Designing a new Program

been doing modified 5x5 for a while now which looks like this:

Mon
Barbell Back Squat 5x5
Bent Over Barbell Row 5x5
Incline Barbell Bench Press 5x5
Standard Grip Chin-Up 3x6

Wed
Deadlift 4x5
Standing Military Barbell Press 5x5
Weighted Dip 3x6

Fri
Barbell Back Squat 5x5
Bent Over Barbell Row 5x5
Incline Barbell Bench Press 5x5
Wide Grip Chin-Up 3x6

Issues:
- Can't do squats twice a week anymore, not at this weight. (350)
- Not enough upper body work, especially in shoulders and arms.

Plan:

Take the existing routine and cut squats out one day, add in more upper body work, specifically need Upper Back, Shoulders and Arms. Possibly rearrange some exercises or switch to 4 day split.

Looking for:

Exercises you've had good results with in my muscle groups I need to increase.

just getting this started ..

for shoulders i've done shrugs but never had a lot of luck with them, but my shoulders have never been a weak point of mine, either.

might want to do lateral raises instead?

for arms which part? biceps or triceps?

biceps = curls of course. triceps = pushdowns.

shrugs are mainly traps, my traps are ok from deadlifting.

not worried about triceps, use those in many other exercises.

biceps need more work, but have a good arm program I do on saturdays along with calves and cardio.

mainly looking for shoulder / upper back ideas. Will probably work in some kind of raise and some kind of isolation row (or maybe more wide grip pull work)

unsure, just brainstorming.

no dumbbell exercises for stabilizers?

Rayn,

I found push presses worked very well for my shoulders, as the nature of the lift allowed you to do a bit more weight while also taking a bit of stress off of the shoulder joint itself (I have a chronic left shoulder problem). Arnold Presses with moderate weight also did great things for my shoulders - make sure to balance out the pressing movements with rear delt movements, though.

As for upper back, switching from Weighted Chinups to Weighted Pullups may be just the thing.

Edit: You also said arms...my bicep suck so I'm not sure I'm much help there, but as for triceps, if you're already doing dips, heavy, slow skullcrushers work very well.

arms are my strongest body part.

It's important not to overtrain here as these are smaller muscles. 2-3 exercises is good. change every 4 weeks. Start with a big movement using more explosive power, then do 1-2 isolation moves focusing on maximal contraction.

Tri exercises I have liked:
Power moves:
Close grip bench press. I mean CLOSE grip like your hands touching. make sure to keep your elbows as parallel with the bar as you can so you really feel it on your tri. you should be able to go pretty heavy here. note this is not at all how most people do close grip bench. I find the standard way utilizes too much chest.

Skullcrusher. I like the ez-curl bar but since you are cycling exercises you can consider the barbell to be a variation. also you can do reverse grip as another variation.

Two hand dumbell extension. not my fav but you need the variety and you can go decently heavy here.

Tri pushdown from high pulley: this is where you will get alot of variation b/c you can use diff attachements. the straight bar or metal tri bar are good here and again you can go pretty heavy. careful on the explosiveness, you don't want to use too much momentum.

Isolation moves:
one arm overhead dumbell extension:
One of my favorite tri moves period. never liked the two handed version that is popular as the angle just did not feel right. Make sure to "hand yourself" the weight with your other hand and also take the weight out of your hand with your non-exercising hand. This exercise puts your shoulder in a vulnerable position so you should not be lifting the dumbell into or out of position for this exercise.

Tricep pushdown from high pulley:
use one hand attachment for better isolation. you can do reverse grip here too. rope attachement as a finishing move (high rep, low resistance just to pump blood in and out of the muscle)

Tri extension from cables:
get on your knees and get the cable about head level. bend over and extend the attachement away from the machine. works best w/ rope. you can also do it standing behind your back.

