Got destroyed @ my first attempt at full body workout

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xyrrus

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Just to share my experience and perhaps with your help gain more insight as I try to tweak my attempt to construct a proper workout routine. Just to give you a quick background, before September I've haven't hit the gym in about 5 years. For the last 3 months(since signing up), I've pretty much just roamed around and did what I thought was a "good" workout. More recently since I'm paying so much for a membership decided to become more serious about this and starting reading up on a lot of old threads on these boards. I'm currently 5'8 180 lbs and by my guesstimate about 17%ish bf. I feel I have enough bulk and decided that I'll begin by starting in a cutting phase. Still got some work to do but I've pretty much cleaned up my diet.

I don't consider myself a complete beginner but however so after reading some of the threads here found that it's best that I should switch to a full body workout. So I decided that I'd start today a Wednesday night after work with about 2 days rest(last workout was Monday - lower body & cardio). I go into the gym did 5x5-8 bench press with 1 min rest in between sets then started on 5x5-8 seated military press with dumbbells. Afterwards I did 5x5-8 seated rows? not too sure what it's called but it's for the back. I figured after these 3 exercises I was done with my upper body and should start working my way down and that if I needed more workouts I'd do isolation exercies after the workout to make up for what I thought I didn't get enough of. So by now roughly 30-40 mins have passed. I now start to do deadlifts(and I should mention that this is the first time I've done DLs entirely)... I felt f***ed after 3 sets of 8. Wow, this is one kickass exercise but it totally owned me, by the end of the 3rd set I was starting to sweat, my heart was pounding, I felt like vomiting and passing out. I wasn't even lifting heavy. I got some water, sat and rested for 5 mins. When I got back up, holy **** my lower back was sore as hell, I could barely hold myself up. I decided to call it a day because the next thing I was going to do were barbell squats and no way in hell am I going to be able to hold myself up. So there we have it, 1st attempt was a no go.

In hindsight I suppose for a full body workout I did too many sets of the exercises? Because I was pretty spent by the time I got to the DLs... my upper body was drained but my lower body felt fine so I kept at it. So this is my story. It wasn't a complete disaster, I got a pretty good workout in but failed at the full body attempt. Figure I'll go in tomorrow and finish up what I started? Or should I rest? I have a feeling I'm going to wake up tomorrow with a really sore back.

I think for the time being I should get my full body workout only twice a week as I try to tweak my routine to a more managable level. With this I got a few questions for the more experienced here. Should I have done anything differently, perhaps started with the lower body first and working my way up? Any input would be appreciated.

This was what I was planning to do:
5x5-8 bench press
5x5-8 military press
5x5-8 seated rows
5x5-8 deadlifts
5x5-8 barbell squats
Abs and then isolation exercies for my biceps and triceps
Then perhaps 30 mins of cardio depending on the circumstances
 
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xyrrus said:
This was what I was planning to do:
5x5-8 bench press
5x5-8 military press
5x5-8 seated rows
5x5-8 deadlifts
5x5-8 barbell squats
Abs and then isolation exercies for my biceps and triceps
Then perhaps 30 mins of cardio depending on the circumstances
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If you're going to go with planar movement patterns, you're missing pull-ups.

Secondly, is this the order you do them? You have military press right after bench press, deadlifts right after rows, squats right after dealifts. The synergists aren't getting any rest time, thus the shoulders and triceps are getting worked in two exercises, back-to-back, the grip flexors are geting worked in two exercises, back-to-back, etc.


Try this order:

Deadlifts
Bench press
Row
Squat
Military press
Pull-ups
 
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I do full body workouts and do 4 sets of 6 reps. I also do a complete quadruple set before resting. I alternate my exercises by upper/lower/upper/lower or vice versa. Deadlifts are a tough exercise, especially if never done before. Sounds like you could have a weak lower back area, which is very common.

I would switch to 3x8 for awhile until you build full body strength. Are you sure your form was good on the dl? I would do something like squats, rows, dl, chest press. I dont do sets of chest and ohp on same day. I alternate them occasionally.
 
Yea, there's just too much info in these forms and sometimes there are a lot of conflicting theories and ideas, I tried to figure out a plan the best I could and I knew there'd be a lot of room for improvement and is why I made this post.

And Cynic, that is the order I did them in... are you sure I should be doing DLs first? It was hard to find posts detailing what should be done first or last, all I knew is that I should do compound exercises and isolation for anything I was lacking in and cardio afterwards if any. And thanks, I knew I was forgetting something... pullups I'll include that going forward though right now I'm just trying to get a full workout in before crapping out.
 
As far as form is concerned I did fine on the deadlifts, feet was shoulder length, stiff legs. If I'm going to do an exercise I try to do it right or it's just a waste of time. And you could always depend on youtube, saw tons of clips on how it's done and I'm pretty sure I did it right. And you'er right, my lower back IS weak, haven't really done much workouts for this muscle group before and there aren't many kinds to begin with as there would for say the biceps.
 
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Cynic, that a fantastically worded post. :) If you find that when changing the order, you're still extremely nauseated and fatigued, drop an exercise or two out and increase your work capacity a bit slower.

To bring up your lower back-Romanian deadlifts, seated good mornings, reverse hypers or back extensions.
 
xyrrus said:
And Cynic, that is the order I did them in... are you sure I should be doing DLs first?
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Absolutely.

Deadlifts are one of the easiest to blow your back out on when using bad form because of the shear stress on the spine. Do them first when you're at your best.
 
Anything else I'm doing wrong, should I be doing fewer sets? What about what I didn't finish, should I go in and finish what I started? My back is really sore, the kind of soreness when you did a workout for the first time in your life but I think I feel capable of at least doing those pullups, abs, biceps and cardio. Still uncertain about the squats.
 
