[pranavt]

Sohail: Try without any weights. Squat at the absolute bottom for 5 seconds, then come up. Do a few sets of these, whatever amount you're comfortable with since you know the ways of a proper workout. You feel like you're going to lose balance because you've never been in that position with a load before. Do this for a few days, then start with an empty bar. No problem even if you're starting with measly 10lbs plates as opposed to whatever weight you were doing earlier. You could even start with a single dumbbell, holding it horizontally with both your hands between your legs and going down as deep as you can.

You will feel your legs burning like you've never felt before.

[SohailPistawala]

Thanks Pranav will surely try that, let see how it goes. By the way last evening when i did legs, i did two working sets of leg press, Extension, Leg Curl, Hack Squat, Free Hand squat with just the barbell, and Calve raise.Rep range was between 15-20 .I did not do lunges.While doing squats i think i got a small pinch at my lower back, racked everything back and did stretching, felt good. Later did cycling for 15 mins. The sweet pain on the legs is still there.So am i doing too much for the legs.

The weight were pretty Ok.

As of now i am loooking at maintaining/loosing and not growing because this week ramazaan is going to start.

[jassi]

^^ Sohail you might wanna try sissy squats - even without any weights my legs are dead after 5-6 sets :-)

[harry10]

Originally Posted by harry10

Do you guys recommend these exercise for someone with an occassional back pain-
Squats, Lunges, deadlifrs.
Expert opinions required.

@Jassi- That is a nice routine.
I use to do something similar few years back.

Also i need a good 6 day workout routine with 2 body part exercises each day- like chest and biceps, shoulders and triceps types.
Suggestions are welcomed

^^^^ Anyone?

in addition- I am noticing since a couple of weeks i am able to increase weight in all the chest exercises but not in bench press. Am not able to understand why this is happening. Any clues?

[jassi]

Originally Posted by harry10

Do you guys recommend these exercise for someone with an occassional back pain-
Squats, Lunges, deadlifrs.
Expert opinions required.

@Jassi- That is a nice routine.
I use to do something similar few years back.

Also i need a good 6 day workout routine with 2 body part exercises each day- like chest and biceps, shoulders and triceps types.
Suggestions are welcomed

If you have lower back issues, make sure you strengthen your lower back first (good mornings and maybe SLDL and if possible hyper-extensions). Also lower back takes 48-72 hrs to recover, so make sure you rest it enough.

6 days is a lot but here goes something (each set has atleast 8-12 reps and reducing reps increasing weight)
Day 1 - Chest and Back (on opposing muscles)
Flat dumbbell flys alternated with dumbbell rows - 4 sets each
Barbell benchpress alternated with pullups or lat pulldowns - 4 sets each
Incline or decline dumbbell flys - 3 sets
bent knee deadlifts - 3 sets (go heavy)
dumbbell or barbell pullovers - 3 sets
Day 2 - shoulders and triceps
arnold press - 3 sets
side raises- 4 sets
Barbell military press - 4 sets
barbell behind the neck press - 3 sets
trap rows - 3 sets
dumbbell tricep presses - 3 sets
lying triceps extensions - 3 sets
dumbbell tricep kickbacks - 3 sets
heavy cheat tricep kickbacks - 3 sets
Day 3 - cardio and rest
30 mins of cardio + 30 mins of martial arts or whatever rocks your boat
Day 4 - Biceps and forearms
Dumbbell twists - 6 sets
dumbbell curls - 3 sets
close grip barbell curls - 3 sets
21s - 3 sets
hammer curls - 3 sets
forearm (front and reverse) curls - 6 sets
Day 5 - Legs
5 sets of squats (bar behind neck)
4 sets of front squats (bar in front of neck)
5 sets of sissy squats
4 sets of leg extensions
Day 6 - Legs and lower back
Hamstring curls (standing or lying) - 4 sets
SLDL - 4 sets
good morning - 3 sets
hyper extension - 3 sets
calf raises (front and rear) - 10 sets

Adequate stretching pre and post workout is recommended

Also you could reduce the sets and finish the workout in 3 days
day 1,4 - chest and back
day 2,5 - shoulders, biceps, triceps, forearms
day 3,6 - legs and lower back

[SohailPistawala]

Originally Posted by jassi

^^ Sohail you might wanna try sissy squats - even without any weights my legs are dead after 5-6 sets :-)

How does one do that jassi?

[Red Circle]

Originally Posted by SohailPistawala

How does one do that jassi?

Check the below pic, it may give you an idea.

[pranavt]

Hahahaha. Do that for a few months and you will be able to dodge bullets

[harry10]

Originally Posted by pranavt

Hahahaha. Do that for a few months and you will be able to dodge bullets

Or you can get a role in hindi version of matrix!

