Critique My Routine

Hi, new here. Would appreciate feedback.

Sunday

Squats 3 x 6
SLDL 3 x 8
Pull Throughs 3 x 10
Ab Pulldowns 3 x 8

Wednesday

Deadlifts 3 x 8
Pull Ups 4 x 5
Dumbell Curls 3 x 8

Friday

Standing Dumbell Press 3 x 8
Bench Dumbell Press 3 x 8
Tricep Pushdown 3 x 8
Rear Delt Flyes 3 x 15
Cubans 3 x 15
Lying L Raise 2 x 10
Incline Shrugs 3 x 10

  • Avoiding failure. Two warm up sets on all main exercises.

  • Foam roller work, stretching and a bit more rotator cuff work during the week (just started training the last 8 weeks following a long time off due to shoulder injury).

I don’t know your goals. But I have always found that you can gain more hypertrophy in your legs by using higher reps.

I also like the Pyramid system, for example: 10-8-6-4 reps.

The Pyramid system was big in the 70’s and is due to return to favor any day now, as everything is cyclical.

Best Of Luck,

Zeb

Looks pretty good as far as excercise selection goes. Why not check out “The Set/Rep Bible” by CW and use a lot of variation as far as that goes. Also I think you could use more volume on the first two days, especially the second. Utilize push/pull exercise pairings more, with supersets.

Check out “Designing your own HFT program” by Waterbury as well…he’s got a relative exertion index of various exercises, and he tells you how to pair them for maximum effectiveness.

Here’s what I recommend. Increase your days training to either 4 or 5, and tweak the set/rep scheme a lot. Don’t go to failure, but go hit upper body at least twice, using push/pull days, with whatever works best for you and your goals. For example…

Horizontal Push/pull, dips/pullups
Vertical Push/pull, bench press/row
Mixed plane day (make sure to use different rep schemes on all 3 days), overhead press, incline press, standing upright rows

Lower body, deadlift+abs+calves
Lower body, squat+abs+calves

Obviously this will vary based on what works for you, if you are really focused on upper body that might be good, otherwise you could have two deadlift days, or two squat days instead of the mixed plane day.

I think the Waterbury articles will give you enough to design a program that really works for you. Also he has one called “Top 10 tips”…and you can always consider incorporating Perfect 10, or Ultimate Triceps Program, or 8 Weeks to Monster Shoulders, or one of his other specialty programs, into yours.

Bottom line, if you can design something really customized that works best for you, do it, otherwise (if it’s nothing special) go with one of the excellent pre-made programs already here.

Pretty good dude. More variation in rep schemes would be a plus unless you are only interested in strength, but at least you have a sane nr of sets, as opposed to most who post these threads.

Let me get this straight - your entire weekly volume for quads is 18 reps, and you expect to gain from this?

If I was using that little volume on anything per session, I would be doing it 3x a week. If you are going to train a body part once a week, you will need more volume than that. This goes for all your lifts.

Of course, I could be completely wrong.

You are coming off of a shoulder injury and the only external rotation you have for your shoulder is this?

Rear Delt Flyes 3 x 15
Cubans 3 x 15
Lying L Raise 2 x 10

If I were you I would put in some heavy rows. Of course in the end its your body, your routine and your decision.

Since when were heavy rows external rotations?

Thanks for the input guys.

In regards to the rotations, I did mention that I do various other things through-out the week (but not as part of my training routine). This includes more cubans and various band exercises.

Increasing training to 4 days sounds good.

In regards to my goals (should have stated these; sorry) - firstly to get a bit of muscle back, then I’m more concerned about strength and just making sure I keep my shoulder healthy.

[quote]Sxio wrote:
Since when were heavy rows external rotations? [/quote]

Horizontal pulling doesn’t externally rotate the shoulder? Maybe I’m missing something. Please elaborate.

This is from Mike Robertson’s functional anatomy article.

So wouldn’t your upper arm externally rotate when you perform a horizontal pulling motion?

I would’ve thought that would be (and sorry cos my anatomy is a bit crappy) a pulling movement, the upper arm is going backwards.

I can’t see any rotation, rotation would mean the upper arm twists, external means it twists out, which it doesn’t with a row.

The lats are internal rotators.

However, heavy rows are good for shoulder health due to balancing out the musculature of the shoulder girdle. They help keep the shoulders back, but they do not externally rotate the humerus.

Thanks for clearing that up then Massif.