3-day split - how to structure?

GerryRyan

After having a read of this article I've decided I'm centering my workouts around 7 solid compound movements. My best option as I'm aiming for mass and strength.

Not completely cutting out body-weight and other conditioning workouts (kinda hooked on burpees at the min) but I only have access to weights Mon, Wed, Fri so going to use them as my main 'gym' workouts.

So, what'd be the best way to structure them into the 3 days?
In no particular order:

Bench Press, Military Press, Deadlift, Bent-Over Row, Pull-Up, Dip, Squat, (and some type of barbell complex once a week).

Mon - ?
Tue - GPP (burpees/renegade man-makers/core circuit)
Wed - ?
Thur - heavy bag drills and rounds (5*3min) + a body-weight circuit
Fri - ?
Sat - deck of cards workout (google it) + core circuits
Sun - rest + light cardio (few laps at athletics track)

One last thing - for mass/strength is this the right way to do it?

3 + sets of 6-8 reps to fatigue with 1-2 mins rest between sets

Hanley

Day 1: Pull ups, Deadlift, BO row
Day 2: Bench, Miliary, Dip
Day 3: Squats

is what I'd do if I was using the above exercises.

agentgreen

Hanley wrote:

Day 1: Pull ups, Deadlift, BO row
Day 2: Bench, Miliary, Dip
Day 3: Squats

is what I'd do if I was using the above exercises.

Would you do chest and shoulders the same day?

G'em gave me these a while back, haven't got a chance to read them yet, but if she says they're good, they must be....

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1701042&cr=

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1702383&cr=

BossArky

ThatGuy wrote:

Mon - ?
Tue - GPP (burpees/renegade man-makers/core circuit)
Wed - ?
Thur - heavy bag drills and rounds (5*3min) + a body-weight circuit
Fri - ?
Sat - deck of cards workout (google it) + core circuits
Sun - rest + light cardio (few laps at athletics track)

Renegade man-maker, definately going to incorporate that into my routine, just for the name Here is a link in case anyone is wondering what they hell they are.

I sometimes do the push ups / pull combination shown in photos 3 and 4 of that link. There was a thread on here about a month ago, titled something like "core strength".

Personally I find that doing military press and bench on the same day (like today :rolleyes: ) is a bit pointless. If I have maxed out on one then I am only capable of 75% ish on the other one. e.g. military press 45kg new max, bench only 50kg (usually 60+ ish).

g'em

agentgreen wrote:

Would you do chest and shoulders the same day?

some people like it that way, others, like BossArky do them on different days because chest work poops out their shoulders. I haven't done any dedicated shoulder work in months now though and my shoulders are the biggest and strongest they've ever been from all the bench and pressing variations and supporting molbility work I'm doing.

It's very much a trial and error thing too. Take a basic outline, like the one Hanley has given, and try it. You'll either like it or you won't. Adjust it according to the results!

agentgreen wrote:

G'em gave me these a while back, haven't got a chance to read them yet, but if she says they're good, they must be....

Those articles are great, but like I said before read them to get an idea of why programs are designed a certain way. At this stage you only need to worry about getting started on something.. anything!!! No-one starts out with the perfect program, but it's by learning what does and (more importantly) what doesn't work for you that you figure out how to train most efficently for you.

GerryRyan

BossArky wrote:

Renegade man-maker, definately going to incorporate that into my routine, just for the name

Ha, that was me a few weeks back, sounded hard so threw it in there
Thanks for the articles, just had a good read of them there.

K, my revised plan:

Main compound movements:
Bench Press, Military Press, Deadlift, Bent-Over Row, Pull-Up, Dip, Squat

Mon deadlift, pull-ups, bent-over row + core circuit
Tue GPP (body-weight ex’s / burpees / renegade mm’s) + core circuit
Wed bench, military-press, dip
Thur interval running (tabata) at athletics track + body-weight circuit
Fri legs day
Sat deck of cards workout (google rosstraining) + core circuits
Sun rest + light cardio (curragh cycle)

Boston

I notice you have listed warm up sets, would these be preformed at a lower weight then max?

Hanley

agentgreen wrote:

Would you do chest and shoulders the same day?

I've had GREAT results combining "chest" and "shoulder" work on the same day (although I don't really view benching and military pressing as a specific bodypart exercise, they're both to get my bench up).

What I had been doing was a light bench day with 60-70% for 8x3, concentrating on moving the bar as fast as possible, then doing military presses afterwards with 1-3x5-8. On the first week I did 3x8 and then upped the weight and dropped the reps and sets over the next 4 weeks until I was doing a max set of 5.

Then on my second heavy bench day (80-90% for 5's) I was doing lateral raises or seom other form of shoulder raises afterwards.

I don't train to failure on the big lifts so recovery wasn't a problem.