5-6x a week routinesld

Mother Goose

New Member
I have heard that some of you guys (OldandGrey?) use a 5-6x a week routine (I'm assuming once a day). Could you do me a favour and post your routine?

I did a 5x routine some time ago, and I may or may not use the same routine in my upcoming HST cycle, but I'd like to see yours.
 
This is my routine for 6x week HST.

Deadlifts/Leg Press A/B
Incline Press/Bench Press A/B*
W.Grip P.Down/Bent Over Rows A/B
Sm. Machine Shoulder Press

Leg ext'n
Leg curl

Shrugs
Lat raise**
Rear raise**

C.Grip Bench*
EZ bar curl*
Hammer curl**
Barbell behind back wrist curl***

Calf raise - 3/4 sets minimum


*Incline and Bench becomes Incline Flys and Dips during 5s and 10s respectively. C.Grip & EZ bar become Skull crushers and Incline curls during 5s

**Hammers, lat and rear raises aren't incorporated until the 5s

*** Most ppl don't like/perform direct forearm work, but I prefer to use these during the whole cycle. I use a method dkm talked about on here at one stage, just hitting the forearms constantly during the day(dbells at home) and it seems to be working.


The whole workout takes about 45-55mins.
 
I am SDing from my last cycle which I did 5 times per week, twice per day.

AM:

Incline Bench
Chin Ups
Shoulder Press
Squats


PM:

Dips
Seated Rows
Shrugs
Leg Press



My next cycle will be 4 times per week as follows:

AM:

Incline Bench
Chin Ups
Shoulder Press
Squats
French Press

Mid Day:

Pull Ups


PM:

Dips
Seated Rows
Shrugs
Leg Press
Concentration Curls



In both programs, it is for one set of each exercise only.
 
Three questions:

1. Do you fellas generally feel worried about knowing your maxes for each rep range before starting HST? I was planning on just guesstimating, probably more conservative and adjusting as I go. I suppose it doesn't really matter...does it?

2. How do you generally feel about full body workouts 5-6x a week? I see two people here already posted theirs. Is it too much? How 'advanced' do you have to be?

3. This was my first HST routine, slightly modified. Depending on how much I like these full body 5-6x ones you guys are presenting me, I may or may not use it. What do you think?

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Chest: Flat Bench 2 x 15, (Weighted) Dips 2 x 15
Back: Wide-Grip Chins 2 x 15
Shoulders: Smith Press 2 x 15
Triceps: Closed-Grip Bench or Skull Crushers 2 x 15

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

Leg Press: 2 (perhaps 3) x 15
Back: Deadlifts 2 x 15, Shrugs 2 x 15
Biceps: Straight or EZ-Bar Curls 2 x 15

(As I mentioned some time ago, during my HST cycles, I'd like to keep leg training to a minimum, as I don't like my legs growing too big. Leg press and deads are adequate)
 
Just to note that for my routine, the top 4 exercises (compounds) are 2 sets all the others are one set.

Qus:

1. The closer to your xRM that you base your cycle on, the better your results will be. Having said that, if you guestimate and what you use for 10RM incline bench is off by 2.5kgs, then it's not like you'll get nothing out of HST. It's better to find your RMs at least for your first cycle. You can then assume a 5-10% in each exercise for the next cycle (and next etc) if you don't want to find them all over again.

2. I love the high frequency full body workouts. My joints have never felt so good, I find that I put on muscle but lose fat (over a cycle length), I get to eat around 3,500 cals a day and I'm as strong as I've ever been. I would think that you don't need to be terribly "advanced". The volume each session is low for each body part and session length is still less than an hour. I'd recommend that you still go thru the 15s (some ppl drop them), as it preps your joints for heavier weights at a higher freqency.

3. Your routine looks OK but there are 2 things I'd alter:

*Chest - 4 sets on chest in one session is high but ok, however incline bench with a low incline is better than the flat bench.

*Back - even up the number of sets for chest and back. You want to include 2 sets of a rowing exercise. It hits the upperback muscles differently (as in, diff. work distribution) than the p.downs/chinning exercises.
 
dont forget - your maxes are not curved in stone, i usually overreach my targeted rm's by 10-15 %

i usually work out 2-3 weeks on my rm and during this period i usually even increase the weights

5-6 x full body per week might be too much! but this is an individual question you have to find out! 5x full body is sometimes too much for my lower back (squats) so i have to reduce on that one sometimes)

but also important is the question if you get better results from 5x full body then from 3x full body...this is also an individual question...some people prefere doing a lower/upper body splitt - therefore 3x fullbody per week with a greater volume

just do some cycles and figure out what you like most...i alternate between different training styles because its more fun to me :-)
 
I did Upper-Lower with higher volume for my 1st HST cycle. I found that I made gains better with higher frequency, and was less sore - this was most noticeable for lower body.
 
I took some of your suggestions into mind and here is my updated workout.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Chest: Incline Bench 2 x 15, (Weighted) Dips 2 x 15
Back: Wide-Grip Chins 2 x 15
Shoulders: Smith Press 2 x 15
Triceps: Closed-Grip Bench 2 x 15, Skull Crushers 2 x 15 (Is 2 too much?)

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

Back: Deadlifts 2 x 15, Bent Over Rows 2 x 15, Shrugs 2 x 15
Biceps: Straight or EZ-Bar Curls 2 x 15, (Should I add in Hammer curls? 1 set? 2 sets?)
Some forearm and ab work
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Old and Grey @ April 17 2005,11:50)]My next cycle will be 4 times per week as follows:
O&G, why are you dropping the freq? Just curious.
 
Dan

I dropped the frequency one day per week because:

A) I added a mid day set of pull ups to prioritize lats. That gives me 12 sets per week for lats.

B) I added 2 sets daily of arm isolation exercises.

C) I'm lazy and want to spend more time outdoors as the weather gets nicer.
happy.gif


I probably won't go back to 5 days per week until late fall.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Mother Goose @ April 18 2005,5:59)]I took some of your suggestions into mind and here is my updated workout.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Chest: Incline Bench 2 x 15, (Weighted) Dips 2 x 15
Back: Wide-Grip Chins 2 x 15
Shoulders: Smith Press 2 x 15
Triceps: Closed-Grip Bench 2 x 15, Skull Crushers 2 x 15 (Is 2 too much?)
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
Back: Deadlifts 2 x 15, Bent Over Rows 2 x 15, Shrugs 2 x 15
Biceps: Straight or EZ-Bar Curls 2 x 15, (Should I add in Hammer curls? 1 set? 2 sets?)
Some forearm and ab work
Note that you'll be training the upper back 6 days a week with your chins and rows on diff days. If that's how you want it then it looks fine :)

If you want to train the upper back 3 times a week only then put the rows on your M-W-F split, and vice versa if you want to train chest AND upper back 6 days a week then move the dips to Tu-Th-Sa session.

Re: Hammers - these are by no means an essential exercise. I've included them in this cycle to see if I do/will/can get additional benefit on the forearms and maybe biceps. I wouldn't use them before the 5s, but as I said, throw them in and see if they work.

Re: Triceps - don't use skullcrushers until the 5s. Use C.Grip thru 15s and 10s, then swap it for skullcrushers when the 5s start.
 
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