At the end of the coming week I will be finished CW’s Quattro Dynamo program and im looking at going to a 4 day split. I tried to stick with the basics when I put this together since its my first homemade split, my goals are to improve the size of my chest and lats while gaining strength in the big 3 lifts.
I am 22, 5’10 @ 190lbs; been going to the gym for 1 year this month.
Legs
Squat
–5x5
Lying Leg curl
–2x15
Lunge(Overhead,BB)
–3x5 each leg
Calf Raise(Seated)
–3x15
Good Morning(BB)
–3x8
Oh, meant to post that at the end. How do I decide on the weights to use? I’ve always had a 1RM % to go by on previous programs. I know what I can do for those reps on most exercises but since this is a split It seems like that would not be a good way to decide on weight due to fatigue?
Also, how should I order the exercises for each workout? is there any specific science for deciding on that order or just personal prefrence?
Generally most people do the heavier compound stuff first… and move on to the lighter lifts after… but it’s pretty individual… depends on whether or not one muscle group is more dominant, or takes more of the load, then another…
ex: if you’re triceps dominant… you won’t want to start chest day with flat bench… as it won’t hit it as hard… flyes would be a better choice etc…
As for weight/rep range… just take a guess… and see how it goes… if it’s too light the first set… up the weight… and vice-versa…
I’ve never done more than 1 bench variation in a workout before so my chest day is pretty much guesswork.
Is there a better order to do the 3 bench variations in? I think i’ll put the Cable fly first to get some chest activation before benching.
Im also wondering if their are better row variations than I have chosen, I have a very strong upper back but weak lats in comparison and I am really looking to work on that weakpoint. I chose pulldowns instead of pullups because I currently struggle to do more than 3-4 a set which is way out of whack with my strength in any other pulling exercise.
On your question regarding fatigue: I would go by past experience regarding judging what sort of weight correcponds to what percent 1RM you are trying to work at.
For example, way back when – like at least 10 years ago – I always did a particular rowing exercise last in the workout. Never made much gains on it. After a long time of this, I either happened to or deliberately decided to do a 1RM while still fresh.
I was shockingly stronger than I thought that I was. I had actually been training the exercise generally down in the 30% 1RM range or so. No wonder I made no gains. The issues were both that I was shot at the point where I was doing it, and the percent RM was so low as to be useless or nearly so.
Point of story? If you know for example that you’ve been good for, oh, say a 200 lb 1RM in a given exercise when fresh and in this new program you are fatigued when doing it, be aware that for example 50% 1RM is still probably at least 100 lb. So if you are using a weight such as that and still getting crappy performance then it would better not even to do the exercise at that point. And most certainly you wouldn’t want to drop the weight far lower yet just to get what appears a decent amount of reps.
Instead of Legs, Back, Chest, Shoulders/Arms, I’d organize it as Legs, Chest, Back, Shoulders/Arms. That way you don’t squat and deadlift 2 days in a row. That will seriously hurt your deadlift numbers.
I was just looking at this again and realized that I dont have weights or rest periods assigned for this. All of the programs in CW’s book have this done already so I havent had to deal with it myself yet.
For a split like this would I do say a whole workout with 80% 1RM or would I use a different % for each exercise? for rest periods I really how no clue how to calculate something like that.
generally, sets of 8 get 60-90s rest. This interval allows for impartial recovery- you recover enough to have the strength to hit the next set with enough weight, but not enough rest to allow for full recovery from fatigue. You need some fatigue to grow, just dont kill yourself too early in the workout.
For a split like this would I do say a whole workout with 80% 1RM or would I use a different % for each exercise? for rest periods I really how no clue how to calculate something like that.
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Just take a SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) the first time around and if it’s too heavy, drop some weight. After your first set, you’ll know what you should use. I try to get at least 90% of the reps I’m shooting for, then add weight the next week and progress.