Here's a routine you are gone to love and it is almost as efficient as the Push Pull Routine and it is a great muscle builder. I call it the Torso and Appendages. The Torso is made of the chest, back, shoulder and abs. Appendages are the legs and arms. Because of the way the routine naturally arranges, the appendages receive an extra indirect round of training. This routine is a killer and one of my favorites.
Here's the layout.
Day 1 - Major Torso Muscle Workout
Chest
Back
Abs
Day 2
Rest
Day 3- Minor Torso and Appendages Muscles
Shoulders
Calves
Abs
Day 4
Rest
Day 5- Major Appendages Muscle Workout
Arms-Biceps and Triceps
Legs- Quads and Leg Bicep
Day 6 /7 Weekend
Rest
Here's why it works so well and you should expect great gains from this routine. On the first day of the routine, Chest and Back are large muscle groups that demand time to do right. I like to push the Chest with 4-6 different exercises to fully develop the upper, mid, lower, outer and inner pectorals. The I choose 5-7 exercises to fully annihilate both the thickness and width of back. Nothing stuffs better in a tight T shirt than massive pecs and a V taper wide back.
With this longer and intense workout, you should be wiped out. Keep in mind that the Biceps and Triceps got a bit of workout since they supported the Chest and Back routine. Okay so tomorrow's workout better give these muscle groups a little recovery time….and it will.
On day two, I work the smaller muscle groups, Shoulder, Calves and Abs, that can be singled out for an individual workout. The Bi’s will be fully inactive and the Tri’s will only participate partly with shoulder in the exercises like seated presses. You will find this to be a nice day of recovery for Torso as well as giving a breather to the Arms that were hit partially the day before.
On this day here’s what I normally do. I do about 4 different exercises for Shoulders. I like seated presses (dumbbell or barbell) along with side lateral flies, front flies and bent over flies. To finish out shoulders, I include 2 exercises for Trapezius (Traps). I do standing barbell shrugs and dumbell shrugs.
For calves, I usually require 4-6 really heavy and hard sets followed by 6 light high rep sets to push in the pump.
For Abs, I normally do 2 exercises of about 50-75 reps each. One exercise will hit the upper Abs and the other the lower Abs. Now, let’s move to day 3.
Day 3 is going to be killer Appendage routine.. Whenever I do legs, I am wiped out. Legs are a large strong muscle group and tend to drain every bit energy. With this in mind, I prefer to put Arms in first part of this day’s routine and then move to legs. I have done it in reverse, but with Legs first, I need to take a break (10-15 minutes) before going to Arms.
I do 3-4 exercises for Quads and 2-3 exercises for Leg Bicep. With Quads I start with a warming exercise like Leg Extensions. Once the knees are warm, I launch with a fundamental exercise like Squats and then move to a sled press, and then the hack machine. I often go back to Leg Extension with much heavier weight for a burn down.
For Leg Biceps, I do the Leg Curl machine (lying face down) and seated Leg Curl machine. If I feel I need a finishing exercise, I will put a dumbbell between my ankles and curl up while laying face down on bench.
For Bi’s and Tri’s, I do 3-5 sets for each of these two muscle groups. Pick your favorites here but I rarely leave out the fundamental Barbell Curl for Bi’s and Skull Crushers for Tri’s.
If you run this routine in a week, it could easily fit Day 1, 2, 3 on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday respectively. Don’t let me imply that I think the 3 days a week is all the body can take. But this is a good fit for many who only want to allocate a few days. I will show you in another article how to make this a 6 day a week routine. (No it is not simply doubling the routine.. so be patient).
"Sweat eventually hardens to Muscle".....Scott
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