My workout Plan. Help

[pat dasein]

Two days a week, same muscle groups, different ways to work them.

I'm 6 foot, ~200lbs and very little body fat (all I know is a I sink like a rock). I want to gain more strength. I'm not working my legs because I run and cycle.

I wouldn't mind pulling a few exercises from the routine, but I'd really not like to add to it. Tell me what you think. Thanks.

Workout 1 (Monday)

Chest
-Barbell bench press
-Weighted dips

Shoulders, Back
-Barbell upright row
-Dumbbell rear delt row
-Shrugs

Arms
-Barbell Skull crusher
-Pull-up
-Curl-up

Workout 2 (Thursday)

Chest
-Barbell bench press
-Dumbbell Fly

Shoulders, Back
-Barbell upright row
-Dumbbell Arnold press
-Shrugs

Arms
-Tricep curl
-Dumbbell curl
-Hammer curl

 

[MaxRep]

Before anyone can tell you what they think, you really need to outline your goals and the reason for just training 2x/week. Also, I know a lot of guys who cycle and run who still train their legs.

Best regards,
MaxRep

 

[Reinheart]

Before anyone can tell you what they think, you really need to outline your goals and the reason for just training 2x/week. Also, I know a lot of guys who cycle and run who still train their legs.

Best regards,
MaxRep

I agree with Max. There's no other excuse besides injury not to train your wheels. Besides, if you gain strength at squats, you'll get stronger at deadlifts and even more basic compound exercises.

 

[pat dasein]

Before anyone can tell you what they think, you really need to outline your goals and the reason for just training 2x/week. Also, I know a lot of guys who cycle and run who still train their legs.

Best regards,
MaxRep

In Febuary I leave for commercial diving academy, and after that I'll be an offshore diver. It's extremely hard physical work so I want to get bigger and stronger yet stay under 220.

The 2x/week is simply to give myself plenty of time to recoup - I've always done a 3x/week and wanted to give it a shot to see if it allowed for more growth. If you think I should go to a 3x/week routine, let me know.

As far as legs go, I'm on a cycling team and a lot of my buddies are ex pro - none of them weight train their legs (look at the legs on riders that were in the Tour). When you're doing 200-300 miles a week, weights are the last thing your legs need.

 

[MaxRep]

I guess if you're doing that much cycling every week, that is your leg workout.

When you say you want to get bigger and stronger, yet stay under 220, it would be unlikely that you would put on 20 pounds unless that was your goal, so I wouldn't be concerned about that part.

You have to remember, people train for strength all the time, and don't gain much, if anything. All the body weight limited power lifters and olympic lifters get stronger over time but don't increase much in bodyweight as that's a factor of diet.

As far as getting stronger with your proposed training routine, sure, training each muscle group 2x/week is fine and you should get stronger. I wouldn't recommend training each muscle group 3x/week unless it was for a specific style of training during a short time period.

When size isn't the real goal, most any exercise performed with intensity and enough weight will increase your strength. So while I wouldn't agree with your choice of exercises for gaining muscle, for gaining overall or general strength, they're fine.

Considering what I'm guessing are the aerobic demands of being a diver, you would probably perform higher rep sets, which again are fine for building overall strength and endurance.

Best to you,
MaxRep

 

[pat dasein]

MaxRep,

I realize that gaining mass doesn't always go hand in hand with gaining strength and although mass isn' a neccessity, it's nothing i'm trying to avoid either.

I guess the reason why I posted in the first place was not to see if these routines would allow me to gain strength and mass, but to get opinions on whether or not i'm over/under training any muscle groups.

 

[MaxRep]

I hope I didn't give the wrong impression. I'm not being critical of what you're doing. I think it's a program that will work well for you and your goals. The 2x/week per bodypart for strength gains is good. The addition of muscle gains/weight is dependent upon your diet, so that's easy to control.

Best regards,
MaxRep

 

[FiberSynk]

Two days a week, same muscle groups, different ways to work them.

I'm 6 foot, ~200lbs and very little body fat (all I know is a I sink like a rock). I want to gain more strength. I'm not working my legs because I run and cycle.

I wouldn't mind pulling a few exercises from the routine, but I'd really not like to add to it. Tell me what you think. Thanks.

Workout 1 (Monday)

Chest
-Barbell bench press
-Weighted dips

Shoulders, Back
-Barbell upright row
-Dumbbell rear delt row
-Shrugs

Arms
-Barbell Skull crusher
-Pull-up
-Curl-up

Workout 2 (Thursday)

Chest
-Barbell bench press
-Dumbbell Fly

Shoulders, Back
-Barbell upright row
-Dumbbell Arnold press
-Shrugs

Arms
-Tricep curl
-Dumbbell curl
-Hammer curl

while your traps are actually on your back, when you say "back and shoulders" I assume you mean your lats, erectors and traps as well as deltiods. ..You dont have any exercises that really target your lats, which is your second biggest muscle next to your glutes. So with a goal of gaining 20 pounds from the waist up, the back is the place you are going to be adding the most weight. I would add either deadlifts or at least Stiff leg deads into your routine, as well as either pullups or lat pulldowns (I see you have them for arms, but more emphasis), and also rows, you need some type of bent over row be it dumbell or barbell.
I would also drop flys of your second chest cycle as they do essentially nothing for strength and substitute in another press, either incline or decline, barbell or dumbell. I notice you have pullups under your first arm day, I would do them sooner in the workout then at the end. And I dont know what a dumbell rear delt row is, I know of bent over lat raises which I think is what you mean. Are you trying to hit the posterior deltoid or your lats?
I assume you also pyramid your mileage, as in week to week or month to month your volume and distance vary, you may want to experiment with barbell stepups for your passing power or hill power during your lower volume weeks. I coud link some prototypical cycling power workouts if you want. It wont help your pace but it will add some more horsepower in short burst.

 

[pat dasein]

Awesome advice FS, and yes, I'll take cycling power workout links! Btw I though pull/curl-ups worked the lats?

 

[FiberSynk]

clarify pull/curls. Im not familiar with that particular name, allthough im sure ive seen the exercise, If it involves driving your elbows either down, or back toward your torso (rowing or pulldowns) then yes it involves your lats.
Ill find some good power cycling links later on today or tomorrow I dont have em at work