Uninspired

[Jupiter]

Hi. I don't post often, coz between work, study, family and training I get very little time at my poor neglected computer. But, I'm ill today, so I've got all the time in the world.

I came home from the gym the other night feeling like I'd hardly trained at all. At the time, it felt good, I was happy with the weight I was lifting, but when I got home I felt I could have gone and done it all again.

I'm training to be a gym instructor in the summer, so I've been reading a lot of theory, but I can't even put together a good programme for myself.

One other question, if you don't mind, for various reasons I've decided to stop dedicated ab training for a while. What alternatives would work my abs the best?

Thanks for reading
Jupiter

[Hawkwind]

Sorry to hear that you don't feel well. Healing thoughts going out for you.

If you came home feeling like you could do it all again. Then it sounds to me as if you need to challenge your body more.

What does your routine look like now?
How many days are you training?
How many reps and sets are you doing?

As for putting together your own routine. Heck...it took me years of training to be able to do that. I started lifting when I was in my late teens and have pretty much been at it ever since. I didn't feel capable of putting together my own routine until after I had spent some time training with a former Mrs Massachusetts. And since that time many things have changed and I've had to adjust my training for various reasons. Sometimes I hit my needs 'dead on' and other times I had to toss out a routine I put together within days of starting it.

What exactly do you mean as 'dedicated' ab work. What was your ab routine like? I only tend to do enough ab work to balance out my lower back work. A strong core is integral to heavy lifting and in the prevention of injury so some ab work is always a necessary 'evil'. (I hate ab work! But I will do it!)

I feel that a lot of people overload themselves with ab work and then get burned out.

[Jupiter]

Hi Hawkwind, I guess my first post wasn't that clear! I train at the local leisure centre, so my programme seems to be the generic one they use for everyone who walks through the door.

Bicep curl
Overhead tricep curl
Lat pulldown
Leg press
Shoulder press
Bench press
One arm row

I do that 3 times a week (along with 20/30 mins cardio). 2 sets, 15 reps. I have kinda messed around with my own programme, but it never really felt right.

The problem I have with my abs is they are separated. I actually love ab work, my abs are solid, I love the feeling of my waist being practically razor sharp (poss. a bit of an exaggeration there). But there's a 2 finger width gap, which seems to be spreading lower. After juggling to find the best ab circuit I wondered if doing nothing for a while would at least halt the crevice getting any wider. I've seen other posts on different sites that mention rock hard abs with no crunches, but nothing specific.

Hope this gives you a better picture, and I hope you can give me a little help.
Jupiter

[Hawkwind]

Originally Posted by Jupiter

Hi Hawkwind, I guess my first post wasn't that clear! I train at the local leisure centre, so my programme seems to be the generic one they use for everyone who walks through the door.

Bicep curl
Overhead tricep curl
Lat pulldown
Leg press
Shoulder press
Bench press
One arm row

I do that 3 times a week (along with 20/30 mins cardio). 2 sets, 15 reps. I have kinda messed around with my own programme, but it never really felt right.

The problem I have with my abs is they are separated. I actually love ab work, my abs are solid, I love the feeling of my waist being practically razor sharp (poss. a bit of an exaggeration there). But there's a 2 finger width gap, which seems to be spreading lower. After juggling to find the best ab circuit I wondered if doing nothing for a while would at least halt the crevice getting any wider. I've seen other posts on different sites that mention rock hard abs with no crunches, but nothing specific.

Hope this gives you a better picture, and I hope you can give me a little help.
Jupiter

Well no wonder you are uninspired! I would be yawning by now as well!
So basically you are doing a generic full body workout three times a week. Yep...very 'beginner' stuff.

Okay, so let me ask you this:
You already know that you want to limit ab work. No problem...just be sure to engage those abs for stability. I make sure to do a couple sets of some sort of ab work such as V-ups or hanging leg raises at least once a week.

What do you want to improve on your body?
Legs? Back?

Do you have free weights and machines where you train?

You can replace/swap out all of the work you are doing now.
For example I would replace/swap out:
Leg press with squats
One arm row with seated cable rows
OH tri curls with bench dips or skull crushers
Biceps curls with Hammers, Zottmans or reverse curls

On the shoulder press...are you using dumbbells or a barbell?

I would also consider changing from a full body workout three days a week to some sort of split.

Upper/lower or Back/chest - Bi's/Tri's - Legs

Learn to do more types of squats and deads! They are great compound lifts.

You could also add lower back work like good mornings, hyper extensions or the back extension machine.

Also consider adding some calf work as well.

There are dozens of ways to change your workouts...but you need to take into consideration what you want.

I'm working to bring up my legs a bit. So my leg days are heavier and I rarely skip them if I have to cut my training week short for some reason.

You can see short vid clips of various exercises here:
ExRx Exercise & Muscle Directory

[Jupiter]

Hi, thanks for the reply. The splits are something I was thinking about, I just don't know how to go about it, or what to split! I've looked up different programmes on the internet, but because of the choice I got very confused.

Mostly, I guess I want to work on my back and arms (back looks good, so want to continue - arms don't have much strength at all).

I have access to free weights and most machines (gym recently got refurbished and we get to play with lots of new machines now), but I prefer using free weights, especially for the core strength training. I'll check out the link when I've got more time.

Cheers
Jupiter

[Hawkwind]

I am a fan of free weights myself. I try to keep my machine work limited.

If you are interested in a split you will need to decide on how many days.

For example if you want to train two days then an upper/lower split is a good way to go.

If you want three days then you can go with something like back/bi's, chest/tri's and legs/abs.

There are a zillion ways to go about splitting the training...and there are a zillion opinions out there as to what is the 'best' training split.

But here's a little secret:
The best training split is the one that works for YOU!

You will have to experiment a bit to see what will work for you. What I would suggest is give yourself at least 5-6 weeks with whatever split you decide on. Only changing that if you discover that you absolutely cannot tolerate one pairing or another on a split. For example...some people like to do bi's and tri's on one day. I found that I did better doing bi's with back and tri's with chest. Someone else would beg to differ with me because they did better with bi's and chest and tri's with back.

As I said. It will all depend on what you want from your training and with your bodies progress. All the 'theory' in the world is not going to make a difference if you find that your body just will not tolerate certain splits and make reasonable gains.

[Jupiter]

That's great, thanks for all the info. I think I'm ready to get out there and experiment. Just one more question, something that I don't think I've found any reference to, are there any groups of muscles that I should absolutely avoid working on the same day, or is it totally down to personal preference?

[Hawkwind]

I put that one down to personal preference. You will often get a zillion different answers to that!