i tried best i could to avoid doing the same muscle groups 2 days in a row while trying to balance everything out and tried to put in a different variation of the main lifts each day… i put good mornings on front squat day to hit the posterior a little more as the front squats i more quad dominant and i put the sissy squats on back squat days to put a little more into my quads as the back squat is more posterior chain dominant. where it says 3x5-8, that means starting with 2 sets of 5 reps and adding 1 rep every time i do that workout till im doing 3 sets of 8 reps. this way im hoping that the automatic cycling of the intensity and volume will prevent the movement from going stale for a while. i kept the isolation movements at 3 sets of 8 and for lighter weights just to try and build up the muscles that do not get hit as well with the other movements. i used sissy squats for more direct quad work as i do not have access to a leg extension or other machines…
so what do yall think? too much, too little, too complicated?
I think it looks good overall. The exercises are well balanced between pushing and pulling, and the volume appears recoverable, assuming you’re sleeping enough and eating nutritious food.
My one observation and potential tweak would be with rep ranges. The longer I lift and the more I learn, the more I understand the benefits of varying intensity on similar movements. All of your compound lifts are 3x5-8; perhaps your A2 and B2 workouts could alter the rep ranges on similar movements, thus targeting a broader range of muscle fibers.
For instance, instead of doing 3x5-8 dumbbell shoulder press, since dumbbells aren’t as optimal for heavy work, maybe do 3x10-12 or 3x12-15. A couple small, similar tweaks to the rep ranges on a few exercises may increase your results and bring longevity benefits, too.
I think it looks good. I agree with the above about rep ranges. Some little changes I would make…
You have your chest exercise before shoulder on both days. A good approach may be to have heavier chest in a1 like you have followed by a press for shoulders in a higher range 12-15 reps. Then the next push day do the heavy shoulder first followed by a higher rep chest.
Similarly to above I would alternate which back exercise you do first each day, vertical then horizontal one day then the opposite way around next time.
Personally I find my shoulders respond much better to very high rep lateral raises/rear delt. At least one of the days I would go crazy and just burn them with very high reps, run down the rack or a drop set.
Just a few ideas but do what ever you will enjoy most and stick too, that’s always the best approach.
Yep, exactly. @kd13 also has a great suggestion about doing a heavy chest day, followed by light shoulders, then a heavy shoulder day, followed by light chest, and so forth. The changes could look something like:
I would change one of your deadlift days. If you’re doing just 1 set, that’s essentially a max effort set. Having 2 days a week that include a max effort deadlift set, particularly in a relatively high rep range for the lift, will be brutal. Last Sunday I hit a 515 deadlift for 6 reps as a final set, still had a couple reps in the tank, and even that has left me sore until today. I won’t be ready to deadlift again until this weekend. Doing that twice a week for any significant period of time, along with all the squatting you’re doing… I would get run down so fast.
Since you’re doing a push-pull, you may want to move the good mornings out of your push day and into your pull day. Are you doing B2 the day after A2? If so, you’ll almost certainly not want to do good mornings the day before you deadlift.
very good info… that is a good suggestion for the pairing a light movement after a heavy one… would make that day a little less taxing on the pushing and pulling muscles… but id have to do block pulls for the deadlift setup as i don’t have a proper rack with pins yet… thanks guys…