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I'm wondering if my routine is good for building muscle but strength also. I'm 6"0 170 pounds looking to put on muscle and gain strength. I've been using this routine for almost a month now.

Monday: Legs

4x8 Squats
3x12 Lunges
3x8 Leg Curls
3x15 Calf Raises

Tuesday: Chest and Triceps

4x8 Incline Barbell Bench Presses
4x8 Decline Barbell Bench Presses
3x8 Close Grip Bench Presses
3x8 Dumbbell Skullcrushers
3x8 Barbell French Presses

Wednesday: Back and Biceps

4x8 Deadlifts
4x8 Barbell Bent Over Rows
4xMax Pull-Ups
3x8 Barbell Curls
3x8 Dumbbell Hammer Curls

Thursday: Legs

4x8 Squats
3x10 Front Squats
3x8 Leg Curls
3x15 Calf Raises

Friday: Chest and Shoulders

4x8 Flat Bench Presses
3x10 Dumbbell Flys
4x8 Military Presses
3x10 Dumbbell Lateral Raise
3x8 Upright Rows
4x10 Dumbbell Shrugs

Or should I just start all over with a 5x5 routine to build a good base and gain strength like Rippetoe's or Madcows 5x5 and then move onto a split?

Only my personal opinion, but I think you're doing too much.
I combine my sessions and only hit the weights 3 days a week with cardio in between.

I swear by 5 x 5 training, and if pure functional strength is your goal then that is the way to go - 1st 2 sets just being warm-ups to warn the muscle you're coming for it, the last 3 are the ass-kicking, all out balls-to-the-wall working sets.

How I work it is:
week 1 Monday and Friday - squats, back, shoulders
Wednesday - deadlifts, chest, arms

week 2 Monday and Friday - deadlift, chest, arms
Wednesday - Squats, back, shoulders

As soon as you can hit a weight for 3 x 5 on the working sets progress - YOU ALWAYS WORK TOWARDS PROGRESS!!!! Without progress its meaningless.
concentrate on the compound movements - deadlifts, squats (the best exercise ever invented, IMO) presses (bench, military) pulls - always heavy, always mean!!

Work bottom position exercises for strength progression, after the main workout each day do auxilary work (calves, abs, forearms, wrists, hands) Set special time aside for grip work, without strong hands, wrists how will anything else get stronger!?

Blast your core!! heavy, heavy situps and crunches. a strong core is SO important to all around strength, just like a strong grip!!

EAT! 2000 cals of solid food w/whey protein and creatine.

learn to hate the bunny rabbits who go to the gym for just a pump, and to look at the girls - this training will not get you anywhere.

Make the power rack your best friend. All I need is my power rack, a bench and weights and plenty of water, man.

Do this and come back and check yourself in 3 months! Train like a dinosaur and be a hard ass!!! I promise you'll love the results.

Uh....eat more than 2000 calories or you'll blow away in the wind. A 5X5 routine would be better IMO than what you're doing right now. There's too much redundancy & you're probably overreaching after training for a week with your current program.

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Yeah, Ross, may be right, you may want more than 2000.

I keep mine at around 2000, with 4 scoops of whey protein on off days and 5 on training days along with creatine. That and with cardio 2- 3 days a week I maintain 210 lbs, 4% BF Squat & deadlift both over 500 lbs and 335 bench. But Im only lifting 3 days a week too, like I said.
2000 +/- calories a day with supps works well for me but may not for others.

Couldn't find the 'edit' feature ...

Anyways, I just checked - with the supps included Im taking in 3000+ cals/day and at least a gallon of water. 2000 +/- is solid food the other 1000+ is protein & creatine.

Thank you all for the replies!

It seems like I'll switch into a 5x5 routine. I think I'm going to hold off though since in late June and July, I'll be on vacation for 3 weeks.

The only supplements I'll ever use and will be using is whey protein/muscle milk. So I'll check out Starting Strength and add some isolations maybe or make my own 5x5 routine focusing on the compounds and add isolations?

And also, I heard from doing a bad routine for a few months you can shock your body or something and it can stunt future gains? Is this true? What if I take 2 months off, which I'll most likely do since if I start this week I'll only be lifting for like 3 weeks then I'll end having to take the 3 weeks off in late June.

Bump...

