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This is the follow-up routine to weeks one through four in the twelve week cycle. Remember that you should always change you routine every three to four weeks.
For arms on Monday, you will do sets of ten, eight, six, and four. Really push yourself on the set of four, doing the heaviest weight that you can. The two exercises that I highly recommend are braincrushers and reverse tricep cable curls. As always I leave the cardio routine up to you, I personally like stationary bike, but I don't really think that any one exercise is better than the other. The exception of what I just said being jogging, I don't like people to use distance running for their cardio routine. The stairclimber or bike will be much better, as they don't contribute to the muscle loss that some research suggests distance running contributes to.
Then, do my favorite abdominal exercise, which is crunches while on you knees in front of a cable machine using the rope extension. What you will do is kneel in front of the machine and hold the ends of the rope next to your ears and perform a crunch with enough weight to really work your abs doing fifteen to twentyfive reps. For Wednesday, it's a real tough day, decline crunches and a light cardio workout. Doing a light cardio workout the day after legs will alleviate much of the lactic acid built up in your quads. Take this opportunity to hit the whirlpool and relax. Not everyday at the gym has to kill you!
For shoulders do seated side raises and barbell presses. You will be performing the same sets and reps as before. By doing seated side raises you can virtually eliminate any inherent flaws in form, which can lead to a lot of shoulder injuries, and bad muscle development. Be ready to take some weight off of what you normally do, being in a seated position really causes you to only use you shoulders and you wont be able to cheat the exercise by swaying and using body momentum to raise the weight. Also when you approach the top of the motion rotate the dumbbells as if you were pouring the water out of a pitcher. This rotation will allow you to work the other lobes of the shoulder, rather than just one or two of the three. As for the barbell presses I recommend that if you have any type of shoulder problem that you do the presses in front of your head, and not behind. The added strain can really cause some problems with you rotator cuff.
At this stage in the game you should also introduce one other aspect into your routine. You should begin to time your rest periods in between your sets. Now you don't have to sit there with a stopwatch in a sprinters position ready for the next set, but just be conscious of the time you are spending resting.
For the smaller muscle groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves, and abs) give yourself roughly thirty seconds of rest between each set. For the larger muscle groups (chest, back, and legs) rest about one full minute to one and a half minutes. There are all sorts of neurological reasons for doing this, but I don't think most of us are interested in all of the science involved in it. Beside the physiological benefits associated with these rest periods, this practice also has one other benefit. The benefit that I am talking about is the efficiency of the workout. You will find that you are done with your workout much sooner when done this way. I don't like to spend a lifetime at the gym, and usually want to be on my way as soon as possible, this is a great way to accomplish that.
Wayne Mercer Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!
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Previously, I gave a starting routine to develop arm strength and size. Using that as a beginning routine is very motivational for people who are just beginning a workout routine because arm size is the most important thing to most people.
Monday: Arms
On Tuesday, you will be doing 
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