I need advice on my workout routine as a newbie at the gym while being 30

[gracethroughfaith]

I'm 30 years old. Height - 178 cm, Weight - 73 kgs (so called "skinny-fat").

So, I joined the gym 2 months ago. For the past month I've just been trying out the Reddit Fitness PPL regime 6 times a week, without doing any of the barbell exercises (and just doing dumbbell replacement exercises) - mostly because the weight of the barbell itself wasn't something I could handle, and the dumbbells are a lot easier on my joints. Also at the back of my mind, my age scares me a little from lifting weights on barbells because injury can be difficult to recover from at my age.

Mostly I've been focusing on getting a mind-muscle connection.

1. I've gotten really good at chest presses, and I can defintely feel that my chest muscles have grown to the extent that when I flex it feels extremely solid - which is something that's new for me, since I was never athletic or fit. So have my biceps and triceps.
2. Last week, I finally understood why my back wasn't growing, and it finally clicked - all my back exercises were just my arms doing all the work. I finally understood and learnt how to roll my shoulders back and downwards and engage my back and lat muscles. Last week for the first time I'd sore back muscles and lats.
3. Also during this time, I'll admit I've neglected my legs, but I have definitely seen improvements there too. I want to focus on my glutes because that's the part I've neglected the most.

I've finally made a workout split in the following way which focuses on my back and lat muscles and glutes, a little more. Can you let me know if this is an okay split for my workouts ?

I've not included the Reps - because I usually train 1-2 reps before failure. It could be roughly in 8-12 reps (or more when it comes to rows etc). I usually progress to a new weight if I can comfortably do 12 reps in a row. And then all my sets have this new weight till I can comfortably do 12 reps in a row in a set.

I've tried to ensure that all muscle groups are trained b/w 8-12 sets. And I've tried to put extra focus on my weak back muscles and glutes.

I also do mobility exercises in the morning.

Ultimately my goal is to get good enough strength and mobility so that I can do barbell lifts (safely and injury-free) , and go down to a 3 day workout routine focusing on compound exercises. I practise the movements at the moment with just the barbell and no plates (it's definitely become easier to do these movements, but for instance something like a squat is challeging because my glutes aren't very strong, and my hip mobility is hindered because of it).

Please advice me on my routine. I'd appreciate any feedback. An apprehension I have is that I may be doing too much, and especially at my age.

	Chest	Dumbbell Chest Press	1
			2
			3
			4
	Chest	Incline Dumbbell Chest Press	1
			2
			3
			4
	Chest	Chest Fly	1
			2
			3
			4
	Biceps	Bicep Curl	1
			2
			3
			4
	Biceps	Hammer Curl	1
			2
			3
			4
	Biceps	Preacher Curl	1
			2
			3
			4
Day 2	Muscle Group	Exercise	Set
	Shoulder	machine shoulder press	1
			2
			3
			4
	Shoulder	Dumbbell Overhead Press	1
			2
			3
			4
	Shoulder	Lateral Raise Dumbell	1
			2
			3
			4
	Triceps	Machine Tricep Pushdown	1
			2
			3
			4
	Triceps	Cable Triceps Pushdown	1
			2
			3
			4
	Triceps	Skull Crushers	1
			2
			3
			4
Day 3	Muscle Group	Exercise	Set
	Back - Upper	Machine row	1
			2
			3
			4
	Back - Lats	Lat Pulldown	1
			2
			3
			4
	Back-Upper	Cable Row	1
			2
			3
			4
	Back-Lats	Lat Prayers	1
			2
			3
			4
	Back - Full	Bent-Over Barbell Row	1
			2
			3
			4
	Back-Full	Bodyweight Pullps	1
			2
			3
			4
Day 4	Muscle Group	Exercise	Set
	Legs - Hamstrings	Lying down Leg Curl machine	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Quads	Leg Extension machine	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Quads	Leg Press machine	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Hamstrings	Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Glutes	Bulgarian Split Squats	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Glutes	Dumbbell Step-Back Lunges	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Calves	Seated Calf Raises	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Calves	Barbell Calf Raises	1
			2
			3
			4
Day 5	Muscle Group	Exercise	Set
	Abs	Machine Crunches	1
			2
			3
			4
	Abs	Hanging Leg Raises	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Glutes	Hip Thrusts	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Quads	Goblet Squats	1
			2
			3
			4
	Legs - Hamstrings	Dumbell Romanian Deadlifts	1
			2
			3
			4

Day 1
Muscle Group
Exercise
Set

 

[benajmk]

@gracethroughfaith I admire that you're trying to program for yourself. I think it's better to try and fail rather than to not try at all. However here are a few points I have on this:

1) You're 30, not old. You're barely past your prime. That's like saying a 3 year old car or a 3 month old phone is old. It's all in your head. Stop thinking 30 is old. My mother recently started training at 55+ and she's not as concerned about age as you seem to be. You could try to be more careful if you've had some serious injuries or conditions but your age isn't advanced enough to be a big factor here.

I'm 32 and started training at 27, just for reference.

2) The ordering of the program can be improved. You have back to back 3 upper body days and then two consecutive lower body days. You could do it this way:

Day 1: Chest and biceps
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: Shoulders and triceps
Day 4: Legs
Day 5: Back

3) Mind muscle connection is good to have but it's a tertiary requirement at best. I'd say the three priorities according to me are progressive overload, proximity to failure and form. If you can master all 3, you'll be good.

4) There's a lot of instances where you have isolation movements programmed before compounds. RDLs and Squats should be at the beginning of your program, not after leg presses and hamstring curls. You also have pull-up and barbell rows after a bunch of machine work. Always start with compounds as a beginner natural lifters. Enhanced or advanced folks start with isolations for a few different reasons but that's not something you need to emulate.

5) Your first leg day is too long. You can do two quad, two posterior chain (hamstrings and glutes) and one calf exercise and that should be enough. So reduce the number of exercises.

 

[gracethroughfaith]

@benajmk Thank you, that makes a lot of sense!

I am kind of clueless at the moment, the trainers at the gym are not very helpful unless one get's PT, and they're always trying to sell me supplements & other things - so I try and not interact with them much, because I really don't want the negativity (they sort of demotivate you and then try to make it seem like their products will make me a lot better). Also they did scare me I suppose away from lifting, because they keep saying I'm not strong enough to do them - I know I should disregard the negativity, but I suppose the fear of injusry is what stops me, which is insane now that you've put things in perspective.

So your advice is invaluable ! I will incorporate all of the recommended changes.