Full body routine - please critique

[joesmooth20]

A: Handstand pushups 3x8-10
pullups 4x5-7
leg press 3x8-10
DB press 3x8-10
calve raises 2x10
skull crushers 2x10
db curls 2x10

B: Squats 3x8-10
machine rows 3x8-10
weighted dips 3x8-10
pushups 1xfailure
leg curls 2x10
reverse fly 2x10
v-ups 3xfailure


mon: A
tues: HIIT cardio
Wed: B
thurs: HIIT
Fri: off
Sat: A
Sun: HIIT and so on.......

 

[Gazhole]

Seems a bit random to me. Fullbody can simply be training the upper and lower body each training day, and you can split it up nice and cleanly to get the most out of each movement.

Your exercise and set/rep choices seem a bit arbitrary, like theres no rhyme or reason to putting those exercises in where they are, if at all. Why just one set of pushups? Why to failure? Why is there a random core exercise in day B? Etc.

Always set out a template for your programs before plugging the exercises in, and have a clear-cut goal or theme for each workout in the program. Much easier to keep things coherant and balanced that way.


For example:

Workout A: Squats / Bent Over Rows

Workout B: Deadlifts / Bench

Is still a fullbody split. You're working the entire body in each session i promise you. Certainly over two sessions, and better than you would if you did all four lifts in one day - thats overkill.

Do this three to four times a week with some sort of periodization scheme and you're good to go to be honest. I had great results with a schedule that went:

Monday - A (5x5)
Tuesday - A (3x5)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - B (5x5)
Friday - B (3x5)

Did some warmup's then did 5x5 with a heavy weight. The next day i did the same warmups and then 3x5 with 90-100% of the weight i used the day before, building up by 2.5% each week but keeping the 5x5 weight the same. When i could do the 3x5 days with the same weight as the day before, i increased the 5x5 weight by about 5-10lbs and started all over again.

Did this for a while and it was great. Found my back grew like a fucking weed on this set up because of the frequency.

Finished up each session with some chins or dips with bodyweight depending on whether it was a push or pull day for upper body, 50 reps of both in however many sets it took. You can put your HIIT on your 3x5 days twice a week instead of the chins/dips if you like and only do those on 5x5 days.

Err on the side of being too light with the weights you start off with for the 5x5, too. Its important not to miss one single rep in the entire program, ever. Starting lighter than you can handle gives you way more room for improvement. The sheer frequency of the lifting will make up for it anyhow.

 

[joesmooth20]

I appreciate your post. I should have explained my goals. I have about a month to take off about 2inches in my waist and drop about 7-8lbs of total body weight. I'm in the military and leaving for pre-deployment training at the end of January and need to be weighed and measured. I know most of that is going to depend on diet but I wanted to setup a full body routine that hit every muscle group at least twice a week and allowed enough time to get a lot of cardio in. To be honest with you I haven't seriously weight trained since 2008 and have been just doing martial arts and distance running, so I'm kinda green in this area. I'll give your routine a try and maybe throw in some low-intensity cardio at the end of my workouts.

stats:
5'7"
176lbs
waist - 35 inches
neck - 16 inches
chest - 40.5 inches

 

[davidjohnston]

Ah, the second post makes it a little easier.
I'd be doing each of the exercises, but cutting the rest times, and doing supersets - will make the workouts a lot more intense, which should mean more calories being burnt. I'd be shooting for 60 seconds rest if you can do it.

For the military, you're probably going to want more strength rather than bulk, which means larger weights less reps.
Probably to give you some real agility, you're probably going to want some more unusual exercises, like spider push ups, knee to elbow plank, reverse crunch, bicycle crunch - stuff to challenge your supporting muscles and tendons.

Martial arts and distance running - they'd be good - particularly the martial arts training, if it were very intense workouts - again short rest between sets, super sets, tri-sets, that sort of thing to juice up the cardiovascular effect.

Running is great for cardio fitness, but there are more time effective exercises, such as the ideas above, for burning calories.

Pushups - I'd do more sets there, like 3 or 4. And I'd probably do one day with normal push ups, second with legs raised to vary it a little. The more muscles you work, the more calories you need, the more fat you burn (assuming you keep eating the same)

Hope that helps?