Opinions About My Program?

Training
1

Hello everyone, I’m Str71. This is my first post and i was just wondering what my program is lacking or if something needs a little tweaking.

So i train 3 days a week. Sat/Mon/Thurs and my goals are to get strong and put on a decent amount of quality weight (naturally). I’m not fat and i guess you can call me a slight ectomorph.

So here it is:

Workout (A)

A) Warm-up with one round of DeFranco’s SS

B) Bench Press: Work up to a new rep PR and add weight and go back down to 5 reps when i can do 12 with a given weight. I try to do every rep (including the BP warm-up) as explosive as possible with good powerlifting form.

C) Machine Fly: Countdown/Multi-Hold/21s then let the weight stretch my chest for 30 seconds. Add 5 seconds every workout then go up when i get to 60

D) Bent-Over Row: Same as the BP

E) Supported Row or Stiff Pullover: Same as the machine fly above then hang from a pull up bar for 30 seconds while adding 5 seconds every workout

F) Finish with 2 rounds of DeFranco’s SS supersetted with 3 sets of heavy Farmer’s Walks

Workout (B)

A) Warm-up with one round of DeFranco’s SS
B) Deadlift: Work up to a new 3RM (Add 5 Kg every workout)

C) Incline BP (Can’t OHP due to issues): Same as BP

D) Machine Fly: Same as Workout (A) but adding 5 seconds to the stretch

E) Pulldown/Chin: Same as BP

F) Pulldown: Same as E in (A) but adding 5 seconds to the hang

G) Finish with 2 rounds of DeFranco’s SS

Notes:

  1. Can’t OHP due to limitations but the Pull-Up hang is helping
  2. Can’t squat because there’s no squat rack. There’s a hack squat though but don’t know how useful that is compared to a normal back squat.
2

I seriously don’t know where to start.

Just no.

If you like Defranco so much, do WS4SB.

Learn variations of squats. Goblet for example.

1 Like
3

Damn. That bad? I was thinking of adding some form of squat pattern like the Zercher or Goblet but don’t know how you progress on those.

Edit: I though i was nailing everything with that. Strength/Hypertrophy/Hyperplasia while keeping some structural balance. Guess i was wrong…

4

That is why you don’t program yourself.

Do you even know the definition of the word?

5

I know that hypertrophy is increase in size of cells but hyperplasia is increase in number of cells.

And with the squats i meant that i don’t know if i should add weight or reps.

6

Run:

Or

Or

Or

Work hard, eat right, be consistent and you’ll be grand on any of these.

Btw
Look up eating requirements on the tnation site. My eating sucks.

7

If adding weight every week to the main lifts then keep doing that. Once you stall (prob sooner rather than later) move on straight away to Texas method or a Dan John program as above

Machine flyes pretty useless at this stage, if reeealy want some beach fluff I would actually swap in a small bit of direct arm work

8

@carlbm Yeah I read all those. Multiple times actually. And eating wise, my diet is pretty good. I eat a bit over 500 kcal in surplus because i do walk alot aswell

@RampantBadger I do add 1-2 reps every workout to the compounds and 10 pounds to the DL so progression is taken care off. Idk seems like i’m moving to WS4SB or a CW program but from what i’ve read, Any sensible plan will work if i’m consistent with training, diet and recovery.

1 Like
9

yep totally fine, big fan of Waterbury. I recommend you read all the ws4sb articles including version 3 on dfrancos site if going down that path and occasionally throw in some smith machine or hammerstrength move for upper and leg press for lower ME work(avoids burnout)

exactly

10

Why not do 3 full body workouts sticking to compound multi joint exercises? I don’t do “explosive” anything, it’s a great way to injur yourself. It’s not what I do but I think your plan on progressing with weight/reps is fine.

11

Yeah man. I’m no expert. But honestly everything I read says the same thing. Consistentcy is king.

Good luck.

12

hahahahaha. yes, it is bad. and it’s absolutely hilarious that you would even suggest that the problem is ‘no zercher squats’. I can guarantee you , nobody reading this is thinking that.

Pick a program that someone ELSE wrote. and do that.

You ‘nailed’ nothing. It’s genuinely terrible.

13

Well, looks like i’m gonna move over to WS4SB, the description on the article fits me perfectly: “Skinny? Interested in packing on muscle mass and having the strength to back it up? This program is for you.”

Thanks for the help everyone.