Critique My Training

[SuperJew]

HELLO MESO! I recently decided to revamp my entire training system. I thought I would lay it out. And hopefully hear some opinions. Here are my current stats as well: 5'9 205lbs. about 10% bf. Here are some basics of my proposed training. Once I am warmed up, every set will be taken to failure. Also, the second set of each exercise will be taken to as many reps as I can possibly do with the same weight. Since I will have gone to failure on the first set, the successive set will clearly be less reps. I plan on doing a 3 on one off split. Working each bodypart about twice a week. One day will be in the 6-8 range. The other in the 10-12 range. Here's the layout:

Day 1 - Bench Press 2 x 6-8, Failure
Incline Dumbell Press 2 x 6-8, Failure
Flat Flyes 2 x 6-8, Failure
Barbell Rows 2 x 6-8, Failure
Wide Grip Pull Downs 2 x 6-8, Failure
Low Pulley Rows 2 x 6-8, Failure
Hyperextension 2 x 10-12

Day 2 - Smith Squat 2 x 6-8, Failure
Leg Extensions 2 x 6-8, Failure
Leg Curls 2 x 6-8, Failure
Seated Calf Raises 2 x 6-8, Failure
Leg Raises 2 x Failure
Decline Situps 2 x Failure

Day 3 - Front Press 2 x 6-8, Failure
Side Raises 2 x 6-8, Failure
Rear Raises 2 x 6-8, Failure
Barbell Shrugs 2 x 6-8, Failure
Barbell Curl 2 x 6-8, Failure
Preacher Curl 2 x 6-8, Failure
Close Grip Press 2 x 6-8, Failure
Push Downs 2 x 6-8, Failure

Day 4 - OFF ( For days 5,6,and 7 just change 6-8 to 10-12 )

Untill now, I have been doing one or two bodyparts a day.And I've been training 5 days a week. Basically I have cut the volume for each bodypart in half for each day. ( Kinda like HST style ) And I REALLY don't like taking a set to anything less than failure. It has always seemed very odd to me. So I figure after a warm up, I will go right to the heaviest weight possible for each exercise. ( Kinda like Max OT style ) I have found that I can gain as much as 25 pounds on a particular exercise doing this. Rather than doing 4 sets of 6-8 reps and increasing the weight in each set. As this always saps a little energy. Anyway, as you can see, I have borrowed a bit from different training programs. And I just wanted to get everyone's input. All opinions welcome!

 

[thick]

2 quick q's. I will be able to address more tomorrow as I am getting ready to head out 1. Why smith squats? 2. Seems like you wont have enough recovery time. Just as example you will be benching on Monday to failure. Than again on Friday with triceps getting busted on Wed. and Sunday. AM I following this right? This is just one example and I dont see how you will recover

 

[SuperJew]

Thanks for the reply Thick. I rotate smith squats and barbell squats. I actually find that I can better isolate my quads on the smith machine. Yes, you were following the layout right. I believe that I have a higher than average ability to recover. This was my most recent training layout:

Monday - Chest
Tuesday - Back
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Off
Friday - Shoulders
Saturday - Arms
Sunday - Off

I really didn't feel like I was meeting my full potential. I actually went down to a 3 day a week split. It simply isn't right for my body. My strength was the same. But I was losing size. Ya know, I can do 16 sets for chest to absolute failure on Monday and not even have a hint of soreness afterwards. I know this isn't a great way to evaluate individual recovery limits. But I couple that with the fact that I saw less progress on the 3 day a week split. I believe my body is made for more work. Don't get me wrong, I was growing well on the split I outlined above. But like I said, I didn't feel it was optimal.

 

[Phreezer]

You should not be training to failure..especialy every workout....

 

[SuperJew]

You should not be training to failure..especialy every workout....

Thanks for the reply Phreezer. What would you suggest from reading my posts? P.S. I like the " location " in your avatar. I'm an evangelical christian myself. The " Jew " part of my handle comes from having jewish blood. The " Super " part comes from being saved by the messiah. Anwway, back to training

 

[Primo Max]

I think there's way too much arm and shoulder training, plus the leg workout is not good. You don't have any real hamstring exercises in there and you need to do barbell squats, which I'm sure everyone will tell you. There's a lot that could be improved. My split is as follows, and I love it.

Monday - Chest (Heavy), Shoulders, Triceps (Light)
Decline Dumbell Press- 3 or 4 good sets
Incline barbell press- 2 work sets
Upright Rows - 4 work sets (heavy one week light the next)
Plus something that doesn't hurt my triceps, right now I do decline db extensions
Light flys to stretch my chest afterwards.

Tuesday- Legs heavy quads, light hams
Heavy Squats with a fairly wide stance to let me use maximum weight (usually 5x5)
Good Mornings- Usually pretty light- 3 or 4 sets
Then I do a supplementary quad exercise, which I change every four weeks. Right now it's barbell hacks, next time around it might be leg presses, then maybe front squats or skier squats.
Heavy ab work on a decline bench

Wednesday- Back, Biceps and Shoulders (What I didn't do on Monday, this is a very short workout)
I either do heavy barbell rowing or weighted chins in 4 to 6 week blocks, and whichever of these two back exercises is not done on this heavy day is done after my second leg day, which is saturday.
Right now it's Heavy bent rows for 4-5 sets
DB Military Presses- One week these are my heavy shoulder exercise, the next week the upright rows are, so it's heavy one week light the next.
Barbell Curls for 4-5 good sets
Usually I'll do some rear delt work for a few sets to get rid of imbalances.

