Hey coach, I love your style of unconventional training systems.
I myself was looking to take on a more Full Body type of workout, so that I can focus on the compound lifts, while hitting the muscle group enough times to grow while still more importantly, getting enough time to recover.
Do you suggest these workouts be split as a push/pull or is it ok to mix both together?
As of right now, I came up with something along the lines of
Workout #1
1)Bench press 6x2
2)front squat 6x3
3)overhead press 6x3
4)barbell curls 6x2
Workout #2
- Deadlift 7x2
- High Pull 7x3
- Weighted Pull Up 7x3
4)Barbell Row 7x3
5)Skull Crusher 7x2
Planning on performing workout with at least one day of rest in between
workout out #3 would emulate workout #1 and workout #4 would emulate workout #2, only with rep ranges and sets changing a bit.
Do you think this is a good split? I decided to change the reps on days 3 and 4 In order to be able to work the strength lifts at a high level, unless you believe with EOD split I can keep the reps the same and focus on strength.
Thank you very much for any insight and guidance and as always I look to reading your future posts.
[quote]king0fque3ns wrote:
Hey coach, I love your style of unconventional training systems.
I myself was looking to take on a more Full Body type of workout, so that I can focus on the compound lifts, while hitting the muscle group enough times to grow while still more importantly, getting enough time to recover.
Do you suggest these workouts be split as a push/pull or is it ok to mix both together?
As of right now, I came up with something along the lines of
Workout #1
1)Bench press 6x2
2)front squat 6x3
3)overhead press 6x3
4)barbell curls 6x2
Workout #2
- Deadlift 7x2
- High Pull 7x3
- Weighted Pull Up 7x3
4)Barbell Row 7x3
5)Skull Crusher 7x2
Planning on performing workout with at least one day of rest in between
workout out #3 would emulate workout #1 and workout #4 would emulate workout #2, only with rep ranges and sets changing a bit.
Do you think this is a good split? I decided to change the reps on days 3 and 4 In order to be able to work the strength lifts at a high level, unless you believe with EOD split I can keep the reps the same and focus on strength.
Thank you very much for any insight and guidance and as always I look to reading your future posts.
[/quote]
to be honest i think you will burn out… workout 2 has 35 sets?? -all those doubles will tire you out after the second movement
i think 6x2 on bicep curl’s is a bad idea, you’d be better off doing 2x6?
i presume your goals are strength based, so to be honest you really wouldn’t need heavy doubles on arms at all.
Thanks for the help. After doing a little more research, I decided to do a 2 day split consisting of:
A
Front Squat
Bench Press
Barbell Row
High Pull
B
Deadlift
Push Press
Pull Up
Weighted Dips
All workouts will be done 5x5, Reg Park style with first two sets being progressive warm ups, followed by three working sets not to failure.
How does that look?
Yeah, 2s or 3s on curls and triceps isolation isn’t very productive, even if strength is your main goal. The range of motion is too short to put the muscles under enough tension to stimulate growth or maximal strength gains with only 2 reps.
I don’t like triples for barbell row either. I feel that upper back work is best done for slightly higher reps and focusing on muscle contraction, not on moving as much weight as possible from point A to point B. With clients I do not use reps under 5 for rows, biceps and triceps work.
There might be too much total work at each session (especially session 2) especially if all your 6-7 sets per movement are done with a the same weight (or close to).
For example there is a big difference in ramping toward one or two very heavy set of 2 in seven sets… for example:
120 x 2
140 x 2
160 x 2
180 x 2
200 x 2
225 x 2
235 x 2
Doing 7 heavyish sets… for example:
205 x 2
205 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2
215 x 2
225 x 2
225 x 2
And doing 7 heavy sets with the same weight… for example:
220 x 2
220 x 2
220 x 2
220 x 2
220 x 2
220 x 2
220 x 2
In the later case you will have a hard time doing more than 2 compound movements in a session. Well, you can DO them but performance will suffer but more importantly you will burn out quickly.
In the second option you might be able to handle the load for 3 or 4 exercises if you have excellent recovery capacities and have ample time to rest during your time away from the gym.
So I can’t comment on the loading scheme used because I have no idea how many of these sets are heavy. You also do not give any indication of how you progress from week to week, so I can’t comment on that either. And these are two of the most important elements.
As for the exercise selection. It’s not bad. I would put high pulls prior to deadlifts. The high pulls have less of a negative impact on deadlifts than the deadlifts have on high pulls. If anything the high pull will activate you for the deadlift.
I do feel that by the time you reach the pull-ups your grip and pulling muscles will be tired, resulting in a bad performance.
A: front squat
Bench press
OH press
Weighted dips
B: Deadlift
Weighted dips
Rows
High pulls
Better
Thank you so much coach.
As far as my recovery capacities, I would say with a day off between gym sessions I recover fairly well. I am a full time student and work part time as a server, so my life right now does not hinder my workout too much.
I did notice that my excerice selection and rep ranges were a little much, so I did modify it above to make it more simple and looked to use some of Reg Parks principles.
The number of sets are dropping down to 5, the first 2 being warmup/ confidence sets, and then finishing off with 3 working sets of a number probably 90% of 1RM (He states not to work to failure). I can definitely change the rep range on the Bent over rows in order to get more out of the workout.
I believe this modified 2 day split has everything I need at a decent volume, especially if done correctly. My goals are performance based (although I love the body composition that comes with an athletic build), desiring gains in strength and endurance for overall performance.
You should not be able to get 5 reps of 90% of your 1RM (if it is your true 1 rm and not a training max). If you are doing 3 “working sets” of 5 reps I would say you will be able to do more like 80% of you 1 RM. Most people can only get 3 reps at 90% their 1 rm.
[quote]irfhdah wrote:
You should not be able to get 5 reps of 90% of your 1RM (if it is your true 1 rm and not a training max). If you are doing 3 “working sets” of 5 reps I would say you will be able to do more like 80% of you 1 RM. Most people can only get 3 reps at 90% their 1 rm.[/quote]
I don’t think he mentioned doing sets of 5… but doing 5 sets. In his original post he used sets of 2 or 3, 90% is fine for that range.
Normally when you do sets of 5 you should use 80% (give or take 2-3% depending on your experience and fiber make-up).