Disclaimer: I’m still a novice lifter. I also lift at home, so I only have free weights.
Apology: Wall of text. I’m trying with spacing and paragraphing, but I have a bit to write.
Ok, so like many people, I think, I started with Starting Strength. While I made progress (minus the occasional challenges with squats stalling), I found I wasn’t satisfied with just strength increases, I want to put some mass on too. So I switched up my exercise into a 4 day split: chest, back, legs and shoulders. Arms I mix in with the splits.
I’m going to lay it out, but I could use some advice on sets and numbers of reps. As a side note, if I don’t make it (for example fail on 5th rep of third set in a 3 x 5, I will add in another set just 'cause)
Monday: barbell bench 3 x 5, incline bench 3 x 8, pushups to failure, dumbbell flies 3 x 8 - 10 (do a weight at 3 x 8, next time 3 x 9, next time 3 x 10, then increase weight and drop to 3 x 8), and barbell curls 3 x 8
Tuesday: deadlift 1 x 5, pullups to failure, bent over barbell row 3 x 8, skull crushers/ng bench supersetted (where I do one skull crusher, one ng bench, rinse and repeat) 3 x 8 (or is it 16?)
Thursday: squats 3 x 5, bench press 3 x 5 (added because I feel chest was lagging after starting strength), lunges 3 x 10, RDL 3 x 8, hammer curls 3 x 8 - 10
Friday: shoulder press 3 x 5, bent over barbell row 3 x 8 (added because I feel that back was lagging after starting strength), db shrugs 3 x 8, lat raises 3 x 8 - 10, reverse flyes 3 x 8 - 10, dips
Ok, so now that you’ve (hopefully) bravely made it through that, here are my questions.
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On the supersetted skull crushers/ng bench, I’m doing 8 of each movement. Is this 16 and thus too much for hypertrophy? What is an ideal range?
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Caveat. Does the idea of SC/NG bench supersets not make sense? I found it on google
Is there something else to do instead that is better for combination strength and size? I mean, I’m doing dips on my other tricep day.
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Is the workload too much? I’m keeping each session under 60 minutes - the “primary” exercise I do for strength with 4 minute pauses between sets, but the rest have 90 second pauses so speed up.
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I figure that barbell curls once a week + hammer curls once a week should be sufficient bicep devel for me, as I, for whatever reason, grow biceps easily. I like the hammer curls because they also work the forearms, and who doesn’t want Popeye forearms? But if there is another recommendation, I’ll take it.
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Is the twice a week bench and bent over barbell rows too much? I’m still making steady (if slow) gains, and I feel like chest and back are lagging.
Thanks in advance!
–Me
EDIT2: I edited the title because I realized that my questions were no longer solely about arms, but about the program in general.