Same Full Body routine x 3 times a week?

[youngwife]

Hey guys,

MY GOAL IS TO GET CUT/RIPPED NOT BIG, BUT MUSCULAR AND CUT. I have a decent ground base now with 183cm and 73kg. But I want more muscle and definition.

Disclaimer: I have not trained serious for 1-2 years so I would still consider myself a beginner in terms of taking fitness serious and being contentious with progressive overloading and right nutrition. I have trained for a year, but it has been sporadic with constant changes to approach and a steep learning curve.

I see Full Body programs being wildly acknowledged too be preferable to "beginners".

Is it recommened to do the same Full Body split 3 times a week?

Every Monday/Wednesday/Friday:

Squat

Chin Up

Deadlift

Overhead Press

Bent Over Row

Bench Press

Cable Crunches

Also I often prefer to train monday, wednesday and friday, but some wednesdays I can't train due to work. What would you advice when this happens or to prevent this?

Is doing the same exercises three times a week too much?

Should I instead perhaps follow something like the Bigger, Leaner, Stronger 3 or 4 day routine? On the 4 day routine I would then rest on wednesdays.

Have you had any experience in trying this approach yourself?

 

[destiny123]

@youngwife Sure.

 

[dawn16]

@youngwife I would make 3 different versions to avoid boredom and overuse.

 

[youngwife]

@dawn16 You are probably right. I think squat is a weak spot so how about this:

Monday: Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift + 1 or 2 accessory ex.

Wednesday: Squat, Overhead Press, Chin up + 1 or 2 acc ex.

Friday: Squat, Bench Press, Row or Lat Pulldown + 1 or 2 acc ex.

Would that be too much overuse of Squat?

 

[dawn16]

@youngwife It's okay to squat 3 times a week at first but when you get more strong i'd drop it down to 2 times. Maybe oneday do leg press or some other accessory.

 

[ecalmese]

@youngwife It seems like you would enjoy Super Squats, you should check it out. Has a very similar scheme to what you proposed there. Anecdotally, I’m running it for the second time now (it’s a 6 week program) and I have seen great results. As long as you eat big, you get big.

As far as missing the Wednesday goes, when that happens to me I usually go the day after (Thursday) and then do the third lift Saturday. If that schedule change doesn’t work, I just wait till friday and resume the program (I have not seen any issues with this as long as it doesn’t happen too frequently).

Cheers

 

[youngwife]

@ecalmese I will check out Super Squats...I "hate" squats, cause I feel I am lacking at strength in that department. However I would rather get used to and able to like squat than keep hating it due to bad form and weak legs while squatting, due to not performing squats enough. Another user also said I should perhaps mix it up to avoid bordome and I agree. What do you think about this like tweak I have made.

Compound lifts will be 3 sets of 5 heavy reps. That was my idea:

Monday: Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift + 1 or 2 accessory ex.

Wednesday: Squat, Overhead Press, Chin up + 1 or 2 acc ex.

Friday: Squat, Bench Press, Row or Lat Pulldown + 1 or 2 acc ex.

Would that be too much overuse of Squat?

 

[youngwife]

@ecalmese I tried Super Squats today, cause it sounded exciting. I do however suffer from recovering from an injury (football/soccer), so my legs are quite weak due to having had to rest, rest and rest, so I was only able to do 20 reps of 30kg, but it's a start. I feel my core is weak too, but I'm sure squatting will help plentyfull.

The squats felt intense, especially my breathing pattern was hard to control. A weird feeling, but not a bad feeling. It was hard to get all the way down all the time and I had to pause sometimes with the bar on my shoulders while breathing before I squatted down again. At least I did it.

I then did the 20 slow pullovers with low weight to recover and really stretch.

I followed it all up with supersetting chin ups with dips.

In total it took me less than 30 minutes + 5 min slow rowing after training with a little heart rate with 3-5 min between each exercise.

I felt great afterwards aside from sore legs when walking stairs and I could see the pump in the legs.

I will proceed to eat plentyfull and dive in on milk and eggs. How much calorie surplus is recommeneded during the 6 weeks Super Squat program?

 

[ecalmese]

@youngwife Great!! Glad you gave it a try! A couple things to say, first about your calorie surplus question: in the program book, it calls for this ridiculous diet of 8 billion eggs and gallons of milk a day lol, I do not see any point in doing that (though eating a lot of eggs and milk is good for you!). Since this program is 6 weeks, I suggest eating as much as you physically can while meeting about .8-1g protein/lb bodyweight. Personally, when doing super squats I don’t even track calories, I just make sure I’m eating until I physically cannot every time I get even slightly hungry in the day. If you need to actually track, I’d say a 500-800cal surplus would be sufficient.

Now, I do have a couple suggestions based on your other comment and this one. The traditional supersquats program calls for doing basically every compound each day, but that is not strictly necessary. I would say that you should make sure you do the RDLs every day after the squats (so that you don’t end up with uneven leg strength) and besides that it is up to you. I would recommend having overhead press in there at least 2 days a week, and the same with bench and row.

