[BendtheBar]

What Workout Plan Worked Best For You?

I have tried many many training styles and plans and I never can decide on just one. I’ve had my training style compared to Gumbo, lol! A guy called it gumbo training and with me being from Louisiana and loving some gumbo, I loved that analogy.
My style of training pulls from the concepts of many other training styles. I’ll pull from FST-7, German volume, Pyramid, Basic, Sports specific routines, etc. And dump it all into 1 workout, lol. I create just about every workout routine from scratch and formulate it in some way, shape, or form totally different than the last with a new aim focus each workout. I always try my best to create workouts that flow with rhythm, one exercise connecting with the next and not just a bunch of exercises in no particular order or that don’t have a rhyme or reason.

My team (Team Simple Fitness) never know what to expect. And neither do I some days! Even though I design each workout, they are hardly ever made with me in mind. I usually design them with a “Gotta do it” mindset and often find myself in the middle of my training sessions asking how could I do this to myself? Lol

I run training logs on a number of sites where I post these sessions almost daily.

I train 6 days a week when I’m getting ready for a competition and 4-5 days a week in the off season.

Competition season split

• Leg
• Chest
• Abs & HIIT
• Back
• Shoulders
• Arms
• OFF

Off season

• Legs
• Chest & Back
• OFF
• Deadlift or Arms
• Shoulders
• OFF
• OFF

During the off season I like to superset chest and back. My weakness with my strength. Which has helped me tremdously this off season with adding overall mass to my upper body. It also allows me to train deadlift on it’s own day where I can hit them however I choose and not have to worry too much about other body parts suffering due to lack of energy and recovery.
As I enter my prep I divide chest and back into separate days so that I can focus more on each individual muscle. I try to give each muscle group its own day during my prep.

As for weight, I don’t believe in “light” I believe in heavy as possible for amount of reps desired. For instance, if I’m doing 4 sets of 12 on incline press I believe that the weight should reflect failure or gets you as close to failure as possible by your last 2 or 3 reps. I’ve learned that lifting light weight will not get you toned, that is what diet and cardio is for. So we are usually lifting pretty heavy during prep until maybe the last week or two where we still lift at about 80-90% and just more machines.

Sample Week

Legs:
• Seated calf raises: 4 sets of 20 reps (10 slow, 10 regular)
• Toe presses: 3 sets of 30 reps (10 toes out, 10 toes straight, 10 toes in)
• Leg extensions: 3 – 4 sets of 20 reps
• Front squat/ Back squat/ V-Squat: 4 sets of 15, 12, 12, 10 reps
• Hack squat/Lunges: 2 sets of 15 reps, 1 double drop/burnout set
• Leg press: 3 sets of 20/20/20 triple dropset reps
• Stiff leg deadlifts: 4 sets of 15 reps
• Seated leg curls: 3 sets of 12 reps, 1 triple drop set
• Lying leg curls: 7 sets of 12 reps

Chest:
• Barbell incline press: 2 warm up sets, 4 sets of 15, 12, 12, 8-10 reps
• Dumbbell incline press: 2 sets of 12 reps
• Pec dec: 2 sets of 12 reps + 3 negatives
• Flat DB bench: 4 sets of 12
• Hammer Strength incline press: 7 sets of 12 reps
• Cable crosses: 7 sets of 12 reps

Abs and HIIT:
• Hanging leg ups: 2 sets of 15 - 20 reps
• Decline crunches: 2 sets of 15 - 20 reps
• Windshield wipers: 3 sets of 12 reps
• Vacuums: 3 sets of 15 reps
• HIIT: 5 min warm up, 10 min HIIT, 5 min cool down

Back:
• Pull ups: 10 sets of 10 reps
• Deadlifts: 5 sets of 12, 10, 8, 8, 6 reps (May push out an additional set of 4)
• Lat pulldowns: 4 sets of 12 reps
• 45 degree seated row: 3 sets of 12 reps, 1 burnout set
• Hammer Strength row machine: 3 sets of 12 reps
• Hammer Strength plate loaded pullovers: 5 sets of 12 reps

Shoulders and Traps Arms:
• Dumbbell Shrugs: 4 sets of 15 reps
• Smith Machine shrugs: 4 sets of 15 reps
• Face pulls w/rope: 7 sets of 15 reps
• Seated military press/ Seated dumbbell press: 4 sets of 12, 10, 10, 8 reps
• Dumbbell front raises: 3 sets of 12 reps each arm
• Lateral raise machine: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Shoulder press machine: 4 sets of 25 reps

Arms:
• Close grip bench: 3 sets of 12 reps
• Close grip tricep pushdown: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Reverse grip pulldowns: 4 sets of 15 reps
• Superset with DB overhead ext: 4 sets of 12 reps
• EZ bar curls: 4 sets of 12 reps
• Standing cable curls: 3 sets of failure
• 21’s: 3 sets