Is my workout plan balanced?

[louiscabrera]

I’ve been going to the gym on and off for a long time with no progress and I’ve only now started to go consistently just a few weeks ago. I set up a gym plan with weights, reps, sets, etc. but I’m not sure if I’m hitting all the right muscles equally. Feedback and/or suggestions from more experienced gym goers would be greatly appreciated! The gym plan:

LEGS/CORE DAY

Leg Press
* 11kg warmup
* 25kg—>45kg

Calves Press
* zero weight warmup
* 15kg —> 20kg

Leg Extensions Machine
* 11kg warmup
* 18kg —> 24kg
* sets of 12

Leg Curl
* 14kg warmup
* 23kg

Squats with weight (sets of 12)
* no weight warmup
* 5kg/7.5kg each side -> w/o machine
* 10kg/15kg each side -> with machine

Crunch bench
* No weight
* sets of 15
* 4 sets

PUSH DAY

Chest Press
* 11kg —> 13.3kg (extra weight) —> 18kg
* sets of 12

Tricep Pressdown
* 2.5kg warmup
* 5kg/7.5kg
* sets of 12

Shoulder Press
* 4kg warmup
* 6kg —> 8kg
* sets of 12

Dumbell Front Raise
* 2kg warmup
* 5kg —> 7kg
* sets of 12

Single Arm Cable Pushdown
* No weight warmup
* 2.3kg
* sets of 12)

Incline Chest Press
* 4kg warmup
* 6kg —> 8kg —> 10kg (extra set)
* sets of 12

Side Lateral Dumbell Raises
* 2kg warmup
* 4kg/5kg
* sets of 12

Crunch bench
* No weight
* sets of 15
* 4 sets

PULL DAY

Seated Cable Row
* ?? warmup
* 14kg —> 18kg
* sets of 12

Dumbell Curl
* 3kg warmup
* 6kg —> 8kg
* sets of 12

Face Pull
* 5.7kg warmup
* 9kg
* sets of 10
OR
Dumbbell shrugs
* 10kg warmup
* 18kg each side
* sets of 15

Lat Pushdown
* Small weight warmup
* 7.9kg each side
* sets of 10
OR
Assisted pull-up (weight assistance)
* 68kg warmup (add the extra weight too)
* 59kg
* Sets of 12

Hammer Curl
* 3-4kg for warmup
* 5kg
* sets of 12

Forearms Dumbell Curl
* 3kg warmup
* 7kg —> 9kg

Bench crunch
* No weight
* sets of 15
* 4 sets

 

[dawn16]

@louiscabrera You probably dont need to do a warmup set until your moving a few hundred pounds

Like if your benching 2-3 plates or squatting 300+ you would do like a set of 10 reps of 25% of the weight then 10 reps of 50% of the weight and then jump up to a working set or do a third warmup at 75% for 6-8 reps.

For a little lighter than that you could do an empty bar set and then a set at 50% weight for something like an incline press, but honestly I find theres probably not a need to warmup until your moving some heavy weight to help prevent injury by getting your neurological connections firing and warmed up and technique ready to go.

With as much shoulder work as what you are getting in the front delt something like a front raise is over kill and better spent doing something else. If your doing that much pressing in a session doing an overhead pressing movement is probably overkill for the front delts as well. I would cut both of those. I don’t even do front delt specific work anymore stopped months ago and my front delts are huge and my progress is still going up.

It looks pretty solid for the most part. I never liked the seated cable row personally I would switch that out for pendlay style row or incline or even have a dedicated spot for neutral or regular pullups.

Face pulls are more of a corrective exercise if your trying for rear delts your probably better off doing rear delt specific work like a rear delt machine. If its traps theres better choices like a seated dumbbell shrug or upright rows.

 

[louiscabrera]

@dawn16 I have a few questions. Is there any difference between seated Dumbell shrugs and standing Dumbell shrugs? I normally do mine standing (I also don’t do face pull anymore mainly just cuz the form is hard and Dumbell shrugs are just more comfortable for me). You mentioned front raises but what other overhead pressing excercise did you say to cut? And for seated row, personally I like it because it’s one of the few back excercises that I can properly feel in my back (as well as assisted pull ups) are the alternatives better in any way?

 

[dawn16]

@louiscabrera Oh yeah are you going twice a week? You’ll see better development if you go twice a week.

6-30 weekly sets, 10-20 weekly setd is the sweet spot for alot of people, if you aim for the lower range you will get minimum results.

5–30 reps

2-5 min rests between sets and exercises

30-75% of your 1RM

Those are some good baselines to create a routine by.

And when in doubt, grab and app or a plan.

Heres three -

Alpha Progression

Boost Camp

Jiff Nippard programs.

Are you eating in a slight surplus and getting at least 0.7g of protein and waiting 48-72 hours to train a muscle group again?

300-500 daily surplus and 0.7g-1g of protein per lb of bodyweight.

Heres to food trackers

NutritioniX

MacroFactor

Goodluck.

 

[louiscabrera]

@dawn16 Well I didn’t include days but I train 3 days. a week which is what time allows with all the university work I have. Which is leg day on Tuesday, push day on Friday, and pull day on Sunday so I always have a rest day or two between work out days. As for food, I’m trying to keep it as 50% carbs 20% protein (110g) and 30% fat. I’m 82kg (180 pounds) so according to that, with 0.7 to 1g of protein per pound, I’m under the protein goal so I can change those percentages. I am trying to lose a little weight without losing muscle cuz I am a bit overweight currently. With as much as I weigh, 1g of protein per pound is a little unrealistic, so I’ll keep it at around 0.8g per pound (which is around 140g of protein)

 

[dawn16]

@louiscabrera Oh yeah and on warm ups you only need to warm up once per muscle group if your hitting them on after another.

 

[louiscabrera]

@dawn16 Good to know. Thank you!

 

[lnjblessings]

@louiscabrera If you want to run a PPL, I'd highly recommend using this as a starting point:

https://liftvault.com/programs/strength/reddit-ppl/

Edit: For future reference:

• Your warmup sets and weights aren't relevant in this context
• You write sets and reps schemes like this: x. So 3x15 would be 3 sets of 15 reps.
• You have no method of implementing progressive overload. This is far more important than listing out all of your weights and warmup sets etc.

 

[louiscabrera]

Well I write my weights as a guideline but I normally do 2 sets of my regular weight then for the next one I increase the weights and for the next one the same. I’ll write my sets and reps like that thanks! I’ll check out the link you sent

 

[theadmiral]

@louiscabrera Just follow an existing program that's proven to work, the link below has plenty

https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/

This isn't really a program, there doesn't seem to be a prescription for number of sets, not every movement has a rep scheme, and there doesn't appear to be any mechanism for progression

 

[louiscabrera]

@theadmiral Well these are notes to remind me of my plan. If an excercise doesn’t have a rep scheme then the default is 15 reps. And sure I’ll see the link