Any Suggested Changes to my Program?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Hi gang. I thought I should post my current program and see what what people better and more experienced than myself had to say about it. I’d appreciate any comments or suggestions and the reasoning behind them. Thanks!

I have read almost every article both past and present from the major contributors to T-Nation and also bought Chad’s book. I consider myself somewhere in the middle of Novice level as far as training experience goes. My goal is to get bigger and a lot stronger and to be healthy and look good in the process. I’ve already made significant noob gains but I know I can still make a lot more. (currently 5’10" 170 about 9-10% BF) My diet is very clean but I eat and drink whatever the hell I want on Friday nights. After the summer I will significantly up my calories

The program is built around the major compound movements with a push/pull in both horizontal and verticle planes with some isolation added. I think I should split my leg day in two 2 days (Quad day dominant, Ham day dominant) but I can only get to the gym 3 days.

Currently doing 5x5 but will switch to 10x3 when I feel I am nearing a plateau. I also superset a lot to save time. I work calves a lot because they are a weak point and chest because…well I want a bigger chest damn it.

All sets are done with the same weight to just below failure on the last couple sets. All workouts are done in about an hour and ten minutes.

Monday (Leg Day!)

Squats 5x5 —> seated calf raise superset
Deadlifts 5x5 —> lateral raises superset
Incline DB press 3x10
Ab workout (whatever I feel like)

Wednesday (Horizontal)

Flat Bench Press 5x5 —> 1 arm bent over DB row superset
Standing straight bar curl 5x5 (slow negatives) —> Abs
Machine Flyes 3x10 (at the end of my workout these feel awesome…better than DB flyes do)----> donkey calf raise

Saturday (Vertical)

Medium width pronated pull ups -----> standing DB shoulder press 5x5
Decline bench press 5x5
Standing EZ-Curl bar curls 5x5 ----> Abs
Dips (leaning forward for chest) 3 sets to failure----> standing calf raise

There you have it. I am fairly well proportioned but I would like to have much bigger lats and a bigger chest. I think I need to add in some lat pull downs or maybe some pullovers?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions

2

The way you’ve set up your split is interesting. Ive never really seen anyone do it that way. But IMO you would be MUCH better off with 3 full body workouts weekly.

Also, you might want to work in different rep ranges. I know CW has a lot of programs that are this way, and it really helps to maximize gains in both strength and hypertrophy.

Something like this:

M:10x3
W:4x12
F:7x7

As for exercise selection, I think a full body A-B split will work great.

EX:

A:

Squat variation —> Vertical Pull
1-leg RDL ------> Horizontal push

B:

Deadlift variation ------> Vertical Push
Stepup variation ---------> Horizontal pull

That would be it… You can add in some assistance exercises like calves, face pulls, flys, etc…

Hope this helps.

3

Like dankid said; ‘interesting’. Really.

As far as the meat-head bodybuilding programs go, it is a unique set-up which is good to see. Two things I would consider:

a) If you haven’t figured out your time under tension, rests periods, etc. yet, then you should re-evaluate the workout. What’s your intensity like in the gym?

b) A three day full body set up would work better for three days in the gym. Cycle some of those ecercises every couple of weeks. Or maybe move to a 4 day split with and upper and lower body program. It’s fitness 101 to train the same muscle groups every third day. (Overload Principle)

Happy Training.