My Training Program
 

I've had great success with this and its easy to tweak.

The gym is something I consider myself good at and would like to share my knowledge!

MONDAY

Squats/ 60kg - 5/ 100kg - 5/ 115 - 3

(optional) BB Lunges/ 30kg - 8/ 40kg - 8/ 45kg - 8

TUESDAY

Pull Ups/ bodyweight - 8/ 5kg - 8/ 7.5kg - 6/ 7.5kg - 6

DB Rows/ 30kg - 6/ 35kg - 6/ 40kg - 3 (Only because my left grip keeps giving out!!)

BB Shrugs/ 60kg - 10/ 80kg - 10/ 100kg - 8/ 105kg - 5

DB Curls/ 15kg - 8/ 17.5kg - 8 (usually do another set)

WEDNESDAY

BB Bench Press/ 40kg - 8/ 50kg - 8/ 60kg - 8/ 70kg - 8

Flies/ 15kg - 8/ 17.5kg - 8/ 20kg - 8

THURSDAY

Db Alt Press/ 17.5kg - 8/ 20kg - 8/ 22.5kg - 6/ 25kg - 5

FRIDAY

Deadlift/ 60kg - 5/ 100kg - 5/ 150kg - 3/ 170kg - 1

*This is a varying warm up. Sometimes its could be 100/130/150/170 or 100/140/150/160. Just depends what max weight I'm going for.

Partials (light generally)/ 100 - 5/ 110 - 5/ 120 - 5

Hypers/ 2 sets of 10. Nice and slow, holding it at the top for a second or 2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Goals:

Turn up
Do exercises
Do sets and reps
Increase weight.

So if I turn up at the gym and end up increasing weight I know I have succeeded in 4 goals/all of my goals in the gym! Great feeling

TIP: Think about anything that annoys you, anywhere you feel you are lacking and focus on it in-between sets as the reason your going to bust out the best set of your life next.

You rest your body in-between sets not your mind, keep focused on everything, don't start wondering off in your head or chatting to people.

Im only posting this as I feel I've made significant improvements in the gym and that this is a great work out plan. Each day is about 30minutes as long as you are focused and short rest periods.

3 numbers a day

3 numbers a day? Im confused :)

I'm keen on the compound movements. That's going to serve you well. I also like the fact you can be in and out in 30 minutes. That's good for stress hormone levels which tend to start increasing around the 45 minute to one hour mark and have the effect of mobilising muscle tissue to increase blood sugar (ie your body starts to eat its own muscle). 30 minutes is good and focused.

I'm not keen on pyramid sets this way round, ie starting small and getting big. I tend to do the first set on the highest weight (when your body is the least tired) and go down in order to keep within a certain rep range. Going up rather than down means you're going to do fewer reps and are going to be more likely to snap your shit right up; lifting big when your body's already tired isn't a good idea.

Speaking of rep ranges, try to do 6-12 reps on compound movements, 10-15 on isolation exercises and 15-25 on leg exercises. Make sure you're doing as much weight a makes you fail in this rep range. This is how to build muscle - doing high weights, low reps tends to build strength but not muscle. This is where dropping down a weight comes in handy - if you fail on 7 reps on your second set, you can drop a weight and go to 9 or 10 on the next set so you're not failing before you get to 6.

It's just advice though.

I find anything more than 8-10 does nothing for me in terms of gains.

It just seemed to deplete me of energy rather than hypertrophy.

Do you not find going straight to the heaviest set to be a strain on your muscles/joints? I couldn't imagine doing my heaviest deadlift first.

There are so many ways of training out there, bodybuilders have got great results from heavy weights, and others high sets....
....the common element?

Hard Work!
What's 100kgs if you find it easy, just numbers!

Well said.

Also Blanca the reason my deadlifts and squats are so low reps is because I'm going for strength on them. My legs are big enough as it is :) Heavy squats and deadlifting. . . best feeling in the world

Fair does mate, I don't do deadlifts or squats because I've had trouble with them in the past. I've got problems with my knees and lower back so they're out of the equation. I feel my joints straining before my muscle does. Plus I tore a hamstring just after Christmas doing squats and it's kind of put me off. It's a pain in the arse because they're fantastic compound moves but that's life I guess.

As for pyramid sets, I suppose it's best to do whatever works for you. I don't have a problem hitting the highest weight first; it's when I'm fresh and full of energy and have little to no muscle fatigue so it's the time I can lift the most, for longest. I've always been told 6-12 reps for building muscle and it's not done me wrong so far, but like I said - whatever works for you.

Amit, you still didn't explain what you meant by it being a long winded process? Don't mind your comments but explanations are a must!

Yeah Blanca, well I always shift my stuff around so I'll definitely try out your 'Heavy set first' method. Maybe just not for squats or deads! :)


6-8 is my personal favourite but maybe that's a reason to try more higher rep ranges!

To get big. Other than my deadlifts and squats which are for strength/powerlifting.

Although low rep squatting seems to build BIG legs.

Six packs are all in the diet, you don't need to work out to get one.