A Different Workout Method

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Hello fellow athletes!
Ive been messing around with a few splits and programs through my 2 years of constant training. And now i tried to build up a program my self.
After researching a lot about how strength is build and how hypertrophy works, I tried researching on building both on same time in the same program. None of the programs i’ve seen seems to appeal to me, so i build up my own:

My program is based on a 8 day cycle, where i tried to hit the muscle groups every fifth day. I’ve been doing this for a while (2 months) and I feel stronger and look bigger than any other split i tried + my nutrition was alright = tracking my macros. A lot of veggies and meat, less carbs (Carb back loading inspired diet).

Hypertrophy days pauses: Max 45 second pauses
Strength day pauses: Depends, because i’m going for RM and PR

Day 1: hypertrophy chest, shoulders, triceps (4 sets 6-8 reps every exercise)
Incline barbell press 20degree
Incline dumbell press 30degree superset incline flyse
High incline barbell shoulder press (around 70-80 degrees not sure)
Lateral raises
Any triceps exercise

Day 2: hypertrophy back, biceps (4 sets 8-10 reps)
Weighted thumbless pullups
Overhand Pulldowns
Bent over row
Rackpulls superset barbell shrugs
Facepulls superset Bent over raises
Any biceps exercise

Day 3: Hypertrophy legday
20 rep Breathing squats
Barbell lunges superset with strict SL deadlifts

Day 4: off/some kind of cardio - hiit

Day 5 Strength chest ‘n’ shoulders
Bench press: Starts from 5rm building up to 1rm
Overhead press: Starts from 5rm building up to 1rm
plyometric exercises related to musclegroups.

Day 6: Strength legs ‘n’ back
Squat: Starts from 5rm building up to 1rm
Deadlifts: Starts from 5rm building up to 1rm
Bent over row or heavy fucking weighted dips (haha): starts from 5rm building up to 1 rm.
Plyometric exercises related to musclegroups (muscles up, explosive pull ups, box jumps and so on)

Day 7 : Depends on my body and how it feels so its either a rest day or a explosive workout day.
Explosive workouts would include workouts where the whole body is in play.
Examples:
pushing slides with weight on and carrying a heavy ass ball (elliot hulse type of shit if you know the guy I dont really know what it is called).
American football/Rugby strength workouts etc. etc.

Day 8: Rest day
Cycle repeats after this rest day

So the question is: Why did i even write all this bullshit? - Well I hope someone here with a lot knowledge could give me some feedback or some adjustments to make this program better or tell me if this kind of training system should be trashed right away.

Looking forward to some great inputs

PS: This is my first topic here on T-Nation so bear with me if I violate any ancient and sacred forum rules. (haha)

2

Boss,

Hey man first off all welcome to the forum’s man, and second great post. I think this is a solid program. With that being sad it is extremly hard to serv two masters (ie building size and strengh at the same time). In my opinion i would pick one for or the other and roll with it for a few months. However this is your post and you are looking for insight on your program. I am a powerlifter so with my eyes when i see DL and Squats performed on the same day i kinda cringe. Are you pulling sumo or conventional? or both. I would change your days around and take two FULL days off doing nothing but light cardio/foam rolling. here’s what i would do.

Keep days 1 thru 4

Day 5

Deadlifts
Pendley Rows
Kroc Rows
Straight bar curl SS with Chins

Day 6

Bench
Floor press
Hang snatch
JM Press

Day 7

Off

Day 8

Power Cleans
Squat
Stiff leg DL
Prowler Pushes

Day 9 Off

Day 10 Repeat

In my opinion i would either train for strengh or for size, but if your gonna roll with this i would change to a 9 day split.

respectfully,

Marnesoldier

3

[quote]MarneSoldier wrote:
Boss,

Hey man first off all welcome to the forum’s man, and second great post. I think this is a solid program. With that being sad it is extremly hard to serv two masters (ie building size and strengh at the same time). In my opinion i would pick one for or the other and roll with it for a few months. However this is your post and you are looking for insight on your program. I am a powerlifter so with my eyes when i see DL and Squats performed on the same day i kinda cringe. Are you pulling sumo or conventional? or both. I would change your days around and take two FULL days off doing nothing but light cardio/foam rolling. here’s what i would do.

[/quote]

Thank you for welcoming me! And yeah I’ve been told a lot that my goals (my goals are actually being strong, explosive, fast and looking swole to be more precise), are hard to accomplish if i wanted to do it on the same! But so far I’ve seen progress in both ways, so I will try your little adjustment and see if it works wonders. I can see the exercises you’ve chose are very strength based exercises, maybe I’ll adjust a little and put in some explosive patterns, but I really like your “workout add on”.

