Thread: pls comment on my 2-month program

Originally Posted by Ted Shred

... 24-hours between wo's and 72 hrs between the same exercises. ... then again, what the fuck do I know?

Obviously not basic math. Two and 4-day spans = 48/96 hrs.

(Pls excuse the bump. Didn't get there in time to use edit. Oh, and apparently it's "P4P" 8-minute abs not php.)

I would take more time off if your trying to gain mass. you Need to rest your muscles. check out a 5x5 routine or a 4-5 day split. imo there is no need to work your whole body 2x every 6 days

thanks for the reply. It works out to 2x whole body in the first 7 (8 counting the next rest day), and 7x whole body every 28 days, but I take your point. One of the reasons I want to switch up from my current 4day split is to get another rest day in every couple weeks.

Another variation I was thinking heavily about was Mon: WO1 Wed: WO2 and Fri: WO1 again. Then switch to 2-1-2 the following week for 3x whole body every 2 weeks. I was looking at the 5x5, but not sure I'm into doing squats 3x in 5 days, though that is a possibility. And I love my face pulls/shrugs/dips/calf work (finally seein' calf improvement) and the other stuff that's not in 5x5.

I think you would benefit a lot more by taking your 2 days, and splitting them up in to 2 other days so that you have variety and more time to recover between groups. If I go the next step, and think about how you would split them up, I'd recommend a push/pull style routine.

A lot of current push/pull routines work as push, pull, legs...but what I'm suggesting is splitting up even your leg day in to push and pull. For example, you have a 4 day routine and it could be split up like this:

Day 1: Lower body push
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: Upper body push
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: Lower body pull
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Upper body pull

Obviously you can put the rest days in wherever you like, but it's just an idea. With your current routine, since your volume per body part per week is so high, I feel that keeping up your intensity would be a problem.

hmmn, okay cork, gym. I'm seein' what you're saying. Thanks for the replies.

I still find a lot of this a bit confusing. I knew this would be a lot of stuff, but thought it would still be within bounds. I mean, I see the 5x5 thing and Mehti's got a guy squatting 6 times every 2 weeks, DL'g 3 times (albeit 1 working rep), benching and pressing 3 times every 2 weeks. And I read some comments from Rippetoe to the effect that beginners have a hard time overtraining and its when you can start lifting serious weight (and I'm not, a lot of my weights are still quite pathetic) that you have to start peeling back.

So I figured I could get away with this for awhile anyway, especially if I did the 1-2-1; 2-1-2 alternating week thing. That would be less than I'm doing now. And I have been making good progress from the almost terrifyingly weak levels I was doing when I first started. (Correction - omit the "almost")

Caveat: I haven't actually done a leg workout like I laid out (not at max, or I guess even close, to max intensity that is), as I've just started getting to the point where I can do DL's properly (I think, I should probably post a vid to make sure I'm hittin' those right.) So, on second thought, maybe the 4x DL plan right after squats was overly ambitious. But I'm currently doing 4 or 5x Leg Presses after squats too. And often 5x working sets of squats rather than my planned 4x. And I have been doing upper body wo's just like I've laid out and, though I guess I'm a bit bagged by facepulls and shrugs, though not overly so. (I don't think. Not really sure what to compare it against though I suppose.)

But, anyways, ok, points taken, would something like this work a bit better? (Surely I could up the sets from the previous plan's 4x?)

DAY 1.
Squats
Leg Press
Calves

Day 2.
BB/DB Press
Dips
Military Press

Day 3. Rest

Day 4.
Deadlifts
GHR's
Calves

Day 5.
Bent over rows
Chinups
Face Pulls
Shrugs

Day 6, 7 Rest
Seems kinda weird typing that out. Just looks... strange... working stuff once a week. Especially at my current level of patheticdom.

Certainly appreciate the comments though. Cheers

pls excuse another bump (I'm kinda jazzed about thinking about this atm), but the more I looked at the re-jiggered program more in tune with cork's suggestion, the more I liked it.

After reading some more stuff on here, including another thread critiquing a workout (stuff about about taking advantage of the growth spillover benefits of squats and DLs), I changed it up even a bit more and came up with this (eliminated dips; alternate days of face pulls and shrugs):

Week 1

Mon. Push
4x Squats
3x Leg Press
Calves
4x flat BB/DB Press
4x Standing Military Press

Tues. Rest

Wed 3. Pull
4x Deadlifts
4x GHR's
4x Bent over rows
Chinups
4x Face Pulls or Shrugs (ie alternating days)

Thr. Rest

Fri 5. Push
Repeat day 1

Sat, Sun Rest

Week 2
Reverse of Week 1
ie
Mon. Pull
Tues. Rest
Wed. Push
Thrs. Rest
Fri. Pull
Sat, Sun Rest

Repeat

Remember, I'll do this until year end before a 2-week break. Maybe add more rest days after that for more of a long haul program?

Heh, still a rather unique routine, but I guess if you aren't getting gassed, then keep up with it for now. Once you start doing more and more weight, you'll definitely want to switch things up. For example, bent over rows after heavy dead lifting would be near impossible once you really start dead lifting. The stabilizers are the same and your core would be shot to shit after that session and no way would you be able to repeat it again later in the week.

Mehti's got a guy squatting 6 times every 2 weeks, DL'g 3 times (albeit 1 working rep), benching and pressing 3 times every 2 weeks

The thing about the other's programs that you don't mention, is the periodization. If Mehti (or whoever) is squatting 6 times a week, probably half of those sessions are not near max effort. Your posted split does not take periodization and intensity into account, only sets. Once you start to get concerned about those 2 facets, then you might want to look at and compare your routine to what others are doing. Plus, I would not think that someone squatting 6 times a week is doing it leisurely. Is Mehti training a competitive lifter?

Regardless, I like your most recent posted routine more than the first, and hopefully you get a lot out of it.