T Nation

Opinions About My Program?

#1

Hello everyone, I’m Str71. This is my first post and i was just wondering what my program is lacking or if something needs a little tweaking.

So i train 3 days a week. Sat/Mon/Thurs and my goals are to get strong and put on a decent amount of quality weight (naturally). I’m not fat and i guess you can call me a slight ectomorph.

So here it is:

Workout (A)

A) Warm-up with one round of DeFranco’s SS

B) Bench Press: Work up to a new rep PR and add weight and go back down to 5 reps when i can do 12 with a given weight. I try to do every rep (including the BP warm-up) as explosive as possible with good powerlifting form.

C) Machine Fly: Countdown/Multi-Hold/21s then let the weight stretch my chest for 30 seconds. Add 5 seconds every workout then go up when i get to 60

D) Bent-Over Row: Same as the BP

E) Supported Row or Stiff Pullover: Same as the machine fly above then hang from a pull up bar for 30 seconds while adding 5 seconds every workout

F) Finish with 2 rounds of DeFranco’s SS supersetted with 3 sets of heavy Farmer’s Walks

Workout (B)

A) Warm-up with one round of DeFranco’s SS
B) Deadlift: Work up to a new 3RM (Add 5 Kg every workout)

C) Incline BP (Can’t OHP due to issues): Same as BP

D) Machine Fly: Same as Workout (A) but adding 5 seconds to the stretch

E) Pulldown/Chin: Same as BP

F) Pulldown: Same as E in (A) but adding 5 seconds to the hang

G) Finish with 2 rounds of DeFranco’s SS

Notes:

  1. Can’t OHP due to limitations but the Pull-Up hang is helping
  2. Can’t squat because there’s no squat rack. There’s a hack squat though but don’t know how useful that is compared to a normal back squat.
#2

I seriously don’t know where to start.

Just no.

If you like Defranco so much, do WS4SB.

Learn variations of squats. Goblet for example.

#3

Damn. That bad? I was thinking of adding some form of squat pattern like the Zercher or Goblet but don’t know how you progress on those.

Edit: I though i was nailing everything with that. Strength/Hypertrophy/Hyperplasia while keeping some structural balance. Guess i was wrong…

#4

That is why you don’t program yourself.

Do you even know the definition of the word?

#5

I know that hypertrophy is increase in size of cells but hyperplasia is increase in number of cells.

And with the squats i meant that i don’t know if i should add weight or reps.

#6

Run:


Or

Or

Or

Work hard, eat right, be consistent and you’ll be grand on any of these.

Btw
Look up eating requirements on the tnation site. My eating sucks.

#7

If adding weight every week to the main lifts then keep doing that. Once you stall (prob sooner rather than later) move on straight away to Texas method or a Dan John program as above

Machine flyes pretty useless at this stage, if reeealy want some beach fluff I would actually swap in a small bit of direct arm work

#8

@carlbm Yeah I read all those. Multiple times actually. And eating wise, my diet is pretty good. I eat a bit over 500 kcal in surplus because i do walk alot aswell

@RampantBadger I do add 1-2 reps every workout to the compounds and 10 pounds to the DL so progression is taken care off. Idk seems like i’m moving to WS4SB or a CW program but from what i’ve read, Any sensible plan will work if i’m consistent with training, diet and recovery.

#9

yep totally fine, big fan of Waterbury. I recommend you read all the ws4sb articles including version 3 on dfrancos site if going down that path and occasionally throw in some smith machine or hammerstrength move for upper and leg press for lower ME work(avoids burnout)

exactly

#10

Why not do 3 full body workouts sticking to compound multi joint exercises? I don’t do “explosive” anything, it’s a great way to injur yourself. It’s not what I do but I think your plan on progressing with weight/reps is fine.

#11

Yeah man. I’m no expert. But honestly everything I read says the same thing. Consistentcy is king.

Good luck.

#12

hahahahaha. yes, it is bad. and it’s absolutely hilarious that you would even suggest that the problem is ‘no zercher squats’. I can guarantee you , nobody reading this is thinking that.

Pick a program that someone ELSE wrote. and do that.

You ‘nailed’ nothing. It’s genuinely terrible.

#13

Well, looks like i’m gonna move over to WS4SB, the description on the article fits me perfectly: “Skinny? Interested in packing on muscle mass and having the strength to back it up? This program is for you.”

Thanks for the help everyone.