I’ve been steadily making gains for the past few months. I’ve gotten stronger and I’ve gotten heavier. I’m still puny by T-Nation standards, but, nonetheless, I am pleased with the progress I am making, and I am not planning on giving up anytime soon.
My primary thought processes have been to keep things simple and not get too caught up with thinking about the various minutia of virtually every aspect of resistance training.
Also, I’ve tried not to concern myself too much with optimizing and finding ‘the perfect program’, because, as a beginner, it doesn’t take much for me to grow, and also because what I’m doing is working.
Nonetheless, I am curious to get some feedback on what I’ve been doing, perhaps, despite my progress, I am making some serious mistakes or otherwise poorly executing some ideas…etc.
My diet is pretty much solid and sound, so I won’t elaborate on it too much. My sleeping schedule is a little whack, but I still get a solid 8 hours a night, and I often get a short nap during the day.
So, the area I’m most curious about is my training.
After 2 months of doing only compound lifts(really just squats and deadlift), 2 or 3 times a week, learning form and getting comfortable in the gym, I have started to branch out with other exercises. I have also started going to the gym nearly every day, to keep myself disciplined and organized.
Monday, Deadlifts. I go heavy. High intensity and High volume. Typically 6-8 sets in the 3-5 rep range. This is my favorite day, I love doing deadlifts, I feel completely thrashed the next day, and every week I’ve been able to put on a little more weight.
Tuesday, Chest/upper body. Exercises used include; Wide grip neck presses, Neutral grip DB press, cable crossovers, decline bench, combo flyes and pec deck. I don’t do all of these on one day, typically I only do 3 or 4 exercises. I do the bench press heavy and the rest lighter.
Wednesday, Wednesday is a light day, It’s more to keep myself in the gym, I don’t push myself too hard, and I typically focus on lifts that I want to learn, lifts I already know(form and such), stretching, and body weight movements. I’ll be in the gym for a longer period of time on wednesday, but I don’t kill myself.
Thursday. Squats. I hate squats, I’m 6’4 and have long legs, and squats are an absolute bitch. But I still grind through them. AtG, medium reps(5-7) for about as many sets. I’ve also experimented with doing a 3,5,7,7,5,3 type pyramid, but I think I like straight sets a bit better.(thoughts on this?)
Friday, another general day, like wednesday. Rows, Lunges, farmer’s walk, lateral raises, weighted pull-ups, and the likes. Again, not killing myself with intensity or volume, more of a reason to stay in the gym.
Saturday, Usually off. Maybe I’ll do push-ups and crunches at home.
Sunday, Usually off, but if I go, I’ll do general stuff, smaller muscle groups that may have been overlooked or missed.
That’s the general outline, I don’t follow it religiously, as a beginner, I focus more on eating and resting, and on getting my deadlifts and squats in, as well as benching and pull-ups, everything else is just kind of auxiliary.
I have been making gains, so I’m okay with what I’m doing on that front, but I am worried to have overlooked something or otherwise maybe missing out on some basics.