in, I just have a hard time planning on exactly when I’ll be lifting. Funny how a family & kids and a career do that to you, lol.


1. No need to train a bodypart more than twice every week. Your body needs time to recover and overtraining will hurt possible growth.

2. Alot of possible schedules will be ok...You must try a few alternatives and decide what works for you...

3. Personally I prefer " Day 1 = arms, shoulders, chest" and " Day 2 = legs, back". And training 4 days/week..I´m training abs at home other days. Often a few minutes after cardio.

4. Each bodypart twice every week can be fine...I´m 39 and it works for me...But it´s individualistic. It depends on your genetics and fitness level and on other things also...Not possible to give any general advice for everyone...You will have to try it and decide if it works.

5. That depends on alot of things...There are more than one possible way to do it..I often do 4X4 and two exercises for each bodypart...And I also lift as heavy as possible every set..so that I often fail the last rep in set 3 and 4. Some people prefer to do 3X8, 3X10, 3X12 and use somewhat lighter weights...I dont like that but it might work for other people. In general..if you lift heavy weights you will get stronger, your muscles will have to adapt and will get bigger...But you must train hard and really push things for that to work as intended.

And also..your diet will be very important...You will need to eat healthy clean food and 5-7 meals/day. At least for best results...

:gl: