Concerns with my routine

M

Maldini92

New Member
Hello guys, I'm a newbie on this forum
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I am 16 and started lifting at the beginning of this year and my progress has been OK. Currently i am around 74kg at approximately 13-14% body fat. I started at 68kg with around 14-15% body fat.

Training has been with rippetoe's starting strength, then madcow's 5 x 5, then a cycle of the vanilla HST routine (in which i learned what i wanted to change for this), and then a 5x5 during my recent cut.

I will be testing out my rep maxes this week and then i will do SD for 2 weeks. Perfect since i have exams on so i can study more.

Goals:

I really just want mass rather than any strength. =) So hopefully i'll be able to gain a few kg of lean mass after this cycle.

Long Term Goal: 80kg with 8-9% bodyfat.

My planned routine:

Exercises:

At the Gym: 3 times per week, alternated days.
Bench Press
Barbell Rows or Chin Ups (haven't decided)
Squats alternated with Deadlifts
Calf Raises
Barbell Press

At home: (On off days or after gym sessions not before)
DB Curls
DB OH Tricep Extensions
Shoulder Raises
Crunches

Rep Scheme / Workout Plan

2 Weeks SD

2 x 10
WO1 - 85% 10 RM
WO2 - 90% 10 RM
WO3 - 95% 10 RM
WO4 - 100% 10 RM

3 x 5 *Volume to be tapered down as load gets too heavy and also cluster to perform reps on 2nd or 3rd sets.
WO1 - 80% 5 RM
WO2 - 85% 5 RM
WO3 - 90% 5 RM
WO4 - 95% 5 RM
WO5 - 100% 5 RM

2-3 x Cluster Sets (So whatever i end up doing, just do 3 sets)
Progressive increase in weight from my 5RM.

2-3 x Negatives
Do Negatives with increased weight from previous cluster sets on suitable exercises xD. (I have a spotter for this... hopefully)

So overall, this cycle will last about 15 Workouts, so about 5 Weeks excluding SD.

Diet

Calories: Around 2500, with 170g of protein, and the rest from carbs / fats.

Clean... I don't eat fast food etc. So my diet will mainly come from lean meats, some vegies, tuna, milk, noodles, rice etc Cheat meal here and there (ie. ice cream since its summer)

Queries:

Is this routine suitable for my goal?

Do you think i will survive this? Should i take my load progression slower during the cluster sets and negs?

What do you think of my exercise selection?

I am hesitant on whether to choose rows or Chin ups for my back. I like doing chin ups a lot more than doing rows, however my chin ups are weak, ie i won't be able to do much with the 10s part of the cycle.

Any other advice? xD

THANKYOU!!!
 
I like your program. The only thing I would change is to stick with chin ups or pull ups. If necessary, use bands to help you get to 10 reps or use something like Max-Stim to get the target reps.

And, EAT BIG!    


I'll see you at the Big O in a few years!

 
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Hi Maldini, welcome to HST

Sidding with O & G.

A pretty good routine all in all, mostly you have done your homework.

As for my opinion: Keep both Barbell Rows and Chin Ups (just alternate)

Pretty similar to teh Faustonian cycle with a little diference here and there.

One other thing...please recheck your basic needs, 2500 cals will be a little low, unless you alternate 2500 on days off and +/- 3500 on training days.

I like John Berardi's approach and he has teh essential Berardi as a free download, it has all teh calcs you will need, just google it.

I am sure you will achieve your goals, just throw in some HIIT on your days off as an additional to the extra's you doiing it will help you burn the fat and get your 8 - 9% faster!

Cheers
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I agree with O&G and Fausto: keep the chins/pull-ups but alternate with rows. Rows are a great back exercise. Sure they are hard but 'hard' in this case equals 'good.'

Seeing that you are skipping 15s you will get a better cycle if you do a full 6 workouts of 10s. Why not start at 75% of your RM? And do the same for 5s. A bit of zig-zag at the start of 5s is nothing to worry about. When you get beyond 5s you may want to aim for a particular rep count. I'd shoot for 15 total reps and see how that works out. Try Max-stim too.

If you were more interested in strength then a few sets of heavy low rep work might be fine but you are after hypertrophy so you have to do enough work to elicit a decent PS response rather than just getting used to handling heavy loads.

For some of your exercises, negs will be impractical (eg. squats and deads) so sets of 3 reps are a good way to allow you to keep load progression going a little longer. Try 5 sets.

I'd add dips to your routine if possible. You can alternate dips with bench. When you get to negs you will find that dips are king for ease of application. Just be careful. Don't go heavier than your 2RM until you really know what you are doing. There is absolutely no sense in getting yourself injured.

All the best!  
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You really need to eat more if you want to see serious gains.
2500cal/day to get to 80kg is going to be tough.
 
Alright, ill eat around 3000 cals then
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Also, i'll alternate chin ups with rows, and dips with bench press.

And i think ill try drop sets after the 5s, if i struggle to complete 15-20 reps. Sound good?
 
