Anyways, I think it is my routine which is the biggest trouble.
My workouts are as follows, I normally do extremely slow encentric movements, with perfect form and control. I train hard. (quote)
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1.This is alot of the problem. Mass building is in fact equal to how much weight you push up. To quote Arnold S., if you were to lift 120 pounds on barbell curls one week, then lift 130 pounds the following week, you gained muscle. Fast twitch muscles are what make up the majority of our muscles. Fast twitch muscle fiber also has the potential to grow twice the size of slow twitch. Doing slow reps and having perfect form will prevent you from achieving more weight, which in turn will make you bigger and stronger. I'm not saying for bench press to bounce the weight off your chest and arch you back. I'm saying it should be a tempo of 3 seconds down, as soon as it touches your chest, explode up. (3-0-1)
2.Don't pair legs and shoulders. They are both very important major muscles. There is no way you can blast your legs for as many sets you do, then lift just as heavy with the same intensity for shoulders. Cortisol levels rise after about 45 minutes in the gym. Your body will in fact start eating
your muscles for fuel. In my opinion, it won't matter as long as you kick yourself out of the gym in an hour.
3.Spread out your legs day further from your back day. This way you do squats on legs day, of course, and on back day do deadlifts.
4.For deadlifts I recommend doing them as your first exercise. 3-4 sets of 5 is more than sufficient. I say this because you shouldn't go over 5-6 reps for deads so you can load it up heavy.(there's that word again
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5.Excluding legs, I wouldn't go over 8 reps for any muscle at all. Think to yourself to pick a heavy enough weight to ONLY get no more than 8,6,whatever reps.
6.Arms, my specialty. Currently at 19 inches so I know what the score is ;) Barbell curls is great and best at beginning like you have. I wouldn't recommend doing both preacher curls and barbell curls in the same workout because they are both the hardest on your joints. To break biceps down properly, I would do 3-4 sets of (heavy) barbell curls, 2-3 sets of alt. dumbbell curls, 2-3 sets of either hammer curls or reverse grip curls, and end it with isolation curls. I am a proponent of Max-OT and live by it, but, you already know and I won't force it down your throat. :(
Triceps should entail: 2 sets of cable pushdowns (heavy as a warmup), 3 heavy sets of close grip bench (which is the best mass builder), 2-3 sets of french curls, and end with reverse grip pressdowns (builds the horseshoe shape)
-Just remember that more isn't necessarily better. You have a pretty high volume. I would recommend a lengthy warmup, then doing only your heaviest sets. For instance: I used to also do 4-5 sets of bench. My first set was 225 for 10, then 275 for 8, 295 for 6, 315 for 6, ect ect. Looking back, I can see that the first 2 sets were bullshit, not building me anything, just fatiguing me.
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