Choose Your Own Mass-Building, Strength-Gaining Adventure (i.e. Workout Program)

Some Ready Made (yet Do-it-Yourself) Size and Strength Programs

     In the 5^th grade, way back in 1983, I was obsessed with “Choose Your Own Adventure” books.  If you were a kid in the ‘80s, you may very well have experienced this obsession yourself.  According to Wikipedia, between the years ‘79 and ‘98, the books sold 250 million+ copies, so apparently it was, in the words of Ron Burgundy, sort of a big deal.  In fact, until I started reading muscle magazines voraciously starting around ’86, I’m pretty sure that the extent of my reading was comprised of Choose Your Own Adventure books, Conan the Barbarian novels, and various-assorted comic books.  (My favorite comic book series at one point was “Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters,” so take that TMNT.)

     Choose Your Own Adventure books, if you’re not familiar, were exactly what they sound like: books where you, the reader, decided what happened to the main character.  After a few pages of reading—usually a chapter or two if I remember correctly—you were faced with two or three options, which, in turn, led to further options, which, yep, you guessed it, lead to different pages and even more options depending on your selections.

If this picture makes you at all nostalgic, you're probably a fellow Gen-Xer

     For some reason—and who knows why the brain works just the way it does—I thought of those books the other day.  (The reason was probably the fact that last week I was watching a Shaw Brothers movie, and old-school kung-fu movies were definitely one of my favorite things from the ‘80s, and that kind of got me to thinking about other ‘80s stuff.  Anyway, I digress…)  And then, after thinking about those books, albeit quite briefly, I had another thought.  A structured workout regimen, but one that gives the lifter different options to choose from, but not too many options, is a great way to design a written program.  And that thought led to the workout program below.

     This program is, first and foremost, a hypertrophy program, albeit one that will also lead to concomitant strength gains.  It has a structure that should be adhered to, but it also allows you the flexibility to choose your own exercises, sets, reps, and training split.

 

Choose Your Movements

     In this program, you will utilize two different workouts.  For Workout One, you will select a squatting movement and a pulling movement.  For Workout Two, you will pick either a pressing movement, a chinning movement, and a curling movement OR you will select two pressing movements and a curling exercise.

     In Workout One, for the squatting movement the most obvious choice is the good, ol’ fashioned barbell back squat.  If you are new to training, and especially new to serious lifting, then this should be your first and only choice.  If you aren’t new to training, you can certainly use the traditional squat, and, in fact, it should still be your primary squat selection no matter how long you have been lifting, but there are some other good options available.  The front squat and the bottom-position squat are my personal favorite selections.  You could easily rotate between back squats, front squats, and bottom-position squats, and never need any other squatting movement.  Other possible selections, however, are the double kettlebell front squat, the overhead squat, barbell lunges (if you want a complete change of pace; these were a favorite of Bill Starr’s), or the barbell hack squat.  The classic hack squat—in other words, performed with a barbell instead of the hack squat machine—is a good selection for taller lifters who struggle to reach the depth needed with more “regular” squats.

     The two best selections for a pulling movement on Workout One are either the power clean or the power snatch.  High pulls are also a good option.  Deadlifts, whether performed sumo or conventional, can be a good option, you just don’t want to overdo it.  I think it’s best to use some variation of the quick lifts most of the time, then throw in a deadlift once every three or four workouts.

     As I wrote earlier, you have two options for Workout Two.  Either two pressing movements and a curl or a pressing movement, a chinning movement, and a curl.  Choose the lifts based on what you need most.  If you have neglected your back through primarily training your upper body “beach muscles”—the muscles of the chest, shoulders, and arms; you know, the muscles you want to show off at the beach—then you may want to choose only one pressing movement.  If, however, you have well-developed back muscles, then go with two pressing movements.  If you choose the route of two pressing movements, make sure that one is a vertical pressing exercise and the other one is a horizontal movement.  In other words, choose some kind of bench pressing exercise and some sort of overhead pressing exercise.  If you go the route of one pressing movement, then select an exercise that you need to work on the most.  For the majority of lifters, this will probably mean some sort of overhead pressing movement.  This means that exercise options for Workout Two include bench presses (dumbbell or barbell; flat or incline), military presses, behind-the-neck presses, one-arm dumbbell overheads, weighted dips, chins of all types (overhand, underhand, wide-grip, close-grip, neutral grip), barbell curls, and dumbbell curls (standing or seated; alternating or not).

