I used this training and diet split for roughly 16 weeks during the spring and summer months earlier this year. The main purpose of this routine was to hold lean muscle mass while lowering my body fat percentage. In 16 weeks I was able to put on roughly 10-15 lbs of lean muscle while maintaining relatively the same body fat percentage.
Obviously, it is advantageous to modify the split to tailor your own personal goals, but this split can be utilized by strength athletes, physique competitors, and all other athletes. I tried to mix traditional weight training movements along with body weight exercises, often in super sets to completely fatigue the muscle and fill it up with blood. Note: if you are interested in gaining size or achieving the old school “aesthetic” physique, you should rely on the mind-muscle connection as opposed to training your ego via heavy weights and max-outs (albeit something I have struggled with until recently).
If you have any questions, message me on facebook or email me at addisoncocoli@gmail.com. I posted this because a few of my friends had asked for some guidance regarding training and nutrition.
Thanks for reading and cheers everyone!
Training Split:
Day One: Chest, Triceps, and Abs.
Chest:
Incline DB Press (5 x 6-15), superset with dips (leaning forward- to failure). Warmup set of 15, pyramiding higher weight, lower reps for 5 sets.
Flat DB Flyes (4 x 8-12), superset with decline pushups to failure (feet on a bench, hands on the ground).
Flat Barbell Medium Width Bench Press (4 x 10): Grip a little less than shoulder with, TUT style (4 seconds negative, 1 second pause, 2 seconds up).
Cable Crossovers (5 x 20): Squeeze at the top, slow on the negative.
Triceps:
Rope Pushdowns (3 x 10-15): Just to get the blood in the triceps (even though they should be warm by the time you’re done with chest).
EZ-Bar Skullcrushers (3 x 8-12) superset with close-grip presses (3 x 10-15)
Seated One-Arm DB Extensions (4 x 6-20): Pyramid scheme again.
Dips (2 x failure).
Abs:
Cable Crunches (4 x 12-15) superset with Oblique Side Cable Crunches (3 x 12-15 each side).
Seated Jackknifes (3 x 15)
Hanging Leg Raises (3 x 12-15)
Side bends with 45 lb plate (3 x 20 each side).
Day Two: Biceps and Shoulders
Biceps:
DB Curls (5 x 8-20): Warm-up with 30s, then using TUT style reps, go as heavy as possible with a 2 seconds up, one second hold/squeeze, and 4 seconds negative scheme).
DB Side Hammer Curls (3 x 10-12) superset with hammer concentration curls (3 x failure).
DB Preacher Curl superset with reverse barbell curls (3 x 10-15).
EZ-Bar Spider Curls or Incline DB Curls (2 x 10-12)
Shoulders:
Rotator Cuff Warmups (3 x 10-20)
DB Shoulder Press (4 x 6-12): Pyramiding up with TUT style reps, 2 seconds up, one second hold/squeeze, and a 4 seconds negative scheme).
DB Reverse Flys: (3 x 10-12): Use a lighter weight, sit on the bench and raise dumbbells above your head just like a normal shoulder press, but instead, turn the dumbbells to a neutral palms facing each other grip, and do a fly motion with the dumbbells. Squeeze at the bottom and maintain a slight bend in the arms to work the anterior/medial heads of the shoulder. These give a wicked pump.
Seated Side Laterals (4 x 8-15) superset with DB front fraises (4 x failure).
Reverse Pec Dec Flys (3 x 10-15).
Day Three: Legs and Abs
Legs:
Squats (5 x 5-20)
Leg Extensions (4 x 10-12)
Leg Presses (3 x 10-15)
Hamstring Curls (4 x 10-12)
Romanian Deadlifts (3 x 10-12)
Glute-Ham Raise (4 x 20).
Abs:
Cable Crunches (4 x 12-15) superset with Oblique Side Cable Crunches (3 x 12-15 each side).
Seated Jackknifes (3 x 15)
Hanging Leg Raises (3 x 12-15)
Side bends with 45 lb plate (3 x 20 each side).
