A workout routine is a regimen one follows to exercise their body. They vary on the exercises used, the number of sets implemented, the number of reps used for each set, the number of workout days, the number of rest days, etc. Every person can and should tailor their workout routine to their individual goals and physical limitations.
If you can/want to workout 6 days a week, prefer bodybuilding over powerlifting, and want maximum results, you should do PPL. Also known as a pull-push-legs routine. On your pull day, you workout the muscles that engage the most in pulling motions: back and biceps. On your push day, you workout the muscles that engage the most in pushing motions: chest and triceps. On your leg day, you workout your legs, specifically your quads, hammies, and calves (most people also throw in some ab work for the layyyyyydies). This cycle is 3 days, so most people repeat the cycle twice, for a total of 6 days. On the seventh day, you take your rest day, just like God :) If you don't want to take that rest day, and your body seems fit and able, feel free to repeat the cycle once or twice more. When I did this, I would feel pretty beat by the fourth cycle, and those workouts would be weaker and I'd have a worse performance. If you have a busy schedule, it may be easier to just program two 3 day cycles and rest on the same day every week. Linked here is a popular program made by bodybuilding.com user coolcicada. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY AND ADJUST ACCORDINGLY. I don't always like to admit it, but I eventually phased out all barbell work in favor of dumbbell work. Barbell bench was fucking up my wrists and shoulders, so now I dumbbell bench. I wasn't getting much hypertrophy on barbell deadlifts, so I switched to dumbbell stiff-legged deadlifts. Barbell squats were great for my quads, but they were fucking up my knees, so I opted for the horizontal leg press. My physique has only improved through all these adjustments, despite all the claims that you NEED these movements to look good.
If you are a complete noob, only can/want to workout 3 days a week, don't care about looking good, and only want to get stronger, you should do Starting Strength. It has you working out three days a week, typically every other day (MWF), with each day being a full-body workout. These three days each have you doing several compound movements (squat, bench OR overhead press, deadlift) in sets of 5. This program gets thrown around a lot to beginners who have never stepped inside a gym before. It teaches you form from the very beginning by starting you off with an empty barbell. BUT it focuses on strength work, so you get stronger every week, but you have little to show for it because there's so little hypertrophy work. Linked here is the classic one that even has an app for it.
If you can/want to workout 4 days a week, prefer to split your efforts between bodybuilding and powerlifting, you should do PHUL. It stands for Power-Hypertrophy-Upper-Lower. You spend day 1 on powerlifting movements for your upper body, day 2 on bodybuilding movements for your upper body, day 3 as a rest day, day 4 on powerlifting movements for your lower body, day 5 on bodybuilding movements for your lower body, and days 6 and 7 are rest days. So, yeah, 4 days on, 3 days off. It's a nice mixture between the tireless PPL and the boring as shit SS. It uses lower reps for strength, and higher reps for hypertrophy. It was started by Brandon Campbell, and an online version of the program is linked here.
If you are no longer a beginner, have plateued on Starting Strength, and still want to get stronger on the main compound lifts, give 5/3/1 a try. You workout 3 - 4 days a week, with each workout focusing on one of the three lifts. As opposed to SS where you do multiple different compounds in one session, in 5/3/1, each day has its own special lift. Example: one day will have just deadlifts, ham raises, and glute kicks. No squats or bench on that day. The accessory movements tacked on at the end help build the muscles needed for the main lift of the day. This plan gets its name from its patterned use during compounds: you do 5 reps of a lower weight, 3 reps of a weight that's a bit higher, and 1 rep of your max (typical). Check out this T-Nation article that gives a pretty good example 5/3/1 workout plan.
If you are natty and want to make the minimum gains possible, do a Bro Split. This is where you only work out one muscle group per day, every day of the week. It is extremely inefficient because natty muscles stop growing less than 48 hours after working out. But on a Bro Split, you can't workout the same muscles 48 hours later, you have to wait an entire week. This type of training only makes sense when you're on PEDs, which lengthen the muscle growth timeline up to a week after working out. As in, you do biceps on Monday, and your biceps continue to "grow" by repairing themselves throughout the rest of the week. Natty bros, beware of this routine.
TLDR: Stick to PPL unless you are a powerlifter.
No comments:
Post a Comment