how does this workout schedule look? critique? ;)

[BlackPowder]

Hey everyone,

So, lately i had some back issues, lower back pain.. i asked my docter who told me to strengthen my back. As you may remember, i asked, in another thread a couple days a go, for good exercises to strengthen my (lower) back. People here recommended me, among other excerises, deadlifts, squats, hyperextensions and glute ham raises. Since i dont have the equipment to do those at home, i went to our local fitness gym for a trial training, and asked the fitness couch there to show me how to do squats, deadlifts and so on correctly..
He did, and I really liked it. Then I thought, if i am gonna pay the gym membership already, i can just as well do a scheduled strength training for my whole body and not just back specific stuff. So I asked our fitness guy again what kind of strength training schedule hed recommend.

Here is what he recommended:

He said, best would be to do a three day split, strength training on three days always with one day off in between. On each day id do one of the basic strenth exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press); as well as 2 - 3 other basic strength exercises.

It would look like this:

Day one:
Squats
Bent over barbell rows
Weighted Dips

Day two:
Bench press
Biceps curl
Weighted pull ups

Day three:
Deadlifts
Neck presses
Barbell front raises

On each exercise of theses three days, he recommended to do 1 - 2 light warm up sets with 15 reps, and then 4 heavy sets of 8 - 12 reps.

Now, what i wanted to know, is that a good workout plan? I know something about strength training, but not too much, and im pretty new to it..
So i just want to be sure, that if i start weightlifting, i will actually do a good workout for my whole body, which will lead to some results and strength gain.

So, did our fitness guy make me a good workout schedule?

If not, what would you / what should i change?

Any other important excercises i should do?

Correct amount of sets and reps?


Once again, thanks for all answers and advices. I just wasnt sure how good our local fitness guy is and wanted to double check, if he recommended me a good workout, and if not, what i should change

Cheers

Fabian

 

[Indivdude]

Well if you're completely a beginner and want to do strength training, why not do SS? Yeah I know. Everyone recommends it here and they do it often but it works for people starting out.

The Starting Strength Novice/Beginner Programs - Starting Strength Wiki

That's a good place to start. Have you checked out the FAQ and seen the programs they have set up there? There's some good stuff there as well.

And just to leave this for other people to answer since I don't know what to think about it and I don't know how good you are at pullups, should one do weighted pullups when first starting out at the expense of normal pullups?

 

[Origins]

I second just buying the Starting Strength book and doing the program. The program that your "fitness guy" gave you is definitely questionable in several places. Examples: the biceps curls, starting out with weighted dips/pullups, neck presses, 8-12 reps...

Also, that guy may not have shown you anything resembling good form. Starting Strength is teh Bible for proper form. Read it.

 

[ExtremeStandard]

I agree do a basic SS routine or Bill Starr Routine. Then you can add some other neck stuff and such on off days these routines work I'm doing the bill starr routines right now very good routine.

 

[grrthetree]

There are a couple things that are/could be wrong. One, if its your run of the mill personal trainer, he may not have taught you correct form for squats, deads, etc. Especially since going for one free trial has set you up perfectly and now you know how to squat.

Most people train the squat wrong, learn correct form, and still don't do it correctly. I would review how you squat with squat rx or stronglifts has a pretty good guide IMO.

Also, I wouldn't be doing curls before weighted chin ups, it just doesn't seem like that could be productive or work at all.

Are neck presses like overhead press but lifting the weight behind your neck? If so, then this is not the best exercise for overhead work. And if done a certain way it can ruin your shoulders, too.

Barbell front raises too? Not sure what these are, but it should be replaced with something else.

The rep range for every lift you do shouldn't be the same. Your main lifts, the compound lifts, bench, squat, dead, etc. should be done in sets of 5 or less if strength is your main goal. Isolation movements, which should be done after your main lifts, should be done in rep ranges of 8-12.

The routine isn't the worst in the world, though. I've seen shittier routines given to people by very "qualified" trainers.

I would change your routine to look like this. I would have you squatting twice a week, and the rep ranges are on the right as 5x5. 3x8-12, the first number being number of sets and second being number of reps.

Day one:
Squats 5x5
Bent over barbell rows 5x5
Weighted Dips 5x5

Day two:
deadlift 5x5*
Overhead press 5x5
Weighted pull ups 5x5

Day three:
Squats5x5*
Bench press 5x5
barbell curls 3x8-12

* means ramping up to a max set of 5. 5 sets of 5 reps is a decent amount of volume for anyone, and for lifts like squats and deads, its hard to maintain such volume. 5x5 deadlifts are just killer, and would not be good to do every week. Since you're going to be squatting twice a week, one of them will be the standard of 5 sets 5 reps same weight, and the second day will be ramping up to a max set of 5. So you increase the weight each set.

You could also change the rep schemes for weighted pull ups and dips if 5x5 isn't what you want for those lifts.

 

[BlackPowder]

Alright i have got to correct myself a bit.. i am not completely new to strength training. I have trained Muay Thai for about a year now, we did some strength stuff there.. also, i have my own set of dumbells (the ones you can take off and add weight) with which i used to workout at home on the days I didnt train Muay Thai.

So yeah i have done some strength stuff, but I am new to working out to a professional schedule in a fitness gym, and i have never done any barbell exercises, like squats, deadlifts and so on..

Then, about form.. definitely very important. But I think im doing squats and so on pretty good.. i watched a couple guide videos, and also our fitness guy wachted me on my first couple training sessions and corrected me.. but i will definitely research the perfect form to be sure, dont wanna injure myself.

The rep range for every lift you do shouldn't be the same. Your main lifts, the compound lifts, bench, squat, dead, etc. should be done in sets of 5 or less if strength is your main goal. Isolation movements, which should be done after your main lifts, should be done in rep ranges of 8-12.

So on the main lifts, like benching, squatting, deadlifting; I should always do five sets? Of how many repetitions, 5? Isolation movements being the one exercises who target one single muscle and not muscle groups?

* means ramping up to a max set of 5.

Sorry, could you explain what you mean by ramping up to a max set of 5? My mother language is german, so my englisch vocabulary is kina limited

But yeah from what i read from you guys' answers in general; the main critique; the workout plan i posted is too intense, or too much volume for someone who is starting strength training? Or did i understand / read something wrong..

 

[Perfect Moo]

Ramping up means you keep increasing the weight until you get to your 5 rep max. So, if your 5rm was 100 for the sake of simplicity, you'd do something like 5x60, 5x70, 5x80, 5x90, 5x100.

Mein erste sprache ist auch Deutsch, aber ich kann es verstehen besser dann ich sprechen kann.

 

[Origins]

But yeah from what i read from you guys' answers in general; the main critique; the workout plan i posted is too intense, or too much volume for someone who is starting strength training? Or did i understand / read something wrong..

There are a few exercises in there that are borderline useless for you and the idea that you do every exercise in sets of 8-12 is probably not what you want. It definitely isn't too intense, as in % of your 1RM. It may be too much volume, but the above mentioned are the main problems with the program.

Read the FAQ's and browse the training logs here. The training in the logs is usually pretty solid and you can learn a lot from reading them.