Wrote my first program

[cfreetenor]

Natural. Currently sitting at 181 pounds, 6” tall at ~11-12% body fat. Not having access to the gym during quarantine kept me from making a small amount of progress but it made me think, my progress hasn’t been terrific the past year anyway. Too much guessing and “intuitive” training. I’ve got some somewhat respectable maxes for my lifts, but they’re a bit weaker too from the lay off, but I put this together to make the most of my time in the gym.

3x5 SLDL
3x5 Front squat
3x8 Bench
4x6 Pull ups


3x12 Leg Press (low narrow feet)
3x12 close grip OHP
4x5 GHR (glute ham raise)
5x5 chins

Rest

LBBS 3x5
Wide grip incline press 5x(2RIR)
Supine bent row 4x(2RIR)
Dumbbell flies 3x10


Leg press 3x8 (shoulder stance)
Wide grip OHP 3x10 95
Triceps extension 4x12
Quad extensions 4x15

Rest

I’m debating a few things.

The first, I might sub out the shoulder width leg presses for hack squats to get a novel sort of effect from the level of depth I’d be able to get to. I’ve never done them before, but I think I’d get a lot out of them.

I prefer full body training, so that’s what that is.

Second, the amount of rest days. I think my gains might be gated somewhat by recovery. I would train literally every day if I could, but I notice the best response from 4-5 days per week. I have a physical job that’s essentially steady state cardio for 8-10 hours a day. I figure I could do 5 at least once I acclimate to the increase in leg volume of this program, which is an increase from what I’ve been doing.

Thirdly, overload. Chins and pull ups I’ll experiment with - getting chin, then clavicle bone, then sternum to bar for instance and then reps and weight added. See what works, favoring range of motion as progression I think. So next week, I’ll get clavicle to bar on pull ups for as many reps in the first set I can. Etc.

Bench (3x8), I’ll add a rep to a set each week then deload. Up 5 lbs next cycle.

Front squat, I’ll add 5lbs each week for now. My legs are pathetic. Deload week 4.

Back squat, add a rep to a set each week. Deload. +10 lbs.

OHP variants.. I have a weight for these and I’m staying just short of failure. I actually can’t hit these rep schemes for that weight, and I’ll progress until I do. Based on my strength pre-quarantine, it should be easy to get back. So simple plan there.

There’s also an asterisk with all of these training days. The “feel like doing more.” Calf raise chair, occlusion curls, forearms, neck curls, plate shrugs, abs (not before squat days ideally) etc. Periphery stuff I give myself license to do without structure and without much recovery cost.

This plan puts me at a total of ~12-16 sets per week for every major muscle group. Mid back might be a bit underemphasized.

Idk, some of you are smart and jacked tell me what you think.

 

[Perrin Aybara]

I like it. I'd do front squat before SLDL on that first day though. Or better yet front squat, then bench, then SLDL. I'd break up the vertical and horizontal pulls a little different too. Rather than two vertical pull days in a row I'd do the pull ups on day 1 and rows on day 2 and then chin ups on day 3. That way you're spreading the stimulus to those muscle groups out a little better. I've had great results from alternating pulls like that every workout.

 

[cfreetenor]

I like it. I'd do front squat before SLDL on that first day though. Or better yet front squat, then bench, then SLDL. I'd break up the vertical and horizontal pulls a little different too. Rather than two vertical pull days in a row I'd do the pull ups on day 1 and rows on day 2 and then chin ups on day 3. That way you're spreading the stimulus to those muscle groups out a little better. I've had great results from alternating pulls like that every workout.

Thanks for your input. The chins and pull ups were kind of an after thought, but putting it that way I could probably add some more volume to the pulls by alternating them like you suggest. I’ll give that a shot.

 

[Test_Subject]

I like it. I'd do front squat before SLDL on that first day though. Or better yet front squat, then bench, then SLDL. I'd break up the vertical and horizontal pulls a little different too. Rather than two vertical pull days in a row I'd do the pull ups on day 1 and rows on day 2 and then chin ups on day 3. That way you're spreading the stimulus to those muscle groups out a little better. I've had great results from alternating pulls like that every workout.

I was pretty much going to say this. Doing front squats after deadlifts is not a good time.

I'd definitely hit up some hack squats instead of the second day of leg presses. Hack squats are great for building power out of the hole and they promote good depth on your front and back squats.

 

[cfreetenor]

I was pretty much going to say this. Doing front squats after deadlifts is not a good time.

I'd definitely hit up some hack squats instead of the second day of leg presses. Hack squats are great for building power out of the hole and they promote good depth on your front and back squats.

Yeah what I’m thinking about for the hack squats is that big stretch in the quads I could get. Hips pretty tense too so getting up at the root would be good I think.

I’m thinking reaaaallly deep on them. There’s this picture of Mike Israetel on the hack squat, looks like he’s just sitting down on his heels. I can’t wait. They’re tomorrow.

 

[cfreetenor]

I was pretty much going to say this. Doing front squats after deadlifts is not a good time.

I'd definitely hit up some hack squats instead of the second day of leg presses. Hack squats are great for building power out of the hole and they promote good depth on your front and back squats.

All of my squats are really core centric. My middle is too weak to really overload legs too much on any squat. The real work on my legs at the moment are where I’m taking my spine out of it. That’s why I thought about hack squats. Also why I didn’t really worry about that there. So the adjustment is appropriate but that’s what I was thinking/feeling.

 

[Perrin Aybara]

Belt squats are a good leg option that leaves your spine out of it, too.

 

[Brandaddy]

Personally I like to throw on a little direct rear delt work when I'm doing a lot of pressing. But other than that it looks pretty good. Like already stated I would swap fs and sldl. Also, break up your vertical pulls and you're golden.

 

[cfreetenor]

Personally I like to throw on a little direct rear delt work when I'm doing a lot of pressing. But other than that it looks pretty good. Like already stated I would swap fs and sldl. Also, break up your vertical pulls and you're golden.

I hear what you’re saying there. I don’t know what it’s called, but I do this straight arm pendulum arm thing with a dumbbell where I kneel on an upright bench and cue myself “down and back” to pack my shoulders while rotating my arm to about 45 degrees straight back. Since it’s such a light weight I can probably just put that in wherever.

And y’all are right, I’d probably get more out of focusing on overloading on the front squat so I’ll do that. Deadlifts are the kind of thing that just go up for me without direct training so I should just let them be some extra hamstring volume.

I really appreciate y’all.

 

[cfreetenor]

Hack squats.

 

[cfreetenor]

Just cycled back to day 1 today and I’m stronger. I’ll see if I can get a rep PR on last set of GHR tomorrow.