Full body workouts killed me the first two or three times I switched to them as well. You might not want to do squats and deadlifts the same day at all, maybe switch to romanian deadlifts instead of deadlifts. All the other exercises the you are doing look pretty good. It would be a good idea to add in pull ups and maybe instead of seated row, a better compound exercise is the bent over barbell row. That exercise will work your lower back and biceps along with many stabilizers. If you swap out deadlifts with romanian deadlifts then make sure you do squats first... The workout I've been doing has worked extremely well and it seems really balanced, just for an idea here's what it looks like in order. Squats, Bent over BB row, romanian deadlifts, bench press, wide grip lat pull downs (similar to pull ups), military press... and then you can do ab work afterwards. I'm thinking of throwing in bicep curls at the end too because I want to work them a bit more, but overall this workout has been great for me. Also, it's okay to take more than a minute of rest if you need it... I'd say up to 2 minutes is fine and if you are really dying then maybe 3 minutes. Hope this helps
 
Cnatboy said:
You might not want to do squats and deadlifts the same day at all, maybe switch to romanian deadlifts instead of deadlifts.
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True. I've been thinking that back squats and romainians pair well, while front squats and deadlifts would work better together.
 
I agree, 'normal' squats and RDL's pair up pretty well, even at the beginner level. Front squats and normal deads similarly work well together.
 
I can't tell the difference between the DL & RDLs from the videos I've seen. From what I read, RDLs aren't really deadlifts and works the lower body while conventional DLs works the lower back which is an area I'm weak in and want to strengthen with time. And if this is true, I don't understand how RDLs pair well with back squats since they both work the lower body. Mind clarifying? Thanks
 
xyrrus said:
I can't tell the difference between the DL & RDLs from the videos I've seen. From what I read, RDLs aren't really deadlifts and works the lower body while conventional DLs works the lower back which is an area I'm weak in and want to strengthen with time. And if this is true, I don't understand how RDLs pair well with back squats since they both work the lower body. Mind clarifying? Thanks
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RDLs are prodiminantly a hamstring and glute exercise, taking the quads out of it.

Front squats are prodominantly a quad exercise.

When you have something that is predominantly one muscle group, you want to pair is against something that gives more of a mix.

DLs work the quads also, but mainly the glutes and hamstrings.

Back squats do much of the same, but because the torso is more upright, the posterior chain doesn't get as much.

There is some overlap, but I think it really comes down to mxing it up. Don't settle into one excerise.
 
Mission accomplished!!! :D

After resting for a couple of days, I hit the gym once again for a second attempt. Suffice to say I completed the full body workout:

5x6-8 back squats
5x6-8 incline dumbbell bench press
5x6-8 assisted pullups - can't quite pull my own weight yet
*2 sets were pullups, 3 sets were parallel chinup
5x6-8 seated dumbell military presses
5x6-8 bent over rows
4x5-8 deadlifts (saved for last and only did 4 sets because I still felt a little of the side effects from the sets I did on the first attempt)
5x? ABS

Overall I felt I did a much better job this time, most of the exercises I did last time I was able to to do this time with increased weight while those that I had not have much experience with I mostly practiced my form(the squats, bent over rows and deadlifts). The order of workouts this time I think was ok, any comments on this?

I still have a lot of work to do, I rested a bit longer to catch my breath and that caused the full workout to exceed my ideal time limit of 1 hour. I think I was at it for 1.5, so now my next goal is to work on my time while completing the routine. Other than the DLs, the back squats gave me some trouble, my arms aren't very flexible so I had to space my grip out wide which obstructed the hooks where the bar had to land. After a set of squats, it was extremely difficult to land it back on the hooks in fear of crushing my fingers.

For now I think I'm going to stick to 2 full-body/week and then work my way towards 3 over a month. I'd like to thank everyone for all the advice you've given me thus far. Of course, anything else you would like to add would be really appreciated.
 
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Squats and deadlifts in the same workout might not be the best idea, most people sycle them, doing squats one day and deadlifts the next day, but if you can handle it, its fine, you just gotta listen to your body.
Some people par backsquats with romanian deadlifts, since they dont overlap the squat asmuch as the conventional deadlift does.
 
Aloha & Hozit!

Any time we take off for a long period from physicl activities (in this case exercise workouts) the "healthiest way" to begin is working on a conditioning phase which means going back to the basics of the right breathing pattern, the right exercise posture, the right choice of exercise, the right order of exercises that will eventually put your physical health in the right direction.
The one thing that is most significant is that when you exercise that you stay on purpose and understand to not only "work on" but rather feel to learn and "work with" your body's present level of health which means from inside out.
When attempting to do a "full body" workout, there is a method we learn called the Bullseye Workout. This is exercsing from the center which are your bigger muscle/muscle group attachments - chest/back and workout outward to the shoulder arms. For lower trunk and extrimities this is working from the lower abdominal/hip/glutes then quads, hamstrings, inner-outer thighs and calves. (This is where the order of exercise is most important. This is like cooking when you start putting in the ingridents (did I spell that right?)
Wrong order, not going taste good and right.
To help you visual this, picture the anatomical postion of the human body and draw a diagram of a huge bullseye start from the heart/center and spirialing out to the ends of the fingers and toes.
Hope that helps.

You may need to physically work with someone there where you workout to
observe and communicate what it is he/she might see that will enable you to continue to workout safely.
I wish not to elaborate too much on your thread but simply share some insight.
Please keep in mind as well your heart that your are trying to "Build yourself up and not BEAT youself UP!

Good Health To You & Aloha!
mikey q.
 
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