Hi. I am a new member to T-Nation.

I've been lifting for around a year. I stand around 5'8. I started off around 145 pounds at around 7-8% bf mainly due to kickboxing and crazy metabolism. With the help of protein shakes, lifting, and eating like mad I was able to reach a high of 189 pounds. However, I missed the lean feeling, so I decided to cut weight. Now, I'm at 170 pounds at slightly less then 15% bf.

I am looking for a new program. They recently built a new 24-hour fitness gym literally two blocks from my house. I want to take as much advantage of it as I can. So I can go to the gym whenever I want.

I am looking for a 3 day split because I think that program is the best for me. I am thinking of doing 3 sets of 8.

Day 1 - Chest/Shoulders

Day 2 - Back/Biceps/Triceps

Day 3 - Legs/Abs

Day 4 - Rest

(Repeat)

What exercises would you recommend for this program?

Goals: I want to max bench press (at least 1.5 x body weight), max olympic squat (at least 2x body weight) and max olympic deadlift (at least 2x body weight) because those are the main strength exercises. I don't care too much about how much I weigh as long as I have a low bf% (less then 10%). If I can do all these things, then I guess I just want to look the best I can after that. Function comes first. Fashion comes later.

My diet consists mainly of:

Breakfast:
A cup of yogurt, bowl of oatmeal.

Lunch:
Salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi. (Parents own a japanese restaurant). Some seaweed. Some hot sauce since I don't use soy sauce. No rice. A cup of miso soup. And some steamed brocolli.

Snack:
Energy bar

Dinner:
Some kind of lean meat. Usually chicken. And some vegetables.

I'll usually have a snack after I workout. I'm sure I should eat more if I want to gain weight, but I am looking to lose 5 to 10 pounds but still GET BIGGER. I know that this is a bodybuilding forum.

I drink around 4-6 bottles of water a day. Depending how hard I workout. I've also been taking a fat burner 3x a day.


- So please add any suggestions or criticisms (especially with the workout program). I am here to learn. I'm sorry for writing so much, but I thought every information might be helpful. If we come up with a good program, and diet then I might even take pictures and do a journal. I'm kind of lazy when it comes to that stuff though. Lol.

Read the beginner's stickies and pick one from there.

Also, you are eating like a 12 year old girl, even if you are trying to lean out a little you have to eat like it.

http://www.T-Nation.com/...e.do?id=1793585
TESTOSTERONE NATION - Nutrition for Newbies, Part 1

http://www.T-Nation.com/...e.do?id=1795045
TESTOSTERONE NATION - Nutrition for Newbies, Part 2

What exercises would you recommend for this program?

Goals: I want to max bench press (at least 1.5 x body weight), max olympic squat (at least 2x body weight) and max olympic deadlift (at least 2x body weight) because those are the main strength exercises. I don't care too much about how much I weigh as long as I have a low bf% (less then 10%). If I can do all these things, then I guess I just want to look the best I can after that. Function comes first. Fashion comes later.

Excellent
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/...ad.php?t=998224

Excellent #2
http://stronglifts.com/...aining-program/

thanks a lot. I used to eat 5 meals a day pretty large size. Even though my diet seems small, my dinner is much bigger then almost every person I know. I'm going to try to split it into two meals. Thanks for the tips guys.

I did Ripptoe's 5x5 workout for almost a year. That's where I gained over 40 pounds in one year. (I average 1 pound gain a year before that for the last 6 years before that). Well I was definately gaining in size, including moving from medium shirts to large shirts. Some part of me still felt "bloated."

I would like to be strong proportionately to my body weight, and gain size without gaining much weight. I'm sure that's impossible though because you can't gain strength without gaining weight, right?

IMO a better split (and the one I'm sort of doing) would be:

Day 1: Chest/Back
Day 2: Legs/Shoulders abs
Day 3: Biceps/Triceps
Day 4: OFF

Your Tri's will be spent if you do them after Chest!


Can't tell what your ultimate goal is, but if attaining max efforts in your lifts is the primary goal, bring the rep range down from 3x8 to something like 5x5.

and don't forget to do 30 mins light cardio post workouts to get that BF% down!

Try WS4SB http://www.T-Nation.com/...ic.do?id=459321

G-men27 wrote:
IMO a better split (and the one I'm sort of doing) would be:

Day 1: Chest/Back
Day 2: Legs/Shoulders abs
Day 3: Biceps/Triceps
Day 4: OFF

Your Tri's will be spent if you do them after Chest!


Can't tell what your ultimate goal is, but if attaining max efforts in your lifts is the primary goal, bring the rep range down from 3x8 to something like 5x5.

and don't forget to do 30 mins light cardio post workouts to get that BF% down!



So you are suggesting that he train shoulders the day after Chest? Did you know your shoulders and tris, get pretty well stimulated on chest day? Then train Triceps again the day after shoulders? Your tri's will be spent after you do chest, therefore you won't stimulate your shoulders as optimally as you could, then you are going to try and train them again?

