Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hey everybody.

Finally, the hard yards of year twelve are through for me and I can now ease back into actually doing weights.

I made a 4 day split as I didn't quite like the full body I used to do. I have never done a split before and would like to know if you guys have had any BULKING success on them.

I would love to hear your opinion on my new routine:

Monday: Back/Biceps

• EZ Bar Bicep curl 12, 10, 9, 10
• DB Bicep Curl 12, 9, 10, 10
• Pull-ups’ 10, 9, 7
• One Arm DB Row 10, 8, 6 (Each Arm)
• Cable Row 10, 12, 10
• Deadlifts 12, 12, 10, 8

Tuesday: Legs

• Barbell Squats 12, 10, 8
• Leg Extensions 10, 10, 8, 10
• Leg Curls 12, 12, 8, 8
• Calf Raises 14, 12, 10, 12

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Shoulders/Abs

• Military DB Press 12, 10, 8, 10
• Bent Over DB Fly’s 10, 10, 10, 8, 4
• DB Shoulder Raises 12, 10, 8, 4, 4
• Weighted Crunches (10kg/22lbs) 30, 20, 10
• Oblique Side Bends (16kg/35lbs Each hand) 24, 14, 8
• Lying Leg Raises 60-100

Friday: Chest/Triceps

• Flat BB Bench Press 12, 10, 9
• Incline DB Bench Press 10, 12, 10
• Bench Dips 10, 12, 12, 8
• Tricep Extensions 10, 8, 8, 12
• Close Grip Bench Press 12, 8, 8, 6

Saturday: Rest (mabye a 30 min walk)

Sunday: Rest (mabye a 30 min walk)

I am now 6' 2 1/2" tall and my goal is to go from 149 pounds (68kg) to 200 pounds (90kg).

Also while i am here I am wondering, do you guys think i should make a training log on here?


Thanks a million guy's!!!


Nick.

So does this seem like a good workout for bulking?

I think you definitely have every muscle group covered.

Are your exercises in order? I would do deadlifts and all of your compound movements first so you can go heaviest still with a good grip, as they are best for mass gaining. Definitely make a training log! I would love to read it.

I do a five day split of shoulders, arms, back, legs, and chest. I guess now that i'm thinking about it i changed it from from a 3 day split around May (used to do arms and legs on the same day and chest and shoulders on the same day) and just realized yesterday that I gained ten pounds of muscle since then and my strength has increased a lot. I'd also be interested in what you are eating, its very important!..I'm a female at 5'4 and 139.4 lbs 18.2 percent body fat. In may I weight about 128 at my lightest (was running like crazy and restricting calories to 1400 net) and around 19 percent body fat but then I decided I wanted to bulk and be a serious BB.

Some exercises I like that I dont see here are barbell rows for back, lunges for legs, arnold presses for shoulders, shrugs for shoulders. I only see one big compound movement for legs, perhaps try to work up to adding another one. And personally I dont like doing the same exact exercises each time the muscle group comes around in the split, unless you are really conscientious about adding a rep or some weight.

Im glad to hear that!

Yeah they are in order, whoops! I wil put the compounds at the beginning of each routine; thaks for pointing that out! =D

Okay I will start my training log on the forum today! (I will enter in my workout from yesterday!)

Sweet, a 5 day split, how's that going for you? I was tied between a 5 or a 4 day split but as I am a bit pressed for time I went for a 4 day.

Wow 10 pounds, impressive!

I will be sure to post my daily meals on my traning log as I go as well.

I'm an meso/ecto so I find it pretty hard to gain muscle and found it even harder to maintain it whe I wasn't training. (Muscle memory should help me out though =D)

Thank's for the reply, it was greatly appreciated, I will be sure to keep an eye on your progress over the next few months!


Whoops, i forgot bent over barbell rows, better put those in! As for lunges, I just can't stand them; they irritate me so much, so i might just add in 2 sets of front squats or something in their place. Whoops, I thought I had Arnold Press and shrugs; better slip those in too! (Gosh I'm shocking with memory, how could i forget Arnold Press, it' my favourite shoulder exercise).

As for the rep range, their just bench marks for me, I will normally push for 1-5 more reps.

Thanks again, I will go make my Training/Eating log now!

I really like the 5 day split. sometimes my muscles stay sore for several days so its really the only way! My legs are my weakest point so sometimes i slip them in sooner than they are scheduled and skip an arm day or something...only if they arent sore... why do lunges irritate you? ive learned that you get the best results from the exercises that you dread the most....so i would consider doing them unless you have an injury that they exacerbate...
as far as abs go i try to slip in five sets of abs on a shoulder or chest day. on arm day i try to really concentrate on abs..im sure i have quite the abs but at this point in time i have too much fat to see them. cant wait until 2012 for my big cut!

Okay, I will try to give the lunges a go this week in my coming legs day!

Ab's on a shoulder day? Hmm, I might steal that idea from you! (Won't be til next week though, as I just did this weeks shoulder routine today).

I checked out your training journal; it looks really good!

I got that training journal thingy going too:

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=26321

With respect that routine is not good at all. You say you've tried full body before & you didn't like it - I take it you mean you didn't make the progress you'd hoped for? From looking at your journal your diet is way off base so I'm not surprised. Unless you massively increase your calories & protein intake you'll never make progress no matter how good your training is. At your height & seeing as how you want to gain so much weight I'd say you need to aiming for 4000-5000 calories per day & 200g protein.

4 day training splits were originally devised by elite bodybuilders using massive amounts of steroids. As a novice lifter (and I'm assuming a 'clean' one too) you should stick to a basic full body routine like Stronglifts 5x5: http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/.

If you stick to a routine like this & eat enough you will achieve your goals, no question. Good luck!

For getting big/gaining size I have always preferred a 3 or at most a 4 day split, more time to rest and grow and less chance for overertraining. I stopped leg extensions years ago because they put a lot of sheering force on the knee joint, you don't need them. Stick to the big movements.

I am 6' 2 1/2" tall and recently went from 190 to 212 and the main program I followed was:

Monday Chest, Triceps, and calves
Tuesday: Back, biceps and abs
Wednesday off
Thursday: Shoulders, lower back and calves
Friday: Legs and abs

I can go into more detail tomorrow. I also had amazing results with a three day program similar to what Stuart McRobert would recommend.

Sweet! Ok, that will be great, thanks. By the way I just updated my training log and you will be glad to see that today I did legs and excluded leg extensions!

Thanks! After I do this split for a while I will have a go at Stronglifts.

Don't forget to periodize.

You will get different opinions on leg extensions, but I have a strong opinion based on many books I have read, that extensions are best with very light weights for rehabiliation purposes.