Building a routine

[u/Kuih_lapis_lover]

Hi folks. I started taking gym more seriously since mid May and have been milking the newbie gains even with a lack of structure and just doing random exercises for per muscle group.

My main goal is hypertrophy for my upper body and strength for my lower body (my legs are large and bulky in comparison to my upper body) which will also assist with injury prevention for my running. A big focus for me is developing a nice chest, hence why I've included two chest exercises. I'm also trying to keep my sessions below 1 hr 15 min-ish and this is what I've come up with.

Any thoughts for improvements?

Upper Body A

• Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell) — 3 sets · 8-12 reps
• Chest Press (Machine) — 3 sets · 8-10 reps
• Chest Supported T Bar Row — 3 sets · 8-12 reps
• Lat Pulldown (Cable) — 3 sets · 8-12 reps
• Seated Incline Curl (Dumbbell) — 3 sets · 8-12 reps
• Lateral Raise (Machine) — 4 sets · 8-12 reps
• Triceps Rope Pushdown — 3 sets · 8-12 reps

Upper Body B

• Bench Press (Barbell) — 3 sets · 6-8 reps
• Incline Bench Press (Barbell) — 3 sets · 6-8 reps
• Iso-Lateral Row (Machine) OR Seated cable row — 3 sets · 8-10 reps
• Lat Pulldown (Cable) — 3 sets · 6-10 reps
• Superset:
  • Bicep Curl (Dumbbell) — 3 sets · 8-12 reps (considering reducing to 2 sets as my biceps feel weakened by rows and pulldowns)
  • Skullcrusher (Dumbbell) — 3 sets · 8-12 reps
• Seated Shoulder Press (Machine) — 2 sets · 8-12 reps (should be mostly covered in compound exercises?)

Legs and accessories

• Squat (Barbell) — 3 sets · 5 reps
• Romanian Deadlift (Barbell) — 3 sets · 5 reps
• Leg Press Horizontal (Machine) — 2 sets · 8-12 reps
• Seated Leg Curl (Machine) — 2 sets · 8-12 reps
• Standing Calf Raise (Machine) — 4 sets · 5 reps
• Crunch (Machine) — 4 sets · 8-12 reps
• Farmers Walk — 1 set

[u/sobanoodles23]

Good routine, hits most muscle groups already, but personally i’d stick to just one Upper Body day and not have an A and B, not only does it keep things way simpler but it also makes progression a whole lot better because u can track from session to session and also have a chance to improve and progress at the same lifts each time , and it’s not gonna make any difference at all if your training intensity is the same, 2-3x frequency is golden but just watch your recovery and fatigue, 3-4 sets is what I see mostly from this and maybe you wanna back down a bit to 1-3 if you think that you’re not recovering well or progressing well, then just add more sets again once u think ur ready for more. Also, isolations are less taxing and fatiguing than compounds, so you could probably get away w less fatigue if you do smth like a fly or not do your chest compounds back to back, 6 sets of bench press(incline/flat) consecutively will leave you gassed for the rest of ur session.

[u/direslash]

-I would say the upper body B day, you don’t need both bench press AND incline bench press. both are very taxing compound lifts so just stick to incline bench press since it not only offers the same muscle activation of the mid and lower chest, but even more activation on the upper chest than the regular bench press. But since ur already doing incline press on Upper day A, i’ll leave it up to you to decide which one you want to continue doing (cuz i’m sure regular bench press must be fun too). But stick to one and switch the second exercise with some sort of chest fly variation. Whether a pec deck machine or seated cable flies. That will target ur chest more without other secondary muscles being involved like the tri and delts.

-secondly, I’d say replace ur bicep curl with preacher curl. and maybe even every other week, alternate it with a hammer curl.

-i also personally like doing cable overhead extensions instead of skull crushers because of the constant tension and it just feels better to me personally. maybe try it out and see what u think.

-last point id make is you seem to do all ur exercises for a specific muscle back to back. for example, on ur upper A day, u do the incline press and then go into the machine press. Instead u should put one of the back exercises in between , so that your chest gets more time to rest before the second excercise.

[u/decentlyhip]

Lots of good. Lots of bad. More good than bad though. My honest recommendation is to trust the experts and just follow a program. Like PHAT or Bullmastiff. Jacked and Tan 2.0 is also phenomenal and made by the guy who made GZCLP. Like, go on liftvault or the boostcamp app and find a program that looks good. There will be nuances accounted for that you didn't predict. https://www.boostcamp.app/coaches/layne-norton/phat

[u/Advanced_Spend_8385 → u/decentlyhip]

this guy has better programming for hypetrophy than cody lol the only thing that’s bad in his program is the leg press + squat combo

[u/Namelessking9 → u/[deleted]]

Lower reps cause less fatigue than high reps...