 

Choose Your Set/Rep Combinations

     Once you know your exercises for each training session, select your set/rep method(s).  I write “method(s)” because you may want to utilize the same set/rep combo for all of your exercises—if nothing but to keep things simple—or you may choose different set/rep combinations for different exercises.

     Here are the three combinations I recommend for this program:

3x 10, 8, 6

     First off, on all of these set/rep combos (this one and the two that follow), make sure you warm up enough before beginning your work sets.  The amount of warmups are dependent upon your strength levels.  Obviously, the stronger that you are, the more warmups are needed.  Same goes for the movements—you won’t need as many warmups on barbell curls as compared to squats and deadlifts.

     When you do your first set of 10 reps, use a weight where you would fail around the 12^th or 13^th rep if you were going all out.  In other words, you should have a couple more reps in the tank when you finish your set of 10.  Rest a few minutes, add weight, and do a set of 8 reps.  The amount of weight added will, once again, depend upon the movement.  For barbell curls, you may only add 5 pounds to the bar.  For squats, you may add as much as 20 pounds at each jump.  Other movements would be somewhere in between.  After a few more minutes, add weight and do a set of 6 reps.

     Stick with the same weight at each session for each jump until you manage to get 3 sets of 10 reps with the weight(s).  Add weight and reps naturally.  For example, at your 2^nd workout, you might do 3 sets of 10, 8, and 8 reps.  The workout after that, it might be 3 x 10, 9, 8.  The workout after that might be 3x 10, 9, and 9 reps.  And so on and so forth until you manage 3x10.  At that point, add weight to the 10 rep set at the next session and return to 3 x 10, 8, and 6.

     When I write to add weight and reps naturally, I don’t want you to force yourself to use more weight at each session.  You may stick with the same set and rep combination for two or three workouts in a row if needed.  And, yes, there may be some workouts where you are actually weaker than you were in the previous one.  That’s okay.  Just stick with the weight until you manage 10 reps on all 3 sets.  The key to making this work—and this is the same for the other set/rep ranges that follow—is to not go too heavy at your first workout.  Your first session might, in fact, feel downright easy.  The key is to coax added reps, and then added weight, not force it.

4 x 6-8

     For this one, select a weight at the first workout where you would probably fail around the 10^th rep if you were doing it for one all-out set.  At the first session, do 4 sets of 6 reps with that weight.  Slowly work up—once again, adding work naturally—to 4 sets of 8 with that same weight.  Your workout progression over a few workouts might look something like this: Workout 1: 4 x 6, 6, 6, 6 – Workout 2: 4 x 7, 6, 6, 6 – Workout 3: 4 x 7, 7, 6, 6 – Workout 4: 4 x 8, 7, 6, 6; and so on and so forth until 4x8 is achieved.

     By the way, you may find that some days you actually regress in reps.  That’s only natural.  Don’t worry if that happens on occasion, especially as the workouts progress.  For instance, you may get 4 x 8, 8, 8, and 7 after a few weeks of workouts, only to find that at the next session you end up getting 4 x 8, 7, 7, and 7 reps.  This is natural.  Just stick with the program until you do get all sets and reps.

     Also, depending on your workout schedule, you may intentionally reduce the number of reps at some sessions.  But we will discuss this more below when we get around to your chosen training split.

5 x 3-5

     Select a weight here where you would fail on the 7^th or 8^th rep for one all-out set.  Start by doing 5 sets of 3 reps and, as with the above method, slowly add reps at workouts until you are doing 5 sets of 5 reps with that weight.  At that point, add weight and start back over with 5x3 at the next session.

     As with the 4x6-8, you may reduce the number of reps intentionally on occasion, depending on your training split, which brings us around to the next topic...

 

Choose Your Workout Split

     When selecting your workout split, remember Zatziorsky’s adage: “Train as heavy as possible as often as possible while being as fresh as possible.”  This means that the more often you can train, the better.  But you have to be smart and judicious so that you don’t do too much at any given session.  Here are the splits I recommend for this program:

2 on, 1 off

     This is the most “basic” of the schedules, as you simply do Workout One on the first training day, Workout Two on the next, and then always take a day off on the 3^rd day.  Then repeat.  Take off an additional day anytime that you feel as if you need it.

3 on, 1 off; 2 on, 1 off

     This is my personal favorite split that can be used with this program.  I find it’s the perfect balance between too much and not enough.

     This split also allows you to train on the same days each week.  If you start your schedule on Monday, then you would always train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, with Thursdays and Sundays as your off day.

     One thing that I like about this split is that each week one of the workouts gets three sessions and the other workout gets only two, but this is reversed in the 2^nd week.

