I’ve been trying for some months to stick to just one full routine. I only have time to do one full area per day and this is my current routine in this order (I only use home equipment)
I also alternate 2 exercises of core every day (one day with weight and one day only body weight)
I would like to hear some review on this training and if something could be improved I would be happy to hear. Thanks in advance.
This isn’t really a program, more just a list of exercises. Where are the sets and reps, the progression plan, the rest periods, etc? Also, I would figure out why you can’t stick to a routine for more than a month or whatever.
What are your working weights on the big exercises and how much time are you willing to set aside for the training sessions? I think you can get a lot done with 3 ~45 minute sessions. I’ve also had success with 5 20-30 sessions.
First, I only wanted to know whether I’m targeting all muscles or if I’m missing some important exercise.
At this point, this is just a starter program, the intention is to drop from around 27-28% body fat to around 15-16% over a year or two, and build good muscle in the process. Also, I want to get some practice on the right lifting movements.
For now, nothing fancy, not planning to compete or anything like that. Just trying to structure the training, first by order of exercises and second by taking into account all muscles to train without missing any. On the nutrition part I’m covered, but on the exercising part I’m still trying to pick up.
Gotcha, but I think we’d still want to know what you’re doing within those sessions. Like 10 sets of singles on squats is different than one set of 10, even though you’re getting 10 reps either way.
You’re not missing any giant movements, though, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about there. And your goals are mostly diet-based, so I don’t see any major concerns.
How long have you been performing the lifts? Are you comfortable with them?
Just food for thought - I would probably treat your first lift each day like a strength movement (spend some time on it, work up a little heavier, focus), and then you could superset or circuit your later movements and get some more volume in. Then you wouldn’t have to split your days quite as much - for instance, I don’t think you need separate days each for shoulders, biceps and triceps. You could start with an overhead press, then giant set all your additional work (DB raise, curls, extensions; then rear delts, hammer curls, and overhead extensions).
Overall, though, give it a whirl and then we can tweak things as your goals evolve or this gets stale.
I have not commented on this because it’s a little tricky.
I’m testing a new protocol I read in certain studies. Since I work remotely, and I have all the equipment at home, what I’m basically doing is spacing each single set every 20 minutes. The whole training takes hours, but I work between each interval. So basically, I’m completely fresh for every set.
I’m doing 3×8-12 for most, except for calf raises, that I’m doing like 20 per set (I cannot hold much more weight on the barbell (or dumbbells) so the only way to get to the failure is by doing a ton of repetitions.
Ha - that honestly sounds miserable to me! But that’s the cool thing about this hobby - different strokes.
I say it sounds miserable, but I remember doing those all day arm days from the magazines with my friends a couple times a long time ago. So I get it. Just different points in life.
Yeah, essentially is a Grease the groove training. I am not sure if studies took the technique as a reference, or simply were randomizing different rest periods
There are two good parts on this particularly for me: I’m not sure if you have heard about the “pomodoro technique”, but basically, I don’t like it because I don’t really know what to do on the spare time and I lose a lot of focus and tempo if I just wander around. I know that some people need this, but I don’t. But doing the reps is a massive boost on glucose activation, that hits harder than a coffee shot. I know some guys who do burpees or squats. But I’ve found that actually doing the exercise is double effective because of the strength gains and the glucose boost.
Obviously, if I had to go to the gym, this would not be an option. I would probably stick to one of the classic routines.
About the muscles, I’m still reviewing, but I feel I’m missing something, specially in the lower body, hamstrings maybe? I was thinking of adding a Sumo Barbell Squats as a 4th exercise for the Legs day. I’m assuming that Romanian deadlift takes on the gluteal area. Or perhaps Bulgarian Split Squats. For the legs part, I’m completely unsure about a good routine.
It’s still kind of hard to totally say, because what you’re doing with those exercises is the important context. Squats and RDLs could certainly do it all. Looking at the rest of your split, though, it would be fair to have a quad day and a hamstring day. If you wanted to stick with the 3 exercise format, it could be something like:
Quads
Squat
Front squat
Rear-foot elevated split squat (upright)
Hams
RDL
Nordic leg curl (the bar can anchor you)
BB hip thrust
Calves… never! I jest (or do I) - kill whichever 3rd exercise you hate most and swap them in.
I will say, for me, I don’t think my lower back would like this anymore.
What is the difference between front squat and regular squat? Aren’t both exercises for Quads?
Looking at the muscles involved, I believe I will go with your proposal, but since I don’t have all the equipment for some of those exercises I might split like:
Focus on Glutes and Hamstrings Barbell Hip Trust Walking Lunges Romanian Dead Lift
Focus on Quads and Calves Barbell Squats Bulgarian Split Squats Barbell Standing Calf Raise
Although I was thinking of summarizing this into 4 exercises on 1 special day because I want to leave 1 free day of the week in case I have to skip the day for whatever reason
I could also keep these split in two days, and simply remove one exercises from biceps and triceps each and do arms in just one day with 4 exercises.
I think I’m going to stick to 7 days for now until I find a way to better allocate the exercises without missing much
For now:
Day 1: Chest
Day 2: Back
Day 3: Quads
Day 4: Shoulders
Day 5: Biceps
Day 6: Triceps
Day 7: Glutes
It seems that all 3 exercises focus on the lats, but none of the mid back. So basically I feel I can be missing parts of the back in this session. Problem with back is my lack of equipment and the fact that I can’t barely do many reps on Pull-ups makes it pretty much inefficient.
I will be switching pull ups for Inverted Rows for now (probably will start trying to do one or two pull ups first before switching).
But for the rest, I feel that both focus on lats, non on mid back as I say (and maybe I’m missing some other? not sure).
By far, back has always been my lagging part of the body and I’m a little hunched, which I would like to correct at some point.
Barbell Hip Trust
