So I have created a new program, and would like to get any suggestions about anything that could be better or fixed, i.e if any muscle groups are skipped, or too little volume/too much volume etc...

These are my stats btw:

• Lifting consistently for 7ish months
• 149 lb 5"5 @12-13% bodyfat, started @ 134 with pretty much no muscle.
• Weakest point is definetly arms, and strongest point is legs but not sure how much that matters since I'm still a beginner
• Goal: mainly building size but also getting stronger on certain exercises, Bench Press, Overhead Press, Pull-Ups, Deadlifts, Squats etc..

So this is a bit like Scott's PPL, so it's PPL, rest/abs, and repeat (so not 3 days per week but 6 out of every 8 days OR basically Push, Pull, and Legs is 2x per week). Rest days either just rest or an ab workout.

• The main exercises done with lower reps (6-8) to work a bit more on strength, and then the secondary exercises are a bit higher reps (8-10)
• Main exercises done first when you have the most energy

Push:

Flat Barbell Bench Press (5 sets of 6-8 reps) *lower reps to work on streng

Standing Barbell Overhead Press (5 sets of 6-8 reps)

Tricep Dips (4 sets of 6-8 reps)

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press (4 sets of 8-10 reps)

Cable Lean Away Lateral Raise (4 sets of 12-15 reps) *slightly higher reps for this

Tricep V-bar Push Down (4 sets of 8-10 reps) 

Face Pulls (3 sets of 12-15 reps) *for shoulder health, but I'm not sure if it's necassary since rear delts get trained on a lot of back exercises that I do on pull day like rows and high pulls....

***If I have energy left, 3-5 sets of Dead Hanges (for grip strength) 20-60 sec

Pull:

Pull Ups, 40 reps, as many sets to hit 40, once I can do 15 in a row then will switch to weighted pull ups, 5 sets of 6-8 reps

Conventional Deadlift (5 sets of 8-10 reps) **just starting deadlift so starting off a little lighter to work on form but after a while will switch to 6-8 reps

T-bar Row Neutral Grip (4 sets of 8-10 reps)

Lat Pulldown Underhand Grip (4 sets of 8-10 reps)

High Pulls (4 sets 8-10 reps) *Upper back/Rear Delts

Barbell Bicep Curls (4 sets of 6-8 reps)

Standing Dumbbell Hammer Curl (4 sets of 8-10 reps)

Legs:

Barbell Squat (5 sets of 6-8 reps)

Romanian Deadlift (4 sets of 8-10 reps)

Leg Press (4 sets of 8-10 reps) wide stance

Lying Leg Curl (4 sets of 8-10 reps)

Sled Push/Pull (back & forth is 1 set), (2 sets) *finisher

***If I have energy left, 3-5 sets of Dead Hanges (for grip strength) 20-60 sec

Rest/Abs:

Captain's Chair Straight Leg/Weighted Knee Raises (5 sets of 12-15 reps)

Kneeling Cable Crunch (5 sets of 12-15 reps)

Medicine Ball Floor Crunch (3 sets of 12-15 reps)

3-5 sets of Dead Hanges (for grip strength) 20-60 sec

Looks pretty good @Vect0rs! You can definitely try this program for a while and see how it goes. I think you will see a bit of strength gain with the 6-8 rep range, but if you decide you want to work more on strength, try doing something more like a reverse pyramid style for the compounds, or a 5x5 etc. Those are just some options, but you can decide if you want to make those changes later.

The only thing I would suggest is maybe on your leg day, every second workout, instead of lying leg curl, do something more quad focused like front squats or sissy squats or leg extensions, . This way you don't do more for one muscle group compared to the other.. unless of course your hamstrings are lagging behind your quads.

Apart from that, it looks pretty well balanced. Let us know how it goes!

• Are the facepulls necassary though, or without them will my shoulders be perfectly fine?
• Yeah that is a good point that Reverse Pyramid like your 7, 7, 6, 4 , 3 or a 5x5 would be the best if getting as strong as possible on those main exercises is the goal.
• Now for legs, I think the hamstrings are weaker, but I'm not sure how to tell? My logic was that since squats work the quads to a bigger degree than hamstrings I wasn't really counting it as sets for hamstrings, so then it would be balanced. If you would count squats as sets for hamstrings & quads then perhaps I should do this?:

Legs:

Barbell Squat (5 sets of 6-8 reps) - 5 sets for quads and hamstrings

Romanian Deadlift (4 sets of 8-10 reps) - 4 sets for hamstrings

Bulgarian Split Squat (4 sets of 8-10 reps) - 4 sets for quads and hamstrings

Leg Press (4 sets of 8-10 reps) - 4 sets for quads

Hamstrings = 13 sets

Quads = 13 sets

As long as you are warming-up your shoulders before every workout, they should stay pretty mobile and healthy.. but it's still good to have some specific rear delt exercises as they can be tough to grow.

Squats work the entire legs - if you were doing front squats, that would be true that your quads are dominant, but glutes and hamstrings still play a pretty big role in a regular squat.

That new leg day set-up you have looks pretty well balanced! But like I said in my previous post, if you DO think your hamstrings are a bit weaker, it's OK to focus more on them for a while and get them back up to speed.

Ok great! Gonna try out those new shoes tomorrow since doing legs tomorrow. Also I watched yours and several other deadlift videos so I think I'm ready to get started on tuesday.

