Lifting Routine Critique

Wookinpanub
Wookinpanub Posts: 635 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Looking for advice on type of lifts and frequency of muscle group targeted per week. My goal is weight loss with improving muscle definition. My routine since March/April has been:

Monday: Cardio, back - lat pull down & seat row both on Cybex cable machines. These are the cable machines that have an old school look not the machines with the smooth movements.

Tues: Cardio, arms - arm curls with curl bar & tricep overhead extension on Cybex cable cross over set up - only using one of the cables with a rope.

Wednesday: Cardio, chest - cable crossovers & flat bench on Smith Machine. Just tried dumbbell incline press and incline bench press instead of Smith Machine for first time this week

Thursday: Cardio, shoulders and traps - machine military press and machine shoulder extension with extra high lift for traps. Shoulder shrugs with weight plate to work traps.

Friday - repeat Monday's routine

Saturday - Cardio, potpourri but usually focus on chest with more cable cross overs and dips.

The next week I will start on a different muscle group so that group is hit twice that week. So once ever 4 weeks a muscle group is hit twice a week. My cardio is an Arc Trainer which works my legs pretty good. I also do some body and light dumbbell squats mixed in.

My chest is my biggest weak area. Should I be hitting that more frequently per week and scraping another (maybe back?)?

Replies

  • Unknown
    Unknown
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  • Wookinpanub
    Wookinpanub Posts: 635 Member
    Thanks - I'll have to look cheat curls up. Do you thinking I am hitting everything to infrequently? I only have limited time.
  • Walter__
    Walter__ Posts: 518 Member
    Looks quite ineffective due to the lack of frequency. You are dedicating one single day to doing just one or two exercises. All the exercises that you've listed for an entire week could literally be done in a single workout session in one day.

    You should also stick to free weight exercises as much as possible for your compound lifts. Smith machines will lock you into an unnatural moving pattern throughout the lift. Ditch them and stick with free weights.
  • Wookinpanub
    Wookinpanub Posts: 635 Member
    Looks quite ineffective due to the lack of frequency. You are dedicating one single day to doing just one or two exercises. All the exercises that you've listed for an entire week could literally be done in a single workout session in one day.

    You should also stick to free weight exercises as much as possible for your compound lifts. Smith machines will lock you into an unnatural moving pattern throughout the lift. Ditch them and stick with free weights.

    Thanks - I only have about 15-25 minutes each morning to lift after my cardio and stretching. I am beginning to use free weights more.
  • DavidSTC
    DavidSTC Posts: 173 Member
    Looks quite ineffective due to the lack of frequency. You are dedicating one single day to doing just one or two exercises. All the exercises that you've listed for an entire week could literally be done in a single workout session in one day.

    You should also stick to free weight exercises as much as possible for your compound lifts. Smith machines will lock you into an unnatural moving pattern throughout the lift. Ditch them and stick with free weights.

    Thanks - I only have about 15-25 minutes each morning to lift after my cardio and stretching. I am beginning to use free weights more.

    What if you didn't do cardio a few times a week and instead just did strength training those days. You can still burn a lot of calories with strength training. Since I've dedicated more time to strength training, I've increased my metabolism quite a bit. And, by skipping the cardio, you'll have more energy to dedicate to lifting for a more intense workout. I know that the "calories burned" numbers don't look as impressive if you sub weight training for cardio, but I still believe that MFP's numbers way over-estimate how much you burn in cardio exercises.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    Looks quite ineffective due to the lack of frequency. You are dedicating one single day to doing just one or two exercises. All the exercises that you've listed for an entire week could literally be done in a single workout session in one day.

    You should also stick to free weight exercises as much as possible for your compound lifts. Smith machines will lock you into an unnatural moving pattern throughout the lift. Ditch them and stick with free weights.

    Thanks - I only have about 15-25 minutes each morning to lift after my cardio and stretching. I am beginning to use free weights more.

    In that case, some version of Starting Strength sounds like it might be ideal for you - 3 sets of 5 reps for 3 exercises (1 set of 5 for deadlift).

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