Now, as far as the rep scheme goes, you can do 3 sets of 5 heavy reps and you will likely see progress. Personally, I put much more muscle on at higher rep schemes, so I stick to the 3x10/3x12 sets originally programmed in the book. However, if you are satisfied with your growth at 5 reps with heavier weight, then that works just fine.

LMK if you have any other questions/want to talk about your progress as you go through the program, cheers!

 

[youngwife]

@ecalmese Sure gave it a try and has decided to give it all 6 weeks now! It might get hard and I might question myself, but sometimes I feel it's nice to challenge oneself and push limits. I feel I need that when I can't play sports.

Yes, a gallon of milk sounds crazy and very expensive too. I have dialed my diet today in with 1 liter of milk + 250ml of coco milk and 4 eggs mixed into a total intake of 3000 kcal. Sounds neat that I should eat as much as I can.

I've decided to track my calories the first week and with my current diet that's about 3000 kcal bang on. My maintance is 2300-2500 cause I have a very seditary work and I don't play football or run at the moment due to my injury. I make sure to get at least 1 g of protein/lb bodyweight in the diet. I feel like I have shovled food in me today. I hope I can keep it up. But in a good way. It's just the feeling of spending almost all day preparing food or eating that's weird.

Is fast food fair games? Although I only tend to eat it occationally. But still, easy calories.

Your suggestions make sense. Think it - as you suggestion - sounds like a good idea to incorporate RDL. I had made a program where I'm doing it once a week, but I can change it to every time. Something like this perhaps:

DAY 1:

20 x Squat

20 x Pullover

1 x RDL

(2 x Bend Row)

2 x 8-10 Bench Press

2 x8-10 Military Press

DAY 2:

20 x Squat

20 x Pullover

1 x RDL

2 x8-10 Dips

2 x6-8 Chin up

DAY 3:

20 x Squat

20 x Pullover

1 x RDL

2 x 6-8 Bend Over Row

2 x 10-12 Lat Raises

I could also swap DAY 3 and just repeat DAY 1 - That way I'd get Bench, Military twice a week and then I could add Rows into that mix. Or I could just do DAY 1 every time

Would be cool to talk about progession as I go through and also to find out what to do when the 6 week program ends Your help is much appreciated!

 

[ecalmese]

@youngwife Glad to hear you’re already shoving your face! I’ve found that appetite will absolutely increase as you go through the program, especially when the squat sets become absolutely grueling. I personally eat a fast food meal every day or two, and I don’t find any negative effects (skin, energy, fat gain, etc.) so I would say if it helps you eat more, have some fast food here and there.

As far as the program goes, I think the first day looks really solid, and the day 2 will be a nice lighter day to help your body condition into the program a bit. Day 3 seems really light to me, and I do think you’d be better off repeating day 1 that day. As well, as you go through the program (or if you like it so much that you decide to run it again in the future!) you will likely find better progress sticking to day 1 for every day, and maybe incorporating one exercise from day 2 into day 1.

I’d love to hear about your progress as you go through the program, so message me about how it’s going some time! Cheers

 

[youngwife]

@ecalmese Thought I wanted to give a little update on week 2. This was my first training day of week two. I have added 2.5 kg to my squat every time and I've finished all 20 reps going a total of 7.5 kg up in the first week with my annoying injury. However today I felt a slight pain in my groin area, so I am not sure if that stems from squatting, bad form and if I should stop squatting until that feeling no more comes? It comes when I do a squatting movement regardless of it being weighted or simply just going into a squat with my bodyweight.

Also I am trying to count my calorie intake. Do you know which one of the Activity levels I should choose here: https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html ?

Is weight lifting an activity that elevates the heart rate much?

I have also asked this question in the sub.

Other than that everything is going fine and my appetite is decent. I have put on 1.3 kg in a week. I know most of it is probably fat, but at least I am gaining.

 

[ecalmese]

@youngwife Great job on the weight gain and moving up the squat weight so far! To answer your question about pain, I cannot certainly say you should do anything as I am not a physical therapist. However, supersquats will really reveal what issues you have with mobility in general. I would recommend looking up some strategies to increase mobility around your pelvis/hips, if you do not wish to see a physical therapist about it. I personally have had issues with my hips, and just a bit of stretching and mobility work did wonders.

As far as what you should do for activity levels, I can’t really tell you that without more information about what you do with the rest of your day. As far as lifting goes, your heartrate will rise but you burn a pretty insignificant amount of calories just from lifting (basically the same as a decent size glass of milk). I do not track my calories anymore, but if you want to you should start with a number and then evaluate after a week or two whether it is too low. Most of these calculators are somewhat inaccurate, so it’ll take a bit of finagling to figure out the number you need.

Cheers, keep it up!

