Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I was just wondering, how often do you guys switch out your workouts?

I switch between 5x5 strength training and a (mostly) compound bodybuilding routine every three months but thinking about switching between them every month, which will also help me get more cardio in every so often.

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"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard." - Tim Notke
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill

Good question. I try to stick to a combination of single joint excersizes (for "specific" bulk) and compound lifts (for the overall bulk and strength) which gives me qives me a 3 split program. Every now and then I'll throw in some basic callisthenics and stability excersizes as well if I want to improve in a specific area or up my effort in footwork/floorwork in dance. Depends on what your goals are. Are you training for something specific?

Combination of strength and muscle. I just want to change my bodyshape really but for bodybuilding (imo) you NEED strength of you wont get anywhere.

_________________
"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard." - Tim Notke
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill

Yes and no. The female athletes I've seen in my gym are relatively strong but I lift as much if not more than them and I'm just in it for myself. It's about getting that good pump and subsequent hypertrophy if you want the physique. Of course that requires strength and you have to push yourself but not as much as say a power lifter. I feel you though I want both things as well, so I stick to my regular excersizes and the only change I make when I want to go from pump to strength is the resistance and adjust the reps accordingly. But I made a similar thread about wanting strength AND pump and I was suggested to try Mike O'Hearn's 12 week power body-
building program. Here check it out: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mike-oh ... ogram.html

I know what you mean.

However I hate full split workouts. Imo from reading research I prefer to train a body part twice a week (so two upper and two lower days). Full splits do work, but from what I've seen it takes a lot slower unless you got good genetics for it, or you're on roids *chuckles* lets face it some guys just are.

Also I don't understand pyramid stuff, why tire yourself out with lighter weights and move onto heavy when you're already tired. I warm up and then lift the same weight every set.

I also need to factor cardio and kendo training in so I don't want to get too exhausted.

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"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard." - Tim Notke
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill

Meh full body splits are- in my experience- very exhausting and demotivating if you want to hit ALL muscle groups every other day in *one* go. It'd take me anywhere from 5-7 hours (cardio included) to get both pump and strength sets in and I still would only achieve mediocre results at best. Definitely good for fat-burn but it didn't help me build particularly much up. Then I switched to a 2 split program and sh*t started happening, triceps I never knew existed started buldging, veins I didn't know I had started popping out and abs I thought were long gone started to slowly appear. Now I'm doing a 3 split. I'd rather do a 2 split, but I just don't hit all muscle groups the way I want to, so I single out an entire day for specific bulk (chest, shoulders, tri- and biceps). But callisthenics are pretty good for both strength and muscle, the BarBrotherzz on Youtube have some insane workouts and they're all pretty big and ripped. Check out Hannibal for King, he's exceptionally amazing.

Well what I mean is I do a 2 split twice a week.

Monday - Upper
Tuesday - Lower
Thursday - Upper
Friday - Lower

And it's not all the same exercise it cycles through different ones on different days.

_________________
"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard." - Tim Notke
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill

I like to switch up the exercises every few weeks while still doing the basic compound exercises for each body part. I am more in a fine tuning stage with my split and it seems to be working great. I don't see myself changing for at least a few months, or until I either plateau or get bored.

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-Evan

Yes, I also like to switch up the exercises every few weeks.