Hey there! I’ve just registered as a user and this is my first post, although I’ve been reading articles and looking through the forums for the last few months now.
I’ve been using a routine I made for the last 3 weeks (after being inactive for 3 years) now and I’m curious about your opinion of it.
I’m doing strength training every other day with some light cardio in between and 1 rest day every week.
I alternate between two strength routines, which are very alike but not exactly the same:
Routine A:
- Benchpress with dumbbells
- Pulldown (to back)
- Squats
- Flys
- Rowing machine
- Shrug
- Military press
- Reverse cable crunch
Routine B:
- Benchpress with barbell
- Rowing machine
- Incline benchpress with dumbbells
- Pulldown (to chest)
- Squats
- Upright rowing
- Pullover
- Reverse cable crunch
The order of the exercises is also the order I do them in the gym. I do every exercise for 3 sets x 8 reps, excluding 1 warm-up set. I’ve chosen a weight for every exercise with which I can barely complete the 2nd\3rd set (the weight stays constant throughout the 3 sets). Also, I take a 2 min. break between sets and between exercises.
My muscles feel sore afterwards so I must be doing something right. I do feel though that my form needs to improve a lot on some exercises and I’m working on that right now. What do you think of my training schedule?
Any tips\hints\criticism would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Paulus
P.s. I’m 21 years old, male, approx. 80kg’s and 1.82m tall 
You need to add deadlifts to one of your routines. Also, that seems like a lot of volume, how long are you normally in the gym? You might want to consider reducing the number of lifts so you can go heavier on your big compound movements.
Take a look at Starting Strength or WS4SB. At the very least, I would recommend moving your squats to the start of your workout, so you aren’t fatigued when you do them. Also, consider doing a 3x5 or 5x5 rep scheme if you’re focusing on strength training.
Thanks for your reply! I do each workout in approx. 1 hour (a little less most of the time). Maybe it was a bit misleading to call the routines strength routines: I’m not solely after strength nor bodybuilding; more in-between the two, hence the 3x8. I’ll do the squats first next time and add deadlifts. However, is this a good routine overall or am I neglecting certain body parts or is the whole thing unbalanced?
Squats, Deads, and Bench variants will work most of your major muscle groups, and you’ve got most of your upper body covered by your other lifts, but you might want to add some sort of curl, and maybe some tricep work if you notice your arms are lagging behind the rest of your body.
Same goes for legs, if you feel that a part isn’t getting hit hard enough, add some single leg work, leg curls, glute ham raises, calf raises, etc. You may want to take a look at this http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1807367
It’s not exactly a beginner routine, but it’s not that advanced, and it might give you a few ideas.
Great article, hadn’t found that one yet! Thanks again for your advice, I’ll make some educated changes to my workout and get to it first thing tomorrow.
Ninjaboy mentioned single leg work. His examples are excellent, but my personal favorite is the walking overhead lunge.
For one, you get a little extra shoulder isometric contraction by holding a weight above your head.
Two, holding weight above your head makes it much more challenging to balance, hitting your gluteus medius hard and helping to correct poor balance. If one leg is weak, you will know right away after lunge-walking a few steps.
Three, the lunging motion hammers your quads and glutes very well. Just thought I would mention this, I have seen excellent gains from this in the past few weeks (a back injury has me not squatting or deadlifting for a month).
PS - Paulus is a pretty awesome name.
Yeah, its a great lift. Makes a good warmup to if you use bodyweight. Split squats are also very good.