What Changes Should I Make to My Workout Routine?

MONDAYS

Deadlifts (Reverse Pyramid Training)

Sets 2:

Chin-ups (Reverse Pyramid Training)

Sets: 3

Over Head Press

Sets: 4
Reps: 3-10

Squats

Sets: 3
Reps: 5

Sets: 1
AMRAP

Seated Calf Raises

Complete 100 reps

Wednesday

Bench (Reverse Pyramid Training)

Sets: 3

Glute Ham Raises

Sets: 3
Reps: 6-10

Squats

Sets: 3
Reps: 5

Sets: 1
AMRAP

Seated Calf Raises

Complete 100 reps

Inverted Body Weight Rows

Sets: 3
AMRAP

Friday

Squats (Reverse Pyramid Training)

Sets: 3

Chin-Ups (Reverse Pyramid Training)

Sets: 3

Leg Press

Sets: 4
Reps: 6-10

Inclined DB Press

Sets: 3
Reps: 6-10

Seated Calf Raises

Complete 100 reps

If it is of any help, friday is my main Squat day, so on fridays I use RPT starting at 175 (my current max) for 5 reps for the first set, 150 for 8 reps on the second set and on the third set I do 125 for 12 reps.

On the other days I use 135 for 3 x 5, and then on the last set, I do as many reps as possible, and if I reach 8 reps or more on that last one, I up the weight for next time by 5 lbs, if I get to only between 5 and 7 reps I stay on the same weight for next time, and if I do less than 5 I lower the weight by 5 lbs. I do that to gain strength to be able to increase the weight on my heavy days for squats.

On deadlifts my current max is 205 lbs on the top set, and on bench my current max is 165 lbs on the top set…

Have never tested my 1 RM and I’ve been going to the gym for 9 months now, and I weight 153 lbs…when I started in december I was 145 lbs

What are you working towards? Putting on size, taking off some size, numbers on certain lifts, etc.?

I’d like to gain some size, I’m currently not taking any suplements but I’d like to get a little bigger naturally while staying lean, I guess that gaining 8 pounds in 9 months ain’t that bad, plus my lifts have been going up gradually, I started most of my lifts with an empty bar and now we here :smiley:

I do so many calves because I have skinny legs, doing them this way has helped me gain almost 1 inch on them in a couple of months. I also want to get some strength, and that’s why the Big 3 are in there. I try to keep one pulling, one pushing and one leg exercise everyday to train my whole body

Looks like you’re on track based on your results. Were I to change any thing, I notice that the below appear in two of your days; I’d switch that up a bit with different rep schemes or intensities or something:

And

However, if you’d like a similar, but proven program, take a look at this:

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x2 -go with A Dan John program like above

Well, first of all, thanks a lot for taking a bit out of your time to answer my question, but I had a kind of different answer in mind. Instead of completely changing my current workout, I expected suggestions about how to tweak it a bit, and I’m sorry I didn’t make that clear enough, here’s what I had in mind:

Mondays:

Deadlifts (Reverse Pyramid Training)
Set 1: 5 reps with current 5RM
Set 2: 6 reps with current 6RM

Chin-Ups (Reverse Pyramid Training)
Set 1: 5 reps with 5RM
Set 2: 8 reps with 8RM
Set 3: 12 reps with 12RM

Inclined DB Press (replacing Overhead Press for less stress on the back)
Sets 3:
Reps: 3-10 (increase weight if 10 reps on each set)

or

Dips (instead of Inclined DB Press)

Sets: 3
Reps: 6-12 (increase weight when 12 reps on each set)

Squats

Sets: 3
Reps: 5 reps with 5RM

1 Set AMRAP with 5RM (increase weight if 8+ reps, same weight if 6 to 7, lower if less than 6)

Seated Calf Raises

Up weight if I complete 100 reps with current weight

Wednesday

Face Pulls (3 sets of 10 reps as warm-up, increase weight if 3 sets of 10 with current weight)

Bench (Reverse Pyramid Training)

Set 1: 5 reps with 5RM
Set 2: 8 reps with 8RM
Set 3: 12 reps with 12RM

SLD (to replace GHR)

Don’t know set or rep pattern

Squats

Sets: 3
Reps: 5 reps with 5RM

1 Set AMRAP with 5RM (increase weight if 8+ reps, same weight if 6 to 7, lower if less than 6)

Inverted Body Weight Rows (to add a pulling movement if I keep doing GHR instead of SLD)