Day Four: Back and Abs.
Barbell Rows (4 x 6-12)
Close-Grip Pulldowns (3 x 10-12) superset with wide-grip pull-ups (3 x failure).
Seated Row with underhand grip (3 x 8-12)
Hammer Strength Pulldown (Overhand Grip) (4 x 8-12).
Abs:
Cable Crunches (4 x 12-15) superset with Oblique Side Cable Crunches (3 x 12-15 each side).
Seated Jackknifes (3 x 15)
Hanging Leg Raises (3 x 12-15)
Side bends with 45 lb plate (3 x 20 each side).
Usually I’ll do some planking mixed with side oblique raises and lying leg raises. Sometimes I superset each move with pushups to failure just to keep the blood flowing.
Cardio Routine:
Cardio varies a lot to be honest. Some mornings before work I’ll run a few miles on the treadmill at home and do a quick pushup/stability ball workout, then have breakfast.
Other days I do cardio right after the workouts for about 30-45 minutes (I usually do the treadmill or stair master). Sometimes I do HITT for 20 minutes with sprints on the turf (I found this produces the most fat burning while staving off catabolism).
If I have a cheat meal I make sure to do a second cardio session right before bed for 20 minutes or so, just to kick start the fat burning during the night. It has never interfered with my sleep so don’t worry too much about that.
All in all, I think cardio has to be tamed accordingly. If you’re active and playing sports and shit, you probably don’t need much anyway, and you’re already in shape and know about cardio. I guess its just up to you what kind of conditioning you’re looking for (cardio and physique-wise). When I first started doing cardio a lot at the beginning of the year I was doing like 2 hours a day and lost way too much muscle. Once I toned it back to 30 minutes LISS and mixing that with 20 minutes HIIT, I had way more energy and saved a lot of gains by limiting the breakdown of muscle throughout the day.
Diet:
Meal 1: 8 Eggs, 2 cups spinach, half a cup of brown basmati rice, ½ red pepper.
Meal 2: Shake containing 2 scoops Gold Standard Performance Whey Protein, 2 cups spinach, ½ cup steel cut oats, ½ cup unsalted blue diamond almonds, low-fat organic milk (how much depends on how thick you want the shake).
Meal 3: 8 oz chicken breast, 1 cup basmati rice, ½ red pepper. (This is usually my preworkout meal).
Meal 4: Same as Meal 3.
Meal 5: Same as Meal 2 (minus the carbs). I usually drink this before bed.
Notes: For years I packed my shake and took it to the gym with me, but I found it took my appetite away. I really value whole food nutrition over shakes, and since I’ve done cardio this year my body burns the food at a higher rate. So for instance, with the 3rd meal, I might eat most of it and pack the rest in my gym bag and eat the remains right after the workout just to stave off hunger and catabolism until I eat my fourth meal 45 minutes later.
The Diet is also pretty instinctive. That’s normally how I eat throughout the week, on the weekends I might eat more or less depending on if I take a rest day or not (also instinctive). For the most part though it stays the same. It’s also how your body deals with the macros. Sometimes I’ll throw in an avocado with the chicken and rice for some healthy fats, it really just depends. You’re bigger than me and have a larger frame so you could obviously eat more than that and stay lean.
Supplements:
Preworkout: PhD Wired ( 2 scoops )
Protein: Gold Standard Performance Whey by ON.
Vitamin D3
CLA
Carnitine (Carnipure liquid, 2 tablespoons daily).
Cellucor Super HD/CLK combo
Intra/Postworkout: Gaspari Aminolast (Lots of BCAA’s, I drink a scoop an hour before my workout, and a scoop immediately after instead of having a protein shake).
Fish Oil (3 grams daily)
Co-Q10 (60 mgs daily)
B Vitamin Stress Complex (2 tabs daily, can buy at any grocery store for cheap).
Pre-Sleep: (10 mgs melatonin mixed with l-theanine).
Taurine (500mgs / twice daily)
L-lysine (500 mgs/twice daily).