So I'm trying to come up with a split that fits my lack of equipment at my apartment and seperates the muscles to give them plenty of rest.

I'm thinking of doing a split like this.

Sun: Chest/Hamstrings
Mon: Back/Calves
Tues: Off/Abs
Wed: Shoulders/Triceps
Thurs: Quads/Biceps
Fri: off/abs
Sat: off/abs

I'm hoping that this will give enough rest between chest and shoulders and back and abs to prevent overtraining as well as allowing me to hit them harder. I don't have room in my apartment for a bench, but I have one at my parents so I do bench on sunday when I'm there to do laundry. :P

I'm a skinny guy, but I do carry some fat on me. But right now I just want to put on muscle.

How long have you been working out because with a split like that you have to go ape shit on the weights to get gains since you are working each body part once a week. I think Arnold has a great split in his encyclopedia of body building. If I remember correctly this is how it goes (and also what I'm currently on)

Mon/Thurs- Chest/Back
Tues/Fri-Shoulders/Arms
Wed/Sat- Lower Back/ Legs
Sun- Off

Abs everyday at this point doing 5 sets of 25 crunches but alternating each day between regular and reverse.

GOOD LUCK :tu:

Working a muscle group once a week is a common way to do it. One doesn't have to "go ape shit" on the weights doing so, nor should they ever have to; doing so, in most cases, would be a great weight to hinder your progress.

With the way I train, high intensity and maximum overload, I would not do more than 10 work sets per week per muscle group with either split. Your training principles will dictate how many sets you need to do.

So, my advice is that your split is good, just figure out how many sets your body can handle and recover from in the allowed time.

*I'm defining "going ape shit" as doing an exorbitant amount of sets.

EriktheRed:
I'm not naturally inclined to having a large amount of muscle, in fact...I'm naturally pretty weak. Everything I've read seems to indicate if you're a hard gainer, less is more. Working muscles once a week intensely is ideal, so thats what my plan goes around. Muscles are actually probably worked once directly and once indirectly a week though, at least for upper body with this split.

Although everyone has different things that work for them, some people can benefit from working muscles more often. I just really don't think I'm one of them.

Right now, I'm just eating like a horse and lifting with a routine sort of borrowed from Max-OT. I do the 3 warmup sets and then just do 4-6rep work sets for the rest of the routine. Since the chest is going to get hit again somewhat on shoulder/tri day for instance I haven't been doing totally exhausting stuff like drop sets or anything.

chica: do you think I shouldn't go overboard on number of sets for chest day since it'll get hit again a little with dips for instance on shoulder/tri day? Right now I'm doing like 7-8 work sets.

EriktheRed:
I'm not naturally inclined to having a large amount of muscle, in fact...I'm naturally pretty weak. Everything I've read seems to indicate if you're a hard gainer, less is more. Working muscles once a week intensely is ideal, so thats what my plan goes around. Muscles are actually probably worked once directly and once indirectly a week though, at least for upper body with this split.

Although everyone has different things that work for them, some people can benefit from working muscles more often. I just really don't think I'm one of them.

Right now, I'm just eating like a horse and lifting with a routine sort of borrowed from Max-OT. I do the 3 warmup sets and then just do 4-6rep work sets for the rest of the routine. Since the chest is going to get hit again somewhat on shoulder/tri day for instance I haven't been doing totally exhausting stuff like drop sets or anything.

chica: do you think I shouldn't go overboard on number of sets for chest day since it'll get hit again a little with dips for instance on shoulder/tri day? Right now I'm doing like 7-8 work sets.

With tricep dips, your chest will get very little involvement. Chest dips it will be heavily involved. And bench dips there will be moderate to little involvement.

I'd recommend, if you're going to follow Max-OT, you follow it completely, warm-up as well as rules (4-6 reps most of the time, 6-9 work sets, 2:30-3:00 rest, etc.); it's designed to work.

That's a really interesting split, I'm curious to know how it works for you. The only downside I'd see to it is that with the way you've mixed upper and lower body on most days, you've picked muscle groups that don't compliment each other, with the exception of Shoulders/Triceps day.

For instance, some people like to do back and biceps on the same day, mostly because almost all back excercises also work the biceps. Once you do two full sets of back excercises, your biceps are warmed up and ready to go full force. By picking Chest/Hamstrings then, you are forced to warm up 2 sets of muscles seperately, and the excercises for each don't compliment the other at all.

I used to go:

Tuesday - Pecs, Forearms
Thursday - Quads, Calves, Delts
Friday - Hams, Tris
Sunday - Bis, Back

There's nothing wrong with warming up twice. It's not as efficient to do things this way, but you go in a lot more focused. For example, you aren't working your chest and shoulders and triceps, you're working chest or shoulders or triceps; since the groups are unrelated it's like two workouts back to back with one single specific focus per workout.

I gained well with it, but it definitely was set-up poorly. I would definitely do the same type of thing again, but I would do it in a better way. So, it's smart training, not as much your split, that will get you gains.

slush_puppy: The muscle groups not complimenting eachother was actually intentional. I may have to warmup twice, which is somewhat inefficient, but I wanted to be able to hit the muscles harder.

I used to do a chest/shoulders/tri day on sunday for instance. But it just never worked, I don't have the stamina for it. After a good chest workout, my upper body is kind of tired. Then my shoulder workout is kind of sloppy, and by the time I start triceps I'm all done...I'd do a couple crappy sets and just didn't have any good intensity.

