Basic Training Structure: The Foundation

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"