3 on, 2 off

     This is a good split for this program so long as you don’t mind training on different days each week.  What I like about it is that one of the workouts gets additional work while the other workout gets extra rest during each 3-day cycle.

     With this workout split and the one above, you may want to, on the 3^rd day of training in a row, have that workout be a de-load session.  At this session, simply reduce the number of reps on each movement to something less than what you did at the previous session for the same workout.  Let’s say that you’re using the 5x3-5 scheme, and at the first session of the 3-day cycle you did 5 sets of 5, 5, 5, 3, and 3 reps, then, at the next workout for the same lift, do 5 sets of 3 reps.  Use the same weight, just knock the reps back down to your “starting” set/rep scheme.  This is one way I mean of coaxing but not forcing growth.

1 on, 1 off

     The simplest way to use a 2-way training split is to just train every other day.  This is a good split if you know that you thrive best off less work.  Take off an extra day if, at any point, you feel as if you could use the added rest.

 

Sample Programs

     Here are what some example programs might look like based on some of the above choices.   Please keep in mind that these are just that, example programs.  You may choose a different split and some different set/rep combinations.  These are to give you a good visual of what some potential programs might look like:

Workout #1 – 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off

Monday:

Squats: 4x6-8

Power cleans: 5x3-5

Tuesday:

Flat bench presses: 3x10,8,6

Weighted chins: 5x3-5

Barbell curls: 3x10,8,6

Wednesday:

Repeat Monday’s workout

Thursday:

Off

Friday:

Repeat Tuesday’s workout

Saturday:

Repeat Monday’s workout

     On the following week, Workout Two would get three sessions and Workout One would only get two.

Workout #2 – 3 on, 2 off

Monday:

Front squats: 3x10,8,6

Power snatches: 5x3-5

Tuesday:

Incline barbell bench presses: 4x6-8

One-arm dumbbell overhead presses: 5x3-5 (each arm)

Standing alternate dumbbell curls: 3x10,8,6 (each arm)

Wednesday:

Repeat Monday’s workout

Thursday:

Off

Friday:

Off

Saturday:

Repeat Tuesday’s workout

Sunday:

Repeat Monday’s workout

     On the next day, Monday, you would repeat Tuesday's workout from the first week, and so on and so forth.

Workout #3: 1 on, 1 off for advanced lifters

Monday:

Bottom-position squats: 5x3-5

Double kettlebell cleans: 3x10,8,6

Tuesday:

Off

Wednesday:

Military presses: 3x10,8,6

Flat bench presses: 3x10,8,6

Barbell curls: 5x3-5

Thursday:

Off

Friday:

Front squats: 4x6-8

One-arm dumbbell power snatches: 5x3-5

Saturday:

Incline barbell bench presses: 5x3-5

Weighted chins: 4x6-8

Standing alternate dumbbell curls: 3x10,8,6 (each arm)

Sunday:

Off

 

Tips and Other Stuff

·         Whatever program it is that you choose, these are meant for mass-gaining, so make sure that you are eating plenty of calories and getting plenty of protein each and every day.  Shoot for 20x your bodyweight in calories daily and get at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.  The best way to (probably) do this is to eat 3 or 4 meals and consume 2 or 3 protein shakes in addition to the meals.

·         As with all mass-building regimens, make sure that you are getting sufficient sleep and rest.  Limit your activities outside of the gym.

·         After a few weeks of training, feel free to add 1 back-off set to any of the exercises.  Your 3x10,8,6 might become 4x10,8,6, and 12, for example.  For the 4x6-8, add a back set of 10 reps.  For the 5x3-5, add a back-off set of 8 reps.

·         After 6-8 weeks on the program, switch over to a different program or run it again but with new exercises and new set-rep schemes.

·         If you follow this program for a 2^nd training cycle, then you can always add another movement to each of the workouts but only if you know you are capable of handling the extra work.  Add a 2^nd squatting or pulling movement to Workout One.  For Workout Two, you can add either a 2^nd arm movement or you can do two pressing exercises, one chinning movement, and one curling movement.  Whatever you might choose, limit Workout One to 3 exercises and Workout Two to 4.

·         After several weeks, you can also add an abdominal exercise to Workout Two and/or a loaded carry of some sort to Workout One.

 

     Programs such as this one can be highly effective, assuming you choose the correct exercises, sets, reps, and training split.  Usually, this means choosing exercises, sets, and reps that you need the most work on.  The key is to, in the words of the knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “choose wisely.”

Donovan chose... poorly

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