@jassi- Thanks for the info.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by SohailPistawala

alpha,jassi,pranav, vikram, and the whole gang , need help. I am somehow not able to do squats till the grass, i dont know i dont feel very confident about it, i need to break that myth. I can do it without weights but somehow with weights i feel scared of getting an injury on the back or knee. Help Needed.

Alpha i totally agree with you in lunges. Do you do with Dumbell or Barbell, or on the smith machine.

I do dumbell ones because they seem easier to balance (you know with two weight hanging down your arms).
Barbell lunges are almost impossible to do with heavy weights because of balance issues.

Smith - the less i talk, the better it is. I simply hate that machine. It restricts the free movement of your legs and arms.


Reverse lunges are exactly opposite of the lunges that world knows.
You keep your one foot planted firmly, move the second foot back, and then dip.


Normal lunges that ppl do is the one where you make the second foot move forward - not really great for your knees when you play around with high poundage.

-x-

The two reasons why one is not confident about doing ATG squats is beacuse of balance while at lowest position. That is something partly genetic, and partly can be ironed out with practice.

Genetic because we all have different levels of flexibility in our joints and tendons. You can't do much about it.

Second reason is lack of strength in glutes (butts).
that happens because we dont do ATG right from the begining. Infact we tend to settle for easier alternatives like leg press.

For this, you will have to start with absolutely zero weight and do partials.
Not the top half, but the bottom half movement.
Rise only till your legs go above the parallel, and then dip down.
Its gonna be a real slow progress, so have tons of patience.

And always use a mirror.
And try to do it 2-3 times a week.

-x-

One note about the workouts.
Jassi don't take personal offence, but I have seen most ppl here coming up with workouts that are like one body part a week. Well if it has been working for you, great. My personal experience and observation is that these workouts leave a lot to be desired.

Does anyone know how long does muscle tissue take to repair?
and how long does your Central nervous system take to repair?

Or that when you are lifting, when is it that your body switches over from recruiting more muscular fibre to recruiting more nervous pulses in order to generate more force.

And how that affects your muscular growth?

If you know all this, how can you believe in once a week workout plan??

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by harry10

^^^^ Anyone?

in addition- I am noticing since a couple of weeks i am able to increase weight in all the chest exercises but not in bench press. Am not able to understand why this is happening. Any clues?

Because bench press also requires triceps and shoulders??
Are you doing enough for those two?

Or is that you are overtraining these two, and hence while benching, the already fatigued triceps/shoulders can't cope.

[jassi]

^^ alpha1 if you are referring to the workout routines i have posted above (i am guessing you are, since no one else has), then yeah the 2 workouts i posted were some of the variations i might use.
The weekend twice a day for 3 days workout plan wouldn't fall in your description i guess. So it must be the workout plan suggested above to harry10 :-) I don't expect him to stick to that one body part a week plan for long, but that is what he wanted, a 6 day plan, so i put it down that way.
Personally i prefer to cover all my parts in 3-4 days (3 workouts or 6 workouts) and then repeat. So i will come back to the same muscle in 4-5 days and perform some variation or a different set exercises for that muscle :-)

But do enlighten us on muscle growth, nerve repair and all. I am very interested in enhancing my understanding (which is mostly from 2 editions arnold encyclopedias, bruce lee books and personal experience) and i am sure others are too.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Because bench press also requires triceps and shoulders??
Are you doing enough for those two?

Or is that you are overtraining these two, and hence while benching, the already fatigued triceps/shoulders can't cope.

Let me give the current routine am following-
Monday- Chest and triceps
Tuesday- Shoulders and biceps.
Wed- Abs and cardio.
Thurs- Chest and triceps
Friday- Shoulders and biceps.
Sat- Abs and cardio.
Sunday - off day.

Now the notable omission is - back and legs.
Reason i am not doing that currently is because of lower back pain am experiencing these days.

They will be dere soon in place of abs/cardio day as i am doing abs and cardio almost on daily basis for half hour.

So i am training triceps and shoulders as well consistently still the bench press mystery is not getting resolved.
Also i do bench press first thing after the warm up and stretching- should i change that?

[jassi]

Originally Posted by harry10

Also i do bench press first thing after the warm up and stretching- should i change that?

try doing some pre-exhaust like dumbbell flys before you get into benchpresses - let us know if that helps!

[pranavt]

Not too heavy though, or you'll exhaust them a bit too much before you get to the really heavy stuff. What helps me is warming up, then a heavy warm-up set of benching (10 reps of something like 120lbs), then directly onto my 10 rep-max weight and moving on from there.