starting a new routine today

T

triplec223

0
I just finished six weeks of one of Chad Waterbury's full-body workout routines and I have seen great results, both in how I look and how much I can lift.

I don't have the link to the Waterbury routine anymore, but I've seen it posted on here a lot so you guys may know which one I'm talking about. The routine is full body and it's comprised of three workouts per week with different sets/reps each day and each week.
Each week (for the first six weeks) starts out heavy (3 x 5 or 4 x 5).
The second day is a middle-rep day (3x8, 4x8) and the last day is low sets/high reps (2x15, 3x15).

I have done six out of the 8 weeks of the program, but I am going to forego the last bit of it because it gets away from the high weight/low rep days and calls for a lot more high-rep days (3x18, 3x8, 3x12 on the final week!!!). So what I am going to do now is a full-body routine that focuses on low-rep and heavy weight days. Here is what I have planned:

FULL BODY ROUTINE
All excercises are 4x5. Depending on the results, I may switch to 4x5 (day 1), 4x8 (day 2), and 4x5 (day 3).
Compound:
Flat Bench
Squats
Horizontal Rows
Pullups (2 sets of one grip, 2 sets of another)
Military Press (dumbells)
Isolation:
Curls (BB)
Calf Raises (BB)

My goal is to get stronger in both my lower and upper body. The last time I maxed out on the bench press (way before I started the Waterbury routine) I put up 200 pounds. I am 6'4 and 175 pounds, so I felt pretty good about that, but I have been working out for a couple of years and was dissapointed that that was all I could lift. But as far as lower body goes, I have gotten MUCH stronger in my legs and have added 20-30 pounds to my squat reps.

Do you guys have any suggestions for the routine? I have read that splits are more effective, but I would like stick w/ a full-body workout for now. Are the excercises on for what I want to accomplish? The only question I have is if I am doing Hor. Rows and pullups, should I even bother with curls since both of those excercises work my biceps too?
 
Patience;)

A few things here: like you have already, it'd would be pretty taxing to do low reps consistently with the same exercises 3 times a week. Have you ever tried squatting at low reps 3 times a week? It's freakin tough to say the least, especially if you are actually working close to your 5 rm.

The good thing about Chad's TBT is that there are a lot of options and variations, you basically get to pick what exercises and they shouldn't be the same all of the time, I really think you need that here too. I wouldn't do back squats EVERY workout, or direct shoulder work like a military press every workout either.

By horizontal rows do you mean upright rows? I think you do, not sure, but if you do, I would take them out completely and stick with bent over rows or pendlay rows, cable seated rows, db bent over rows, maybe T bar rows also.

There also are not any deadlifts, think of it this way if this helps, squats are the best exercise for the lower body on the front side (quads), yes they hit glutes and hams some too and some lower back, but what about the backside...the glutes, hams, lower back... deadlifts are a hip dominant exercise. Anyway, you need deadlifts in there too. But similarly, it's tough to do conventional deads 3 times a week at low reps. I only do once a week low rep conventional deads, and very often every other week.

That may be too much info, so I'm gonna stop for now.
 
thanks AJP. About switching up the excercises, I was planning on doing a set of exercises for 6 weeks (as i've read on these forums, that's about the right period of time to do an exercise b/f switching things up). I don't have deadlifts on there, but every other week I work in an antagonistic rotation, hitting complimentary muscles after every set (i.e. bench press 1 set, bent over row 1 set, repeat until done. then squats 1 set, romanian deadlifts 1 set, etc.). that's what the waterbury routine called for anyway.

And how would this work as far as rotating reps/sets?
Day 1 - 4x5
Day 2 - 4x8
Day 3 - 5x3
repeat this same rotation every week.
 
I see what you mean about sticking to something for 6 weeks and then doing antagonistic, but I still really think you need some form of deadlifts in this routine.

The reps look ok, but with that like I said I would switch it up more just because of the choice of exercises. Heavy military presses 3 times a week is too much in my opinion, you hit different parts of your delts with presses and rows anyway.

I would take out the horizontal rows, switch out one day of deadlifts instead of the squats, switch in some incline presses in place of military presses or both flat bench and military presses.
 
I would cut squats one day and do deads instead, also i would vary the rep ranges. You dont need as much military press, like mentioned.
about the reps, your goal is strenght, right? one day could be 5x5 or 4x5, one day could be maybe with 6 reps, and one could be with 8 reps?
all of those are within what is normally considered str training.

and using a progression of training volume is a good idea too, every workout you should increase either reps, weight or sets.
to calculate training volume: set*reps*weight lifted
Im not saying you should increase between each workout in a week, but from one 5x5 day to the one next week and from one 6x5 day to next week... catch my drift?
an increase in training volume of 2-3% per session is enough.

I dont know how many bothers with calculating volume, so you dont have to do it, but you have to have a progression, you have to increase your training volume over time.
 
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Well I increase the weight each day by 5 pounds. Doing this, I've steadily gotten stronger, so I will probably just continue with this method.

I will do what you guys said about switching out a day of squats with deadlifts. Are just regular deadlifts the way to go?

And as far as the military press is concerned, should I replace it with an exercise or just drop it one day a week altogether? I saw something about incline press from AJP. Is that an incline bench, or some other exercise? If it's incline bench, isn't doing incline and flat bench on the same day a no-no?
 
well, you dont have to bench 3 times a week. alot of programs are set up with bench on day one, military press on day two and bench on day 3 again.
And adding 5 pounds is a good way for someone who is still a beginner, aslong as it gives gains, stick with it, when it stops, its time to do something else.
 
yeah exactly, you don't need to bench three times a week and you definitely don't need to military press three times a week.

One day flat and military
One day only incline, yes incline bench = incline press
One day flat and something else like dips, or occassionally military and dips maybe, low rep/heavy shoulder pressing three times a week just isn't a good set up if you wanna stay injury free in my opinion.

Yeah, I would go with conventional deadlifts, romanian deadlifts are great as well though.
 
If you've got a weak posterior chain (the muscles on the back of your body, mainly hamstrings, glutes etc) then romanian deadlifts might be better than conventional, since they hit those muscles more than conventional deads.
 
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