Hey, I was reading a lot lately and built myself a new plan after I followed my other one since weeks.
It’s a simple 6-day Push/Pull/Legs - A/B rotation with a weekly rep scheme progression in it.
Rep ranges rotate forward for each version every inbetween each version (picture).
Exercises I have chosen:
PUSH A Barbell Bench Press Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press Cable Chest Flys (mid-chest) Lateral Raises Cable Triceps Pushdowns EZ Bar Skullcrushers
PUSH B Dumbbell Bench Press Incline Barbell Press Dumbbell Flys (flat bench) Dips
PULL A Chest-Supported Rows Lat Pulldown Face Pulls Rear Delt Flys EZ Bar Curls Incline Dumbbell Curls
PULL B Pull-Ups Seated Cable Rows Straight Arm Pulldowns Reverse Pec Deck Hammer Curls Preacher Curls
LEGS A and B currently same: Leg Press Bulgarian Split Squats Leg Extensions Lying Leg Curls Standing Calf Raises
Notes on the plan:
You haven’t including the number of sets, which is a vital part of the plan.
What’s the progression plan?
Way too many exercises. You would be better off with fewer exercises per muscle and use some form of daily undulating periodisation. Give yourself some time to learn and become proficient at certain movements. Too many different exercises will only slow down your progression. (note: I’m not talking about volume since you haven’t provided that)
The rep scheme also doesn’t make much sense, why do you want to have the same rep range for every exercise in a workout? Lateral raises for sets of 6 sounds suspect. Some exercises doesn’t work all that well in low rep ranges (like lateral raises) and some doesn’t work all that well in high rep ranges (squat, deadlift, etc…). You’ll likely find yourself limited by your cardiovascular system rather than leg strength for those 15 rep squat sessions. It took me a fair amount of sessions to find the right pace when going from sets of 5 to sets of 10 on the squat.
No RDL or deadlifts? Your glutes, hamstrings and erectors doesn’t get much love in this plan.
Recommendations:
I would scrap the plan of having a fixed rep range for each workout, and don’t change the rep range week to week. Instead you can do daily undulating periodisation of exercises within the week. E.g. You might do sets of 5 on the bench press on Monday, and then do sets of 10 on Thursday.
Lower the amount of variation of exercises for your pull and push days. E.g. you don’t need to do both the barbell and dumbbell variations of the same exercise. Either do barbell bench press both days, or do dumbbell bench press. Cut down the curl variations to 2 exercises. Choose between reverse pec deck or face pull, chest supported row or cable row, etc…
For you leg days you’re really missing out on hamstrings and glutes. Lying leg curls alone really doesn’t cut it. I’d recommend cutting out either Bulgarian split squats or leg extensions and add RDLs into the mix. Done properly, RDLs will hit hamstrings and glutes like no other exercise. You should probably rotate between squatting first and doing RDL first, e.g. Squats first on Wednesday and RDL first on Saturday. Also, don’t do sets of 15 on squats if you haven’t done it before and can do it well. A set of 10 is already more than most people are willing to take to (near) failure.
Edit: just noticed that I misread the leg day exercise selection and that you didn’t include squats in your program. So you can ignore the squat-part of the feedback
Thanks for feedback.
I chose easy movements cause I dont understand deadlifts etc. without injuring myself.
Isnt it not better to do variations of all chest exercises?
Like on Push A Barbell Benchpress you can load heavier weight and on Push B I could load less cause of stabilising muscles for Dumbbell Bench?
Isnt it not better to do variations of all chest exercises?
Like on Push A Barbell Benchpress you can load heavier weight and on Push B I could load less cause of stabilising muscles for Dumbbell Bench?
Unless your goal is to limit strength gains, not really. Within a meso cycle you want some form of specificity to help drive the neural adaptations. You can load heavy in Push A and lighter on Push B by simply modulating the target rep range. E.g. 5 reps on Push A (heavy) and 10 on Push B (light).
As a beginner your technique is unlikely to be nailed down, so repetition of a movement is a huge boon. Barbell benching twice a week instead of once a week is twice the amount of time improving the movement pattern.
I chose easy movements cause I dont understand deadlifts etc. without injuring myself.
I can understand that hip hinges may seem intimidating due to all the injury misinformation surrounding it. If you don’t want to do it, don’t do it. But if you’re on the fence, my recommendation would be to start out light and keep it light until you’re more comfortable. I do believe you’re greatly missing out without RDLs or Good Mornings in your program though.
If you won’t do any hip hinges, I would recommend to place your feet high up on the leg press platform, otherwise your glutes won’t really be trained in this program.
Swap leg press for squats and also add walking lunges, and swap lying leg curls for Nordic ham curl.
I dont know how to do squats and those other exercises. I am new to sport
Oh awesome, it’ll be fun to learn them all.
Buff Dudes, and Jeff Nippard are some of my favourite channels. I’d recommend checking out the buff dudes for some.of their beginner programs to see what they’ve put together as well.
Saw the videos but I don’t feel like I am doing them right. Doing them without weight but it just hurts.
Even squating with a barbell and no weights feels wrong. I cant go all the way down
Are you talking about squatting hurts? No exercise should hurt if you don’t already have an injury, so just avoid it for now.
But to be fair, if you’ve never done squats before it can feel super awkward. You’ll need to get a feel for the balance and aligning your upper body.
Pretty solid routine. I may steal it haha. I would throw in more compound exercises though (bent over barbell rows, deadlifts, barbell squats, barbell military presses, etc.).
