Working out/weightlifting/bodybuilding/exercise...

[SniperRifle]

I wanna buy the Carmen Electra Aerobic Striptease. Fuck yes.

[Dripdry]

I rock climb a bunch, so while I don't have the big muscles, I certainly seem to surprise even the biggest mafioso wannabes when they shake my hand at meetings, as if to crush "wee little me", and I in turn can wring their massive ham-fists into crumpled little rabbit feet.
Not nearly as active as those of you around here, but I watch what I eat and stay a trim ~165 at 6'2".
Anyone else here climb/boulder or think about adding it to their regular regimen? Any suggestions on exercises? I'm always happy to cross train too, if it works to my advantage at the crag.
Oh, by the way, 'hi'. I seem to be back after a very long hiatus.

[SniperRifle]

We've never met but hi.

I'd try rock climbing but I don't like heights. Looks interesting though. You must need quite a bit of muscle to climb up there.

[napalm]

I went rock climbing on one of those walls, with the harnesses and everything.

I got scared at the top.

I fail.

[Opaque]

If it wasn't ten million dollars to use the artificial walls I'd be all over it.

[Dripdry]

That's why I found a wall that I paid a membership for during a few months, then just kept coming in. They know me, and I just act like I'm supposed to be there, and everything is kosher.
Just gotta act natural.

[Dolemite]

I don't care for heights either.

[napalm]

Well, I'm happy to say I'm finally getting back into things.

My workout schedual for tuesdays needs some revamping I think, but this is what I did:

Bench 3x8
Tricep push downs 3x8
Pec Flyes 3x8
Lat pull downs 3x8

I tried to do dumbell chest presses, but after bench (to failure) and tricept pull downs (near failure) I could barely get the damn things up because my triceps hurt so bad. Either way, how does that look for a complete workout?

Also: how low and far out are my arms supposed to go when I'm doing pec flyes. I try to bring the weights down low enough to be level with my chest, but I can still have my arms bent a million different ways. I think my arms were at about a 135 bend when I was doing them; should I try to make it even more? (90 degree bend is about chest press, and 180 is completely flat arms, in case you didn't catch my drift)

[Dolemite]

Well, I'm happy to say I'm finally getting back into things.

My workout schedual for tuesdays needs some revamping I think, but this is what I did:

Bench 3x8
Tricep push downs 3x8
Pec Flyes 3x8
Lat pull downs 3x8

Awful. You're doing chest, tris, and back all at once? And barely doing anything for them while you're at it. Small body parts (like bis and tris) should get maybe 6-8 sets, and larger ones should get around 10-12.

Also, on chest, you're not doing anything for upper pecs. Big mistake. I did that at first when I started training and it took me a while to get my upper chest to catch up.

Try maybe 3 sets bench, 3 sets of an incline movement (barbell or dumbbell press), and the 3 sets of flyes. 9 sets total is fine. Save your tricep workout until after you're done with chest, not during.

Also: how low and far out are my arms supposed to go when I'm doing pec flyes. I try to bring the weights down low enough to be level with my chest, but I can still have my arms bent a million different ways. I think my arms were at about a 135 bend when I was doing them; should I try to make it even more? (90 degree bend is about chest press, and 180 is completely flat arms, in case you didn't catch my drift)

Man, dumbbell flyes are one of the most difficult exercises to do correctly. It took a lot of pratice on my part before they finally became useful. 135 bend sounds about right…just lower the weight until your upper arms are about parallel with the floor. Once there, it's important to raise the weight in a "hugging" motion, NOT a pressing motion. Try to picture yourself hugging a large tree. Your triceps should not really come into play at all. As the dumbbells near the top of the movement, lessen the degree you're bending your arms so that they straighten out somewhat (but not all the way). Squeeze at the top of the movement for a second, then continue back down.

Hope that helps. It's hard to really teach someone the correct way of doing flyes unless you're there showing them. If it's too hard, I'm sure your gym has a pec deck machine, that's almost as good.

[napalm]

Awful. You're doing chest, tris, and back all at once? And barely doing anything for them while you're at it. Small body parts (like bis and tris) should get maybe 6-8 sets, and larger ones should get around 10-12.

Like I said probably a couple of pages ago, I was trying to form a workout schedual to go with my "set" workouts of bench, squat, deadlift, and powerclean. I'm really bad at knowing which muscles to combine on certain days and what not, but for the record, it still works. Could suggest something better maybe?

Also, I don't know how you can do 6-8 sets on a single muscle group. I used to actually do that before (3x10 doing two different exercises, or 2x10 doing three different exercises) but if I'm doing Max OT, my muscles have gone to failur by the 3rd set or so. Perhaps I'm missing something....

Also, on chest, you're not doing anything for upper pecs. Big mistake. I did that at first when I started training and it took me a while to get my upper chest to catch up.

Actually, I usually work my upper and lower pecs seperately. Typically I would do 2x10 incline chest press, 2x10 decline chest press, and 2x10 flat chest press, maybe something else. The only problem was that I couldn't do chest press because my tris were shot from going until failur on bench earlier that day, then going to failur on tris a little before the chest presses. Clearly I need help reworking my schedual.

Try maybe 3 sets bench, 3 sets of an incline movement (barbell or dumbbell press), and the 3 sets of flyes. 9 sets total is fine. Save your tricep workout until after you're done with chest, not during.

Am I supposed to be going to failur on each set of 3 or what?

Man, dumbbell flyes are one of the most difficult exercises to do correctly. It took a lot of pratice on my part before they finally became useful. 135 bend sounds about right…just lower the weight until your upper arms are about parallel with the floor. Once there, it's important to raise the weight in a "hugging" motion, NOT a pressing motion. Try to picture yourself hugging a large tree. Your triceps should not really come into play at all. As the dumbbells near the top of the movement, lessen the degree you're bending your arms so that they straighten out somewhat (but not all the way). Squeeze at the top of the movement for a second, then continue back down.

Yea, I know the motiion and all of that, I just wasn't sure on how straight my arms were supposed to be, so I figured I my as well ask. I figured I was doing them corectly, I just needed to double check. The only reason I did them this last workout was because my tris were shot, so I couldn't press.

Hope that helps. It's hard to really teach someone the correct way of doing flyes unless you're there showing them. If it's too hard, I'm sure your gym has a pec deck machine, that's almost as good.

I'd rather just do flyes. I've heard numerous things about the advantages of free weights versus machines.

Thanks for the help so far. The transition from my normal workout schedual to max OT is almost like learning everything again, since I have to rework my entire schedual. If you could help me get this figured out it'd be great.

One final note, my monday workout went a little like this:
Squats 3x8 until failure
Leg Curls 3x8
Leg Presses (is that right? the opposite of curls) 3x8
The two different calf exercises

Does that look good? I think legs are definately the easiest to figure out.