Fausto, I have a question. I need to be educated a little.  This "managing nutrition" to a science is new to me.

You mentioned in your post above about eating 2500(ish) calories on his days off and 3500(ish) on training days.

Doesn't the body recover and build on off days, therefore requiring constant nutrition to rebuild? I have been staying consistent on my calorie/macro nutrient planning and have been running about a 1-1 ratio on this (my 2nd) HST cycle. My first HST cycle I did about a 3-1 ratio of LBM to fat.

I'll certainly cut my "feedings" on my off days if it'll keep my P-ratio better. Please advise...
 
Master

I am no expert on this field, but I believe that this is a way of streamlining one's gains without having too much extra, at teh end of the day, averaging over a time period will give you a certain amount.

If you interested in straight forward gains, it is best to stick to one dose right through, but this recommendation is for when you don't want any extra's but still want to get your gains...make sense?

You'd better download teh essential Berardi and have a look at what he says there, after all he is the expert. Will Brink is not bad either.

Hope this helps!
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I'd read up on Lyle M's articles too. Lots of grist for the mill there. His site's had a recent overhaul too and is worth a visit:</div>

Quite right, good ol' Lyle knows his stuff!
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<div>
(MasterCFI @ Nov. 14 2008,11:11)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Fausto, I have a question. I need to be educated a little.  This &quot;managing nutrition&quot; to a science is new to me.

You mentioned in your post above about eating 2500(ish) calories on his days off and 3500(ish) on training days.

Doesn't the body recover and build on off days, therefore requiring constant nutrition to rebuild? I have been staying consistent on my calorie/macro nutrient planning and have been running about a 1-1 ratio on this (my 2nd) HST cycle. My first HST cycle I did about a 3-1 ratio of LBM to fat.

I'll certainly cut my &quot;feedings&quot; on my off days if it'll keep my P-ratio better. Please advise...</div>
if your not using as many cals on of days,then you dont need to eat as many
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Maldini, nice program. It's good to see that you've done your research...certainly an &quot;educated&quot; newbie  :-)

I'm no expert, but I've been at HST for a little less than two years. Over the period, I've gained about 10% total mass in most areas (i.e. 40&quot; to 44&quot; chest). So my feedback is based on &quot;my&quot; experience only.

I agree with others about the calories. Bump them up. When I ate less, or expended more (in the summer), I grew less. The quality of foods you're choosing should cut down on fat gain. Or, as others have mentioned, work in some HIIT.

I'm probably more of a believer in the hypoxic stress effect on hypertrophy than most. As a result, I don't skip the 15's and also work in drop sets and stretches during the heavies (in the FAQ). Again, my gains have been good under these conditions, although cause and effect is certainly debatable. You're a lot younger than me too, so you will probably respond better to the heavier weights (I'm 44).

Choice of exercises really depends on what keeps you motivated. Your selections are good with focus on the compounds. Since you've studied Rippetoe, certainly your form is good which is key to growth and injury protection. I have to say that I've seen some nice chest growth working in decline presses, so don't forget about them, especially if your shoulders grow tired with those heavy weights!

Good luck with HST and let us know how you're progessing with the gains.
 
Thankyou, maybe next cycle i will throw in some decline bench =)

Well, before SD i was 73kg, after SD i was 70kg, now i am about 75kg (probably due to some creatine, water weight) -&gt; Just finished the last workout of the 5s. I can still see the same &quot;outlines&quot; of my abs under the right lighting so i think i haven't gained much fat (good =) ). My arms grew about half an inch, and my waist stayed the same but i didn't really take other measurements =( .

I will be moving onto heavier loads now where i will need to cluster and maybe do dropsets. Later on i will be doing negs.

I have a question on negs, i dont think its clarified in the FAQ very well but how many &quot;negs&quot; am i meant to do per set or overall per exercise?

As for the isolations, i actually dropped them all because i felt that it would be more effective if i just focused on the compounds so i could put full effort into them, i still occasionally do some bicep curls but have completey dropped the triceps since i reckon the bench / dip AND military press give it enough bang, and anymore wouldnt be beneficial (plus my elbow gets annoying when i do tricep extensions).

As for aches/ pains, none so far except i do feel a little bit of the &quot;good&quot; sore after each workout. Still considering whether to do 15s next cycle since i think this cycle went really well, everything felt just right.

Since the next coming weeks will be with much heavier loads, i have dropped the barbell shoulder presses so that i can adequately train my bench without having to worry about another similar push exercise 20 mins later. I have also decided to keep bench and drop the alternating dips as i find that my dip form isnt good enough to handle heavier weights yet (my form is slack and i often cheat by not going deep enough). As for the chin ups and rows, i have decided to drop rows and keep chin ups as these are much easier to do negs on.

By the way, is it just me or are bent over rows (where your torso is nearly parallel to the floor) sometimes a &quot;do or die&quot; exercise where you either get the full rep (touch chest) or nothing at all? It just seems like an exercise where i can't &quot;push&quot; through like the chin up, bench or dip etc.
 
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