Stick to rippetoes and a sound diet.

inspector_yoo wrote:
I did Ripptoe's 5x5 workout for almost a year. That's where I gained over 40 pounds in one year. (I average 1 pound gain a year before that for the last 6 years before that). Well I was definately gaining in size, including moving from medium shirts to large shirts. Some part of me still felt "bloated."

I would like to be strong proportionately to my body weight, and gain size without gaining much weight. I'm sure that's impossible though because you can't gain strength without gaining weight, right?

If you gained 40lbs in a year, why not do it again?

You can't gain size without gaining weight. That's like saying "I want to get bigger, without actually getting bigger." If you grow in size you'll probably get heavier, who cares what the scale says?

You can get stronger without getting larger.

I will try to describe what I am looking for since I didn't describe my ultimate goal that well. I have always had an interest in martial arts (particularly Muay thai). I did it for a little over a year, but had to quit because of college. After I graduate (about six months left), I want to go back into it. I was a very lean, skinny guy when I did it but I felt like I was lacking a lot of strength.

Ultimate goal:
I would like to stay somewhere between 165 and 175 pounds w/ the lowest bf % that I can attain, and good overall strength (tested by exercises like squats, deadlifts, and benchpresses).

I know it will be hard to gain strength without gaining weight. This is true. I am much stronger now then I was before. However, if I gain too much weight, then it will put me at the bottom of another weight class. I figure that 165-175 pounds would be a very good weight for me during the off-season and if I ever thought of amateur competing, then I could lose a little.

This is why I think the 3x8 split is better for me then any 5x5 workout programs. However, if all I was looking for was to gain size, and strength and bulk up then I would definitely choose a 5x5 workout. I came to this website because you guys know the best workouts and programs that will help me attain my goals and my favorite way of losing some body fat is my building more muscle.

P.S. - Is it bad to take protein shakes while taking a fat burner? I'm going to try to take a protein shake every night, but if it contradicts with my fat burner then I won't take it.

Once again, thanks for all your comments guys.

I have also decided to change my split according to your posts by:

Pre-workout: Abs, and stretches

Day 1 - Chest (3 sets of 8)
- cable crossovers
- flat dumbbell bench press (as warmups for the barbell, with really, really light weight)
- incline dumbbell bench press (as warmups for the barbell, with really, really light weight)
- flat barbell bench press
- incline barbell bench press
- dips

Day 2 - Legs/Back (3 sets of 8)
- Squats
- Leg extensions
- Leg press
- Calf raises
- I forgot what it's called, but it works the upper back
- Cable rows
- Deadlift (maybe just 1 set since I'm squatting the same day)


Day 3 - Shoulders/Biceps/Triceps (3 sets of 8)
- Shoulder press
- Exercise where you lift the dumbbell straight up with palms facing down
- Shoulder shrugs
- Preacher curl
- Incline dumbbell curl
- Skullcrushers
- Tricep pull down

Day 4 - Rest
Post-workout: Light jog for 5-15 minutes

This might sound like too many exercises. This is basically Ripptoe's 5x5 workout splitted into sections, with more repetitions but less sets. I had to add a few arm workouts, but not too many. Just two for biceps, two for triceps.


If protein shakes don't affect my diet then I will look into something like this:

Breakfast - oatmeal, and yogurt

Lunch - sushi sashimi, steamed vegetables

Snack - (not sure yet. something small like a energy bar and yogurt. or eggs and banana. etc.)

Dinner - lean meat, vegetables

Snack - Protein shake


Change whatever you think is necessary. I will look at other programs for review.

Pondering on your advices, I decided to change my workout program, and edit my diet. I will try to dedicate myself to this as best as I can. I will be doing a 5x5 program that I found on this forum.

A:

squat (5x5)
bench press (5x5)
barbell row (5x5)
dips (3xFailure)

B:

squat (5x5)
overhead press (5x5)
deadlift (5x5)
dips (3xFailure)


Week 1: Day 1 - A, Day 3 - B, Day 5 - A
Week 2: Day 1 - B, Day 3 - A, Day 5 - B

I will do some abs before workout, and do some light running after each workout. I might do some cardio during the off days.

I did workout A last Saturday. Here's what I did.

current weight: 173 (after dinner, and protein shake)

squat:
185 x 5, 195 x 5, 205 x 5, 215 x 5, 225 x 5
bench press:
165 x 5, 175 x 5, 185 x 5, 205 x 5, 205 x 5
barbell row:
110 x 5, 120 x 5 , 130 x 5, 140 x 5, 150 x 5
dips (no weight):
1 x 21, 1 x 16, 1 x 15

I think I did ok. It was doable, but I can't really imagine adding much more weight. I'll try to push hard. Just trying to get back into building more strength.