Strength Training 6x per week

Justinef

Justinef

Cathlete
I'm looking for advice and words of wisdom.....I know I'll get them here ;)

I'm thinking of weight training 6x per week. Dividing the upper body into:
chest, back, biceps, triceps, shoulders, core

and the lower body into:
quads, calves, hamstrings, glutes, abductors/adductors and core (again - this time lower core including hip flexors)

I'd then pick 2 body parts and work them on the same day, alternating between upper body and lower body (eg Monday bis and tris, Tuesday hammies and glutes)

I'm looking to spend 40 - 60 minutes each morning on this. Later in the day I'd add in some cardio or yoga, where appropriate / necessary. (I walk my dogs each day anyway, so there's some steady state cardio going on, so maybe a bit of HiiT each week.)

Has anyone done anything similar? Any tips and advice? Which workouts would be best? I'm not looking to lose weight, just increase strength and endurance, and build muscle.

Thank you!

PS - I'm interested in doing this because I am a MWT junkie, and I'm getting diminishing returns from that sort of training. Want to shock my body just for a month or so
 
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I don't see anything wrong with this especially if you're going to alternate upper and lower days.

I curious, would you spend equal amount of time on each body part, ie. would you spend as much time on calves as you would quads? And what type of work would you do for abd/adductors? In my mind I'm having trouble thinking of a good variety for these "accessory" muscles. I'm intrigued!
 
Both Cross Train Express & the BB series Timesaver DVDs are split 5 ways, I don't know if that's the kind of thing you're looking for. You could mix and match chapters from Slow & Heavy, Gym Styles, Pure Strength, and the Pyramids for the 6 days to get what you want.

It's been a while since I've done those. Let us know what you come up with!

I kind of remember something like that combining upper & lower body splits, I don't know if it was a Cathe though.
 
A few years ago, I was training for an amateur bodybuilding competition. I trained six days a week. Three days lifting, one day off, three days lifting, one day off. For me it was a great rotation. I got phenominal results. I added in two days of cardio a week. Not chronic cardio. Just a quick 30 minute session. I highly recommend this style of training. Give it a go. Good luck.

P.S. I took the overall title in the competition. Not bragging, just sayin' it does work.
 
Sorry, I forgot to add. The rotation I used did work each body part twice a week. So for example Monday was chest and triceps, Tuesday, Back, shoulders and biceps, Wednesday, legs, then a rest day. Friday, Saturday and Sunday would be a repeat of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then a rest day. This was the rotation. Hope it makes sense.
 
I recently changed my workouts from three days lifting and three days cardio, which I had been doing for years, to what someone said they did: Three days lifting one day cardio (light) and three days lifting then one day off. Now, I started this rotation during Meso 3/6-month rotation so I was burnt out at the end from all the heavy lifting. I took a couple days off to recoup and now I'm going to continue the same 3/1/3/off concept.

I bought some KCM's and Chalean extreme that I'm looking forward to, too. Thanks to all the comments on the forums recommending them. I did a few KCM's yesterday and I like her style and I have to say, her smile.

I haven't opened Chalean yet, maybe today.
 
Thank you all - I knew you'd give me something to think about!

Desertambrosia - it obviously worked for you - that's good enough for me! Not so sure I'll ever win any competitions, though. It makes sense to do each body part twice a week - there are plenty more options for using dvds that way.

What I had intended was one 'big' muscle, one 'small' each workout. So,for example, glutes and calves. I'd then do one heavy exercise for glutes (to failure) and then a 'burn set' - say deadlifts followed by those frog legs on a ball (Xtrain Legs) - then a few minutes calf raises as active recovery, then another heavy glute exercise, followed by a burn set, followed by active recovery (say tibialis work). etc etc up to 40 - 50 mins.

The problem would be putting all the exercises together. It would be much easier if I did a routine like desertambrosia - I could use sts, 3 days on, 3 days off (eg discs 1,2,3, rest, discs 1,2,3, rest, discs 4,5,6, rest etc). I may well do that - but I want a bit of a break from STS (I've just done 6 1/2 month rotation).

LasVegas - I like KCM too - I was going to use her for quite a bit of the upper body work. DVDs like muscle endurance allow you to select one body part at a time.

I need to go away and think this through further. :p Keep suggestions coming!

PS Stacy - ab/adductors would be lots of fire walkers and discs - hard to go heavy though.
 
Justine, I'd highly recommend getting KCM's new Muscle Up to add to your collection! Maybe you could rotate the 3 Gym Styles but maybe use the Timesaver premixes (at least for upper body). I like these, usually 2 sets instead of 3 and no band work, more of a no-nonsense version of the original. Muscle Up uses supersets and goes at a slower pace so you can go heavy.
 
I did a 7 day on/ 1 day off rotation with Gym Styles for 5 weeks where I did:
GS Chest & Tris and added-on GS Shoulders & Bis
GS Legs
Cardio
GS Back, Shoulders, Bis and added-on GS Tris
GS Legs (again)
Cardio
GS Chest only with GS Back only
REST DAY (and you need it!!!! ;))

It was very effective, but made for some long workouts!

I am REALLY looking forward to getting Ripped with HIIT! Sounds like you'd enjoy this series too because of the mix 'n matchability it has!
 
Nancy - I like the sound of that. But all may change with these new dvds on the horizon!!! EXACTLY what I've been waiting for (haven't we all :D )

I have a week and a half to decide what to do next - I'd quite like to try a few dvds that I haven't done (and some that I don't do often) eg slow and heavy.
 