 

[youngwife]

@ecalmese A little update of going into week 3:

I have hit a major setback with coming down with a cold/flu. My throat has been sore, my body as been aching and I've had shivers on top of that my appetite is gone and I doubt I'll be fit to go to the gym tomorrow to follow my plan. I have lost weight, been sweating a lot and my stomach is constantly making sounds of hunger, but my appetite is hard to convince and my throat annoys me. It sucks!

On a bright side, when I did the 20 squats last week (thursday) I felt no hip or groin pain or issues, so it might have been wrong performance technique for my bodytype or the fact that I did some stretching movements beforehand as you suggested looking into. I had a really great workout last week (actually both workouts where great) where I had so much energy that I added some additional exercises just for the fun of it.

But I must admit this cold/flu thing is really getting on my nerves. I feel much better today, my nose is running and my throat is sore, but I don't get shivers anymore and my muscles feels ok not so aching. However it is affecting my sleep and my diet severly. Most of my calories has come from drinks, yoghurt and ice cream, but I am no where near at hitting a surplus in my intake, quite the opposite. Damn it. My cold/flu started friday night. Did you experience such setback?

 

[ecalmese]

@youngwife Glad to hear your lifts last week went well! Sorry to hear that you’ve come down with something though. I did actually experience this when I did SuperSquats over the summer, and it was very frustrating so I can empathize here.

However, think about it this way: if it takes you weeks of eating tons to gain weight, then a week (or hopefully less!) of being sick and eating at/near maintenance will be a drop in the bucket if you’re looking at it long term. Get rest, eat what you can/need, and when you feel better get back at it. It’s really no biggie, happens to everyone. As well, most of the weight it feels like you’ve lost is going to be water weight and glycogen that will come back as soon as you get back to the gym.

When you get back to the gym, I would recommend squatting either the same weight or 5lbs lower than you did in the last workout before you got sick. That was what I did when I had this issue, and it let me get myself back into the routine without possibly injuring myself after having taken a couple/few days off.

Cheers bro, you’ll be back at it in no time!

 

[addai]

@youngwife I would swap ohp and lat raises so your benching doesnt effect your ohp and you have a couple days to rest after ohp before you bench again

 

[digitaltranscendence]

@youngwife

1. Bulk up. If you have abs now, bulk up until you lose the abs, stay that way for another few months, then cut. Rinse and repeat until you feel like you’re “muscular and cut” enough.
2. Since you’ve stated that at times, you can’t make it to train on Wednesday, it’s best if you just make a schedule without anything on Wednesday. Here’s what I would suggest:

Monday

• Squat
• Bench Press
• Row
• one tricep isolation
• one bicep isolation

Friday

• Deadlift
• Overhead Press
• Pull-ups (if you’re able to do 3x10-12, you might wanna consider doing Weighted Pull-ups.)
• one tricep isolation
• one bicep isolation

This is the least you should be doing a week. If you happen to have a pull-up bar at home or you could get to a nearby park that have one on other days, I’d recommend you to do a bit of pull-ups and dips/push-ups on Thursday and Saturday. Consider this as a way to get more volume in without going to the gym.

If you could go and stick with Mon, Wed & Friday, I’d suggest this way;

Monday

• Squat
• Overhead Press

Wednesday

• Bench Press

Friday

• Deadlift

And every session, you follow up with these as the supplemental and accessories;

• Pull-ups
• Rows
• a type of elbow extension for the tricep
• a type of curl
• face pull with bands or cables
• abs (optional)
• lower back (optional)

For pull-ups on the 3 day split, an option that you can do;

• Monday - 5x5 Weighted
• Wednesday - 10 set of X
• Friday - max reps set, followed by 20% rep reduction set, and another 20% rep reduction.

I like to work the back more because the other lifts benefits more from a stronger back. Face pull or band pull is just a way to not get snapped up IMO.

Squat, BP, DL and OHP would work with 5x5. It’s a good way to get volume without doing too heavy for beginners.

I’m heavy on the pull-ups so I would always prioritise that over rowing but you need to row. They don’t have to be heavy. Just a simple 4x10-12 would get the job done. Early on you can get away with doing BB Row but if it hurts your back or affect your deadlift and squat day, you might wanna consider switching to a variation that doesn’t require you to stand up and bend forward. Bodyweight inverted row, cable row, chest supported DB Row. Basically anything that won’t work your lower back.

Once you’ve plateaued, you might wanna consider something much more periodised with a lot more volume. Plenty of programs you could try by then. Different people would go with different way of training.

 

[sheabutter88]

@youngwife 73kg at 6’ tall seems pretty underweight…you’d probably be better off just doing 5x5 to start tbh

 

[turretin]

@youngwife I was able to get a six pack just doing daily walks and some calisthenics every other day. Nothing special just like couch push ups, table rows, a little yoga, and body weight squats. I think you’ll be fine.

 

[dianafrancis]

@youngwife Eat more train intensely mostly compound, don't skip sessions. If you're serious about growth you won't let anything stop you training. Don't worry about bodyfat it's part of being in calorific excess. Good luck