Hi, I’ve been lifting for about a year now and I’ve studied and learned a whole lot of stuff in that time. I recently decided to have a go at designing my own program, what do you guys think?
Day 1: Squat 4x4
Deadlift 4x4
Front squat 3x6
Hip thrusters 3x6
Day 2: Bench 4x4
Bb row 4x4
Close grip bench 3x6
Weighted Pullups 3x6
Day 3: Power clean 4x4
Front squat 4x4
Pause deadlift 3x6
Pause squat 3x6
Day 4: OH press 4x4
Pendlay row 4x4
Spoto Press 3x6
Weighted pullups 3x6
it would helps if you also list your goals, and what your current lifting stats are
[quote]TrainToWin wrote:
it would helps if you also list your goals, and what your current lifting stats are[/quote]
This
It seems like an unfinished, generic program to me. One without a clear end goal in mind.
My goal is to increase my strength in all my lifts and to improve my form (hence pause deadlifts and squats). Since I’m relatively a beginner to strength training, I’m hoping to add about 5kg to all the lifts each week
[quote]Dyfanj10 wrote:
My goal is to increase my strength in all my lifts and to improve my form (hence pause deadlifts and squats). Since I’m relatively a beginner to strength training, I’m hoping to add about 5kg to all the lifts each week[/quote]
Doing pause deadlifts and squats aren’t going to ensure you have good technique. One of the most important things you have to remember as a beginner is not to mindlessly copy another person’s technique or movement selection (that’s what I did). Doing paused movements help build core strength but how can you ensure you’re building your core if you don’t have technique down? You have to learn why people are doing things a certain way because you may have to do something slightly different to achieve the same desired affect. Everyone has slightly different form.
Learn to use your posterior chain (traps, lats, erectors, glutes and hams) and anterior chain (chest, abs and quads) correctly. If you’re still learning technique I would recommend a lot of isolation type movements to target each muscle group separately so that you build the mind-muscle connection and learn exactly how it feels to fire each of these muscle groups. The main isolation movements I would recommend are dumbbell rows for lats, glute bridges for glutes, dumbbell flies for chest and planks for abs. Focus on a body building approach so that you worry only about how tight the muscles get and not the weight being used. I didn’t include isolation movements for the traps, erectors, hams and quads because everyone knows how to use them. I would do this for about a month.
Once you know exactly how it feels to get maximum contraction in each of these muscle groups, learn to do front squats and stiff-legged deadlifts. When you do these lifts, use a light weight so that you can fire all of the above stabilizer muscles hard regardless of how light the weight is; the hams and quads are dynamic muscles so you won’t get maximum contraction in them since the weight is light. Place emphasis on your chest, lats, core, packing your neck, and glute contraction at the top of the lift. Again, your hams and quads are not the point of emphasis. I would do this for about a month, again using a body building approach. Once you consistently achieve maximum torso tightness you can move on to the squat and deadlift. Achieving full body tightness is also needed for the bench.
Investing two months to learn this from the get go will save you years of relearning if you don’t have a good coach.
If you’ve never done a program before, the simplest one to do is Starting Strength. After that you can do something like 5x5 or 5/3/1 but do everything exactly as prescribed and have the patience to follow it through the first few months without changing anything. The movement selection you came up with targets all different types of weaknesses. Since you’re just starting off everything will be weak so stick to the basics. Once you get to a point where you notice only one or two weaknesses, it would make sense to target them.
madcow
[quote]Dyfanj10 wrote:
I’ve been lifting for about a year now and I’ve studied and learned a whole lot of stuff in that time.[/quote]
Based on the plan you came up with, I have to say I don’t think you learned as much as you think you did. There’s very little about that plan that makes sense. You’d be much better served sticking to a pre-designed program for several months.
I can almost guarantee that, at your current stage of development, you don’t need special exercises like pause deads or Spoto presses in order to improve your form.
what traintowin posted is simple but it actually sums up the bulk of what your program should be, eg. listing your goals. i’ve been consistently lifting for what i’d probably say almost 3 years now (but the first year or year and a half, just messing around and trying new stuff), but i’ve seen the best results in the last year or so. its because i actually pinned down what kind of body i wanted to attain.
it also helps to be specific in the fields you’d like to pursue with relation to your training regimen. for example, you’re an aspiring basketball player of average height, and the sort of game/physique you’d want to attain is derrick rose-esque. it’s best to first identify what makes d-rose, well… d-rose lol. (quick, powerful, fast, etc etc) once you’ve identified his physical qualities, train in a manner as to emulate those results. you wanna have his vertical? build a crazy strength base then once that’s done, focus on explosiveness. and so on and so forth. that’s just my two cents on goal listing 