Some sort of undulating rotation might be good. One week heavy weights, the next week endurance, the next hypertrophy. Mixing everything up, so your muscles don't know what you are going to hit them with next. The only thing consistent is is inconsistency. Keep everything guessing. (Sometimes even yourself!) HAVE FUN!! Keep us posted.;)
 
Justinef...I like your idea for weight training. I was thinking that you could use Slow and Heavy and X train and do combinations of for example: Chest-slow and heavy, then X train Chest (not the burn set ones), then do triceps (again, not the burn ones) and then finish out with 100 rep tricep extensions. That actually sounds fun to me! Cathe has lots to choose from. The next week you could do the Chest burn sets and then Gym Style or Pure Strength Chest and Triceps to finish out. You'd be using a lot of your dvd's this way,for sure.

Good luck...will be fun putting all this in the workout manager!

Beth
 
I'm very interested in finding out what you decide to do. I've been contemplating this lifting idea for a few months but haven't settled on anything yet. I was thinking about doing Xtrain in this fashion. We'll see ;-)
Amy
 
Justine,

Let us know what you end up doing and the results, please. I was planning out my bodybuilding rotation after finishing up STS and was contemplating doing strength 6 days per week. I just loved the results from STS and want to keep those results. I was thinking of first doing GS for 6 days for 4 weeks.

I do need to get cardio in there and was also going to do Hiit/X10/Tabata for short explosive cardio. Then sprinkle in Horizontal Conditioning and Tonique.
 
Having read as much as I can on the subject, I've been convinced to do each body part twice a week - like Desertambrosia said. Apparently I should see more impressive results than limiting myself to one long session for each muscle group. So I'm going to pick a dvd series each week and do upper body, lower body, upper body, rest, lower body, upper, lower, rest. I will change the series each week to achieve an undulating effect.

Firstly I'm going to finish the Rock Bottom Rotation which I'm doing, then have a week messing about doing any workouts that I fancy, or haven't yet tried, or haven't done in a long time. THEN I'll get stuck into some serious weight training - aiming for 6 hours of weights per week.

Thanks for everyone's help - I'll let you know how I go on.
 
Justinef said:
Having read as much as I can on the subject, I've been convinced to do each body part twice a week - like Desertambrosia said. Apparently I should see more impressive results than limiting myself to one long session for each muscle group. So I'm going to pick a dvd series each week and do upper body, lower body, upper body, rest, lower body, upper, lower, rest. I will change the series each week to achieve an undulating effect.

Firstly I'm going to finish the Rock Bottom Rotation which I'm doing, then have a week messing about doing any workouts that I fancy, or haven't yet tried, or haven't done in a long time. THEN I'll get stuck into some serious weight training - aiming for 6 hours of weights per week.

Thanks for everyone's help - I'll let you know how I go on.
Click to expand...

I know for myself doing Xtrain total upper body twice a week really gave me strength gains and definition. I also have done Pyramid upper/body split twice a week and had great results.

I tend to only do 3 day splits for a few weeks at a time. I really like working the body twice a week with total body or the above type splits.

I've done a bikini rip rotation my name for 3 week one time getting ready for vacation. Its was hard but got me totally shredded

I did Gym style 3 day split twice each week along with Cardio 5 days and a yoga day (cause all the muscle building was making me tight)

Its basically a double/double rotation LOL. I don't think its advisable long term or anything. It was a surprise trip from my dh and I had not been eating so well had about 5-7 lbs I wanted off. I'm a petite so 5lb looks a lot on someone my size. I had the choice of starving for 3 weeks or burning that donut off. LOL
 
Hi all,

In the end I decided on this rotation:

MWT
UB heavy weights + HiiT (2 - 3 muscle groups)
LB endurance + yoga in the evening
UB heavy weights + HiiT (the remaining UB muscle groups)
LB cardio / plyo work + Pilates in the evening
UB endurance (all muscle groups) - or total body if my legs feel OK ;)
OFF


So far, I'm loving it! Too soon to gauge results, though.
 
Hi Justine,

I actually am doing a homemade rotation very similar to this one you just posted. Although I did not put as much thought/differentiation into Weights for Muscle Endurance versus Weights for Strength. I ended up just getting confused on which of Cathe's weight videos were for endurance or strength and went back to STS (not a bad thing since I just love STS!)

I know Muscle endurance is mainly higher reps with lighter weights and Strength is mainly lower reps with heavier weights. But it seems that the majority of Cathe videos are for Muscle endurance - is this right?

Anyone have a breakdown of which videos would be considered Endurance versus Strength?

This is what I had previously come up with, but it was all just guesses:

MUSCLE ENDURANCE:
-XTrain bi/tri/sh/bk/ch
-XTrain cardio leg blast
-High Reps
-LLA
-GG
-B&G
-Power Hour

STRENGTH:
-XTrain Burn Sets
-XTrain Legs
-Slow & Heavy
-Pure Strength
-Muscle Max

Those are total guesses since it seems that the majority of Cathe videos are about 12-16 reps, which I would consider for endurance. I initially thought Gym Styles was for STRENGTH, however I tried doing GS right after I finished STS and used the heavier weights I was using towards the end of STS and could not keep up the speed or the number of reps that were used in Gym Style, so now I am wondering if GS is actually endurance?

STS Total Body, Pyramid, 4DS, CTX, etc I also don't know how to categorize. Ugh....see why I just went back and repeated STS?
 
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