Please criticize and improve my training plan

gizzzo

I am 52, Male, used to be active but have been sedentary past few years.

My fitness goals are (1) to develop strength and power in my lower body (2) hypertrophy for my upper body for (a) longevity and (b) to be able to play tennis and soccer and be generally active. I can commit 3x a week and about an hour per day given my work.

Here's my basic plan:
Monday: Lower Body Strength and Power. Wednesday: Upper Body Hypertrophy (Push Focus). Friday: Upper Body Hypertrophy (Pull Focus)


I plan to do a progressive overload of maybe a 10% increase in weight every 2 weeks.

I plan to rest or jog in between workout days.

Any newbie mistakes? Anything I can improve?

Thanks.

ninerbuff

Do the leg presses before or after the squats and end with the lunges, land mine before the dips, T bar rows before dumbbell rows. Do all compounds before isolation exercises when your energy is at it's highest.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Retroguy2000

Btw, your image embed works fine on desktop, but on my phone it was too small to read, and I couldn't expand it. That may limit your responses here.

I think you'd be better off with more frequency. IMO PPL is more of a 6-day routine. With 3-days, you end up training that part just once a week and it will have been long recovered before the next workout. I think you'd be better off doing something like:

M - Legs (deadlift as the main) and some Upper
W - Upper
F - Legs (squat as the main) and some Upper

So basically, the same exercises you list, the same total volume, but spread out differently. And maybe don't do the deadlift and squat same day.

As niner said, do compounds first, isolations last.

Don't forget to get your protein up to about 0.7g (if obese) to 1g (if lean) per pound, and consider adding creatine too.

ninerbuff

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

Btw, your image embed works fine on desktop, but on my phone it was too small to read, and I couldn't expand it. That may limit your responses here.

I think you'd be better off with more frequency. IMO PPL is more of a 6-day routine. With 3-days, you end up training that part just once a week and it will have been long recovered before the next workout. I think you'd be better off doing something like:

M - Legs (deadlift as the main) and some Upper
W - Upper
F - Legs (squat as the main) and some Upper

So basically, the same exercises you list, the same total volume, but spread out differently. And maybe don't do the deadlift and squat same day.

As niner said, do compounds first, isolations last.

Don't forget to get your protein up to about 0.7g (if obese) to 1g (if lean) per pound, and consider adding creatine too.

It depends on age too. I only train each body once a week, but train everyday of the week.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

tomcustombuilder

Follow a more structured program.

williamsonmj1

Okay, I have a lot of comments.

I guess my headline suggestion is that if this is indicative of your current strength level, you probably don't need a customized program and you probably shouldn't be making your own program. You just take an off-the-shelf that you like the look of and do it for 3-6 months, then take it from there. Arguably, at that point you should then switch to another off-the-shelf program.

Some specific critiques of this program:
* Refine your rep ranges. People generally say that for strength and power your rep ranges should be in the range of 1-5 reps, with the lower end of that being better for power (because you are training peak force production, which is one of the components of power). People will tell you that for hypertrophy you should be doing anything from 8-20+ reps. Your 10-12 range is fine.
* For hypertrophy you may want to do more sets. Huge bodybuilders can often get by with 2 or 3 sets because they known how to do it in a way that destroys them, they make every rep count. Us normal folk often need more sets to get in more quality work.
* You will have a time issue with this after a while. With the weights so low you will breeze through this, but once it gets harder and heavier it will take longer. If I do five hard sets of something it usually takes around 25 minutes not including warmup reps. So even with supersets there is what I can do. If I have an hour I can probably do 10 minutes of warmup/prehab/muscle activation, then two hard exercises with a superset worked in. Might have five minutes at the end.#
*If you did have enough time, Monday would start to give you serious fatigue and injury risk, at least if all of those were hard, heavy sets.
* Your exercise selection looks like a bit of a laundry list.
* YMMV, but you might have issues with frequency. Personally I can't improve my squat or bench if I only do it once a week. But some people do. But since you want to get stronger, you do need to improve.

I really like a full-body template like Starting Strength, Stronglifts or Greyskull, especially at the earlier stages. Obviously there are lots of versions, but I am a particular fan of:

Monday: Squat, your preferred press, your preferred pull, first assistance theme
Wednesday: Deadlift, your secondary press, your secondary pull, second assistance theme
Friday: Squat, your preferred press, your preferred pull, third assistance theme

So for your goals it might be something like

Monday: Squat 5x5, Bench Press 5x10, Barbell rows 5x10, assistance/supplemental- one additional heavy lower body exercise (5x5)
Wednesday; Deadlift 5x3, Overhead Press 5x10, Chinups 5x10, assistance theme- one additional pulling movement (5x10)
Friday: Squat 5x5, Bench Press 5x10, Barbell rows 5x10, assistance/supplemental- several bodybuilding isolation movements (5x10)

That being said, it would probably be even better to just pick an existing program.

gizzzo

Thank you guys so much for the helpful tips.

Do you have any advice on how I can create my baseline weights and reps? Are there tests I could do myself to see whether the starting weights and reps is my baseline?

williamsonmj1

gizzzo wrote: »

Thank you guys so much for the helpful tips.

