I was in the gym yesterday and noticed
that everyone was walking around with, and referencing, the same
program. The program was issued to members by the gym, and boy what a
steaming pile of dog shit. It was a standard, balls to the wall
muscle mag program; you know...body part split, 2-3 body parts per
day, 3-4 exercises per body part, 3-4 sets per exercise, 8-12 reps
per set, and everything was arranged all randomly. Like I said, a
steaming pile of dog shit program. Actually, since there is no
progression plan, is not even a program...it's just a shitty printed
off “routine”.
Let me hook you up with some programming, Dawg!
To top it off, the plan calls for 20-30
minute cardio sessions done 2x per day, EVERY DAY! For those of you
that are math challenged, that's 14 cardio sessions per week. The guy
that showed it to me asked me how he should diet. “Dude, you need
to be eating like a horse and drinking Crisco.”
As I wrote previously, there isn't one
right way to go about your programming, but you should be using your
fucking brain and doing your best to go about things logically. There
are so many training variables and it can get confusing, and it would
take several posts to just cover the basics. So I'm just going to lay
out some foundational stuff here. The variables will change depending
on your goal, training age, etc., but the foundation of “normal”
programming doesn't really need to change that much. Three points.
1. Focus on the big movements, do them
first (and) have a progression plan for said movements
This was the thing that really stuck
out when I saw the above-mentioned routine. There was no star of the
show exercise. Leg day for example was something like; 3 sets of leg
presses, 3 sets of squats, 3 sets of extensions, 3 sets of dumbbell
deadlifts (I'm not even kidding), 3 sets of leg curls, 3 sets of
seated calf raises, and on and on. It was just a random list of
exercises with no progression plan. If you have a list of 12
exercises to check off and the squat is number 6 on the list, how
much effort do you think the trainee will give to it? That's the
fucking star of the day and no one even knows it...they just half ass
3 sets of 90lbs and continue trudging away on the 2 hour “work”
session.
1. continued (Choosing the main
movement)
This is easy if you want to train like
a powerlifter; squat one day, bench one day, and deadlift one day. If
you like to train in bodybuilding fashion, your best bet is to choose
the full range compound lift that allows you to lift the most weight
& it'll usually be the right answer. That pretty much means that
the power lifts will make it into rotation quite a bit. But if you
really like to drill your shit down to things like specific arm days,
that's cool, but the same principle applies. Kick off the session
with weighted dips, close grips or straight bar curls, as opposed to
press downs, kickbacks, and preachers.
This goes first
and this goes last...got it?
1. continued (Progression plan)
This matters the most, but at the same
time it really doesn't matter so much. How you progress doesn't
matter as much as the fact that you have a progression plan in the
first place. It's all goal dependent. You can progress on weight,
reps, density, or whatever else as long as it's in line with your
current goal. I prefer to follow a specific system, but it can be as
simple as progressing on reps until you hit a specific number, then
upping the weight & lowering the reps and starting over.
2. Repeated effort work
You've already done some high end work
for your main lift and now you can put in more work (assistance work)
on the main lift, a variation of the main lift, another main lift
from another day, or something entirely different (depending on how
you have your routine structured). This will be another heavy
compound movement done for more sets/reps. 5X5, 5x10, etc. Again,
selection depends on your goal. There will be overlap as well.
Someone working on top end strength might do rack pulls after pulling
from the floor, but a bodybuilder might use the same exercise to
develop his upper back. Same tool for different goals. It's not as
important here, but I recommend to work on progression here as well.
3. Play time
This is where everything else goes.
With the main movement and the repeated effort movement out of the
way, you've pretty much done 90% of the work to get bigger and
stronger. So now you can go have some fun. Use this time to do all of
your lighter accessory stuff (single joint stuff, single limb stuff,
and the fill in the gaps training). Don't get carried away with this
stuff. If your training partner is screaming and slapping you on the
head before a set of tricep push downs, you're doing it all wrong.
Just get a good pump and split.
The real work is already done. This
kind of shit is totally unnecessary at this point.
So a schedule could look like this for
a strength oriented guy:
M- Squat
T- Press
T- Deadlift
F- Bench
A bodybuilder guy might roll like this:
M- Quads/hamstrings
T- Shoulders/calves
T- Back/ biceps
F- Chest/triceps
A sample strength oriented squat day
would look something like this:
Squat (programmed) say 3-5 work sets of
1-5 reps (+warmups)
Olympic Squats 5x5
Lunges 3x10
Weighted abs (a bunch)
A bodybuilding oriented leg day would
look something like this:
Squat (programmed) say 3-5 heavy work
sets of 5-10 reps
Romanian Deadlift (programmed) Same as
above
Leg press 3x10-20
Leg extension (superset with) leg curls
3-5 sets
The rest of the days would be the same
basic structure. Pick the big joint movement to get strong on, pick a
repeated effort movement to support the first movement, then do the
other pump up stuff. Easy-E. Both of these setups represent a decent
amount of work if you are really getting after it. You don't have to
hit your muscles from every conceivable angle and grind yourself into
dust with 40 set workout sessions to make progress. In fact, unless
you are a rank novice, that shit will almost guarantee that you'll
end up going nowhere.
"Don't be that guy"
