Edziu's back

[Edziu]

Well after a short break over the Summer, I'm raring to get back to the gym and put some more muscle on.

Rather than going down the 'I want cut six pack abs for the beach' road (which always seemed to me to be one step away from wanting to shave your bikini line) the aim is to push the numbers up on my squat, deadlift and bench press. Functional strength is what I'm looking for and so I'm supplementing my time in the gym with Krav Maga and Karate classes when I can get to them. Hopefully at least twice a week.

I have chosen to move away from the Stronglifts programme a little because I'd been on it for months and the gains were starting to fall off. This Summer I trained sporadically in the Uni gym and put another easy 10Kg on my deadlift by just resting more between workouts. I want to stick with the 5x5 principles though -

Use compound lifts
Low reps, high weight
Not many different exercises in a session
Eat lots of whole food
Get lots of sleep
Never miss a gym session
Keep a log

After skimming through The encyclopaedia of Muscle and Strength (Stoppani), I've settled on a routine with three workouts - bench day, squat day and deadlift day. As the aim is to improve the lift, each workout starts with the lift itself (compound) and then moves on to assistance (isolation) exercises.

Rough plan

Bench day (arms and chest)
Bench press
Dumbell shoulder press
Pectoral flyes
Tricep extensions
Hammer curls

Squat day (legs and lower body)
Squat
Split squat
Dumbell step-ups
Stiff leg good mornings

Deadlift day (back and shoulders)
Deadlift
Romanian deadlift
Standing cable rows
Reverse pec flyes
Barbell shrugs / Lateral raises

I haven't worked the numbers out yet but I think I have the general idea. If anyone's got any comments then please feel free!

[Edziu]

Been looking at the schedule and made some minor changes

Bench - dropped the shoulder press as it seemed unneccesary. Swapped in preacher curls for more bicep work

Squat - lost split squat because they take too much time and changed for stepups. Trying to balance posterior and (anterior?) chains so moved to front squat (plus I can use less weight)

Deadlift - Moved the shrugs to squat day to reduce the number of deadlift exercises

Bench day (arms and chest)
Bench press
Pectoral flyes
Preacher curls
Tricep extensions
Hammer curls

Squat day (legs and lower body)
Front squat
Dumbell step-ups
Stiff leg good mornings
Barbel shrugs

Deadlift day (back and shoulders)
Deadlift
Romanian deadlift
Standing cable rows
Reverse pec flyes
Lateral raises

I'll run through the routine and see how it feels - might well change it again....

[Edziu]

Right I'm sticking with the three way split but I've dug a 16-week programme out of a book -

Today was deadlift day - right at the end of the second stage on the programme

Deadlift - 5x10x85
Good morning - 3x10x45
DB bench press - 3x10x20
Upright row - 3x10x55 (difficult - might recalculate)
Lat pulldown - 3x10x45
Lying tricep extensions - 3x10x23
Preacher curls - 3x10x18
Hyperextensions - 3x10

This week I've been working at 75% RM. Next week I start stage 3 - 80% RM, sets of 8

[Cron22]

w/ leg day, ever think of doing lateral step ups as a substitute to conventional ones? rarely used and highly functional..movement in 3 planes...step across inside leg w/ outside leg up onto bench w/ BB or DB...hard to balance and very challenging....give 'er a shot? how about some type of lunge, be it reverse, forward, or drop? just askin'....figured i'd comment as my workout isn't anything close to a 5x5...nothing wrong w/ 5x5...but i lean more towards an athletic type workout...oh well...stronglifts is good stuff though...anyhoo, i'm rambling...keep us posted

C-ron

[Edziu]

Squat day

Back squat - 5x8x80
Leg press - 3x8x150
Incline Bench Press - 3x8x50
DB shoulder press - 3x8x14 (could do more)
Romanian deadlift - 3x8x70
Close grip BP - 3x8x50
DB hammer curls - 3x8x14
Reverse crunches - 3x10

w/ leg day, ever think of doing lateral step ups as a substitute to conventional ones?

Hmm you know that could be a good idea. The programe I'm on cycles between the three lifts so, for example, although today was primarily squat day, there were elements of bench press (for next workout) and deadlift (the last one). Next workout uses hack squat for legs and I'm not to keep on hack squat so I'll look into stepus. It's nice to have variety!

thanks:)

[Scottymouth]

Welcome back my friend, it is good to see you posting again!