Quick backstory:
I started with Stronglifts about 2 years ago, after knowing nothing about training. My goal was to become a bit stronger and get a bit leaner. I’m not overtly interested in hypertrophy since I don’t compete and am not really interested in supplements and counting the rice grains and weighing my chicken breasts and whatnot.
I eventually found Starting Strength after finding Stronglifts just too time-consuming (1.5 hours in the gym). But I didn’t like Starting Strength too much because it seems to be focused on sports players and squats.
But I like the 3-set simplicity. And I don’t like spending more than an hour in the gym, since gyming is part of my lifestyle and not a primary focus in life.
I eventually decided, after some reading, that “overtraining” is mostly rubbish unless you’re a hardcore competitor lifting mammoth weights. Besides, soldiers train all the time, constantly, and don’t even eat THAT well. And a lot of them have great physiques and strength. We’ve become too technical and post-modern.
I ended up with the following template:
Workout 1 - Bench press, Pendlay rows, Squat (all 3 sets of 5, excluding warmups)
Workout 2 - Shoulder press, weighted chin-ups, weighted dips, deadlift (as above, except deadlift, which is 1 set of 5 excluding warmups)
Repeat and rotate every day of the week except Saturday and Sunday. Each week, I increase my weights by 2.5kg across the board, unless I’ve failed (and chin-ups go up by 1.25kg). Reason I increase weekly is because I’m not in a rush, and I use the repeat-days to practise my form.
And I’m out of the gym in an hour.
I’ve been doing this for about a month and feel better than when I went 3 times per week. It seems to burn more calories and I “think” I’m making better gains. I need a bit more time.
After this long post, I’m just wanting some feedback on my routine. Thoughts / crits are very welcome. For example, if you think I should replace chins with pullups. Or if you think I need fewer compound movements. And so on.
I don’t know anyone who does this routine, but it seems to incorporate the major compound movements and I do my full body every day.
You guys are the pros. Fire away.