Do you have any advice on how I can create my baseline weights and reps? Are there tests I could do myself to see whether the starting weights and reps is my baseline?

Sets and reps should be more or less according to your program/template. As mentioned, I would do 5x5 for most strength exercises, other than deadlifts, for which I would do 5x3. For hypertrophy, 5x10-12 as a starting point.

Don't overthink starting weight. First few sessions you can go really light. E.g squat with the empty bar. Next time add a bit of weight, and keep doing that until it is hard.

Retroguy2000

gizzzo wrote: »

Thank you guys so much for the helpful tips.

Do you have any advice on how I can create my baseline weights and reps? Are there tests I could do myself to see whether the starting weights and reps is my baseline?

Starting weight should feel like it's work, but also enough to easily complete the sets while learning the form.

You want to ease into it, so your body can get used to it, and so you can learn the form. As a beginner, you also do not need to train to failure (i.e. cannot complete another rep with good form), save that for later.

Rep count will be dictated by the program or your goals. I'd suggest 10-15 for more hypertrophy (or as low as 8) in a time efficient way without too much fatigue, and as the other poster said 5 for strength, or 3 for deadlift.

After each workout or week raise the weight a bit until you feel you do not have any more good reps in reserve. With the higher rep sets that can be harder to judge. Every so often with a higher rep set, push your last set to technical failure to see if you've been leaving too many reps in reserve. Two reps in reserve is fine for a beginner, you'll get the same gains as 1 or 0 in reserve, without the extra fatigue.

tomcustombuilder

gizzzo wrote: »

Thank you guys so much for the helpful tips.

Do you have any advice on how I can create my baseline weights and reps? Are there tests I could do myself to see whether the starting weights and reps is my baseline?

start on the lighter side for your first set to get a feel of where your strength is now. End up at a weight that 10 reps feels challenging for the last couple of reps, lateral raises will be more like 12-15 at first and in reality that is a good rep range always for that exercise.

Dont go right into sub 8 rep compound exercises until your body has acclimated to those.

beerfitter

Three days a week and with your goals a PPL (Push Pull Legs) program would be perfect for you. I think Boostcamp has a few on their app for free you can follow and log your progress. Remove the guesswork and follow a periodized program that others have used.

gizzzo

Thanks for all the tips. I feel so fortunate to be in a community of experts. To summarize:

1. General Tips & Considerations:
- Do compound exercises before isolation exercises.
- Since I am a beginner, I should focus on:
* Ease into workouts.
* Focus on mastering form.
* Avoid training to failure initially.
- Refrain from creating your own customized program in the initial stages but follow templates or programs like PPL (Push-Pull-Legs), Starting Strength, Stronglifts, or Greyskull, especially since I'm a beginner.

But if I have to do my own.

2. Frequency & Days:
- Consider the factor of age in training frequency.
- Train each body part more frequently, not just once a week
OR
- Consider a 3-day routine that involves both upper and lower body workouts.
* Monday: Legs (deadlift as main) + some Upper exercises.
* Wednesday: Upper exercises.
* Friday: Legs (squat as main) + some Upper exercises.


3. Sets, Reps, & Weights:
- Rep count will be guided by the program if I follow one or personal goals.
- Starting Weights:
* Begin light and increase weight gradually, aim for a challenge but maintain good form.
* Starting weight should allow easy completion of sets while mastering the form.
* After each workout, increase the weight incrementally.
- Strength Training:
* Generally, 1-5 reps, with 5x5 for most exercises, and 5x3 specifically for deadlifts.
- Hypertrophy:
* 8-20+ reps, with 10-12 being fine. Starting recommendation: 5x10-12.
* For lateral raises, aim for 12-15 reps initially.

Additional tips
4. Nutrition & Supplements:
- Increase protein intake:
* 0.7g per pound if obese.
* 1g per pound if lean.
- Consider adding creatine to your regimen.

Did I miss anything?

Thanks!

williamsonmj1

gizzzo wrote: »

Thanks for all the tips...

Did I miss anything?

Thanks!

This is excellent!

Having mentioned those beginners programs, I feel like I should explain why I don't like Starting Strength, and do like Greyskull LP.

Starting Strength has Power Cleans as one of its basic movements. This is a clean- an Olympic Lift- where you only drop a little to catch the bar. I think these great movements for athletes to learn but I think they are very technical and the limiting factor is mostly technique. So I think they are just poor for the initial strength-building phase.

I like Greyskull for a few reasons. I like the 'squat twice a week, deadlift once a week, alternate your push and pull' template. I think the exercise selection is basically perfect- squat, deadlift, bench, overhead, row, chinups. And because it has the rule that you can make the last set of each exercise As Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP), and lets you increase the weight more next time if you do great with it. This lets you get extra work in, and also adds some 'auto-regulation'- where your program adjusts a bit depending on how well you are doing. That's a great thing. This is the program, BTW, I think it's a thing of beauty!

tomcustombuilder

Don’t do 1 rep max sets. You should not be doing less than 5.