In this post, I outline my current workout routine as well as the reasoning behind it.
First, here’s the routine itself:
Days 1 and 4:
| Exercise: | Sets: | Weight: |
| Broad-grip Pull-ups | 3 | 0 (Bodyweight) |
| Arnold Shoulder Press (Dumbbells) | 3 | 24 Kg / 53 lbs |
| Bent-over Barbell Rows | 3 | 35 Kg / 77 lbs |
| Flat Bench Press | 3 | 41 Kg / 90 lbs |
| Inclined Bench Press | 2 | 32.5 Kg / 72 lbs |
| Inverted Rows | 2 | 0 (Bodyweight) |
| Dips | 3 | 0 (Bodyweight) |
| Barbell Shrugs | 3 | 35 Kg / 77 lbs |
I always tie two exercises together and do them as supersets.
Days 2 and 5:
| Exercise: | Sets: | Weight: |
| Barbell Squats | 3 | 60 Kg / 132 lbs |
| Leg Raise | 3 | 0 (Bodyweight) |
| Deadlifts | 3 | 45 Kg / 99 lbs |
| Assorted Crunches | 6 | o (Bodyweight) |
These exercises are also done as supersets.
Day 6 (Bonus Day):
| Exercise: | Sets: | Weight: |
| EZ-Bar Curls | 3 | 15 Kg / 33 lbs |
| Dumbbell Skull Crushers | 3 | 24 Kg / 53 lbs |
Once again, these two exercises are done as antagonistic supersets.
Days 3 and 7:
Rest days.
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Reasoning Behind This Routine
This routine follows and combines several important weight training principles:
- Compound Exercises
I focus mainly on compound exercises like squats, pull-ups and bench-presses and only have very few isolation exercises like curls and shrugs. One of the reasons for this is that I want to gain functional strength from this workout. There are many more benefits to doing compound exercises, however, and I’ll do a seperate post on this subject in the near future. - Not Too Little, Not Too Much
As you can see, I exercise each muscle group twice a week. Most experts agree that training a muscle only once per week is not sufficient for making good progress (with the possible exception of hardcore, and I mean HARDcore HIT or Doggcrapp routines). On the other hand, training each muscle group too often would also hinder my progress. I’m hoping that hitting each muscle group twice a week represents a sweet spot. - Total length <90 Minutes
I’ve read often that if you do a workout for more than 90 minutes, you’ll go into overtraining, which is bad for your progress. Some trainers even recommend keeping the total length of the workout shorter than 60 minutes. Whatever the case may be, you don’t want to be stressing your body for very long periods of time. To make sure I steer clear of overtraining, I split my routine up and do upper and lower body on separate days and I do supersets to keep the workout time low and the intensity high.
For each exercise, I aim to be able to do 8-12 repetitions on the first set and I do each set to failure. If I manage to do 12 or more repetitions, I increases the weights for the next round.
And that’s it. If you have any questions about this routine, feel free to ask away in the comments!
