help me steamline my work out program!
 

so even though i'm pretty knowledgable about the whole health exercise thing, i have a horrible time applying it to myself.

my problem right now is that i don't want to be spending much time lifting, and while i can be in and out with my legs/lower back in less than 30 minutes, upper body seems to be taking about an hour, which i don't like.

right now i do 4 sets of each exercise, one is a warmup, with either just the bar (no wieghts added) or if a machine with really low weight. then i do 3 real sets.

normally i do:
bench
lat pulldown
tricep pressdown
barbell curls
military press
shoulder shrugs

now, i realize that i could get rid of the tri's and bi's exercise since they're hit by the chest and back stuff, but i never feel like they get a good workout otherwise. i've even started doing some of them as supersets in order to speed things up, but i'd rather condense things as much as possible.

any suggestions?

I dunno man, I would be kinda hesitant to try and rush all of that. You may end up hurting yourself.

isn't the general wisdom to do back/biceps and chest/triceps on alternating days? so do these (and any others) together:

bench
military press
tricep pressdown

and alternate with these:

lat pulldown
barbell curls
shoulder shrugs (not sure exactly where this fits but I'll throw it on this side)

I'd also do pullups of various types on back/bi days and dips on chest/tri days.

general wisdom is a bitch. i like push/pull days, but i don't have time to spend three days in the weight room, i'm doing it in two right now, one day for legs, the other for upperbody.

is there some compound lift that i'm missing that will hit my shoulders hard when i'm doing something else? like bench doesn't seem to get my delts too much, just the anterior portion. lat pull downs doesn't seem to do anything for my post. delts. maybe if i used the t-bar instead?

is there anyway to reduce the muberof different exercises i do on my upper body day? it looks to me right now that the push/pull day that you're suggesting may be the only way.

with 2 days, can you split the legs days and do push/legs1 and then pull/legs2?

I'm not nearly enough of an expert to know if there's a magical lift that will solve your problem, but variety certainly isn't going to hurt. :)

i've toyed with that in the past. but right now for my legs day i just do squats, calf raises, hyperextentions, and maybe throw something else in if i feel like one of the muscle groups wasn't hit hard enough. i'm in and out in less than 30. i'm afraid i just may have to figure out how to add an extra day.

I'm surprised that it takes so long to get through that workout. I do that, plus a few and I'm done within 45 min.

I'd say lose the warm-up lift. Warm-up serves two purposes, one to get your muscles to "get" the motion you're about to take, it helps with technique so you don't screw up with the heavy weight. If you've been doing this routine for even a little while your muscles should know how to do it already. Second is to get the blood flowing, a quick shakeout and stretch would do that for you.

Don't wait long between sets, 1 minute at most.

How many reps are you doing per set? and what are your muscle building/fitness goals?

Since you are dead set in doing a 2 day split, I would suggest doing the same exercises but splitting it differently. A couple of weeks ago I was forced into a 2 day split and I did back/legs/bi & chest/shoulder/tri. And it was a fast workout. The exercises I did were:

Back / Leg / Bi
Chin ups - wide grip
Dead lifts
Squats
Seated Row
Hammer Curls
Calf Raises.

Chest / Shoulder / Tri
Bench
Military Press
Dips
Fly
Dumbell shoulder Press
Tricep extensions

Just kept the pace up didn't take long between sets. Only did a warm up set for the first exercise of each muscle group. Went heavy with low reps. I was out in under 45 mins per day.

Hope that helps out!

i think i'll trying skipping the warm up lifts, see how taht cuts things down. i already spend less than a minute inbetween sets.

i'm doing them to failure, which is 8-10. i'm just getting back in shape, not trying to get bulked up, i'm more concerned with cariovascular fitness than strength training.

hmm... this sounds promising... i think i'll try the split this way next week, see how it goes. thanks for the suggestion!

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

if you're not looking to bulk, than don't go to failure. You are working too many body parts n one workout, to be pushing them that hard. You are going to suffer from overtraining, and end up hurting yourself and / or make no gains. Cut-out the warmup, decrease your weight a bit, go 10 reps, 3 sets....in a circuit type training environment. That should cut down the time, and increase the results (for that many body parts, you are looking close to an hour at the gym for a good workout)

like everyone else said you should lose the warm up just spint from you car to the gym- it'll save you time too.

Use dumbells- it will hit more muscles and you don't have to take various weights on and off and when your benching with dumbells you can avoid taking the time to track down a spotter.

try incline bench and dips- mix it up a bit.
also less reps and more weight will make you stronger in less time-

you could lift light with tons of reps and it isn't going to help your cardio as much as running 5 -10 wind sprints

you ought to do more reps if you are into cardio more than bulking. it's really hard to do. the last few reps are killer when you do sets of 25. plus, you'll lose fat if that's what you're trying to do. not where the muscles are but all over of course. everyone knows you can't spot reduce fat!! as if!

Only 30 minutes for legs? :eek: Damn, you must squat quick!

Another reason for your upper body taking so long is because there's more to it. Chest, back, biceps, triceps, shoulders, traps, etc.

Legs is (usually) composed of 3 huge parts: thighs, hamstrings, and calves.

Squats take care of the first two, with calf raises taking care of the third.

A suggestion is to only do one warm-up for the main muscle you're working (like if you're doing chest/tri's do 1 or 2 high rep bench presses), then go at it for real. No need (IMO) to warm up your chest, triceps, and shoulders independently.

However, what works for me may not work for you.

EDIT:

I too am cutting weight, and I just do a really intensive 45 minute workout.

I'm in the gym 3 days a week, Monday being chest, Wednesday back, and Friday legs.

Monday I do:

Incline benchpress 5x5 (warm up 20 quick reps with bar, 15 with 95, 12 with 105)
Flat benchpress 5x5
Incline flyes 5x7

Military press 5x5
Lateral raises 5x7

Close grip benchpress 5x5
Skullcrushers 5x5


Wednesday I do:
Chin-ups 3 sets until failure
Deaflifts 5x5
Bent over barbell row 5x5

Incline lateral raises (for rear delts)

Curls 5x5
Hammer curls 5x7

So basically I keep it short and sweet and real, real heavy.

Again, it works for me.