Wanting to try out my own program, could I get a review?

[Josh]

I really like the programs outlined here but I was looking for something with a little more frequency (3x) to the upper body, and less to the lower body.

 

I decided I’d give this a shot, if anyone could critique it I’d be appreciative. The program goes by Pull, Push, Pull, Push, Lower, Upper, Rest

 

I already programmed in chest/back exercises for each day, so I don’t need help with that but could someone please help me programming in shoulder/arm exercises? I have 5 variants programmed in, I don’t know if that’s too many but the other option would be to do the same exercise repeated twice in a week  which I’m not sure would be too effective…

Here’s the arm and shoulder movements I have programmed in right now:

—

Pull [a]

-back 1

-back 2

Barbell Curl 1×8-12; 2×12-16

Face-away Cable Curl 1×8-12; 2×12-20

Cable Lateral Raise (lengthened position) 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

Cable Rear-delt Extension 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

 

Push [a]

<b>-</b>chest 1

-chest 2

Cross Body Cable Pushdown 1×8-12; 2×12-20

Overhead Rope Extension 1×8-12; 2×12-20

Cable Y-Raise (shortened position) 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

Cable Front-delt Raise 1×8-12; 2×12-20

 

Pull

<b>-</b>back 1

-back 2

– Hammer Curl 1×8-12; 2×12-20

– Machine Preacher Curl 1×8-12; 2×12-20

– reverse pec deck 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

– machine laterals 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

 

 

Push

– chest 1

– chest 2

– shoulder press 3×6-12

– dumbbell y-raise 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

– Rope Pushdown 1×8-12; 2×12-20

– Katana Extensions 1×8-12; 2×12-20

 

Lower

 

Upper

-chest

-back

-chest

-back

– heavy dumbbell partials SS lateral raise (3 sets)

– seated dumbbell curl (3 sets)

– dip machine (3 sets)

Rest

 

As you can see for biceps, triceps, side-delts, I have 5 different variations programmed within a week. Is this too many variations? If so, how would I go about decreasing the amount of variations and still hit each muscle group with the amount of frequency as I put above (like how would I be able to hit side-delts 5x a week if I only had 3 variants?)

 

Thanks!

[Joe]

[Josh]

Wow, thanks so much Joe! I like how you said it was “splitting marginal hairs” since it seems like I am really “majoring in the minors.” This has been a really bad mindset for me for months now where I keep changing my programs and can’t overload overtime because of these arm and shoulder variant dilemmas..

 

You said you’d give up variance for an exercise you like more which I should probably do but if you use the same rep ranges ie a preacher curl on Monday and Wednesday, you wouldn’t be able to necessarily progress from your Monday session since you only have one day of rest between the exercise and also the different back exercises beforehand on each day would perhaps fatigue the biceps differently in each day. Does this matter? The same concept for side-delts and triceps. It’s this mindset that has been hindering some of my gains.

 

On the other hand, if I do a different variation for each body part on each day, this would fix the issue above because I wouldn’t be using the same exercise but would cause another problem: would there be a time where I plateau on all of these variants and not have anything to replace it with?

 

Both of these issues are my fears for a) using the same exercise with less variation during the week, and b) using different exercises with more variance.

 

I’m just really hoping I can get over this mindset!

[Josh]

Joe wrote:

I’m not sure if I clicked the reply button lol but just wanted to reiterate, how would I be able to incorporate the same movement in different days? Ex Should I just follow a rep scheme of lets say Cable lateral raise 1×8-15: 1×15-23; 23-30 on Push A and push B and a different variant on the pull days? Or just completely have new exercises

[BryceBahm]

[Joe]

[Josh]

Thanks Bryce and Joe!

 

I guess I wanted to know if it was okay to work the same movement twice a week (like a preacher curl or lengthened cable lateral raise) at the same rep range to make progress. Obviously, you would have to progress twice a week instead of once a week since the exercise is programmed 2/week now at the same rep range.

 

I’ve taken into account of what you’ve said and have written up this program and will stick to it, is this program reasonable (mainly looking at the arms/delts aspect)?

 

PULL [A] – MONDAY

– CS T-bar Row (Back #1)

– SA Cable Lat Row (Back #2)

– Rear-delt Extension 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

– Lengthened Lateral Raise 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

– Hammer Curl 1×8-12; 2×12-20

– Preacher Curl (machine) 1×8-12; 2×12-20

 

PULL – WEDNESDAY

– Machine Lateral Raise 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

– Plate-loaded High Row (Back #1)

– SA Machine Lat Row (Back #2)

– Incline Dumbbell Row (Back #3)

– Rear-delt Swing 3×10-20

– Incline Cable Curl 1×8-12; 2×12-20

– Seated DB Curl (w/ the lat-pulldown handles as support) 1×8-12; 2×12-20

———————————-

PUSH [A] – TUESDAY

– DB Incline Press (Chest #1)

– Seated Bayesian Cable Press (Chest #2)

– Seated Cross Cable Pushdown 1×8-12; 2×12-20

– A1) Dumbbell Heavy Partials (seated) 3×10-20

A2) Dumbbell Side Laterals (seated)

– Incline DB Skullcrusher 1×8-12; 2×12-20

 

PUSH – THURSDAY

– DB Bench Press (Chest #1)

– DB Shoulder Press

– SA Incline Cable Fly (Chest #2)

– SA Cable Y-Raise 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

– Long Rope Pushdown 1×8-12; 2×12-20

– SA Katana Extension 1×8-12; 2×12-20

 

LOWER – FRIDAY

 

UPPER – SATURDAY

– Lengthened Lateral Raise 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

– CS Pulldown (BACK #1)

– Incline Barbell Bench (Chest #1)

– Smith-machine Row (Back #2)

– A1) Weighted Dips (Chest #2)

A2) Dip Machine

– A1) Pec Deck (Chest #3)

– A2) Reverse Pec Deck 1×8-15; 1×15-23; 1×23-30

– Preacher Curl Machine

 

Volume for chest and back will be accounted for so I can recover. Essentially, I’m doing a different lateral-delt variant/movement everyday (except for lower) and repeating one of those movements on upper-body for a total of four different varieties in a week. The same with biceps/triceps, 4 variations except they are done 3x a week instead of 5x.

I mainly wanted to know if it would be a big-deal repeating the same variant twice in a week for the same rep range because then I would be essentially trying to progress on the movement twice a week, rather than the original once a week for other variants. Will this cause me to plateau or be inefficient, or am I overthinking it?

 

Once again, thanks a lot!

 

[BryceBahm]

[Author]

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