I really want to do the 3DAW plan on that website, looks so similar to my split right now… But Found this one with a 4 day split similar to mine. Looks solid, not much mid delt work though, would have to add in some abes as well:
4 DAW 1
– training 4 days a week might be more beneficial for people with better recovery and/or less time available in a single day, but with enough days available to workout (the volume is roughly the same as in 3 DAW split routine, which means that on 4 DAW workout sessions are shorter) – if on a split routine, seeking maximum muscle mass, never train more than 4 times per week
– Option 1 offers a fairly common way of splitting things up, with shoulders being divided between chest and back day
– a note for all the followers of Scooby’s old Advanced routine – always place back as far away from legs as possible, as the overlap between the two is quite big, especially if you’re deadlifting on your back day
– if the leg day is too much, transfer calf work onto arm day , and do lunges (one leg at a time, not alternating) supersetted with leg curls
MON – Back & rear delts
A Deadlift – w 3-5×3-5 / 180
B Pullups – w 3×8-12 2111 90
C Bent-over BB rows – 4×5-8 2011 75
D1 Rear delt rows – 3×10-15 / 0
D2 Cable pullovers – 3×10-15 3021 60 -nice and slow, get a full ROM and a firm contraction in the top position
—
TUE – Chest & front/side delts
A DB bench press – w 4×5-8 / 120
B BB seated press – w 4×5-8 / 120
C1 Incline DB flys – 3×10-12 3030 45
C2 Wide-grip upright rows – 3×8-12 2020 45 -use trap bar if possible
—
THU – Legs
A Squat – w 4×8-12 / 180
B Leg press – 3×5-8 2020 120 -can be substituted with hack squats
C1 Unilateral leg curls – w 4×5-8 3011 0
C2 Unilateral standing calf raises – w 4×5-8 52X1 45
D1 Lunge – 2×10-20 / 0
D2 Seated calf raises – 2×10-20 31X1 45
—
FRI – Arms
A1 Close-grip bench press – w 4×5-8 / 60
A2 BB curls – w 4×5-8 / 60
B1 Skullcrushers – 3×8-12 2020 45
B2 DB preacher curls – 3×8-12 2020 45
I’m guessing this isn’t what you guys would recommend me since it looks very similar to the one I was doing already… 4 Days a week in the gym, could I add in more chest work? Really want my chest to explode, I read an article with a workout plan on T-nation for exploding your chest in a short amount of time. I really like antagonist training though. It helps keep my posture going good.
I have benchers chest, and mostly underdeveloped chest as well, especially considered to my front delts, this is why I’m staying away from barbell bench press until I can build up my chest with dumbbells a bit.
Oh I like this plan I posted up already, going with this and upping the carbs some. Can someone tell me what a good formula for figuring out my required daily caloric intake? Everyone I find is defined differently, I’ve had a 1000 calorie difference between calculators!
That’s not a bad program. I did the 4DAW Upper-lower standard program for a while and liked it a lot.
How much more calories you need depends on what you want to do at the moment. If you want to add mass and don’t mind some fat gain, up the carbs to 300 or 350 and monitor your weight daily. If it’s a slow bulk you’re after, start with 200 or 250 and gradually add more. If you want to try to gain muscle and burn fat at the same time, pick 200 or 250 and either add or drop some carbs depending on if your weight goes up or down as in this option, it should stay intact.
1lb is the line I draw between fast and acceptable. 1lb or less is acceptable, more than that would be what we call “a pig bulk” in Finland but that’s just my personal view on the matter. Personally I would try to maintain weight and aim to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
Alright , I’ll aim towards 300g of carbs and change based on weight gained. Any other exercises ibcould add to chest day , really want to see some growth there…
A DB bench press – w 4×5-8 / 120
B BB seated press – w 4×5-8 / 120
C1 Incline DB flys – 3×10-12 3030 45
C2 Wide-grip upright rows – 3×8-12 2020 45 -use trap bar if possible
As this is the template, you could do something like this instead:
A DB bench press - w 4x5-8 / 120
B BB seated press - w 4x5-8 / 120
C1 Incline DB bench - 3x10-12 3030 45
C2 Wide-grip upright rows - 3x8-12 2020 45
D1 Cable fly - 3x10-12 45
D2 DB side raise - 3x10-12 45
You don’t really need much more work if you perform the given exercises with proper intensity. If you really want to make your chest grow, I would recommend you pick something like an upper-lower power-hypertrophy split. That allows you to work your chest twice a week which is a lot better for growth than doing something just once a week.
The upper-lower power-hypertrophy split detailed in the article is a great one and you could also look into Layne Norton’s PHAT routine. I did it as well at one point and loved it.
Well if you think the one i have now will do me good, I’ll do it. Define intensity, to me it means exploding up, squeezing at contraction , and no obnoxiously long rests
The program is good enough as it is but I see no harm in adding an exercise or two. Training each muscle group twice a week is just a personal preference because at least I have seen much faster growth that way.
Let’s take bench press for example in intensity. The program states that you have 4 sets of 5 to 8 reps with 120 seconds of rest in between sets. When I speak of intensity for bodybuilding purposes, I mean working with weights that allow you to reach a positive failure (no reps left in the tank but no reps left uncompleted) on a couple of your sets. Let’s say you can do 3x8 but only 1x6 and 1x5 on the last two sets. When you get full 5x8x100,0kg for example, you go up in weight by a small increment like 102,5kg and try to complete full 5x8 with it. That way you progress in strength as well as size while training.
Personally I don’t advocate going to absolute failure (not being able to complete a rep) in big compounds. Isolation exercises like cable flyes, side raises, cable pullovers, leg curls, calf raises, curls, pushdowns etc. you can go to absolute failure however. But even then, aim to reach failure within the given rep range.
Actually the arms day on Friday does have room for a couple of chest exercises. You could do something like only doing compounds like DB bench and DB incline bench on Tuesday and do isolation work with your arms day.
These workouts are coming in around 40 min. It seems too short, I’m sweating and getting a good pump but seems like theybshouls be longer. 40 min. Without cardio bte
With such gaps in your knowledge and with uncertainty about whether you’re doing the right thing… Why would you write your own program when there are so many good and proven ones available for free/little cost? Others have made the mistakes for you, why repeat them?
Your right. I am a noob, I’m being honest. I’ve made gains but nothing good. This program is kicking my ass as far as intensity goes . I’ll report back in a few weeks with updated gains and see what y’all think.
If you want to take longer, stop being a pansy (heh) and increase the weight you’re using on each set so you’re forced to rest ~3 minutes. Think that long rest might effect your results (at least in terms of hypertrophy)? September 2014 Rest periods edition
When I said a few weeks I really meant just for nutritional purposes. For example if I gain 3 lbs in a week, something is obviously wrong with my macro intake, and it woukd need to be adjusted. Sobid asknfor recommendations.
Read that article, seems a longer rest period is beneficial for multijoint exercises. Gotcha man