Upper/Lower Routine Critique

Hi all,

My previous thread was a bit of a mess, so I wanted to post up what I’ve come up with reading quite a lot of the articles here. It incorporates various elements from different workout regiments, such as:

  • An upper/lower split, composed of two workouts each making it 4x a week
  • Varied set/rep schemes
  • The principle of having each set +/- 25 reps per set
  • Composed primarily of the core, compound movements, with the addition of some ancilary (SJ) exercises.

The plan is split into an upper body heavy day, upper volume day, and ditto for lower body. It is as follows:

Workout A1 (Monday): Upper Heavy - All sets 5x5
BB row
BB bench
Military Press
Preacher curls
Skull crusher

Workout B1 (Tuesday): Lower Volume - All sets 3x8
Hack Squat
Hamstring curls
Lunges
Deadlift\Rackpull
Seated calf raises
Hanging leg raises

Workout A2 (Thursday): Upper Volume - All sets 3x8
Incline DB bench
Chins
Hammer Bench Press
Low Row
Laterals
DB curls
Tricep pushdowns

Workout B2 (Friday): Lower Heavy - All sets 5x5
Squat
Donkey calf raises
Romanian Deadlift
Leg press
Medicine ball crunch

Any suggestions are welcome!

Cheers,
X

Instead of hammer bench consider some form of incline work because you have no incline chest work.

other than that looks good

Thanks for the input, and that reminds me of a little ammendement I forgot to make…the DB bench on day A2 should read “incline DB bench” :wink:

Also just to add, would it be ok to use two of the off days (e.g., Wednesday, Saturday) for things such as GPP/light cardio/prehab?

[quote]xenithon wrote:
Thanks for the input, and that reminds me of a little ammendement I forgot to make…the DB bench on day A2 should read “incline DB bench” :wink:

Also just to add, would it be ok to use two of the off days (e.g., Wednesday, Saturday) for things such as GPP/light cardio/prehab?[/quote]

yes

Sounds like your trying to put on mass and get stronger as well, and your program looks pretty good…

You could probably use some sort of pulling motion of your volume day like good mornings. Personally I like to do them heavy, even off the rack but they are very helpful in keeping your erectors and posterior chain strong for the DLs.

Upper body looks good, just make sure to include hip extension exercises to supplement the deadlifts…maybe the glute/ham raise machine if you got one. The hip extensions will really help keep your butt, hips and hammy’s strong and flexible, because I’m sure you know heavy DL’s off the rack really tear into those muscles and its easy for them to lose mobility as they grow.