My new routine

[Hudson]

Actually, it's almost pure endurance work. 20 reps is endurance work. strength and size are proven to be most effective anywhere from 6-10 reps, varying person to person.

You need some weighted chest work, JLee. The pushups will get old quickly. I suggest bench presses. Theres also nothing here for triceps. Extensions are a personal favorite, find something that works for you. Again, same sort of lack in the shoulder department. Military presses or lateral raises are pretty good exercises.

Squats are great, but again you're going to need to reduce the number of reps, and increase the weight.

As far as the best way to do your sets/reps, whats optimal for your goals is doing something like this:

Chest press

2-3 sets of light weight warmup, coming nowhere near muscle failure.

Then, continue on to four sets like so: 10, 8, 6, 10. The third set of 6 will be the heaviest and shortest set. 10 is sort of a back-off set.

As you can see, you're now working your muscles in a much more complete way.

Other then that, make sure your nutrition is complete. Nutrition is half your battle.

[bad959fl]

I'm replying regarding the outline I recommended in terms of diet, training and cardio which did not include 20 rep exercises (other than abs). Yes, to gain mass you really wan to focus on strict overload with the highest weight possible. I would recommend a rep range of 8-12, starting out. Then, once your comfortable switch it up to lower reps like 6-8 range. There is also an "total volume" intensity aspect which takes the overall volume of weight lifted into muscle mass gains. Such as:

10 reps with 225 lbs = 2,250 total training volume

vs.

6 reps with 275 = 1,650 total training volume

There are many training methods which point out that the overall training volume is the key factor in gaining overall muscle mass and strength.

The key is to always train to positive failure on every set (after warmup). This way, you will always be taxing your muscles and applying highest level of intensity possible.

Best of luck!

[Menjo]

That site is very helpful,bad959fl thanks