The Wednesday workout throws me for a bit of a loop more than other days. Doing deadlifts at 80% the day after doing squats at 80% and also leg presses may be too much for your lower back (and legs) to recover from, especially over a longer time period. If it were me, I’d bump the deadlifts to the second leg day and do light, form-focused squats as the warm-up movement before the DLs.
The second thing I notice is you have two horizontal pulling exercises (two rows) but no vertical pulls (pull-ups or lat pull-downs.) Rows counterbalance bench presses, and pulldowns balance shoulder presses, so I’d advise replacing the standing rows with four max sets of pull-ups (max assuming you currently do fewer than 10 pull-ups in a set. Most gym goers, myself included, don’t focus on pull-ups at first, and our daily movement patterns don’t naturally strengthen those muscles.)
Third, like you mentioned, two 80% days for shoulder presses is a lot of loading on your shoulders, especially when you’re doing two 80% days of bench press, and one of those days is the day after shoulder day. On this shoulder day, I suggest doing 3 x 12 neutral grip standing dumbbell shoulder presses supersetted between the four max pull-up sets. I suggest starting with pull-ups so you don’t tire out your late with rows. Whether you superset the pull-ups and shoulder press or not, I’d do rows second and increase to 4 or 5 sets. A final tweak could be supersetting the lateral raises and reverse peck deck flies; that gives a fierce shoulder pump and burn!
The Thursday workout is more pressing after shoulder day; your pressing muscles may be fatigued. Experience will let you know how best to proceed. My shoulders would need a light day, such as flat dumbbell press with 4 x 10 followed by bodyweight dips and push-ups. You may handle the higher weight and volume fine though.
Friday’s leg day is where I’d place deadlifts. Start with 3 x 65% squats, then deadlift. On that point, to answer another question, go with sumo! Since they feel good, why abstain and miss the gains and progress you’ll get from doing them because you’re trying to learn conventional? That’d be like a person who hurts when doing incline bench press so they don’t flat bench either and, instead, work on the incline bench form: lost time and strength in a substantially similar movement. Su-mo!
For leg presses, why not do them single leg? You don’t have any unilateral leg pressing, so this is a good day for it. The last tweak on Friday is perhaps superset leg and barbell curls. It’s another little metabolic boost, time saver, and fat burner.
Saturdays back and shoulder workout will look different if you move DLs to Friday. It’s also a good day for the heavy shoulder presses. One word of caution - upright rows are anatomically dangerous for most people’s shoulders. Over time, they’ll introduce impingement in the shoulder structure. I’d trade them for standing, cross-body delt pulls on a cable, done one arm at a time. Your call though.
Second, like the previous shoulder day, add vertical pulling, in the form of 3 x 10-12 pulldowns. This way, you have one heavy and one light vertical pulling exercise each week.
Lastly, if you have the energy, choose one rowing workout where you lift heavier, like with the bench press. The other day, do higher reps and 4+ sets.
I don’t mean to overwhelm you with changes - do what motivates you! My suggestions are adjustments I’d make based on my observations, experiences, and knowledge gained from T-Nation and other sources.
I’ve became alot more accustom to doing that myself, You’re not in a competition with no one in their but yourself. I’ve watched numerous videos especially on squat and DL my squat has improved dramatically but I’m still working on that DL.
Absolutely amazing advice man, I really couldn’t have asked for a better response nor show my appreciation enough. Everything you said makes perfect since and I will be implementing those changes. I’m glad we finally got it tuned it and am excited to see where I go from here. Thanks so much for the time you took out to not only optimize my program but to give such detailed advice on why I need to make such changes. I’ve learned through the course of my career to soak up as much knowledge and wisdom I can from others and I’m definitely going to take the same approach to my health.
Just a little update on my current situation, I made an unexpected trip home this weekend. Just finished breakfast about to head to the gym as much as I want to stay dialed in on my diet I may be tempted tomorrow with my mothers cooking lol. I may have a couple drinks this evening with a friend but other than those two events I’m staying on track. I know it seems I may be swaying off course but my weekends are typically 10 times worse so small improvements. I’ll stick to couple glasses of whiskey tonight instead of 10 and I’ll be moderate on my moms dinner tomorrow instead of eating 6000 calories
My pleasure, I’m happy to help! Writing my reasoning about the adjustments will help you understand the ‘why’ for each thing, which helps you think critically about each workout, the program as a whole, and learn how to evaluate what works best for you.
How’s the weekend home go? Never miss a chance to eat mom’s cooking and spend time with family and old friends!