Bi moves:
power moves:
ez curl!!! hurray. everybody does it. it's a great move.
barbell curl. same woohoo.

cable curls. great move for getting more out of that last inch of movement that is normally free. Occasionally I will do the only superset in my entire workouts on the cable curl and I really like it alot. get a really wide bar (like a lat pulldown bar) and attach it to the low pulley.
7 reps at moderate weight normal grip. drop weight to about 1/2
7 reps very wide grip (as far as you can go)
7 reps very close grip
NO REST between these, you need to become very fast at pulling that pin out and back in. next set to normal then close then wide, keep changing whether you do close or wide first.

iso moves:

anything on preacher is good

dumbell curl. wow so many variations. seated on an incline bench is awesome. I personally really really do not like alternating curls ever because you are either relaxing your arm inbetween (bad, you want the muscle under tension the entire time) or keeping it flexed and then you are tiring your arm out from just holding this weight there...it's just retarded.

that brings me to a great point about bi and tri training. KEEP THE MUSCLE CONTRACTED. that means don't go so low on the eccentric of the tri that the weight rests on the joint (like on close grip tri bench this is a common error) and on bi moves DON'T OVEREXTEND YOUR ARM! you arm should NOT be straight at the end of the eccentric (coming down). you won't feel it in your bi, the weight is pulling on your joint not your muscle. keep the weight on the muscle the whole time. this is true for all your moves. especially bench guys are retarded here. don't lock out at the end and rest it on your elbow joint (it's like a fraction of an inch between a good clean bench rep and locking too far, i'm not saying to do partial reps or anything) and don't rest it on your chest inbetween. ok enough of that rant the point is just have good form. the trick to good form on bi moves is keeping your elbows back. they should come forward just SLIGHTLY at the end of the move only to get that last squeeze. this is for curling moves obviously.

a great finishing move for bi is to just do like an overhead flexing move (rear double bicep pose for those that follow bodybuilding) with the high pulley cables in your hand.

you can do cable curls with the one hand attachment too those are awesome for feeling that last part of the move that is normally free (this is a common theme with cable moves).

search bodybuilding.com fit show for milos sarcev bicep workout tips he is awesome. milos is the best in general and I highly recommend his "secrets of the pros" dvd just fyi.

ya those are my arm tips. don't do more than 3 exercises for each ever. I normally do two and a finishing move like 1/2 the time and I go VERY light on the finishing moves. It's like a cooldown.


ok I just noticed you are doing this 5x5 stuff so I guess your goal is strength? my tips might not be so good for you then I am assuming hypertrophy goals. Still these moves are good and honestly fuck strength training.
What I do for most moves is:
1 set warmup 20 reps extremely light. should feel no burn at all untill the last 5 reps.
20 reps still light but we're getting going now.
15 reps moderate weight. don't want to cause tearing yet but this should get your blood pumping and definite burn for the last 7-8 reps I guess.
working set 12 reps. as heavy as you can go and do 12 clean (very clean)
working set 10 reps. a little more weight
working set 8 reps. a little more
strength set 3-4 reps. heavy as you can go, and you can cheat a little on these reps.

I skip some of the warmup on the iso moves (already warmed up), and don't always do strength sets. I never do them on bench as I feel that is injury prone (rotator cuff).

I'm sure you won't follow this segment of advice as you seem to have your thing down but I just wanted to put it in if anyone is really lost out there on how to work out.

for upper back that is my weakest area as well. It comes from sitting in computer chairs all day FYI. I am doing bent overs and going a little higher than normal I feel like that has helped. you can do cable rows higher than normal as well. rope attachment is good. But ya I am weak here too so can't help ya much.

shoulders is a weakish group for me as well.