Friday - Light chest, heavy triceps
Heavy Decline Close Grip presses- 4 good sets
Light Incline DB press elbows out for two sets, then I do two more sets on a steeper incline with my elbows in, which works the pec minor a little better from what I've read.
Light flys to stretch my chest.
Heavy Overhead DB extensions

Saturday- Light Quads, Heavy hams
Romanian Deadlifts- I usually only do 2 super heavy sets of 5 or so with about my 6 rep max, then I do two or three more sets of 5 with weight I could probably get 8 reps with. Romanian deads fry my nervous system if I do too many sets.
Light FULL ROM olympic squats with a narrow or medium stance. As many sets as I want, sometimes I'll do like 225-275 for sets of 5 and just keep going for a ton of sets using short breaks, it's sort of fun when I almost black out from oxygen deprivation.
I would add in Glute Ham Raises but I don't really have any way of doing them at my new gym, so I'll usually do 4 or 5 sets of leg curls or maybe step-ups to finish off my hams.
Then either light pulldowns or bent rows.
Ab work on a lat pulldown machine.

I realize this might be messy, but it really is a damn good program, and I'm hungry now so it's time to go to Taco Bell and get like 6 chicken soft tacos with no cheese. I"m literally shaking I'm so hungry. As you can see everything I do with heavy weight is usually for 4 or 5 sets after warming up, and right now I'm working in the 4-6 rep range for pretty much everything except for upright rows and rear laterals. Like Phreezer said, going to failure has been proven to be unnecessary for gains, stop a rep short on your heaviest sets. I also throw in rotator cuff work on chest days and do calves as much as I possibly can, which is pretty much every day I'm in the gym.

 

[fatboy]

hey Phreezer, quick question. Why not train to failure?
I train to failure every workout. I pick 1 movement per workout and train to failure. Is this wrong?
thanx.

 

[Gavin Laird]

hey Phreezer, quick question. Why not train to failure?
I train to failure every workout. I pick 1 movement per workout and train to failure. Is this wrong?
thanx.

Because training to failure equates to a large degree of CNS stress which takes a few days to recover from.

Time course for elevated protein synthesis after training is up and back to baseline after about 48 hours, but if you stress the CNS too much you need to take 4 - 7 days between training sessions to allow it to recover which equates to a monumental waste of time. Your waiting for the CNS to recover so you can deliver more force when your muscles (you are a BBer, right?) are no longer growing at an elevated rate. Idealy you'd train a muscle every 48 - 72 hours and keep PS constantly elevated but you cant do this if your CNS is fried from training to failure. So, train less hard, more often.

Gav.

 

[Ramstein II]

I’d ditch the smith squats unless you have some unique build that prohibits free squats. Also, ditch training to failure if you’re using that much frequency. I’d do 3 sets of 8-10 with a weight you could probably do 10-12 times if training to failure instead of 1 or 2 failure sets for the reasons Gavin stated about CNS recovery. Also, you’re devoting an entire day to shoulder and arm training while those muscles may still be recovering from your chest and back days. With the frequency you’re using I’d do a push pull upper body split instead: ie. day 1= flat or decline press of choice, incline bench press, fly (if you like flyes), shoulder press of choice, lying french press or tri exercise of choice, day 2 = squats, romanian deadlifts, calf raises, sit ups, day 3 = chin up, dumbell row or row of choice, upright row or side lateral raises, shrugs, barbell curls, concentration curls. Day 4 rest. I like a 3 day split over a 5 day week or even 4 day week as 3 on 1 off starts to add up quick on your cumulative fatigue level, but of course recovery ability varies. Don’t do too many different exercises. Pick 1 for each articulation and go with it for a while if not forever.

 

[thick]

Gav and Ram summed it up very nicely.

 

[SuperJew]

It seems like everyone sees training to failure as the big flaw. What if I changed failure to a rep or two shy of failure on each set? I do like the idea of working each bodypart more than once a week. Basically all I've done with this program is split up my volume. Instead of 12 sets of chest once a week, I'll do 6 sets of chest twice a week.

P.S. - Thanks for the replies everyone.

 

[Phreezer]

It seems like everyone sees training to failure as the big flaw. What if I changed failure to a rep or two shy of failure on each set?

That's exactly what you're supposed to do.. Leave one, no more than two in the tank. Training it failure has it's place, but it certainly isn't very often.

I do like the idea of working each bodypart more than once a week. Basically all I've done with this program is split up my volume. Instead of 12 sets of chest once a week, I'll do 6 sets of chest twice a week.

P.S. - Thanks for the replies everyone.

That is the optimal way of training. Yes, it is better to work your chest twice a week with 6 sets per session over once a week with 12 sets per session. And it allows you to stimulate the muscle from differant angles (you should switch up the exercises you use for each boady part per session). This will help you avoid over training, and will keep you in a state of Hypertrophy for a greater period of time throughout each training cycle.

btw, Congratulations on being born again!!!! You'd be suprised by just how many devote Christian Mod's are actually on this board.

Luke 6:30