Scott,
A while ago you helped me with some Iron Man Training, and I thank you for it. Since then I've decided to work much heavier on strength, and have been for the past few months. On Monday, I decided to make this program since I can't seem to stay out of the gym. This is a pretty ambitious program, built after 3 months of seeing how I react to different things. I'll describe it below then share my thinking on it.
Weekly Scheme: [A B A B A C Rest]
*A DAY AM
OHP 3x5, Bench Press 3x5
*A DAY PM
Squat 3x12, Lying Tricep Extension 3x10, Face Pulls 3x10, Ab Circuit
*B DAY AM
Barbell Row 3x5, Lateral Dumbbell Raise 3x8
*B DAY PM
Deadlift 3x5, Squat 3x12, Barbell Curl 3x8, Face Pull 3x10, Seated Calf Raise 3x10, Ab Circuit
*C(alesthenics) DAY
Handstand Progressions, Hanging L Sit Progressions, Dragon Flag Progressions, Human Flag Progressions
Monday and Thursday there is a Yoga class I go to for recovery, and Thursday morning I also attend combatives. I try to do some form of running Monday, Wednesday and Friday but for the past few weeks it has largely taken the wayside.
Ok, so maybe you can help me learn something here, since I am always trying to improve my understanding of, well, everything related to this. First, you probably noticed I am Squatting 5x a week. My thinking behind this was that by operating in the higher rep ranges, it would allow me to keep that higher volume over the week because each individual movement causes less muscular damage. Of course, RPE 8 is still RPE 8 regardless if you're using weights at high or low reps. I have just seen many people use this strategy to great affect, and I am a bit hopeful that it would work for me as well. I would like to hear your thoughts on that.
Secondly, this is the iffy one for me, Shoulders every day. This was my thinking here: OHP is an anterior head dominant exercise. From my research, it uses even more upper chest and traps than it does the other two heads, especially the posterior head. Because the Lateral head is left largely untouched, which you might have some disagreement with, my thinking is that if I was to alternate between focus on the anterior and the lateral by subbing in the Lateral Dumbbell Raise on 'B' days, it would allow for tension to be applied to the heads every day with varying degrees given the day, hopefully leading to stronger, more robust shoulders. Shoulders for everyone in my family have always been a problem spot, and I hoped by focusing a bit heavier on it, I would be able to overcome it.
Lastly, The C Day I inserted because I believed working on more of a core based "Skill based" day would allow for me to be able to add some application for my daily strength training while also allowing for my lower body to largely recover after getting pounded heavily for 5 days. This part of the program I have a feeling you might agree with me on, but who knows!
Thank you again for looking over this~ Any knowledge you can pass on would be invaluable.
-Nate