Gym Plan

Where did it come from?

Firstly, lets start with this... I HATE cardio with a burning fiery passion, so any way of avoiding it is a big win for me.

One of the main reasons I went for this routine and general school of thought (Leangains) was the fact that it meant you could focus on your diet and avoid any time on the treadmill.

Anyway, as I mentioned on some of my other pages, I used Andy Morgan's website  for a lot of my guidance when I started off. When I was looking at routines to follow I eventually decided to go with number two; 'Three Day Split Reverse Pyramid Training (RPT)' whilst I was cutting, this gave me some success over the 12 weeks during my cut and my lifts actually increased which I was very pleased with seeing as I was cutting.

However, I eventually plateaued in the last couple of weeks, whether this was due to my nutritian and rest, or lack of as the case may be, I can't be sure (probably though) and I thought to myself that seeing as I was switching macros I would have a go at switching up my program as well. I had a few weeks off inbetween cutting and bulking whilst I went on holiday and in that time I decided to do some "light" reading, namely Stuart McRobert's 'Beyond Brawn' (can be found on amazon here) which is an extensive, research based, 480 page guide to training, equipment and getting the most from your gym time. Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed and decided to go with one of the routines listed inside.

The routine I decided to go for only involves training twice a week, this works really well for me with my work commitments as well as the fact that I need the time to recover between sessions, plus, since becoming more informed I have fallen in love with the "more is less" philosophy of training. The routines are divided into 'Lower ' and 'Upper' days, on Mondays and Thursday, my legs are usually still killing me on Friday after training them on Monday!

The Routines

A Few Quick Points Worth Mentioning

Warm Ups

Before I do any "Work sets" i.e my two big exercises in a routine I like to warm up with lighter weights, I don't bother doing this with accessory work. I only ever do 2 or 3 warmup sets, any more than this and I am too tired by the time I get to the main lift. I just try and divide the weight up and step up logically, let me give you an example.

Say you're benching 60kgs (132lbs) for your main work set, I would then do two warm up sets, one of 20kgs and one of 40kgs before then doing 1 or 2 reps with 60kgs as my warmup.

Rest Times

This is always a point of debate between people I have come across, some live by 1 minute rest periods, some prefer anything up to 5 minutes, I decided to go for 3 minutes for my big barbell exercises then 1 minute for accessory work.

Monday (Lower)

• Barbell Squat - 5 Sets of 5
• Barbell Deadlift - 5 Sets of 5
• Pull Ups - 5 Sets of 5
• Leg Curl - 5 Sets of 5
• Standing Barbell Calf Raises - 3 Sets of 10
• Back Extensions - 3 Sets of 10
• Crunches - 3 Sets of 15
• Grip Work

Thursday (Upper)

• Barbell Bench Press - 5 Sets of 5
• Standing Barbell Overhead Press (OHP) - 5 Sets of 5
• Barbell Bicep Curl - 5 Sets of 7
• Weighted Side Bends - 3 Sets of 10
• Dumbbell Standing Lateral Raise - 5 Sets of 5
• Dumbbell Pec Fly - 5 Sets of 5

Simple huh?

Stuart McRobert talks a lot about micro-loading, I might go into this in more detail later, but in essence it's about very small increments in weight each week, even if it's just a KG.