DeviouslySimple

Basically I'm going by a slightly modified program of Bill Philips' 'Body for Life'. What this means for me is about the following:

Back (Lat pulldown 2-3 sets, minute between each)
Chest (Dumbbell bench press, 2-3 sets, min between each)
Shoulders (Incline dumbbell press, 2-3 sets....)
Biceps (One handed curls while sitting, switch hands, minute between repeat of same hand...)
Triceps (Tricep extensions, dumbbell behind back using both hands...)

one day, then lower body:

Leg Press
Lying Curl (is that the right name? the machine that basically exercises your hamstrings while you lie stomach-first on a bench)
Standing calf raises

two days after, and the two days after the lower body workout, I go back to the upper body, and vice versa. In between workouts I do 20 minutes of intensive cycling with varying resistances and speeds a la Body for Life or eas.com's recommendations. Every workout, lower or upper body, I do however many ab crunches I feel I can take:

Abs (reverse crunch but with the upper ab contraction also at work)

And while I haven't gotten any meal replacement stuff yet, I've ordered some. I have been lowering my calorie intake and eating between 3-5 meals a day when I can swing it.




Here are my questions:
1) Is this a reasonable/good routine? I have actually almost maxed out all the leg exercises in terms of weights, it's quite funny. I'm NOT a physical person at all in the general sense.
2) Unfortunately, my upper body is in fairly poor shape, especially in comparison to my lower. My bench is barely 2 30 lb dumbbells after about 3-4 weeks of starting, which is identical to the amount I can bicep curl per each arm.
3) About calorie intake...is the point of protein heavy meal replacements really in order to increase your protein/vitamin levels high enough, or just to replace a possibly fattening/unhealthy/carbheavy meal that you may otherwise ingest?
4) I have also ordered creatine in powder form to ingest 45 min to 1 hour before doing a workout, which I plan to use in maintenance not loading mode, both to conserve product and because I feel I will likely be ingesting other supportive, good nutrients via the meal replacements. I have read on various sites that actually doing the whole supplement thing 1-0.5 hours before a workout will give optimal results once it's over and been properly pre and post-processed. Is this correct? I know that creatine serum could have faster results but would have to be more quickly regulated time-wise, and may not allow me enough time to get my things together to arrive at the gym, etc.
5) Taking a herbal metabolism-increasing agent that I absolutely know works first thing in the morning, then drinking a shake (1 hour) soon after along with creatine, and then going to a workout would be the most ideal for both keeping my calorie intake low, loading my body up right, and getting the most work out of my workout. Is that right? Bill and a few other lifters mention anecdotally that morning workouts burn more and are more effective for longterm results, but are harder to schedule. What's the feeling on this?
6) Are there any other things, tips, timing tricks or issues that I should look into past all this? I drank more water earlier in my workout regime, I think I need to continue doing this but will have to just keep on deliberately buying all my own stuff; I have not worked out now for a few days because of the NYC blackouts and a weird crazy morning schedule, etc, but will start tomorrow..and also my right arm has a weird condition so that medically speaking it's hard to put weight on it, could that be a reason for my really poor bench/shoulder lift?

I know this is a lot. I can fill in other details or answer any questions you guys have, but I really want to know if I can get more out of my workout by just optimizing what I'm already doing, things that make sense, more stuff on meal replacements, creatine, etc...anything will be appreciated! Thank you kindly.

axolotls

At first glance, I would say it would be better to do:

Back / Shoulder / Biceps in one session/day and then
do Chest / Triceps on another day.

Also, what I would recommend is that you NOT do the same exercises for each body part all the time. I can rattle off at least a half dozen tricep exercises. Pick a couple do them for a month or so then switch to different ones. The gains you make that way will be far more impressive than you thought possible.

Plan9Senior

Here is a great site to help you follow a nice workout schedule that fits your goals. If I were you, I would break up your workout sessions into more days then just 2. You will be able to work each individual muscle a lot more.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/workoutdatabase.htm

cliv

I agree, and that's how my routine was setup by my trainer.

My upper body exercises for a specific day use several different muscle groups and either Triceps OR Biceps but not both on the same day.

For example for upper body:
Day 1 uses Chest / Shoulder / Triceps (all three mostly use Triceps and not much, if any, Biceps)
Day 2 uses Back / Biceps (both mostly use Biceps and not much, if any, Triceps)

JohnnyRock

I would also suggest splitting into more days. ARe you looking to build strength/mass or lose fat? That would make a difference in frequency, rest time and overall workout scheme.

As for your supplementation, it seems OK--again, it depends on what results you are loking for. I would go with the creatine after and take some BCAAs pre.

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