Would This Be More Efficient?

  • I don’t have access to the gym and wont be able to get membership for i dont know how long. I workout in my garage with a curl bar and weights, so please dont be too harsh if the routine isn’t all that great

I’;ve been lifting for about 2 and half months now. For the first 2 months i bulked and was doing a full body workout, i gained around 8lbs and don’t know how much muscle/fat i’ve gained, but have made strength gains, and could see muscle improvement.

For the past 2 weeks I’ve been doing a 3 day body part split 3 days on 1 day off, but i’ve been hearing its not good.

So I created a upper/lower routine with the same exercises and here it is:

Upper:
Weighted Push ups
Military Press
Bent over row
Upright row
Chins or pullups
Chair dips
Bicep curl
Skull crushers

Lower:
Squats
Deadlift
Hack squats
Good Mornings
Lunges
Weight crunches
weight sit ups

Would this be more efficient doing this
Monday: Rest
Tues: Upper
Wed: Lower
Thur:rest
Fr: upper
Sat:lower

Please keep in mind that this may not be the best routine I could be doing, but i am limited when it comes to equipment and money.

is there anything I should, add, remove or re arrange/
thank you.

Bump. Please, anyone. I just need some advice on whether this routine is adequate.

[quote]Phate89 wrote:

  • I don’t have access to the gym and wont be able to get membership for i dont know how long. I workout in my garage with a curl bar and weights, so please dont be too harsh if the routine isn’t all that great

I’;ve been lifting for about 2 and half months now. For the first 2 months i bulked and was doing a full body workout, i gained around 8lbs and don’t know how much muscle/fat i’ve gained, but have made strength gains, and could see muscle improvement.

For the past 2 weeks I’ve been doing a 3 day body part split 3 days on 1 day off, but i’ve been hearing its not good.

So I created a upper/lower routine with the same exercises and here it is:

Upper:
Weighted Push ups
Military Press
Bent over row
Upright row
Chins or pullups
Chair dips
Bicep curl
Skull crushers

Lower:
Squats
Deadlift
Hack squats
Good Mornings
Lunges
Weight crunches
weight sit ups

Would this be more efficient doing this
Monday: Rest
Tues: Upper
Wed: Lower
Thur:rest
Fr: upper
Sat:lower

Please keep in mind that this may not be the best routine I could be doing, but i am limited when it comes to equipment and money.

is there anything I should, add, remove or re arrange/
thank you.[/quote]

Too many lifts per day imo.

I would do:
Lower
Squats(clean grip front squats if you have too)
Deadlift
SLDL
Calf raises if you can figure a way out
weighted situps

Upper:
Bench press/weighted pushups (build yourself a bench, I STRONGLY recomment having one)
Shoulder press
Bent over row
dips
chins

You might even want to cut more out. Like do bent over rows on your first upper body day then chins on the next.

If that’s all you got, then good, do it.

As long as you are lifting heavy, and getting heavier you should be ok. It is of course no optimal, but you know that. check craigslist for equipment people are getting rid of, you can usually find a bargain.

the only other thing you could do is try to split up your workouts differently.

M:Rest T:Upper W:Lower Th: Rest F: Upper S: Rest Su: Lower

or switch upper and lower days to different days. just keep workin’ hard.

Hi Phate, I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

Your routine actually looks decent for a routine designed by a beginner. I personally like Upper/lower or Push/Pull splits a lot for building mass.

Here are a couple of modifications that I would make to your routine.

  1. I know this is a hard thing to get away from, seeing as how it has become nearly dogmatic. But, you don’t need to do multiple exercises for umpteen sets per a muscle group in a session to stimulate growth.

I’d suggest picking one good solid exercise for each major muscle group and just working on seriously getting as strong as possible (for a medium number of reps) on it.

So, for instance:

Chest: Weighted push-ups (although these can be a good exercise for a beginner, you’re going to reach a point where it’s going to be real tough to add enough resistance to it to continue to be beneficial, even with a partner. I’d seriously suggest investing in a weight bench that can incline and decline).

Shoulders: Military press

Triceps: Chair dips (also sometimes called tricep dips, once again though you’re going to need a training partner fairly soon to start loading plates on your lap during these)

Lats/middle back: Chins/pull-ups

Traps/upper back: Either upright rows, or corner T-bar rows

Biceps: Standing BB curl

Quads: Squats (back, front, or hack are all good options)

Hamstrings/glutes: Deadlift

Calves: Seated or standing calf raises

Abs: Weighted crunches or sit-ups

  1. Because you are a beginner, you could probably get away with doing this M.Tu,Th,F. But, if you’re pushing it, you’ll soon come to a point where that’s just not enough recovery between sessions for the same muscle group.

So, at that point switch to a M.W.F or Tu,Th,Sa schedule (alternating between Upper and Lower days). That schedule should do you well for quite a long time to come.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Thank you all so much for replying. I have read all you replies and used all your
advice to create a new routine.
Zephead: you gave me the idea to create a A/B workout to change up
exercises and shorten them
Pozzska: I will workout/rest the days you said
Sentoguy: you gave me the basic idea of compounds and exercises to includein
my routine

Upper A1
Military Press
Weighted push ups
Chin ups
Bent over rows
Chair Dips
BB curl

Lower B1
Squats
Deadlift
Lunges
Weighted crunches
Weighted sit ups

Upper A2
Military Press
weighted push ups
Pull ups
Up right Row
Chair dips
narrow curls

Lower B2
Hack squats
Straight leg deadlift
calve raises
oblique crunches
weighted crunches

M:Rest T:Upper W:Lower Th: Rest F: Upper S: Rest Su: Lower

Anything else I should change?

[quote]Phate89 wrote:
Thank you all so much for replying. I have read all you replies and used all your
advice to create a new routine.
Zephead: you gave me the idea to create a A/B workout to change up
exercises and shorten them
Pozzska: I will workout/rest the days you said
Sentoguy: you gave me the basic idea of compounds and exercises to includein
my routine

Upper A1
Military Press
Weighted push ups
Chin ups
Bent over rows
Chair Dips
BB curl

Lower B1
Squats
Deadlift
Lunges
Weighted crunches
Weighted sit ups

Upper A2
Military Press
weighted push ups
Pull ups
Up right Row
Chair dips
narrow curls

Lower B2
Hack squats
Straight leg deadlift
calve raises
oblique crunches
weighted crunches

M:Rest T:Upper W:Lower Th: Rest F: Upper S: Rest Su: Lower

Anything else I should change?[/quote]

Nope. Looks good. Now put all of your effort into it.

Thank you. ate my pre-workout meal, and am about to hit the weights. I am very excited to lift!

I LOVE T-Nation!