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I got sick of my old routine consisting of a 2 day split

day 1: arms/chest/back

day 2: legs/abs

I just wasn't seeing results from it so i'm trying a new routine that i was searching for a found this one. I am trying to gain mass, currently 5'9 139lbs give or take 2 lbs. I have been weight lifting for about 4 and a half months now.

Chest / Triceps Days:

* 4 sets of 12, 8, 8, 8 flat bench press
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 Dumbbell chest flies
* 3 Sets of 10, 8, 8 Incline dumbbell press
* 3 sets to failure Dips
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 Tricep cable extension OR 3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Skullcrusher
* 3 Sets of 10, 8, 8 Overhead Tricep Extension
* 3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Machine Incline press

Back / Bicep Days:

* 3 sets of 12, 8, 7 lat pull-down
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 low row
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 high row
* 2 Sets of 8, 6 Barbell pullovers
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 6 Deadlifts
* 2 Sets of Alternating Dumbbell Curls

Shoulder / Traps Days:

* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 Barbell Military Presses
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 Dumbbell lateral raises
* 3 Sets of 12, 8 ,8 Dumbbell front raises
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 Posterior Flies (Machine or dumbbells)
* 2 Sets of 10, 8 Dumbbell Arnold Presses
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 Heavy dumbbell Shrugs
* 2 Sets of 12, 8 Heavy Behind the back barbell shrugs

Thigh / Calves / Abs Days:

* 3 Sets of 12, 10, 8 Barbell full squats
* 3 Sets of 15, 12, 8 Hamstring Curls
* 3 Sets of 12, 8, 8 Heavy Calf raises
* 2 Sets of 8, 8 Heavy Squats on the leg press machine
* 2 Sets of 12, 8 Leg extensions
* 2 Sets of 50, 50 Crunches or Failure
* 2 Sets of Hanging leg raises Failure

I critiqued it on discussbodybuilding.

It's fine, just drop the front raises and arnold presses; the anterior delts shouldn't receive more attention than the rest of the shoulder (to avoid shoulder imbalance).

oh haha didn't see that my bad lol. I posted it up on a couple sites and a few people were like yeah it's s*** drop the routine entirely but i honestly don't get what is so wrong with it? I look atother peoples routines and thats what they split their routine into chest/tris back/bis shoulders/traps and legs/abs. One guy gave me a routine to do but i honestly think its too simple in my opinion

monday
deadlift, chinup dip, front squat

tuesday off

wednesday
Bench Press, Hyper extensions, Row, Lunge

Thursday off

Friday
Squat, Pullup, military press, RDL

Saturday off

Sunday
Lunges, Dip, Row, hyperextensions

monday off

so on and so forth, just to give you a sample

This too me doesnt look intense enough i could be wrong but like my workout includes all of these exercises and more added in?

You have the appropriate movements; those accessory movements aren't going to negatively impact your goals. They don't "overtrain you" if you enjoy doing those movements keep them.

As far as other sites though - I was the one that critiqued you on BB.net - I'm plateau .

Your routine has a lot of exercises (maybe too much) but you have balanced movements and etc. and you're fine the way it is, I wouldn't add anything, just do it like it is and see how you respond.

The routine the other guy gave you was fine too.

I personally would use the routine he gave you before the one you listed, just because I respond better from those type of routines. But if you're confident in your response to the accessory movements in your program then it's cool, as stated - they won't negatively impact your gains.

Yowsers

At a buck forty and 4 1/2 months experience you definately want to re think your approach, that looks like Jay cutlers routine!! Which would beat the shit out of most people very quickly.

Thats the problem, at your level you dont need a complex routine, you need to spend alot more time on learning the lifts first, really get the form down and know the lifts.Then its time to try load the bar up some, then its time to worry about programming.

