@cerddoriaeth Having a workout plan is pretty important -- this is a great start.
I think your general approach here is fine. For most people I like to organize training in the most time-efficient way possible, and usually with a higher frequency -- spreading upper and lower work out over multiple days. And your plan does have some of that going on already.
As you noted, you did get very sore from Day 2. And you do have some leg training on Day 5, but it won't likely be stimulative in the way you'd want for your lower body (squat and then press, and deadlift and high-pull). I would count these as upper body training. The weights are necessarily going to be really really light in order for you to pull and press (not a slight on you, this is how it is for everyone). So as they are now, these are basically just upper body movements with a dynamic (but not very stimulative) movement in the lower body. It could even be a bit worse than not stimulative for the lower body -- because the deadlift and squat parts will fatigue you systemically, and might make you get fewer reps of the high pull and the press.
If I were to rewrite your Day 5, I would go with something like:
Terms RPE - 1-10 scale,
Rate of
Perceived
Exertion - in resistance training it means reps in reserve. So RPE 10 = 0 reps in reserve, RPE 9 - 1 rep in reserve, RPE 8 - 2 reps in reserve, etc....
Warm-up: dynamic warmup as needed, but you'll get plenty of warm-up from the movements themselves, take at least 2-4 warm-up sets of the first two movements, 1-3 for the rest.
- 2-3 sets of Barbell Squats 5-8 reps 6-7 RPE (aka 3 or 4 Reps in Reserve) (or Leg Press 8-12 reps at 7 RPE )
- superset with:
- 2-3 sets of Pull-ups (assisted) - 10-15 reps, at RPE 8
- 2-3 sets of Barbell Deadlifts (or trap bar) - 5-8 reps, at RPE 6-7
- superset with
- 2-3 sets of Push-ups to RPE 8-10. Don't cheat the form, touch your chest to the ground on every rep. Pause at the bottom, but don't relax on the floor, to really milk it out.
If you like push-ups you can also do multiple approaches to failure per primary set. So go to failure, rest 10-15 seconds, do another mini set to get a few more reps -- it's called a "rest pause set". I'd suggest just doing 1 rest pause set, for each primary set.
And if that's not enough training for Day 5, you could add the 5th and 6th exercises as a superset as well:
- 2-3 sets of Barbell Incline Bench 5-8 reps @ 6-8 RPE (or Incline Dumbbell Bench 8-12 reps @ 8RPE)
- superset with
- 2-3 sets of Dumbbell Upright Row 8-12 reps @ 8 RPE (or Lateral Raises 10-15 @ 8RPE)
So you already overhead press on Day 1, so not sure you need another slot. I would suggest working in some incline benching instead of a second overhead.
Cardio: keep the same
You could also use rest-pause for pull-ups, as a way to hammer in more volume in a time-efficient way. There's a good chance your upper body can handle more volume than your lower body, so this rest-pause technique won't be as necessary or common in your lower body training -- e.g. I wouldn't bother trying to rest pause on barbell back squat or barbell deadlifts for example, they're usually too fatiguing and you need more time to recover, especially in the lower rep ranges.
I wrote a few different RPEs here. The heavier barbell stuff I tend to stay further away from failure, at least in week 1. But I think you can work these all up to RPE 8, and for things like assisted pull-ups, lateral raises, push-ups, you can probably take these to RPE 9-10 with good results.
If you have any questions, let me know.
