Hello, I've been working out for a little over four months (mostly lifting, some light cardio as well) and I really enjoy weight-lifting. However, I am starting to face the issue that my body is either accustomed to my routine, or I am not working frequently enough for gains. I workout for at least an hour every other day; I have a four routine cycle which means that I repeat the same muscle groups every eight days. My main concern is that while I am having definite gains in some areas, others are non-existent. For example - I have been lifting, with difficulty, the same weight on my triceps for almost two months. I lift work to maximum exertion, and each week I stop at pretty much the same count.

To the point, how do you deal with a routine that starts producing less and less gains? What do you do if a specific muscle group, such as the triceps, simply shows no gains while everything else in the area is doing great? In what way can I quickly restructure my routine and see if a change occurs, and how many weeks should go by before I do this?

Thanks a lot for the advice.

Sasha,

I do not have a detailed answer. But I think you are on the right track - when a routine stops delivering, you change the routine. Perhaps hit lagging body parts more often.

What changes you make depends on how you define gain. Are you going for size? Definition?

Have you read about programs like Hypertrophy or EDT?

Hypertrophy is weight training with growth focus:
URL

I have heard a lot about EDT, including raves of achievements from people who adopted. I have not tried it. URL

I am sure the serious weight lifters here will give you better advice.

Not an expert or serious, and I don't think I'm on exactly the right track, but you might be exhausting your triceps with an exercise earlier in your routine. For instance, the way I run on a treadmill there's no way that I'm going to work my calves after that, and I've had days where I couldn't do the tricep weight that I expected at all after making with the bench press. Still, what you've describe doesn't make complete sense to me.

If I were an expert, and if this is still an issue for you, I'd ask you to post some of the detail of a workout session that included your triceps work. Detail the order you do the exercises in, and the number of sets and reps. This might help someone with more experience provide suggestions for you.

Waitaminute. "I repeat the same muscle groups every eight days" you say. Personally, I'd consider bumping it up to roughly twice a week for each muscle group. This may mean streamlining your routines, or, hmm. Let me try to describe what I do and see if it makes sense.

I do a four day cycle, of a sort, with a day of rest in between each workout. It's actually a two day cycle, but day 3 and 4 I do something different from days 1 and 2. For example, there are three or four chest exercises that I use, I select some for day 1, and the others for day 3. In the case of triceps, I'll do cable pull-downs on day 2, and dips on day 4. I'm restricting the types of exercises I do on a specific day, but varying what I do in the long run.

Here's the two day cycle for muscle groups:

Day 1
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Calves
Pectorals
Lats

Day 2
Deltoids and Trapezious
Triceps
Biceps
Abdominals
Lower Back

With, like I said, days 3 and 4 hitting the same muscle groups but with different exercises, using a bit of trial and error to find out what works best. I'd detail what I do specifically, but got lazy and well, the specifics are continually changing.

I can't say that this is the best way to go, there are other ways of approaching this, but I hope it helps or gives you something to think about.


Here's a Wikipedia link for HST that Vrinda mentioned

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertrophy-specific_ Training

Thanks a lot for the responses, the information and links you provided were really helpful. I had never heard of EDT before and it looks like something new to try, I especially like that all routine changes are specifically worked out for you.

Leo, I really like the idea of working specific muscle groups on set days but varying up the actual routine, I had not thought about this and it definitely gives me the chance to workout areas more frequently without having to stop doing certain machines.

To give you a better idea of what I'm trying to achieve, I am working out primarily for lean muscle and definition (I mainly want to lose weight but don't have the patience for cardio, and actually enjoy lifting). I pretty much do 3 sets of 15 repetitions, on the last set I lift to full exertion and when I am able to do ~25 reps I raise the weight on the next day. My overall routine is (chest,triceps)/(back,biceps)/(shoulders,traps)/(l egs) with four different machines per day i.e. legs = extension,curl,calf,thigh.

If you are lifting for some degree of weight loss you have to do Squats, Deadlift, and compound upper body exercises, Bench press, lat pulls, pull ups, rows, etc.

Compound exercises will stimulate the most amount of muscles and help burn more calories. If you haven't been lifting for very long then stay away from DB curls tricep ext. and little muscle exercises (Thanks for the tip, Nick). You want to stick to the big exercises.

Sasha,

You may want to try Jari Love's Ripped DVDs. You do not have to work out with the DVDs except for the first few times. Just take the same principles and apply them at the gym. She does compound exercises like Nathan mentions, and tries to elevate heart rate while building lean muscle mass.

http://www.traineo.com/9_502_0.html#msg3715

EDT or Jari Love. Could be your answer.

Amaon has a book on EDT by Charles Staley. Just search for Charles Staley at their site.

Sasha, I use those DVDS they are really great.

Working each muscle group every 8 days doesn't sound often enough to really build strength.

I've always tried to get 3-4 weight workouts every week on each muscle group. When I had time to go to the gym every day (and a gym to go to), I'd alternate upper body with legs (abs, being special, got worked every day). I'd also do cardio every day.

Now I do my weight-lifting routine every other day, and hit all the muscle groups every time I lift.

What kind of lifting are you doing? How many reps and sets? I do super-slow high intensity weight-lifting now to improve my muscle and bone density. I get more mileage out of my weight workouts now than I did when I did light weights and lots of reps.

So far I've been only using the selectorized machines at my gym, but it might be time for me to venture into the free-weight room. I didn't want to bother anyone with my full routine, but here it is if you're interested

Day1 (Chest/Triceps):
- Inclined Press
- Pulldown
- Seated Tricep Extension
Day2 (Back/Biceps):
- Seated Row
- Lower Back
- Seated Dip
- Camber Curl
Day3 (Shoulders/Traps)
- Shoulder Press
- Pectoral Fly
- Lateral Raise
- Lateral Pull
Day4 (Legs)
- Seated Leg Extension
- Seated Leg Curl
- Angled Seated Calf

Each day is actually done every other day, and I start and end each workout with 10mins of cardio and 5mins of abs. As I'm trying to get lean muscle, each routine is done for 3 sets of 15 reps with the last set going until I can't do any more. Generally after four routines I'm pretty spent (I almost always get the yawns But I can certainly switch it around so that every day is four different areas rather than every day is one single area.

I don't mean to turn this into a personal help post, but any suggestions are really appreciated.

How long does this all take? It sounds to me like you could do the whole routine every other day (i.e. every day you go to the gym) and see faster results. Since you take a rest day in between your workouts, there's no reason not to work more muscle groups each day.

Sasha,

That doesn't look like a bad 4 day routine. If you go to the gym everyday, then just do those 4 routines and rotate through them... If you don't go everyday, I would put the shoulders with the chest and the lat pulls with the back and go 3 days, rest, 3 days, rest, 3 days, etc.

It would hit all muscle groups twice a week. and don't do your abs everyday, you have to let those mucles repair just like all your other muscles.