pls comment on my 2-month program

[Ted Shred]

Kind of a misleading title, I suppose, since it's not THAT different from my current program

Background:

5'11" 160 lbs or so, mid 40s. Have been in top shape most of my life (not big, but good lower body strength and big time endurance), until I got sedentary a few years ago. Started getting back into shape in September, and spent that month mainly just acclimatizing to freakin' moving around again, other than reaching for beers and the remote - riding a lot on the stationary bike and using a universal-type machine and some dumb bells in my building's tiny "gym" for upper body (bench press, shrugs, shoulder press, and wide/v-grip lat pulldowns). Started going to a real gym at the end of September and have been doing a tue/wed/sat/sun lower/upper split using both free weights & machines. Probably would have done things different if I joined this forum right away, but I think I've made pretty good progress in the last couple months nonetheless. My goal is to gain mass/strength, though I don't have any bodybuilding/powerlifting aspirations. I've cleaned up my diet and have been eating around 3000 kcal (40/40/20). (I realize now that I failed in my previous attempts at gaining mass because of my shitty diet.)

The following is a program for the next 2 months, 'til I go on a 2-week vacation in January. I'm not focusing on a "beach body" here, it's more that 2 mos. before a break seems like a good span on which to focus. And I've been curious as to what peeps here think of my workout anyways. The plan below is similar to what I've been doing, though I've changed/added a few things recently (based a lot on the things I've read here) and the timing is different from my prev 4-day split. (I've also added GHR's to the plan, which I haven't done yet.)

Fwiw, I really enjoy my current routine, and find it easy to get motivated. But I like the idea of every other day and a touch more rest overall than with the 4-day split, and always 24-hours between wo's and 72 hrs between the same exercises. (Seems good to me but, then again, what the fuck do I know?!)

Lookin' forward to comments, thx.

Day 1. Lower Body

1. Squats
2x warmup 25; 15 reps
4x 6-8 reps

2. Leg Press
3x 6-8 reps

3. Deadlifts (traditional)
1x warmup
4x 6-8 reps

4. Glute Ham Raises (body weight? I'm currently doing standing curls but I just learned about GHR's and they look awesome!)
4x ?reps

5. Calves
45 degree calf raise machine (not like a leg press; looks like a hack squat machine)
7x 10-15 reps

seated calves
6x 15-20 reps

one-legged calf raise (bodyweight)
2 or 3x each leg 10-13 reps

Day 2. Rest

Day 3. Upper Body

1. Flat BB or DB Bench (BB seems to bother 1 shoulder; may change back to DB)
2x warmup 25; 15 reps
4x 6-8 reps

2. Dips (bodyweight; leaning forward to target chest)
4x 7-8 reps

3. Standing Military Press
1x warmup
4x 6-8 reps

4. Chinups (bodyweight)
4x 3-4 reps (atm) palms down (grip just slightly wider than shoulders)

5. Bent-over Barbell Row
4x 6-8 reps

6. Face Pulls
4x 6-8 reps

7. Dumb Bell Shrugs
4x 10 reps

8. Wrist curls/ Reverse Wrist Curls - high reps; not totally focused on mass (though that would be nice). I've read these are good to do for injury prevention.

Day 4. Rest

REPEAT

In addition to the above, at home I use the Heavy Hands Grippers 3x week and do the PHP "8 minute abs" (yeah, I know) routine 3x week.

 

[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.)

 

[gym66]

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

 

[Ted Shred]

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.

 

[Cork]

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.

 

[Ted Shred]

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

 

[Ted Shred]

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?

 

[Cork]

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.

 

[Ted Shred]

Thanks again. Those are good points. I'm going to think about changing up the DL/ row combo, especially since I just started doing both and probably don't appreciate the full effects (the more I think about that, the more I worry about undue stress on my back from that combo). Although I want to avoid machines, maybe I'll switch the bentover row to the seated machine row or something - at least reduce the role of the supporting muscles on the second exercise.

Not sure if Mehdi (I spelled it wrong) trains competitive lifters but, you're right, I don't think its at max effort for each squat day.