I felt like I was really short changing my shoulders and triceps, so I sort of did some experimenting the last few weeks to decide on a new split to start on and this is what I came up with.

I should point out legs aren't the focus of my workout. I train them to help my upper body and not let them get out of shape, not because I want them any bigger. I don't have a squat rack anyway, I just have my girlfriend sit on my shoulders and I do squats with her as resistance. She's gonna have to start gaining some weight though because she's not really enough resistance anymore! :D

slush_puppy: The muscle groups not complimenting eachother was actually intentional. I may have to warmup twice, which is somewhat inefficient, but I wanted to be able to hit the muscles harder.
Cool, I see what you and chicanerous are getting at. I hadn't thought to try something like that before... gonna keep it in mind for the next time I change up my routine.

Sorry if I gave any wrong info. I was basing it off Arnolds Encyclopedia for bodybuilding. In his beginner 1 and 2 workouts he has you doing each group 2-3 times a week and says this is beneficial and how it should be done when gaining mass. Once the mass ig gained and you want to work on doing things like cutting up and focusing on specific exercises. Then you can. Act ually let me get it.


This is what Arnold says.
Level I BAsic Training (for putting on mass when you begin working out) Each muscle twice a week
Mon, Thur- Chest, Back
Bench Press
Incline Press
Pullovers
Chinups(as many at a time until you reach 50)
Bent-over Rows
Deadlifts

Tue.Fri- Shoulders Uper arms/ Forearms
Barbell clean and press
Dumbbell lateral raises
Heavy upright rows
Push presses
Upper arms- Standing barbell curls
Seated dumbbell curls
Close-grip press
Standing triceps extensions
Wrist curls
Reverse wrist curls

Wed/Sat- Thighs, Calves, Lower back
Squats
Lunges
Leg Cruls
Standing calf raises
Straight leg deadlifts
Good mornings

Sun- off



Basice Training Level II
Each muscle three times a week

Mon, Wed, Fri- Chest, back thighs, calves

Tue, Thurs, Sat- Shoulders, Lower Back, Upper arms, Forearms

Sun- Off


After this muslce is built which can take from 1 year to five years he then recommends moving to a more advance training system which works each muscle once a week.

A big problem is that people jump in to training by looking around the gym and doing the exercises that the jacked up guys are doing. This isn't beneficial. When you first start working out and building muscle you build quicker than any other time and your body will recover faster so use this to your potential and GOOD LUCK!! :tu:

I don't think you have the wrong info or anything Erik, but there's tons of different training philosophies and points of view out there. Some say high reps some say low reps for instance, etc, etc. None of it is right or wrong really, because it must work for some one. But everyone is different. And I love reading about different points of view because it keeps me thinking.

I'm a beginner and have an ectomorph build (thats the skinny guy one right?) so I sort of modeled my routine with my own body in mind. Arnold is cool, but I'm just not sure his programs would really work best for me. He has a larger body type than I do, and I'd never be able to acheive what he has. That's ok, its not really my goal to be Arnold anyway.

I thought Anthony Ellis' website had some good info about eating, lifting heavy, etc. But I tried his pyramiding 3 day split workout and it just wasn't working for me the way I liked, so I borrowed some principles and came up with my own plan. If it doesn't work out, I'll scrap or modify it.

In arnolds book, he talks about ectomorphs, endomorphs and mesomorphs and explains how each person should handle it. Since you are lucky enough to be a beginner. I would try the split and work out like crazy. Here is his ectomorph advice

The extomorphs first objective is gaining weight, preferably in the form of quality muscle mass. He will not have the strength and endurance for marathon training sessions, will find that muscle mass develops very slowly, and will often have to force himself to eat enough to ensure continued growth. There for I (Arnold) recommend:

1.Include plenty of power moves for a program that builds maximum mass. Your program should tend toward heavy weight and low reps (6-8 rep range after proper warm up-.

2. Learn to train intensely and make every set count. That way you can keep your workouts relatively short and still maek substantial gains. (perhaps 14-16 sets per major body part rather than 16-20. Make sure to get enough rest between sets and give yourself enough time to recuperate between workouts.

3. Pay careful attention to nutrition; take in more calories than you are accustomed to, and if necessary, use eweight-gain and protein drinks to supplement your food intake.

4. Remember, you are trying rto trun food energy into mass, so be careful not to burn up too much energy with excessive amounts of other activities such as aerobics, running, swimming, and other sport. Some cardio exercise is both desirable and necessary for good health, but anyone who spends hours a day expending large amounts of physical energy outside the gym will have a lot more trouble building muslce while in the gym.

His philosophy is that it is for everyone. regardless how often you work out. I think yo should def. go heavy, low reps but I"m just a silly endo morph.

Good LUCK!
:tu:

The extomorphs first objective is gaining weight, preferably in the form of quality muscle mass. He will not have the strength and endurance for marathon training sessions, will find that muscle mass develops very slowly, and will often have to force himself to eat enough to ensure continued growth.

Even what Arnold says may not work for everyone.

I'm an ectomorph.

I train heavy with low reps, Max-OT style with the lower end of the 6-9 sets per muscle group rule. For most body parts, I use only one or two exercises. I gain mass relatively easy.

In regards to diet, I eat one main meal a day with a lot of meat, and then snack on carb and sugar rich candy, poptarts, and granola bars all the rest of the day. I have a bowl of cereal when I wake up. I eat when I'm hungry, and don't make myself eat more than I would like.

So, the moral of the story is to do what works for you and don't take too much stock in someone else's advice, but if you believe it will help you, incorporate it and try it.