Bulikng Routine... advice on reps & any other suggestions

Okay Folks,

Next week my lay-off will be over and bodily abuse will begin once again! Am going to be focusing mainly on bulking, but also will be looking to increase strength as much as possible on the big lifts.

My goal with this routine is to gain 30lbs of crude bodyweight over 30 weeks (plus a few lighter rest weeks), then to cut up a bit, see how I look and reassess. The strategy I'll be using has worked for me in the past but I've only used it before on a much shorter cycle (gaining 15lbs bulk over 8 weeks, then cutting to reveal around a 6lb lean gain).

Am not too worried about the dietary aspect, as I think I've now got that organised, but would like a little advice on what kind of rep scheme to use.

Normally with the big lifts I do 6 sets and pyramid with one or two light pump sets at the end. With the routine I want to do however I feel this will be too much and only want to do around 4 sets per ex.

Routine
Monday
Ab work (1 set crunches, 1 set reverse crunches, 1 set twisting crunches)
Squats
Benches
Bent Rows
Leg Curls
Calf Raise (3 sets)

Wednesday
Power Clean
Close Grip Press
Chins
Shrugs
Neck work (3 sets)
Forearm work (3 sets, will vary exercises)

Friday
Ab work (as monday)
Deadlifts
Military Press
Curls
Bentover Flyes (heavy, 3 sets)
Calf Raise (3 sets)

Any advice/comments/suggestions to help make this work?

[Bison]

Considering how you've listed those exercises I'm assuming that's the order you're thinking of doing them? I'd definately perform the ab exercises last and not first (if at all)

Neck work? With deadlifts, shrugs and power cleans I really don't think that's neccessary to be honest mate.

As for rep scheme's, considering your split and choice of exercises I can highly recommend a HST style approach.

Cheers Bison

Yeah you are probably right on the neck work... kind of slipped into the routine by force of habit!

As for Abs, I'm not talking about all out belly burning pain, just to get them nicely warmed up before squats and dead's. When I very first trained I pulled a muscle in my Ab's when deadlifting and, since then, I've always gently warmed Ab's up before dead's and squats.

HST - Have never trained that way but it does look interesting. I would of course need to workout my 15, 10 and 5 rep max's on the ex's I've chosen.

Should I choose hypertophy specific, is there any advice anyone can give? What are it's most difficult aspects (if any?).

[BanZeh]

You prob dont need forearm work if you are doing deadlifts as this will cover that.

Originally Posted by Dtlv74

Cheers Bison

Yeah you are probably right on the neck work... kind of slipped into the routine by force of habit!

As for Abs, I'm not talking about all out belly burning pain, just to get them nicely warmed up before squats and dead's. When I very first trained I pulled a muscle in my Ab's when deadlifting and, since then, I've always gently warmed Ab's up before dead's and squats.

HST - Have never trained that way but it does look interesting. I would of course need to workout my 15, 10 and 5 rep max's on the ex's I've chosen.

Should I choose hypertophy specific, is there any advice anyone can give? What are it's most difficult aspects (if any?).

if you want to get stronger on your main lifts....i take it you mean squats bench and deads....doing ab work before squats and deads WONT help you.

warming up.,....YES and also stretching the core...YES but not burning them.

HST sounds right for you. eg 15 reps for 2 weeks,10 reps for 2 weeks,5x5 for 2 weeks and the rest of the HST stuff...not to up on it myself, ask bison or mxd

Yeah I know... we'll see how it goes (I can always drop it).

The reason forearm work is in there is because my lower arms are pretty weedy at the mo compared to my uppers... (well my left forearm is anyway )

[Bison]

Originally Posted by Dtlv74

As for Abs, I'm not talking about all out belly burning pain, just to get them nicely warmed up before squats and dead's. When I very first trained I pulled a muscle in my Ab's when deadlifting and, since then, I've always gently warmed Ab's up before dead's and squats.

Yeah I get you, I do plenty such exercises as warmups too, just don't list them in my routine.

HST - Have never trained that way but it does look interesting. I would of course need to workout my 15, 10 and 5 rep max's on the ex's I've chosen.

Should I choose hypertophy specific, is there any advice anyone can give? What are it's most difficult aspects (if any?).

Yeah you need to work out your maxes but if you have a good idea then you can always guess, as long as you get reasonably close you'll be fine on your first cycle. Example if you hit the last workout on 15 reps and can't hit 15 then no worries if you can only hit 12 or 10, just use rest pause If you can lift more than 15 then do more until failure (only on last workout)

Most difficult aspect? Choosing the routine maybe? So many ways of doing it!!

Also only pick HST if you're sure you can hit the gym 3x times a week without fail, this routine isn't very flexible. It's whole principle stands on hitting the muscles every 48 hours. Skip workouts and you won't quite get the results.

Apart from that it's fantastic way to train. Quite a few of the guys on here now use it and I've never heard a single bad word said about it.

A good read: http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html (good forums too!)

Hitting the gym *3 a week is no prob - usually when I'm up and running in a routine I'm quite prepared to stop traffic and push people out of the way left right and centre to get there on time!

I have 80kg and a decent bench at home (no rack tho...) so in an emergency I can do my training here... and can bully my bro into spotting me! Anyway, in theory I could do the two weeks 15's at home in entirety as I'll not be going above 80 until at least the 10's and mostly the 5's anyway!

As for Ab work, If people think even just three sets nowhere near failure (15 reps each) would negatively affect my lifting on squats and deads then I'll be quite happy to drop them and concentrate on a slightly longer warm-up... am in no way anal about my routines!

Originally Posted by Dtlv74

Hitting the gym *3 a week is no prob - usually when I'm up and running in a routine I'm quite prepared to stop traffic and push people out of the way left right and centre to get there on time!

I have 80kg and a decent bench at home (no rack tho...) so in an emergency I can do my training here... and can bully my bro into spotting me! Anyway, in theory I could do the two weeks 15's at home in entirety as I'll not be going above 80 until at least the 10's and mostly the 5's anyway!

As for Ab work, If people think even just three sets nowhere near failure (15 reps each) would negatively affect my lifting on squats and deads then I'll be quite happy to drop them and concentrate on a slightly longer warm-up... am in no way anal about my routines!

lol sounds good my friend.

i mean i do stretches for my core......and maybe a 5min jog on runner lol gets the blood pumped round the parts

[Bison]

I reckon you'd do well on the HST, it pays dividends to the dedicated for sure!

One of the best things about it? It's fun