Now to your deadlift question: I believe my deadlifts are olympic deadlifts, im very strict with the form and sumo isn’t really something for me. But can you explain further why deadlift and squat on the same workout day make you “cringe”?

Thank you for the great response Soldier ! :wink:

4

I am pretty sure from memory that Chad Waterbury did a 4 days weekly progam in that order. You will have to look it up in our articles databank. It was close to upper/lower stronger-more muscles.
It might have looked a bit like mon upper heavy, tuesday lower heavy, off repeat upper lower but higher reps.
I kind of remember that Chris Colucci tried it a few months back and had positive results.
Do not hold me to it but the name might be the ABBsomething meaning anti bodybuilding program.
Just from other stuff i read from Chad it was probably 25 reps on heavy days and 50 reps for growing per exercise and allways trying to lift explosively and Chad says TUT is irrelevant so lowering is simply control.
Sets are not important, when speeds slows or form goes it is the end of that set(failing is a no no). A session is about 45 min.
Librairies might have his book Get Huge…

5

[quote]BHappy wrote:
I am pretty sure from memory that Chad Waterbury did a 4 days weekly progam in that order. You will have to look it up in our articles databank. It was close to upper/lower stronger-more muscles.
It might have looked a bit like mon upper heavy, tuesday lower heavy, off repeat upper lower but higher reps.
I kind of remember that Chris Colucci tried it a few months back and had positive results.
Do not hold me to it but the name might be the ABBsomething meaning anti bodybuilding program.
Just from other stuff i read from Chad it was probably 25 reps on heavy days and 50 reps for growing per exercise and allways trying to lift explosively and Chad says TUT is irrelevant so lowering is simply control.
Sets are not important, when speeds slows or form goes it is the end of that set(failing is a no no). A session is about 45 min.
Librairies might have his book Get Huge…[/quote]

Thx for the great response, i found the article very fast, so ima start reading: The Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy Program

6

Looks alot like Layne Nortons PHAT and on day 6 why are heavy dips on legs and back day?

7

Looks good.

I might combine day 4 and 7 and give you an extra rest day.

Although if you are a younger guy who is getting 8 hours (or better 8.5) of sleep a might with quality food and protein intake you might be fine. Your journal will give you better feedback then these boards will.

  1. Are you gaining weight (a pound a week for instance)? In two months you should have increased 5 pounds or more.

  2. Are you getting stronger? Both in terms of reps and maxes.

If you are, continue on until you stall, then come back for some ideas. Like stated above, similar to PHAT, which is a proven program.

8

[quote]chobbs wrote:
Looks alot like Layne Nortons PHAT and on day 6 why are heavy dips on legs and back day? [/quote]
Just read about the PHAT workout, and yes it reminds alot of Layne Nortons workout style! Didn’t know that my style of program had a name haha.

Where do you see the heavy dips??

[quote]Brett620 wrote:
Looks good.

I might combine day 4 and 7 and give you an extra rest day.

Although if you are a younger guy who is getting 8 hours (or better 8.5) of sleep a might with quality food and protein intake you might be fine. Your journal will give you better feedback then these boards will.

  1. Are you gaining weight (a pound a week for instance)? In two months you should have increased 5 pounds or more.

  2. Are you getting stronger? Both in terms of reps and maxes.

If you are, continue on until you stall, then come back for some ideas. Like stated above, similar to PHAT, which is a proven program.[/quote]

My sleep depends on my job, but i would say on an average my sleep is around 7-8 hours. Most of the time 7. I get alot of quality proteins (dairy and lean proteins), and right now i’m only counting my fats and proteins which I know is a sloppy approach to a diet…

  1. Well I started using this program around mid september and my weight was 143lbs (im only 5.41). Today october 23rd my weight is still the same, but i went from around 17-18% fat percentage to 11-12% fat percantage (I May be overestimating but the difference is significant IMO). So I will consider it as a succesful “clean” bulk considering that i’m only counting fats and proteins.

  2. Yes i’ve gotten alot stronger in all exercises with good strict form. But back to the question: Yes I’ve gotten stronger in any possible way.
    Before i started on this program my 1rm in conventionel deadlift with belt and straps was 297lbs - and my weight scale said around 149lbs back then. Now i can 1rm 330lbs in deadlift with no straps and belt easily. I will consider that as a great strength progress.

I made some differences tho, I tried switching up so back days was on day 1, legs on day 2, and chest shoulder days on day 3. Felt much better for my rotator cuff muscles. Besides that i removed my triceps workout (don’t need it right now), and replaced it with some biceps, so i would hit the biceps twice.