mixing workouts, good or not??????

Question for you..... I was under the impression that you should always seperate the differant part of your body each day for workouts (ie - monday chest, tuesday back etc etc), but to get good gains in strengh is it good to mix it up (ie sqauts and deadlifts in the same day and shoulders and chest in the other etc etc??

You get strong at movements, not body parts, as a great deal of it is technique.

The more frequent you do something the better you'll be at it i.e. practice

The heavier the weight you lift i.e. intensity, the more muscle fibers you need to recruit to be able lift it. The more muscle fibers you can activate the stronger you will be.

However, you do need to rest to allow the nervous system, joints and muscles to recover to allow progrss.

You split training into whatever gives you optimal balance between frequency, intensity and recovery.

Cheers Dan. is there a general rule with what techniques u should work on the same day?? im thinking of deads and bench on 1 day and shoulder press and squat the other obvioulsy with assists aswell, both twice a week??

Rule: Define your specific goals - Getting Strong is not really a goal. Do this and the rest is fairly easy.

You want to bring your squat up and your technique is not great - squat more often.
You want to bring your bench up and you get stuck at lockout - program a little more lockout work.

etc....

As far as pairing goes

Some people squat and deadlift in the same day and do well, others would get destroyed by that. Some people squat frequently (4 or more sessions a week) and only deadlift once (or even less frequently)

You also have to consider your set, rep and intensity schemes on each day too.
If you go balls out on the deadlift trying to train bench afterwards might not work very well. However, if your deadlift is lighter you can put more work in to the bench.

Go and buy the Jim Wendler 5-3-1 book volume 2, it'll give you a good basis to go on with the basic movements.

for msot people with yourstats starting out id say its simple.

Mon - Squat

Wed - Press

Friday Deadlift/Back

Train a 5x5 progression. so 5 sets of 5 on the main compound. increase 2.5-5% each week. Take 70% of your max to begin. add in 3-4 assistance lifts in the 8-12 rep range.

Eat well

Sleep well

Get stronger.

Speicific programs to look into for starting out if you want to follow on
Mark Rippletoe Starting Strength
Wendler 531
Stronglifts 5x5

I work on the push/pull routine usually (i.e. train back with chest, deadlifts with squats and shoulders with arms (chest routine usually takes car of the tricep side etc...)

The 5 x 5 routine is good. I've copied below 2 of the routines I use and have found them to both work very well indeed:

Bulgarian Powerlifting routine

Aim is to achieve more poundage on squat, bench and deadlift (or one of the lifts but the routine works for all core lifts including overhead and front squats)

You need to work out your one-rep max plus an extra 20% (i.e. 100kg for a one rep max equals 120kg at 120%)

Routine (based on a 12 week competition cycle):

1st 4 weeks at 5 x 5 reps

Week one at: 60% of one rep max
Week two at: 65%
Week three at: 70%
Week four at: 75%

One weeks rest (week five) from routine (i.e. light training)

Next 4 weeks at varying reps (see routine):

Week six at 5 x 5 reps: 80%
Week seven at 5 x 5 reps: 85%
Week eight at 3 x 3 reps: 90%
Week nine at 2 x 2 reps: 95%

Week ten – rest from routine (light training)

Week eleven – Competition

Week 12: REST & then on with next routine same as above but with a higher one rep max (hopefully)

Other routine (ideally for bench but suited to other pressing movements):

Week one: 6 x 6 at medium working weight
Week two: 6 x 6 at week ones working weight plus 2.5kg a side
Week three: 6 x 6 at week two’s working weight plus 2.5kg a side
Week four: 6 x 6 at week three’s working weight plus 2.5kg a side
Week five: 5 x 3 at week four’s working weight plus 2.5kg a side
Week six: 5 x 2 at week five’s working weight plus 2.5kg a side
Week seven: 5 x 1 at week six’s working weight plus 2.5kg a side

e squat and bench goes together perfect for me neither take a lot out of me and I use most of the same muscles in both lifts I train these two 3 -5 times per week together and deadlift once per week

But that's just what works for me everyone is different