Imagine if you worked real hard on learning the following

Squats
Deadlifts
Bench Press
Military Press
Chins/Pullups

Ok so you get real good at all these lifts, your form is good and you manage to work on STRENGTH until you can do some pretty respectable numbers with these key lifts, you might throw in the odd accessory lift and lots of HEAVY ab work.IMAGINE how much bigger you will be.

Read the stickies in the Diet and routine section they are there for people in the very same boat as yourself.Think about starting a log, you will get lots of help there too.

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What were you expecting after 4 months? You need to be realistic about things.

Similar to what Hits said, you need some base strength first. Unless you'd like to do sets of 12 with an empty bar or a couple of pink dumbbells.

Here's my opinion:
1) WAY too much volume, especially for a beginner. Usually, with beginners, as volume increases form decreases.
2) Progression is going to be very difficult
3) Lose the goddamn crunches. They're more trouble than they're worth
4) More compounds and less isolation exercises.
5) Why are you doing pulldowns? You weigh 140lbs, do some pullups. On that same topic do some weighted pushups instead of so dumbbell press and machine press
6) 2 sets of heavy shrugs? 1 DB and 1 BB? Whats the friggin difference. Lose them. Deadlifting and rowing will get you traps and doing so many upper trap exercises is asking for lower trap problems down the road.
7) Everything has 'heavy' as an adjective. Sets of 8 or 10 are not a heavy exercise at all. That is borderline personally offensive
8) At 4.5 months you don't know how to do these movements well enough. You need to learn them with quality in mind. This means near perfect form working within the limits of your body (ie. if you have a buttwink during squats, keep your squat depth a bit above the point that it begins until you can get some hip mobility and lumbar stability). And it means low reps! Sets of 3 or 4. The last thing you want to do is dive into an aggressive loading situation with pisspoor form in a highly fatigued state. That's asking for a physio bill and about a year of unlearning faulty movement patterns.

That routine is far from balanced. Its very heavy volume on pushing, there are no prehab exercises and its very light volume on lower body. There's no way a 4 day routine should have one day dedicated to the lower body and 3 to the upper. The BIGGEST muscles are in the lower body. That second workout is not the best either but its light years ahead of the first one.

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Kane brings up good points regarding your experience level, I must have misread that. Something like this would probably be more appropriate for you.

Workout A:
Squat
Stiff-leg deadlift
Flat Bench
BB Row

Workout B:
Squat
Hamstring Curls
OH Press
Pullup

Thanks for all the advice guys i to consideration and was searching through forums of other people with the same problem and found this routine. Is it any better? thoughts opinions?


Day - 1
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Flat Barbell Bench Press
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Seated Cable Rows
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Squats
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Military Press
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Barbell Curls

Day - 2
3 sets of 5, 5, 5 Deadlifts
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Dumbbell Flyes
3 sets 12, 8, 8 ( each ) Superset Leg Curls and Extensions
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Dumbbell Lateral Raises
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Dumbbell Tricep Extensions

Day - 3
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Incline Barbell Bench Press
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Squats/Leg Press
3 sets of 12, 8, 8 Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press
3 sets to failure Dips
3 sets to failure Pullups

Should i do this like a 3 days on one off then 3 days on or do a 1 day on one day off one day on one day off type of thing?

Reread my post.

Your strength level and experience is not high enough for this crap and its STILL high volume.

For the future, avoid doing anything to failure repeatedly, once in a while is ok but not consistently. Stop when you think you can only do a rep or two more.

How much do you honestly think you'll be benching if you do a 12 rep set? How about on the third set, with 8 reps?

Really the only thing I agree with there is the deadlifts for a 3x5 and even then I would be making that a 5x3.

Workout A:
Squat
Stiff-leg deadlift
Flat Bench
BB Row

Workout B:
Squat
Hamstring Curls
OH Press
Pullup

Look into that routine right there, 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps. Eat a lot of healthy foods, right now you need to focus on increasing your compound movements instead of working about adding in a lot of unnecessary work. The volume will always subtract from the intensity, so that's why you need to be focusing on compound movements, progressive resistance, and a shit load of calories.