One thing they mentioned to do is to put a few plates on the ground to raise the height of the bar (since I'm obviously not starting at 135), this is correct right, and when I do hit 135 then I don't need them?

Awesome! Hopefully the new shoes live up to expectations 😁 And yes that's right about deadlifts - if you aren't using 45lb plates yet, and your gym doesn't have lighter bumper plates, then it's a good idea to raise them. As long as the bar is at about the same height as it would be with 45lbs that's fine and will help you keep your form tight.

Once you move to 45lb plates, no you won't need plates under them anymore.

Hey Scott is this still the warmup you recommend for deadlifts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iid8r-CVK-o&t=68s

Also if I already warmup shoulders and do 5 mins of treadmill or rowing am I ready to go or do I still need to do these after my pull ups before I start the deadlifts? Second I tried these but I can't bring my foot to my opposite arm...not that flexible lol?

Yes that's still what I recommend! Whether you do them or not is up to you.. personally I would do them and a few warm-up sets of deadlifts to work your way into the movement. A 5 minute cardio warm-up won't really effectively warm up all the muscles you're going to be using to deadlift like the toe-to-hand touches and light deadlift sets will.

If you can't get your toes all the way up yet, yes it will just be a flexibility issue. The more you do it, the more flexible you'll become. If you feel like you have some tight hips that are limiting your flexibility at the moment, try some of these stretches outside of your workout too - they are useful even if you don't have APT.

Scott I can't believe I missed this video, I never noticed but I have some ATP, this explains why i have never been able to do a sit up without my legs being anchored and many other things. I can do the kneeling cable crunches with 135lb and doing leg raises and stuff but yet can't do even 1 full sit up... It also explains why I feel my hips when I squat below 90.

By the way this reminds me of another flexibility issue, you know the shoulder stretch where you try to have your hands touch behind your back? I can't do that one either, my hands don't touch nor get even close to touching, does this mean my shoulders are also not flexible? How can I correct it? I do those shoulder warmups almost everyday.

And also for forearms/grip, are farmers walks also good to train that? How many sets & duration for each set would would you do?

That shoulder stretch probably does come down to flexibility. It's also probably a bit of trap/back flexibility too. Honestly the shoudler warm-ups your doing at the moment should help with it. Maybe doing some more resistance band pull aparts behind your back/neck might help too.

Farmers walks are good for grip strength. Just add them in any time really - I like to use them in circuits. Maybe about 15-20 seconds per walk, or just the length of your gym. Whatever works for you.

Hey Scott the shoes were pretty good! On the other hand my squat went down because after fixing my knees and not letting them come in as I was going down has made it much harder, but I actually feel it all over now rather than just the quads. I also did deadlifts for the first time ever and man those were tough but I think my form was good because my legs were on fire pretty much and didn't really feel much in the back.

I did those stretches and man especially the first one is very hard. Well actually all of them were hard except the low back stretch that one I can do for two minutes pretty easily. Can I do the stretches in one part of the day and exercises later or do you have to do them both together?

Also my pull ups were brought to reality, I focused on bringing the elbows down on each rep so my number went from 11 to 6 but now I actually feel it in the lats so that's more important. I think I will do deadlifts first though because they really are taxing...my legs are still tired as I am writing this lol. And I can't lift heavy anyway so i think I'll actually do just 6-8 reps. Since I can't lift 135+ yet so I don't need warmup sets right, cuz can't really go lighter?

Also so if I do the shoulder/deadlift stretch do I still need the 5 min on the treadmill as part of the warmup? I'm just confused if you do dynamic stretches and do warmup sets then is there any point to doing treadmill in addition.

Are you talking about the stretches in the APT video? You can do those in the morning and at night, as I explain in the video.

Just because you are doing fewer reps, that's not a bad thing, because now you're doing proper form on things, and that's why it's harder - it makes sense. Now you can get better at proper form 😊 But with your deadlifts, you can still warm-up with the bar - you might not be able to come to dead stops, but what's heavy varies from person to person.. no matter what weight feels heavy for you, you still need to warm-up before you hit that weight.

Whether you do some treadmill stuff as part of your warm-up is up to you. If you enjoy it, you can keep doing it. If you feel warm enough without it, then you don't need it.

Yes I mean the ATP video stretches but I am just going to do it once a day, so I'm asking can I do stretches at one time and do the exercises later in the day, or do you have to do both together?

Also have you seen this Scott https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/your-protein-shake-may-not-be-healthy-you-think.html ? Is this true?

You can do them together, or seperate, whatever works best for you. If you're only going to do them once, might be a good idea to do it in the morning or before you workout, so you're loose before the workout, rather than after the workout

About the protein.. hadn't seen it, but potentially. I couldn't find a list of every brand they tested, only their top 5 and bottom 5. I think if you get a trusted, quality brand, you would be OK for the most part.

This is it I think: http://www.cleanlabelproject.org/product_category/protein-powder/ . So if this is true then how is it safe to consume, unlesss heavy metals aren't that big of a deal that they are making it out to be?

Okay yeah, I might do it twice a day later but for right now once is plenty.

By the way Scott, I don't know if I ever asked this or not but does having scoliosis affect anything in the gym in terms of doing Squats/Deadlifts and other exercises? I'm making sure to have good posture but I do have a mild version of it about 22ish degrees? Is it correct that there isn't exercises that fix the curve, and the weightlifting stuff isn't going to make the curve get bigger?