Critique 3 Week Strength/Size Routine

Friends, please critique my grueling strength/size routine I have put together.

12-15 heavy sets per day in the 1-5 rep range.

After finishing the tougher sets, I will perform few sets of any exercise for that muscle at light weight or use machines for 15-20 reps (using drop sets if needed) to induce some sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

Day 1: Delts : DB Presses, Standing Military, Behind Neck Press, Lat Raises, Rear Delts

Day 2: Glutes / Hammys / LowBack : Good Mornings, SLDL, Hip Pull Thru, Back Raises

Day 3: OFF

Day 4: UpperBack / Biceps : BB Rows, Lat Pulls, Seat Rows, 21s, Chin-ups, Spider Curls

Day 5: Chest / Triceps : Bench, C-G Bench, Inc Bench, Inc DB, Flat DB, Dips, Flys

Day 6: Quads : Dead lift, Back Squat, Box Squat, Front Squat, BB Walking Lunge, Leg Ext

Day 7: OFF

Will also rotate one or more of the following daily depending on how I feel:
Bear Complexes, OH squats, RC exercises, Calf raises, Forearms, Abs, 20-30 min bike at 60-70%

Diet will average 2500 cals at 40/40/20

I will do the above routine for no more than 3 weeks since it will be very taxing. After that I will post pics/results and start on a 5x5 program.

looks like you have excessive volume. To build strength you need to turn down the volume and increase the weight. How on earth do you plan on walking for the next week by dead-lifting, back and front squatting, lunging, and on top of that leg extensions? Your quad workout (and basically all your other workouts) is the definition of over training and will produce no strength gains and most definitely destroy muscle at 2500 calories, and will leave your nervous system pretty wrecked. You could use this split, but it needs much more thought. If your main goal is strength, you should focus on the big compound moves and resist doing endless amounts of sets and exercises because they are not only repetitive, but will not produce the strength or size gains you are hoping for.

Oh and you better start eating more than 2500 cals if you ever hope to get bigger.

For strength gains, it would be better doing 12-15 heavy sets ONLY for your FIRST exercise on a given day, and a couple of set for the others, just for the pump (like 2-3x12-15). Here’s my suggestion (I indicated other rep ranges, to suit the exercise):

Day 1: Delts : Standing Military OR Behind Neck Press; assistance: DB Presses, Lat Raises (or Rear Delts)

Day 2: Glutes / Hammys / LowBack : Good Mornings; assistance: SLDL (or Hip Pull Thru), Back Raises

Day 3: OFF

Day 4: UpperBack / Biceps : BB Rows OR Chin-ups; assistance: Lat Pulls or Seat Rows (the one you didn’t do first), 21s [???] Spider Curls

Day 5: Chest / Triceps : Bench; assistance C-G Bench (4x6, 5x5 or 6x4), Inc Bench (or Inc DB or Flat DB or Dips), Flys (if you really want to…)

Day 6: Quads : Dead lift OR Back Squat; assistance: Box Squat (4x6, 5x5 or 6x4), Front Squat (or BB Walking Lunge), Leg Ext (if you really want to…)

Day 7: OFF

Unless you weight 125lbs, 2500 kcals are barely maintenance…at least, macros are balanced!

Two sidenotes:

1)in 3 weeks you’re not likely to see impressive gains; I’d stay on a strength program longer;

  1. Take an easy week before starting a 5x5 template;

EDIT: you may want to check out this article http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/a_singular_workout&cr=

For your glute/ham/low back day I would definitely recommend reverse hypers and/or glute/ham raise.

If your maxes are pretty low, this would probably work decent enough if you doubled your calories. And you would learn something about your body. By no means is this ideal or anything, but if you’re a solid beginner the learning experience could be quite worth it. I don’t doubt at all if you ate the 5000 calories a day you would gain quite a bit of LBM, and add some weight to your total.