Help! Advice for beginner weight lift routine

[emerald1000]

I’m brand new to weight lifting and want to start with the goal to just build muscle and be a bit stronger (nothing crazy) However I don’t want to shy away from upper body workout like most women do, id like to have defined muscles but not be HUGE lol i’m a 20 yr old female. Currently eating a caloric surplus and getting my body weight in protein as I found through my research this is important.

I have decided for my routine I want to do a 4 day upper lower split as I can not see myself sticking to a 3 day full body split so please don’t suggest this!! I think this will be adequate for me recovery wise and time wise, plus it keeps it fresh and therefore keeps me interested.

NOTE: I am only able to access an at home gym with dumbbells no bench.
I may in the future have a rowing machine however.

Almost all of these are going to be: 3 sets of 8-10 as a beginner so I can focus on form and build up weight and frequency

All are going to be using dumbbells mod

My current set up is as follows:

Monday; upper a
Tuesday: lower a
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: upper b
Friday: lower b
sat/sun: rest

Upper A:
seated shoulder press
lateral raise
hammer curls
tricep extensions
bent over rows
reverse flys

Upper B:
Pull over with dumbbell (lat pull down sub)
RDL or dumbbell dead l!ft (can’t decide)
laying flat chest press
Zottomon
tricep kickback
Arnold shoulder press

Lower A: Quad focus
Close stance front squat
goblet squat
Bulgarian split squat
reverse lunge
calf raises
possibly add elevated goblet squat or replace regular goblet squat

Lower B: glute and ham focus
RDL
Wide stance RDL
Alternating lunges
hip thrust with dumbbell
deadlift
calf raises

Questions:

I struggle with understanding the whole hitting muscle “groups” 2x a week thing. With this routine am i hitting each muscle/muscle group enough? or are there certain muscles i’m hitting too much.

Basically: am I overworking or underworking certain muscles/ muscle groups?

Lastly, should some excersises be done on the same day to make my routines more efficient (aka should i move stuff around?)

Any help would be appreciated thank you so much!!

 

[dch]

@emerald1000 I can't see anything really wrong with your routine.

Only recommendation I can make is for your home gym to invest in a barbell. But I'm biased lol

 

[destls]

@dch You don’t need it, many of the exercises you can modify to do with dumbbells (like OP said) but training might be a bit easier and more efficient.

 

[harko]

@destls Barbell will be best for long term progression. You need a wide range of dumbbells to keep up with produce overload. Of course if you're using a barbell you need a power rack to safely bench and squat at home.

 

[offsetonsetonfroy]

@emerald1000 I m not a professional either and I’m always looking for pointers on how to workout but to answer your last question I personally would do your routine on the same days until you don’t see anymore gains then you slowly incorporate something differently like different body parts on different days and try to do something different to work that body part you shooting for and depending on hitting your muscle groups 2x a week I go 6 days on and 1 off, what ever works best for you and your body and remember resting is really important in growing your muscles and you need to stretch and drink lots of water everyday . Have fun working out

 

[harko]

@offsetonsetonfroy You're not wrong but you really don't need to change your split just because you stall in progress. Every workout will stall at some point. At that point you need to incorporate deloads, switch up your reps and sets, and work on accessories and weak points of your main lifts to drive progress. Id also argue that stretching is often over emphasized in importance. If you lack in mobility by all means do some stretching but if you're hitting a good rom on all the big lifts your mobility is probably good. I say this because some people I've spoken to are spending way too much time on stretching and warmup gimmicks and not enough time where it counts on the primary compound lifts.

 

[harko]

@emerald1000 I've been running an Upper-lower split for about three years and I still pretty regularly am seeing new personal records. I don't know why you'd do an RDL or DL on your upper body B workout. Those are more posterior chain, lower body movements. I'll link my workout below. Your program skills be built around the primary movements; horizontal push and pull and vertical push and pull, asking with squats and a hip hinge. You've basically got that but you want to do your primary movements first and put the most effort into those lifts because they are where you'll make the most progress and add the most mass. So you'd want to do your seated shoulder press, flat bench press, overhead pull, and row first going as heavy as you can in the desired rep range. Here's my workout-

It's based on "Westside Barbell For Skinny Bastards III" which is a PHUL (power, hyper, upper, lower) routine. I've modified it a bit to fit my needs based on additional research but if you want to go to the source and read up I'd start there.

Monday: Upper

Primary
Bench: 2-3 sets heavy 3-5reps, 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.
Row: same formula heavy 2-3/3-5reps, light 2-3 sets 12-15 reps.

Secondary:
Overhead press variation (DB OHP or Viking Press): 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.
Pullups: 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.

Accessories:
Rear delt fly, lat raise, bicep curl bicep extension 2-3sets 12-15 reps.

Tues: Lower

Primary
Squat: 2-3 sets heavy 3-5reps, 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.

Secondary
deadlift variation (RDL or SLDL) 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.

Accessories: belt squat, pendulum sissy squat, cable ham raise 2-3 sets 20-25reps

Wed: rest

Thursday: Upper2

Primary
Barbell overhead press: 2-3 sets heavy 3-5reps, 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.
Pullups: same formula heavy 2-3/3-5reps, light 2-3 sets 12-15 reps.

Secondary:
Bench press variation (DB bench): 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.
Row variation (DB, chest supported, or low cable row: 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps

Accessories:
Rear delt fly, lat raise, bicep curl bicep extension 2-3sets 12-15 reps.

Friday: Lower2

Primary
Sumo Deadlift: 2-3 sets heavy 3-5reps, 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.

Secondary
Squat variation (front, box, or w/chains) 2-3 sets light 12-15 reps.

Accessories: belt squat, pendulum sissy squat, cable ham raise 2-3 sets 20-25reps

That's the general gist of it. When I started I just focused on my primary lifts so I'd only bench and row on Monday. I also always do back to back sets on my upper body lifts. So I'll do my bench set, catch my breath, then do my rows, catch my breath and move on to the next set. It just saves a bit of time bc my schedule is extremely tight. I tried back to back sets with my lower body but it really effected the amount and quality of my lifts. Ill do the same with my accessories. When I started I only did one lower body lift or lower body day alternating squat and DL. Eventually I added secondary lifts and later on accessory lifts. I didn't start with everything listed all at once. I took my time and built the habit and got used to the volume.

 

[emerald1000]

@harko If you could could you clarify: so on an upper day you should have a horizontal push and pull and vertical push and pull then accessories?? Should each one be different than the last (upper A horizontal push different than upper B horizontal push?)

 

[harko]

@emerald1000 If you wanted to be minimalist you could do a horizontal one day and a vertical the other. I know guys that have cut out all horizontal work and done only vertical for close to a year bc they really wanted to make progress in that area. For me though I usually hit both movements each upper day. They don't have to be different lifts I just enjoy the variety. I usually stick with something 1-3 the months or until I stop making progress before switching to a different exercise variation or rep range.