Sets: 3 AMRAP

Seated Calf Raises

Up weight if I complete 100 reps with current weight

Friday

Squats (Reverse Pyramid Training)

Set 1: 5 reps with 5RM
Set 2: 8 reps with 8RM
Set 3: 10 reps with 10RM

Chin-Ups (Reverse Pyramid Training)

Set 1: 5 reps with 5RM
Set 2: 8 reps with 8RM
Set 3: 12 reps with 12RM

Leg Press

Sets: 4 (increase weight if 10 reps in each set with current weight)
Reps: 10

OHP (replacing Inclined DB Press)

Sets: 4 (increase weight if 10 reps in each set with current weight)
Reps: 3-10

Seated Calf Raises

Up weight if I complete 100 reps with current weight

Notes:

-I do CHIN-UPS twice a week because I don’t do any other direct bicep work.

-I do calves 3 times a week because I have puny calves, my arms have always been 1 to 2 inches bigger than my calves, by training them this way, my calves have caught up to my biceps, believe it or not.

-I do squats with 3 sets at 70% max, and 1 set AMRAP, in preparation for Friday which is my big squat day, I started doing it this way because when I dropped to heavy squats just once a week, I felt that increasing the weight was becoming harder and harder, but when I used to do squats 3 times a week it didn’t feel so difficult, when I squat on mondays and wednesdays I use less weight than I do on fridays and I feel that it helps me do better on fridays.

Anyways, I’m open to suggestions, you can tell me to drop squats and do front squats on mondays, for example, or to do Sumo Deadlifts instead of Stiff Legged Deadlifts on wednesdays and so on. The thing is, I feel like I should change some things on my routine because I noticed (like it has been mentioned), that I was repeating too much stuff or that I was doing Overhead Press on the same day that I was doing heavy Deadlifts and Chin-Ups (heavy for me anyways), and I feel that that’s overworking my back a little too much.

I saw the workout that @TX_iron suggested but I feel like it has too many movements involved, but I’ll keep my mind open. I just don’t want to drop my current workout suddendly and start a new one, since jumping from workout to workout is counter-productive.

Just do 100 push ups, squats, and 30 pull ups every day with good form and you’ll get better results than the confusing shit you posted.

I’m seeing a lot of AMRAP and 5 reps with 5RM and 12reps with 12RM etc

In my experience, having all your sets go to failure is a sure fire way to stall or injure yourself. One or 2 sets to failure a session is ok (although a lot of programs avoid this even) but try not to take everything, everyday to muscular failure.

2 Likes

The exact reason why I’m asking what to do or how to tweak my routine is precisely because I have no idea what to do; your reply didn’t help at all and I don’t even know why you took your time to answer if you weren’t going to answer something useful.

In the program that was suggested I see a lot of exercises too and that one is ok, so, why mine isn’t…that’s what I want to know…I asked in the first place because I felt like I was doing something wrong and didn’t know how to fix it.

This is why you need to get a program written by someone who knows what they are doing and follow it. After enough time under the bar, you’ll have all your questions answered.

3 Likes

You’ll get significantly better results with a program off this site. Dan John programs in particular have been proven on this site hundreds of times over
Honestly, what you posted is a bit all over the place and needs more than a few tweaks

3 Likes

Well…seeing as the workout I was doing got completely obliterated, I changed things by a lot, and instead reduced the workout to an A/B split like this:

Workout A
-Squat (5x5)

-Bench (5x5)

-Rows (3x8)

-Seated Calf Raises (100 reps)

-Facepulls (3x15)

Workout B

-Deadlifts (5x5)

-Weighted Chin-Ups (3x8)

-Over Head Pres (5x5)

-Tricep Extensions (3x12)

-Hammer Curls (3x12)

And I’ll be alternating between the 2 from session to session, keeping it as Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

So I’ll do Workout A on monday, the B on Wednesday and A again on Friday, so on a so forth…

With the routine I posted first, I tested my 1RM on deadlifts, which, by doing 205lbs for 5 reps, was supposedly around 230lbs (according to ExRx calculator), so I tried with 225lbs and I managed to do 5 reps; which means that either a) I’m doing something incredibly wrong; or b) I should be lifting a bit more (remember that I’m currently at 154 lbs, and was 153 lbs when I posted this question 20 days ago). So I’m going with the first choice that I’m doing something wrong here.

With this new split I intent to test my 1RM every 6 weeks and today is going to be week 1, so let me know what you guys think. Is it better now?

yeah that’s fine, will work.

Stilll… the Dan John above or a better laid out 5x5 below will get you faster results…

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