Critique my workout!

[ijay]

Hello

For work related reasons I won't be really able to go to class for a few months, so I thought this would be a great time to hit the gym.

So here's what I'm currently doing:

2-3x per week:

Warming up.
- Lots of different things
-Practising excercises I'm not really comfortable with yet, like front squats and clean and jerks

5x5 Deadlift
5x5 Back squat
5x5 Bench
-So far I've been using weight, that enables me to do 6-7 reps every set. So in a set of five reps it's almost the max, but not quite. Is this okay?

Pull-ups 3 sets
-One set = As many as I can do

Dips 3 sets
-Same as pull-ups

That's basically it. Sometimes I'll do few situps and back extensions after all this, depending on my mood.

Stats:
Male, 18 years old. 180cm and 68kg (5, 11'' and 150 lbs)
What I want now is just to gain some pounds. Preferably muscle.

Few questions:
Should I do both squats and deadlifts in the same workout session?
Is there anything else I'm doing wrong?
When I'm doing deadlifts, the muscels in my lower back are feeling the excersice even more than my legs. It doesn't hurt or anything, but the muscles tire very easily. And I'm kinda worried that I'm doing something wrong and breaking my back. Is it normal to have deadlifts tax your back muscels so much?
I have some problems getting enough protein in my diet, so I take it i's okay to eat some sort of supplements?

Any and all advice/critique is appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

[snowman]

Eat more

[Virus]

Hypertrophy training involves 10-12 reps with 1 minute rest in between sets.

[death pig]

You're doing deadlifts, back squats, dips, bench and pullups all on the same day? Egads man. Too much, too often.

If you're training for size, you can split your routine by major body part & synergists. For example:

Day 1, back & biceps:

Pullups, bent over rows, lat pulldowns, various curl variations

Day 2, chest & triceps:

Bench variations, dips, tricep kickbacks/pulldowns. Every second week do overhead presses instead of incline bench. (some do a dedicated shoulder day but I never have and if you can only work out a maximum of 3 days a week it might not be easy to fit everything in).

Day 3, legs:

Squats, leg presses, leg curls, leg extensions, calf raises, etc. Swap out squats for deadlifts every second week.

For size, concentrate on getting a fair bit of volume (sets of 10 or 12), and eat every 3 hours or so with protein in every meal. Drink a protein shake with something sugary immediately after lifting. You can also drink them at other times but you may want to add a fat source (like fish oil pills) at the same time to slow absorption. Really though, you're young and trying to gain size: just eat as much as you can as often as you can and don't go mad trying to eat clean all the time.

Regarding your deadlifts question, yes, deads hit my back harder than my legs. Just remember that a deadlift targets your erector spinae isometrically, meaning they don't go through a range of motion during the exercise: they just contract statically. So your lower back should remain arched. If you're not used to them, the discomfort they cause can be disconcerting but if you're using good form you won't hurt yourself.

[JabCrossHook]

Stats:
Male, 18 years old. 180cm and 68kg (5, 11'' and 150 lbs)
What I want now is just to gain some pounds. Preferably muscle.

As mentioned by other posters.. you really want a greater number of reps in each set. 5x5 will cause growth (especially if you are a beginner) but it is not exactly optimum. With the pullups and dips, once you can do around 10 of them, add some weight rather than just doing large numbers of reps and other irregularities.

Few questions:
Should I do both squats and deadlifts in the same workout session?

I wouldn't. That's a lot of stress for your lower back to be coping with. These are two of the biggest compound lifts which target the same areas. In any case, whichever you do second will not be optimum because you are already knackered from the first.

Is there anything else I'm doing wrong?

If you are gaining size, there are many different kinds of splits you could do. You could have a 2 day per week or 4 day per week split something like the following:
•Day 1: Upper Body
•Day 3: Lower Body

Or you could do another kind of 3 day split:
•Day 1: Back, Biceps
•Day 3: Legs, Shoulders
•Day 5: Chest, Triceps

Before anyone gets on my back, I'm not here to debate whether the above split is optimal. Indeed my current split is different but the above were just examples.

I have some problems getting enough protein in my diet, so I take it i's okay to eat some sort of supplements?

Protein's all good.

[Equipoise]

Hypertrophy training involves 10-12 reps with 1 minute rest in between sets.

No it doesn't. Hypertrophy is the increasing of muscle size. Various training methods can accomplish this. It's also a factor of one's diet.

[A.D.D]

Being new you should probably not do a program of your own design.

Pick a program designed by a professional which will probably prevent you from making more errors and you will probably be more likely to stick with it.

Here is A suggestion.

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle....4-073-training

[JabCrossHook]

Being new you should probably not do a program of your own design.

Good point. Is he new to lifting though? He just said he was going to hit the gym more and told us what he was currently doing. That indicated to me that he wasn't new, but I dunno :icon_scra

[A.D.D]

Good point. Is he new to lifting though? He just said he was going to hit the gym more and told us what he was currently doing. That indicated to me that he wasn't new, but I dunno :icon_scra

"Stats:
Male, 18 years old. 180cm and 68kg (5, 11'' and 150 lbs)
What I want now is just to gain some pounds. Preferably muscle."

Everything in his post seems to imply that he is a beginner.

Being 5'11" and 150 pounds he would probably benefit greatly from just hitting a plan that is already layed out for him and just eating a ton.

[Virus]

No it doesn't. Hypertrophy is the increasing of muscle size. Various training methods can accomplish this. It's also a factor of one's diet.

Protocol taken from Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 2nd Ed.