Opinion please

[warlock]

I am 37yo 5'11 192 12%BF training fro a while.

Last summer I was able to hit the 200lbs (204max) my upper body was looking good except that I had a gut.

I got rid of it quite fast and now my Volleyball season just started. I am jumping really well and pounding the ball really hard. GREAT!

The problem now is to keep adding muscle mass keep my strength my leap and look descent at the same time.

My Split now looks like this:

Monday:
PUSH (1 exercise for pecs/8 sets, 8-10 reps; shoulder barbell press/4 sets 8reps; 1 triceps exercise 4 sets/6 reps)

Tuesday: Volleyball
PULL (1 exercise for back/8 sets, 8-10 reps; lateral raises/4 sets 8reps; 1 biceps exercise 4 sets/6 reps)

Wednesday:
rest

Thursday:
PUSH (1 exercise for pecs/8 sets, 8-10 reps; shoulder barbell press/4 sets 8reps; 1 triceps exercise 4 sets/6 reps)

Friday: volleyball
PULL (1 exercise for back/8 sets, 8-10 reps; lateral raises/4 sets 8reps; 1 biceps exercise 4 sets/6 reps)

Saturday:
Plyometrics


Low intensity cardio done on Mondays Wednesdays and Thursdays

Questions:

1) Should I do 1 body part split? How would it look like?

2) I was thinking about doing front squats on push days and deadlifts on Pull days (% sets X 5 reps). I sit too much for legs? what would you suggest instead?

3) comments and suggestions are appreciated.:puff

[L3]

not an experienced in this "push/pull" split method but i feel like its more geared towards strenght increases instead of adding muslce mass.

for certain body parts the best way to increase muscle mass is to do excercises which correspond with the muscle fibers. this i feel can be achieved through having fewer sets with fewer reps, higher weight, and different excercises to hit the muscle for different angles...

for example, for chest, im assuming flat bench for 8 sets... thats a bit much, why dont you try flat bench for 3 sets with a higher weight at 6 reps, and then follow up with dumbell flys for 3-4 sets.

you can apply the pre-fatigue method by using a heavy weights during the bench press, and then light weights with high reps for the flys to really get that pump going & blood flowing, this way you attack both type a and type b muscle fibers :)

ill give you an example of my chest-back day:

1st excercise - flat bench
3 sets 5-6 reps

2nd excercise - seated neutral grip row
3 sets 8 reps, last set strip set

3rd excercise - weighted dips
4 sets 8 reps, last set no weight

4th excercise - lat pulldowns
3 sets 10 sets, last set strip set

5th excercise - incline db flys
3 sets 12-15 reps

6th excercise - chin ups
2 sets till fail

edit:

you shouldnt neglect the wheels... thats where a lot of your mass will be, also your body looks for balance, your upper body wont be as big if your legs are small

[edz71]

Hey there....... If you were making progress with your curent split leave it alone. From how I understood your question you want more size and strength gains with out a the bigger waist line. What are you eating and how much are you eating? There is no perfect routine to follow because there are so many variables to consider from one person to the next.........bla bla I'm sure you've heard it before. That being said there are the basics that will allways give you results if diet and recovery are followed.

Legaliz3 hit it right on ...SQUATS will give you the best overall strength gains and hormonal effect on the body, use high reps on the squat and feel the muscle work any retartd can load the bar and move 3 inches and that doesn't do shit. Go heavy and heavy for you not what might be heavy for someone else. Anyways I found my best strength gains started coming when I started squating and deadlifting in the same workout. One week start with squats and the next week start with deadlifts, in doing that I did have to change my split due to the muscles being worked from the deadlifts so the over lap wouldn't be so bad.

Here is waht I'm doing now wich is like you push pull routine.........oh and sorry for the long answer I got carried away.


Day 1. Squats / Deadlifts

Day 2. Off

Day 3. Incline DB Bench Press / Bench Press / Seated DB Shoulder Press / Triceps

Day 4. Close grip Pull Down / Barbelll Row / Barbell Shrugs / Biceps

Day 5. Off

Day 6. Off



Cheers........ Edz