[Spike]

Although I'm (quickly) gaining muscle due to severe changes in my diet and exercises, I'm still wondering if I should change my workout schedule a bit.

Current schedule: In this order.

Monday: Back, shoulders, triceps

Tuesday: rest day or light cardio (20 minute interval walk/run on treadmill)

Wednesday: abs,chest, biceps, forearms, calves

Thursday: rest day (usually do some minor household work)

Friday: abs and cardio (20 minutes run on threadmill)

Saturday: chest, biceps, forearms

Sunday: abs, legs

I don't have a job thus I get plenty of rest. I'm 38, 11/12% bodyfat. 76 kg (167 pounds) and i'm 188 cm (6.2) Seasoned lifter.

As you can see my Wednesday and Saturday workout are almost the same, except on Saturday I don't do abs and calves since i'm doing them either on Friday or Sunday. (calves are important but i will open a new thread about it)

Once every 7 to 8 weeks, I do a light weight week, meaning low weight + rep ranges of 10. instead of pyramiding sets of 10 - 8 - 6 - 4 reps

I'm thinking of changing my Wednesday workout to compound exercises + abs and calves. I usually don't do these because I'm afraid for my lower back which I had trouble with in the past but now my core is a lot stronger.
I want to use compound exercises like squat, dead lift, over head press etc etc. Trouble is that I don't want to go too heavy on those because I'm still afraid my back will pop. Not going too heavy on them means that the muscle won't grow much.

Should I still go for the compound exercises or should I keep to my currrent schedule?

Any (other) tips?

[Hades]

If it's working I don't really see any need to change it.

Maybe you could opt to do a little more lower body during the week but otherwise it looks solid.

[Giovonny]

Change it when you get bored with it.

It's important to keep our workouts fresh, fun, and passionate.

[Spike]

Thanks for reconfirming what I already had in mind. It's probably too much risk for my back anyway. Every time I squat or deadlift I cause trouble. While there is no machine alternative for the deadlift, for most exercises there is. For squat exercises there are two different machines at my gym and for back exercises there are also a couple so I don't think I need to change. As long as I'm growing i'm fine.

I naturally have pretty good legs and ass so I think I can do with just one leg day a week. I'm always cautions not to get the "big upper body/stick legs" figure since that look is ridiculous. Despite have naturally decent calves I really beat them up on leg day and mid week. I like to think that it's vitally important to have tree trunk calves to create a strong look. And lets be honest, its really the only part of the legs you see when wearing shorts in summer or on the beach, unless you wear supertight shorts.

[The Lizard of Oz]

Hyperextensions are a great -- and underrated -- exercise to strengthen and protect your lower back. I've observed that guys who are religious about doing their hypers, and do them with correct form, get far fewer lower back injuries and tweaks, and get stronger in the gym.

You want to do them relatively slowly -- not exaggeratedly slowly, but definitely not fast. Let your arms hang down when you do them. Do sets of like 15-20 reps; start without added weights, and gradually add weight (hold a dumbbell in your hands on either side with arms hanging down).

This is a good demo of the form with some good pointers about avoiding momentum, and not extending too far back.