Don't get injured!!
Tore my bicep from my elbow 6 weeks ago and I'm now 4 weeks post surgery. Fuck me it's ridiculous how quickly muscle disappears! I've lost an inch from my good bicep and nearly three inches from my not so good bicep and it's safe to say I look ridiculous (and also feel very insecure). Not even going down the rabbit hole of assessing my chest/shoulders/back.
Have worked on my legs and abs throughout so I'm all good there, and was doing some one arm stuff but you just don't get the same muscle engagement or benefits. Started to re-use my injured arm this week with exercises that don't put too much strain on the bicep and the most I could bench was 40% of what I could do pre-injury, whilst my shoulder press was down 70% and my lat raise was down 50%. Also have been doing a bit of direct rehab on the bicep with hammer curls and have got up to doing 8 reps with a 3kg dumbbell! I could do that with 25s previously!!
It's going to be a long road back and it's fucking with me mentally because I was in a really good place previously - I had cut down to my lowest weight in years and was just starting to bulk back up. Now instead I'm just trying to just keep my weight static until I can lift properly again to avoid putting on too much fat, but it just means feeling like a skeleton whilst losing all definition in the meantime.
I'm hoping that I've finally cracked it, six weeks now I signed up to the gym (probably the tenth gym of my life so far ) I've managed to maintain 3 regular visits per week. I think it's because I've finally sprung for a more comfortable gym (Bannatynes) rather than the spit and sawdust ones I used to.
What I'm wondering though is if my workout is balanced. I'm trying to work out all areas evenly, don't want to be that guy who "skipped leg day" and would appreciate some guidance from you buffs.
I'll post this in the other relevant thread too so sorry for the repetition!
Day one: Bench Press - 4 sets of 8 to 12 @ 70%
Incline DB Press 4 sets of 8 to 12
One arm DB row 4 sets of 8 to 10
Dumbell Curl 4 sets of 12 to 15
Face Pull 4 sets of 12 to 15
Weighted Situp 4 sets of 12 to 15
Swim
Day two: Squats 4 sets of 8 @ 70%
Deadlifts 4 sets of 8
Bulgarian Split Squat 3 sets of 8-10 per leg
Back Extension 3 sets of 10 to 12
Leg Press 4 sets of 8 to 10
Swim
Day three: Barbell overhead press 4 sets of 8 @ 70%
Dip 4 sets of 8
Assisted Pullup 4 sets of 8
Barbell Curl 4 sets of 10 to 12
Shrug 4 sets of 10 to 12
Hanging Leg Raise 4 sets of 12 to 15
Russian Twist 4 sets of 12 to 15
Swim
Hope you're still sticking at it! I think it's quite difficult to get a truly well balanced 3 day workout, most regimes are 4 days because it allows for an even upper/lower split or a push/pull split. Your lower day seems really intense with you having to cram everything into one session, especially with deadlifts and two versions of squats - I never do squats and deadlifts on the same day because both exercises completely do me in!
If I was doing three days I would honestly just do three all body workouts, based on the compound lifts with a few isolation exercises thrown in at the end. Or I would split it as chest and triceps, back and biceps and shoulders and legs:
Day one - bench press, incline press, flies, dips, tricep pull downs, abs
Day two - deadlifts, rows, lat pull downs, hammer curls, barbell curls
Day three - shoulder press, lat raises, squats, leg press, hamstring curls, calve raises, abs
If you are able to add in a fourth day, I would go with something like:
Day one - bench press, incline press, rows, face pulls, bicep curls, abs
Day two - deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, back extensions, leg press
Day three - shoulder press, pull ups, shrugs, dips, flies, tricep pull downs, abs
Day four - squats, leg extensions, hamstring curls, calve raises
Even if you can only do 3 days a week, there is nothing to say you can't do a 4 day regime - your first session every week doesn't need to be "day one".
Try and vary it up a little if you can as well. For example, don't be so set on doing dumbbell rows, change it up with seated rows or bent over rows or do more than one if you feel good and have time. Likewise with doing lat pulldowns instead of pull ups, lat raises or upright rows instead of shrugs and different types of bicep/tricep exercises. The variety is good for your body and good for building strength, and you'll eventually work out what you like doing and what your best exercises are.
Similarly, play around with your rep ranges every now and again. Don't be so strict with doing 8-12 reps of everything because you will soon plateau. Have some weeks where you go heavier for 5 reps or even 1-2 reps, then have deload weeks where you go light to let your body recover (advice I should have taken)!