Lee Hayward's Bodybuiding Beginner Full Body

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

I came across a series of videos by Lee Hayward where he layed down a training program for beginners (as I am)

You train 3 times a week on non-consecutive days.

You choose an exercise for

  1. Horizontal push for the chest
  2. Horizontal pull for the back
  3. Vertical push for the shoulders
  4. Vertical pull for the back
  5. Squat motion (squats, leg presses, hacks etc are fine)
  6. Exercise for the hamstrings
  7. Isolation for the biceps
  8. Isolation for the triceps
  9. Isolation for the calves
  10. Exercise for the abs

Each exercise are 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions with a progressively heavier weight, letā€™s say that the first 2 are warm-up sets, the third is the real working set where you go to failure (actually 1 work set per exercise) (except isolation exercise where rep range is 10-15)

You actually have 3 different routines with 3 different exercises for each muscle: for example on Monday for the chest you do a chest press, on Wednesday an incline bench with dumbbells and Friday is dips, and the week after it starts again.

Performance is logged and every time you try and beat the performance for that exercise of the previous week. You add some weight once you can do 12 (or 15 reps) depending on the exercise with a given weight

A little background, Iā€™ve been lifting inconsistently in the gym for quite some time, so I know the basic of lifting: decent form, good ability to push myself, Itā€™s just that I have started to take it more seriously just recently

2

Did you want us to do anything with this information my dude?

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3

I have done something like that occasionally, but each workout I put a different main movement first; ie. bench first Day 1, then squat first Day 2, then row first Day 3.
Sorry, I donā€™t mean to confuse or complicate it.

4

@T3hPwnisher @bighdx

Sorry, you are right, I was not clear with my question.

This routine looks quite different to the classic programs that I usually see recommended for a beginner, but I really like this approach ideally.

Iā€™m not really looking for validation (as I believe that Lee Hayward is a qualified and experienced coach), but rather an opinion from more expert lifters about wether it might be a decent approach for a beginner.

Thank you :slight_smile:

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5

It looks very standard in its approach. Especially as a key part of this is ā€œprogressively heavier weightā€.

You highlight the 1 work set per exercise. Donā€™t worry. Given the cross over between all the exercises youā€™ll be getting much more. And even if you were not. 1 full on set is enough to get you to grow.

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6

What you posted is fine for a beginner.

Templates like this guysā€™ stuff similar but better tho ā€¦

7

It actually looks pretty much exactly like most basic bodybuilding programs Iā€™ve seen. Nothing out of the ordinary here. The 8-15 rep range is VERY standard in bodybuilding, 3 sets is probably the most common set number for this rep range, you almost always see a ā€˜go to failureā€™ set as the last one, and youā€™re performing very standard movements.

Iā€™m not sure what the difference between those two things is. If you believe heā€™s a qualified coach, then our opinions shouldnā€™t matter. Youā€™ve already made the decision that this should work, based on that.

So that being said, yes it looks fine. Especially as youā€™re a beginner, almost any reasonably compiled program should work just fine. This fits that bill.

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