Hey man, I see youre training 5 days a week so you have the ever important time to put into your training which is great. Ive been doing this a while since i played football in HS and made weight training and nutrition a hobby of mine which i am constantly tweaking and experimenting with and think im a pretty good resource of info. Specifically, you sound like you have the same body type as i, im 6'1 and 200 lbs at about 8% BF...but this could be lower as ive been getting leaner and havent checked my BF recently. You need to train to your body type and constantly surprise your body to enahcen strength and growth. Here is a good sample routine that can improve on your size as well as strength:

Monday Legs:

Sqauts: 1 warm up x 15
4x 10, 8, 6, 4
Leg Presses: 4x 12, 12, 10, 10
Leg Ext: 4x 15, 15, 12, 10
Striaght Legged Dead Lifts: 4x 10, 8, 6, 6
Leg Curls: 4x 15, 12, 10, 10
Calf Raises: 3x 15, 12, 10

Tuesday Arms: Biceps
Barbell Curl: 1 warm up x 15
3x 10, 8, 6
Hammer Curls: 3x 10, 10, 8
Preacher Curls: 3x 15, 12, 12
Closed Grip BP: 1 warm up x 15
3x 8, 8, 6
Inclined Single armed ext: 3 x 10, 10, 8
Rope Pressdown: 3 x 15, 12, 10
Wrist Curls behind the back: 3x 10
Wrist Curls in front: 3x 10

Wednesday Shoulders:
Barbell Press: 1 warm up set x 20
4x 10, 8, 6 ,4
Upright Rows: 4x 12, 10, 8, 6
DB lateral raises: 3x 12, 10 ,8
Rear Delt Flyes: 3x 12, 10, 8
BB front raises: 3x 15, 12, 10
BB shrugs: 3x 10, 8, 8

Thurs off

Friday Chest/ Tri's:
Flat BP: 1 warm up x 15
4 x 6, 6, 4, 4
Incline DB press: 4x 8, 8, 6, 6
Heavy Dips: 4x 10, 8, 8, 6
Flat DB Flyes: 4x 12, 10, 10, 8
Skull Crushers: 3x 15, 12, 10
Single Arm Cable Ext: 3x 15, 12, 10

Saturday Back/ Bi's:
Deadlift: 1 Warm Up x 10
4 x 6, 6, 4, 4
Lat Pulldown: 4x 10, 8, 8, 6
Bent Over BB rows: 4x 10, 8, 8, 6
Closed Grip Cable rows: 4x 10, 8, 8, 6
Behind the neck pulldowns: 3x 12, 10, 8

Abs and Obliques should alternate every training day varying reps to improve definition and thickness
Rules of thumb for nutrition when trying to increase size:
-2 calories per lb of body weight
-1-1.25 grams of protein per lb of body weight
-1.5-2 grams of carbs per lb of body weight(all should be slow digesting ie whole wheat sources with the acception of breakfast and post workout when fast digesting carbs ie sugar are key)
- 1 gallon of water per day
- cardio 3 days per week to keep fat levels down( should be low impact after workout for prolonged periods )

*different variations for different people as everyone is diff as well as changing your routine every couple of weeks to shock muscles. For more advanced routines and rep ranges to shock the muscle, get at me personally. Good luck!

sorry i forgot to write the bicep routine for the back routine day...honest mistake:

Inclined DB curls: 2x 12, 12
Concentration Curls: 2x 15, 12
Reverse BB curls: 2x 12, 10

Cheers!

Good grief.. High volume routines straight from Arnold's Encyclopedia is the LAST thing 80% of the population needs.

Listen, the human body adapts to a certain rep range in as little as six workouts. Using a pyramid scheme (15,10,8,6,6,3) is extremely suboptimal for naturals given that it's way too difficult to be progressive vs. keeping it static. "Shocking" your muscles is an old school train of thought. High volume routines work extremely well for pro's for the obvious reasons (supplement cabinets, genetics, super supps). You can throw all the volume you want at the problem, but that's a finite solution. The only infinite solution is obviously LOAD. If I take 10 twins, and put them all on that five day split, 2 of them at best would see some gains. If I take those same 10 twins, put them on a protein intake of twice their bodyweight, and bring their squat up 50 lbs, bench 30, and deadlift 100 lbs using LESS days in the gym, and MORE reliance on strength, guess how many see muscle mass? My point is trying to do 15 sets per bodypart is something that's YEARS down the line as it's primarily for weak points (if any) vs. 0-5 years hands down. I myself am up through 257 lbs currently, natural, and hitting the gym a grand total of 3 days per week. More is almost never better.

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