An Elementary Approach to Designing a New Routine
My current goal is to thicken abdominal muscles and lats, and tighten my adductors. I wanted to develop a four day routine, hitting legs twice weekly–quads one day and hamstring/adductors the second day. This summer I made a smooth transition from working with a personal trainer to training independently until I lost my workout log about 2 weeks ago. It contained most of the weight training routines I did with my trainer–guess it was my crutch. Needless to say I was devastated and surprisingly dumbfounded because of my sruggle to design a new routine based on my current goal. As I reviewed articles in Fitness Oxygen and on the Bodybuilding.com website I realized that I knew the "how to’s" to various exercises, but not the why’s. The why is important information, and should drive the routine, eleminate duplicate activity, and create enough of a challenge to strengthen and shape targeted areas. Fitness Oxygen’s September ‘08 issue offered some great leg supersets that hopefully will help me get more definition in the adductors and flush out the "tear drop effect". My friend loaned me his copy of Delavier’s Strength Training Anatomy, which is a great illustrated guide to strength training. He also helped me with selecting back exercises that will provide greater definition and thickening of my lats. Additionally, we revised my arm, shoulder and chest routine. The abs exercise selection are an ongoing process, but they are a part of the regular routine.
I am still learning about the anatomy and its connection to compound and isolated exercises, but at least I’ve begun the process. The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know….I guess that’s true with everything.
Here’s my current routine:
M: Legs: Plie squats, stiff legged deadlifts, hamstring curl, reverse lunges. Shoulders: upright rows, bent over lat raises, front raises.
T: Back: chin ups, pull downs, t-bar rows, cable rows, standing v-bar rows. Biceps: barbell curls, incline bicep curls, 21’s.
Th: Chest: incline press, cable crossover. Triceps: weighted dips & pushdowns, tricep extensions, overhead extensions, kickbacks.
F: Legs: leg extensions & leg press (superset), barbell squats, lunges, abductor machine.
Abs: three to four days a week & interval cardio 4 x’s weekly.
This routine will have to change in two weeks because I am going back to work so I’ll have to try to work up a 3 day routine.
