# Workout Suggestions...Full body vs Split vs mixed



## Jimboi (Jun 16, 2012)

Ive just got back from a week on holiday and been to the gym this morning and feel terrible. Dropped weight, felt knackered, ill, demotivated and just generally ****. Feel my Diet is pretty good just need to sort out a routine to give me some structure and then I will be more motivated.

Before going away I did a HST routine, so a full body workout 3 days a week, varying the rep range very couple of weeks and adding weight building up to max lifts. Felt it worked fairly well although I struggled with the days when the weights were meant to be light, felt unnatural so I sometimes thought, **** it just lift heavy. So didnt really following it properly every session. Also felt I wasnt hitting muscle parts enough with just 2 sets of chest each day feel shoulders have suffered quite a bit. One thing I did like was that I was squating and doing bench 3 times a week. My squats are awful so want to build them up figure I can add 1.25kg each side every week and should make better progress.

This was the HST routine

Mon / Weds / Fri

Squats - 1 set

Bench - 2 sets

Dips - 1 set

Lateral Pulldown - 2 sets

Shoulder Press - 2 sets

Lateral Raise - 1 set

Shugs - 1 set

Curls - 2 sets

Tricep pulldowns - 2 sets

Calf raise - 2 sets

Dont do deadlifts as my gym partner has lower back issues with them.

Before this was doing a standard 3 day split which I felt I had plateaued with hence the HST.

Now that Im back to normal life I want to go on a lean bulk. After a routine with some degree of flexibility so that if for any reason I cant get to the gym one day could go on consecutive days and not ruin progress. Im going to be following the intermittent fasting as did that for my cut and it worked well so going to keep that the same and just up the calories about my maintenance.

Was considering doing a set of squats and bench each day, but then doing some form of split. My worry is that if say Monday I do squats & bench then Chest and Tris, Wednesday I wont be able to do chest, could always go lighter I guess.

Was thinking something like

Mon - Squats (1set) & Bench (2sets) then Chest and Tris

Weds - Squats (1set) & Bench (2sets) then Back and Bis

Friday - Squats (2set) & Bench (1sets) then Shoulders and Legs

Would try to do as many compound exercises as possible to hit both muscle groups for that day as like to be in the gym for around an hour. Think Ive done too much reading into different routines and now I'm at a loss at what to do.

Any recommendations of what people are doing now thats working, or anyone tried the squats and bench 3x a week in with a split routine?


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## L11 (Jan 21, 2011)

If you're not doing splits because you'll miss something if you miss a day, why dont you just do whatever you were going to do the next day? I NEVER miss days but sometimes they change so one week it might be Sun - Legs, Mon - Chest, Tue - Biceps, Thurs - Back, Friday - Shoulders. And the next week it might be Sun - Legs, Mon - Chest, Wed - Biceps, Fri - Back, Sat - Shoulders. Basically I do the routine in the same order but just on different days. Even if for some reason i end up having 4 days off due to illness or whatever, i'd still just pick up the routine where I left off.


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## MF88 (Jul 1, 2012)

I just do a four day split, and seeing better results from it than I did with my original workout. I used to do the same workout 3x a week, but really wasn't seeing any results.


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## Lean D (Jun 21, 2012)

James H said:


> Dont do deadlifts as my gym partner has lower back issues with them.


I train on my own 90% of the time but... if my training partner can't do something, he either waits for me or goes and does something else until i'm done.... In my opinion if you want to fit Deadlifts in there, put them in! Don't let your training partner dictate your workout for you as you'll find yourself missing other exercises if he/she can't do something

Have you trialled and tested any other forms of training or any of the ones you have listed?

The reason i ask is a lot of it is trial and error to find what works before for your body and training style.

You can ask for people opinions but there workout, rep range and sets might not give you the same results everyone else has.

What i did was have 8 weeks training on one workout before i changed. I did this for 24 weeks before i figured out the best sets for my body.


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## simonthepieman (Jun 11, 2012)

Have you considered Madcows, it seems perfect for your goals

http://madcow.hostzi.com/5x5_Program/Linear_5x5.htm


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