Newbies lookin for advice.

[Cowboy632]

Howdy, me and my friend have been workin out for the past month and the more I read on here the more it sounds like were screwin up. lol. We were doin upper body one day lower body the next and cardio on lower body days. We take a break on sundays. Me and him have different goals. I got good size but need to lean out and hes small and wants to bulk up. I heard all my life that low weight high reps was the way to go to tone but then I read an atrical or two on here sayin that doesn't do much. Also what muscle groups should we hit on what days? Also what excersizes are good to do for those muscle groups. I was reading compound movements. What are those exactly?

[Tkwick1]

there is really no right or wrong way of doing things, just what works best for you. that doesnt mean you are not doing something counter productive so post up what you do each day monday-sunday and we can give you a better answer.

compound movements are movements that involve more than one joint. Like the bench press involves the shoulder and elbow joints and works the chest shoulders and triceps, but is mainly done for the chest (close grip being the only exception i can think of which is done usually for tricep developement). The squat involves the hips, knees, and even ankles, and works nearly every muscle in your body.

isolation movements involve only one joint. like the bicep curl involves only the elbow joint. the leg extension involves only the knee joint.

compound movements should always form the base of your workout.

hope this helps

[Cowboy632]

Well instead of focusing on a muscle group we did the entire upper body every other day.
Monday - Upper, Bench , curls, pull downs, military press, tricepts, (Would really help if I knew the name to each excersize lol.) Also forarms, litterly every excersize we could think of for upper body we did on those days.
Tuesday- lower body, leg extensions, leg curls, and 15 min of cardio. (Id like to do leg press but we don't have one at the Dorm gym.)
Wendsday same as monday
thursday same as tuesday
Friday same as monday
saturday same as tuesday.

Thank you for the help man.

[humdeedum]

Hey fellas:
1.) Take 2 complete days off per week where you don't do any cardio / lifting at all.
2.) If possible, do cardio in the mornings before eating and DON"T do cardio on leg day. That's a good way to overtrain yourself. If you can't do cardio in the mornings do it right after your workout. The less cardio you do, the more calories can be used to build muscle. The more cardio you do, the less muscle you'll gain but you'll shred some fat.
3.) You need to get your diet in check with all this weight training. If you're not eating properly then ALL of the time spent in the gym is worthless (that's an exaggeration but not by a lot) and not eating enough to recuperate is one of the biggest causes of overtraining. As a matter of fact, if you've been training like this for 4 months and not eating right you are possibly overtrained right now. If you feel like you've stopped making progress and are losing interest in being at the gym, you're probably overtrained. Take 2 whole weeks off to recover.
4.) Try seperating your muscle groups where you only hit each one once (or at most twice) each week. Think about it. YOur chest and back are 2 huge muscle groups. YOu want to focus all your energy on one or the other on any given day. If you expend a bunch of energy on chest then that's energy that you won't have to expend on back. Make sense? The opposite is true with smaller muscle groups (i.e. biceps). You can pair this group up with another body part since it's small and doesn't need a whole lot of sets and reps.

THis is what I do for a routine right now. I'm currently eating about 3-4 thousand calories a day (with at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight) and am not on cycle. I'm 200 lbs at 5'8"

Day 1: Chest and bi's
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Shoulders and Tri's
Day 5: Back
Day 6: Off
Day 7: Start over

Good luck and keep at it!