Am I overworking?

N

nirt

New member
I’m trying to lose fat while maintaining or gaining muscle mass, mostly upper body focused but I do leg day and abs/ cardio on off days or when I have enough energy. I eat in calorie deficit (as fat loss is the main goal for now). Anyways I want to do as much as I can in the gym so I’m attempting to make my own program to hit as much as possible. Been at it for 3 weeks and working on form and tweaking to hit as many muscles as possible. This is my first time seriously lifting with a plan and eating well/ recorded (with calculated macros and cal deficit). Below is my chest/ back and shoulder/ arm days

Chest/ back

Dumbbell chest press- 3 x 12 (25)
Incline bench press- 3 x 12 (20)
Cable fly- 3 x 12 (12.5)
Low-to-High cable fly- 3 x 12 (12.5)
Narrow grip barbell row- 3-4 x 8 (50)
Barbell shrugs- 3 x 12 (25)
Back extension- 3 x 8-12 (body)

Shoulders/ arms

Shoulder press- 3 x 12 (25)
Tricep pushdown- 3 x 12 (32.5)
Cross body hammer curl- 3 x 12 (20-25)
Concentration curl- 3 x 12
Dumbbell lateral raise- 3 x 12 (10 maybe 7.5)
Ez bar reverse curl- 3 x 12 (40)
Incline front raise- 3 x 12 (12.5)
Modified reverse fly- 3 x 12 (17.5)
Overhead extension- 3 x 12

I am able to do all these exercises in a workout, just don’t want it to be negative. Usually only sore for 2-3 days which seems to be in a safe range from research and only do each day once a week. Just trying to look and feel as great as possible and once I’m leaner I’ll bulk with calorie surplus. If there are any major muscles I am missing or solo exercises I can safely do to make this better please let me know, any advice is appreciated!

(For reference I’m 6’2 220 lbs)
 
@nirt The per session volume is high but not crazy but I'd say it's probably overkill for a beginner.

I'd say the chances of you overworking by doing only two sessions a week and neglecting legs as a beginner is extremely low.

If you are able to match or beat your previous performance each session then you won't be losing any muscle.

A classic full body 3 times per week beginner routine would suit you better in my opinion, easier to work on form when you can concentrate on the basics and you're not trying to learn 9 different exercises in the same session.

If you're goal is fat loss and maintaining muscle size then trust me nothing you do for upper body is going to burn more calories than working your legs.
 
@nirt Personally I do lower volume (and more cardio) in a deficit and higher volume in surplus. It really doesn’t take much volume at all to maintain muscle mass. Like 5 sets per week per body part taken close to failure (RPE7+) is enough provided you’re not going down to contest levels of body fat. So I echo the other poster that you’d probably be better off just doing a typical run of the mill 3 day per week beginner program at first. Add in some cardio on off days and boom you’re set until your cut is over (first cut is probably good to terminate at 10-12% body fat and then go to lean bulk phase for at least 6 months). No need to further complicate anything. Easy does it.
 
@boyboy999 My only fear with lowering volume is that I’ll miss a muscle or something and grow disproportionally. I’m hoping to tone what I have while losing fat so the process goes a little quicker. I’ll look into the 3 day programs, are there any you’d recommend? If I can remove some exercises by doing a different one that targets multiple muscles that would be preferable
 
@nirt So in a cutting phase you’re not going to be building much muscle. You’re new so you’ll likely build some, but not enough to be paranoid about optimizing for this. If you use any of the popular 3 day programs you won’t really miss anything. Most of them are focused on compounds that work the whole body. If your long term interest is body building maybe toss in a couple of weekly sets of curls, Tricep press downs, and calf raises just to make sure all of your bases are fully covered. But that’s about it. GSLP is probably the most intelligently designed of the popular beginner 3 day programs. Once you’re done with your cut then move to something like a 4 day upper lower body building program so you can get a bit more volume in when you are focused on building muscle.
 
@boyboy999 Ok thank you, I’ll look into that. Was hoping to kill 2 birds one stone and build while losing fat but if not I’ll cut back and save this workout for when I’m bulking. Thank you for the advice my guy!
 
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