Only tip I would give you for back and shoulder that I feel really confident on is that since these are your weakest, ALWAYS start your workout with these moves when you have the most energy. And don't get so intent on catching these muscles up that you overtrain them. If you are weak in these groups, there is a reason, so they are even more vulnerable to overtraining than your other muscles.

btw you shouldn't be benching twice in a week and why is incline barbell your only chest move in your entire routine?

lateral delts / rear delts?

teck thanks for tips, I am strength training but looking to move into more hypertrophy now that I am happy with my strength levels in most exercises. I do incline bench and weighted dips for my chest. This is probably not optimal for hypertrophy. I have done strength training all my life so I am interested in learning more about hypertrophy training and integrating that into my workout.

push presses, dumbbell presses, and arnold presses ( heavy weight for all, 6-8 reps) worked wonders for my shoulders, I would pick one of them depending on how I felt that day

after presses, I would do some heavy upright rows, and then follow up with my all-time favorite shoulder exercise: a giant set of lateral raises

start with 10 pound dumbbells for 15 reps, then 15 for 15, 20 for 12, and finally 25 for 8-12

then finish w/front raises (sometimes ez curl sometimes dumbbell)

I have heard that the upright row can be tough on the shoulder nerves.

can't confirm or deny that

all i can say is it gave me positive results

Don't neglect the rear delts. reverse fly's work well for isolation imo.

Although i think the rear delts get a decent workout with most types of rows.

ya pec deck in reverse is nice for rear delt. one of few machine moves i really like.

oh, so that's what that is for. (rev pec deck)

I hit all parts for my shoulder workout...

typical routine:

military dbell press
upright row
front raise
lat raise
rear delt fly (machine or dbell)
shrugs

up row and shrugs are trap primary but still alot of shoulder involvement

I do them on shoulder day as well.

up row and shrugs are trap primary but still alot of shoulder involvement

I do them on shoulder day as well.

how do you do your shrugs? Do you shrug your shoulders straight up> or do you shrug them up and back? i was thinking abotu this the other day after i did some shrugs. I just shrug my shoulder up not really utilizing my entire trap, at least it felt that way. i'd have to really lighten the weight to do the shrug up and back. I'll try it next time and report back. comments are welcome.

up and back is a waste of time

shrugs are supposed to be super heavy

just go straight up

shrugs are mainly traps, my traps are ok from deadlifting.

not worried about triceps, use those in many other exercises.

biceps need more work, but have a good arm program I do on saturdays along with calves and cardio.

mainly looking for shoulder / upper back ideas. Will probably work in some kind of raise and some kind of isolation row (or maybe more wide grip pull work)

unsure, just brainstorming.

dont' do shrugs (terrible terrible exercise. I've never seen anybody who did shrugs who had traps anywhere near the size of mine from deadlifting) don't waste much time on biceps.

biceps:

sunday row tuesday forarms/grip thursday row
= good results for me

Too me bigger arms look bigger when the forearms are big and the triceps are big. I think targeting your biceps much is a bad idea.

for shoulders I've had a lot of success gaining mass with arnold presses. I feel like standing shoulder press requires a lot of balance so you lose stress on ur shoulders.

Bicep is one of your smaller muscles and takes a shit load of work to get decent results. That said, I abuse the shit out of my biceps to get results.

During bulking I'll dedicate one day to tri/bi work

3 lifts for each muscle group, 4x12

two bread and butter lifts: Preacher curl and barbell curls.

third lift is one of: hammer curls, standing db curls, seated db curls, cable curls. Do supersets w/ tri's to mix it up. 21's w/ preacher curls is also another way to break up monotony.

One thing that's often overlooked w/ db bicep curls is the motion of bringing the db into your chest. You don't want to stop the motion once the db is parallel to your chest. Keep twisting your wrist until the db is at about a 45 degree angle or until you can't twist any further.

Once you reach that point where you're to your last couple reps and you're really feeling the burning sensation, do 1-3 really slow negatives

Shoulders/back: Clean and jerk. Great all around lift

Targetting shoulders specifically: I like working w/ cables because it's a relatively controlled motion that requires lower weights. Crossover cable extension, lateral raise, one arm lateral raise, etc.


For db shoulder work, any variant of the above, but also db rear delt raises, arnolds or seated db shoulder press. Only thing I don't like about arnolds/shoulder press is the fear of tearing. Anything above 75lbs and I start to feel a lot of strain, all it would take is one bone spur to really fuck them up.

For (upper) back: T-bar, cable rows, reverse flye machine.