Didn’t get around to posting this weekend because of it being so hectic lol but I’ll give a update on how it went. Saturday I ended up taking my 2 younger brothers with me to the gym (23 and 19) for my shoulder and back workout. I knew my youngest brother wouldn’t be able to handle the loading and didn’t wanna hurt him so just kept it light with him but my slightly younger brother was insistent on lifting everything I did. Needless to say not only could he not keep up but he could barely lift his arms the next day lol. Saturday night I had the intentions of only having a couple shots but I kinda blew that out of proportion unfortunately. The good thing I can take away from that is the fact I woke up yesterday and made a promise to myself to only drink on special occasions and actually felt good about it. I think this log has alot to do with that, I feel so much more accountable for what I do. I know I have you guys wishing the best for me as well and that really helps, honestly the eureka moment I had yesterday was an amazing feeling. I went overboard on my mom’s cooking yesterday we had a fish fry along with a crab boil and I did not hold back lol the good news is I probably doubled my protein intake (I’ll leave the other macros out haha) but it feels good being back at work and back to another week of gains. I’m having severe problems with a wisdom tooth I should’ve gotten removed 6 months ago, and it’s not do much the tooth but the migraine that comes with it. The good thing is it’s not constant but comes and goes. I’ll be getting it extracted next Tuesday. I’m assuming solid foods will be hard for a couple days afterwards so that’s kinda bothering me.
Oh yea I can’t forget my workout saturday:
The gym we went to didn’t have a overhead BB press, just a hammer strength load machine so I went with that.
Shoulder press: 4x6 with 2 plates on each side
Cross body delt pulls: 3x12 with 40 loaded
Lat pull downs: 3x12 140
Seated rows: 3x6 160
Surprisingly I was pretty gassed after all that Saturday toppled with my brothers not wanting to do cardio we forgoed it. Although I could’ve used it especially knowing the chaos nutrition and alcohol wise that I knew was gonna ensue.
Workouts yesterday, January 22nd
Incline Bench 4x5-6 @ 165
Flat DB: 3x10 @ 55s
Crossovers: 3x12 @ 40
BB Curls Supersetted with Dips: 3x8 @ 75 Curls and dips 3x8
Seated Alt DB curls: 3x10 @ 35s
Rope Push Down: 3x12 @ 75
HIIT 10 mins 1.5 mins at brisk walk .5 mins sprint
Nutrition for yesterday:
Meal one: Oatmeal mixed with 1 scoop protein
Meal 2: Turkey & Cheese Sandwich
Meal 3: 8oz lean beef, cheese, taco sauce and two tortillas
Meal 4: same as meal 3 but only 1 tortilla
Meal 5: 2 scoops protein 1 tbsp Peanut butter
I’m working split shifts now so my hours are pretty crazy… the good news is I dont have to be up until 5 a.m
Meal 1: Nature Valley Oats 1 scoop of protein
Meal 2: PB Sandwhich
Meal 3: 8oz of hamburger, 1 cup rice, .5 can rotel tomatoes, .25cans black beans
Meal 4: same as meal 3
Meal 5: Eggs and bacon 1 scoop protein
Just a little update, I’m on the way up to New York for a project that popped up unexpectedly should be there around 7 this evening… Will update the log once I arrive.
Thursday I was traveling all day and didn’t get a chance to workout so today I will be doing Thursdays workout instead and Sunday will no longer be my rest day for this week since I have to catch up.
@TriednTrue thanks man, I got a couple fingers on the bar for my last 2 reps that’s why I went back down in weight lol. Still felt better than any other time I had 2 plates on the bar for reps. They’re feeling good though it feels amazing not having to be in the gym for as long and still getting a good pump in. I know that being sore is by no means a measure of a solid workout but I kinda miss that feeling to be honest. I’m going to have to make some tweaks to my routine once again but not by choice.
I’m in New York for probably the next month or so and apparently this gym up here doesn’t believe on being open later than 2 on Saturdays or opening at all on Sundays. I Work on Saturdays 8-330 for mandatory overtime. The closest gym opposed to that one is over 45 minutes away. This is the north country not the city lol. I do have access to some DBs at the apartment, 40s being max weight but maybe I can figure something out with those for the weekends. I ran some stairs last night in my apartment building just to get my heart going for a little bit. Any tips or suggestions on my weekends and how to work in the rest of my routine?
You can get a sick pump (and soreness sometimes) by doing calisthenics in your apartment, and then using the dumbbells for finishing exercises.
e.g;
3-5 high rep sets of push ups, or weighted bench dips, or both.
3-5 high rep sets of a tricep exercise using the dumbbells (Rolling DB ext, skull crushers, Tate Press, etc)
3-5 high rep sets of chin ups or pull ups
3-5 high rep sets of hammer curls and bicep curls
