Routine guidance please, advanced

[Eliana]

I have been doing searches online for good routines to do but am coming up short. Everything I find for women is lame! (Sorry. )

I do two days of lifting so I separate it upper body and lower body. I'm pretty good with the lower body but the upper body has all the different groupings with biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest and back. Sometimes I'm not sure which muscle group I'm truly hitting, so I like to be told what to do in order to hit them all. I need a really good all over upper body workout.

Right now the best routine I found is:
3 sets of:
pull ups
push ups (wide and close hands)
lat pull down
front raises
V-rope (Not sure what the real name is but you stand straight and pull a rope down from about naval high)
bicep curls
lat raises

I like this routine because it hits all the muscle groups, but after doing it 6-8 weeks I'm going to want to change it up.

How often do you all change up your routines and how do you know what the routine should be?

[kaw]

The solution to this problem is not to follow a "woman's" routine! Seriously, women have muscles in the same places as men, and the grow for the same reasons as men's (just not as much, because of hormonal differences).

Lyle McDonald has a good generic weight training routine (search "Lyle McDonald generic bulking" and you'll find it).

Krista Scott Dixon's site stumptuous.com has a wealth of general training information, including various suggested splits & routines; her site is written for women, in the sense that she has a female audience in mind, but the routines themselves are just solid lifting advice.

If you really must do a "woman's" workout, some people on this board swear by New Rules of Lifting for Women. Cassandra Forsythe (a co-author on NRLW) and Rachel Cosgrove are two other authors with recent books out geared toward women lifters.

Good for you for wanting to build muscle!

//b. strong,
Kim

If you don't want to buy a book,

[Eliana]

Yes, I'm not looking for a "women's routine" I guess. But I'm not looking to do bicep curls with 90 pound weights either! You're right, a general routine would be just as good. Add "womens" to the mix and you get too-easy.

I've been lifting for over a year, but I've run out of ideas. I'm wanting to spice things up. I've taken everything I know to do and moved it around a bit. The problem is I'm really not well educated on what muscle groups I'm hitting. In some ways I am, but in others I'm not, and I don't necessarily feel it where I should. For instance I feel the lat pull down in my abs, not my arms! My abs give out before my arms do. Yes, I'm working on my core three days a week as well. It's a work in progress. I feel push ups in the biceps, not the triceps, unless I'm doing close hand work. I never feel the back exercises in the back at all and have yet to find my hamstrings ever despite the fact that I spin routinely. My instructor always says my "hammies should be talking to me" but they never are, and I have some really heavy resistance on there and my tailbone is back as far as it goes. So I can not use my body cues as any kind of guidance.

[nelie]

Pushups should be felt in the biceps and close grip pullups (or lat pulldowns) will give your biceps a work. Close in pushups and tricep dips will work your triceps.

Have you tried pullups or modified pullups at all? For your lat pull downs, do you concentrate on your back muscles at all? I mean when I do assisted pullups, I mentally focus on my back muscles to pull me up.

Are you doing squats? lunges? Have you done deadlifts?

Also, if you have been lifting for over a year, you definitely need to switch up your routine. I do think NRLW might be just the thing you need.

[Eliana]

Originally Posted by nelie

Pushups should be felt in the biceps and close grip pullups (or lat pulldowns) will give your biceps a work. Close in pushups and tricep dips will work your triceps.

Have you tried pullups or modified pullups at all? For your lat pull downs, do you concentrate on your back muscles at all? I mean when I do assisted pullups, I mentally focus on my back muscles to pull me up.

Are you doing squats? lunges? Have you done deadlifts?

Also, if you have been lifting for over a year, you definitely need to switch up your routine. I do think NRLW might be just the thing you need.

Yes, with legs I'm good. Squats, squat pulses, lunges, squats on bosu ball, stair running, calf raises, deadlifts, wall sits...and always spinning and running.

I have never mentally focused on the muscles, except person on the bike when I'm trying to figure out why I don't feel them. I'll give that a shot.

And I have switched up my routine multiple times over the course of the year. I've just reached a point where I guess I'm bored and need some new ideas.

[mkroyer]

do the regular, original New Rules of Lifting.... its PERFECT and has enough progressive, goal oriented routines to keep you happy for a year (Fat loss routines, strength routines, and hypertrophy)
they are all big lifts (deads, squats, pullups/down etc..... i think it is exactly what you are looking for


Regarding not "feeling" some of the exercises... when you are doing lat pulldowns/pullups, you really need to take a moment to "squeeze" your back muscles.....

when you are doing pullups, you need to make sure you are activating your upper back... do this by going into a dead hang, and just practice initiating the movement by bringing your shoulder blades together, squeezing your upper back and pushing your chest up.....
same with the lat pulldown... pick a really light weight so you can focus on initiatiting the movement by squeezing your lats and back...

[Eliana]

I will give that a try!! That's one of those things PTs are good for, huh? I think I'll ask my spin instructor how to engage the "hammies", as she likes to call them.