Scourge
04-12-2005, 20:01
Scourge's Bill Starr 10 Week All-Round Strength/Hypertrophy Routine.
As I expect that many training newbies have trouble finding productive training routines within the vast myriad of disinformation that is today's fitness industry, I thought I'd give you a simple, but proven, routine that should yield good gains, being the generous soul that I am.
This is an uncomplicated 10 week general purpose strength/mass-building routine not-too-subtly adapted from Madcow's Bill Starr 5x5 routine. While the principles behind the way the routine is structured are not that simplistic at all, beginners do not need to know the logic behind it for them to benefit from it*.
If you have any queries on the logic behind the routine or performing it correctly, feel free to post them in this thread.
*While I realise that this post is actually pretty long, performing this routine requires very little prior knowledge of training, except for the proper technique for the exercises therein and an understanding of the terminology used (some of which is explained in the 'Notes' section anyway).
Weeks 1-4: Loading Mesocycle.
Monday
Squat 5x5
Overhead Press 5RM
Bent-Over Row 5RM
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Wednesday
Squat 5x5 (20% less weight than Monday)
Bench Press 5x5
Deadlift 5x5
Pull-Ups 5x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Friday
Squat 5RM
Overhead Press 5x5
Bent-Over Row 5x5
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Week 5: Deload 1. (Using the same weight for all exercises as last week of the Loading Mesocycle.)
Monday
Squat 3x3
Overhead Press 3x3
Bent-Over Rows 3x3
Wednesday
Bench Press 3x3
Deadlift 3x3
Pull-Ups 3x3
Friday
Squat 3x3
Overhead Press 3x3
Bent-Over Rows 3x3
Weeks 6-9: Intense Mesocycle.
Monday
Squat 3x3
Overhead Press 3RM
Bent-Over Rows 3RM
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Wednesday
Bench Press 3x3
Deadlift 3x3
Pull-Ups 3x3
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Friday
Squat 3RM
Overhead Press 3x3
Bent-Over Rows 3x3
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Week 10: Deload 2.
Friday
Squat 1RM
Bench 1RM
Deadlift 1RM
Fin.
Notes
Exercises designated as an (X)RM (short for X-reps max) should be performed with progressively heavier sets with the number of reps X. Your final set on this exercise should be performed with with the most amount of weight that you can lift for X reps i.e. your (X)RM. Ideally you should be able to add weight to your (X)RM from one session to the next.
Exercises designated as (Y)x(Y) in the Loading and Intense Mesocycles should be performed with a fixed weight for Y sets of Y reps. If you can perform all of the required reps, add weight to the bar next training session you perform this exercise as (Y)x(Y). If you cannot perform all of the required reps, keep the weight the same for subsequent sessions until you can.
Exercises designated as 3x3 in Week 5 (and only Week 5 - Weeks 6-9 are explained above) will be performed with the same weight used for 5x5 on the same exercises in Week 4 (the last week of the Loading Mesocycle). As such, Week 5 will be less strenuous than previous weeks, allowing you to recover from any fatigue you may have accumulated by that point. Try to eat well and sleep well during Week 5 and Week 10.
Exercises designated as 3x5 are isolation or abdominal exercises, and can be performed with a loading method of your choice.
The 'isolation exercise' slot is given over to one exercise of your choice that targets an area of concern for you. Typical choices might be standing barbell curls, calf raises or JM presses. Shoulder isolation exercises will generally not be appropriate for this routine. Check with the board if you are not certain if a given exercise would be suitable.
I know that the JM press isn't strictly an isolation exercise, but it'll do a similar job.
The 'abs exercise' slot is given over to one exercise of your choice that targets the abdominal muscles. Good choices might be weighted sit-ups, ab pull-downs, planks and plank variants, suitcase deadlifts, dumbell side-bends, Saxon side-bends, landmines or cable woodchops.
If you are not strong enough to peform a sufficient number of pull-ups or do not have any way to progressively weight them (a dipping belt), these can be replaced by cable pulldowns (close, underhand grip in front of the face) or with another lot of bent-over rows.
This routine will not be easy. It might not necessarily be that difficult but, if performed correctly, definitely won't be a walk in the park. It will also not be appropriate for absolute beginners as your technique on a number of major freeweight exercises will need to be good enough to allow you to safely handle moderately-heavy to heavy weights on these exercises.
It would probably be a good idea to take the week after the end of the routine (Week 11, as it were) off from training before returning to the gym with a new routine.
Please do not make too many changes to the routine or, if you must tinker with it significantly, please don't complain if your progress is less than expected. The routine is designed in the way it is for a reason - Significant changes to it may lead to significant changes to the progress you make on it. If you do want to make changes to it, you may wish to consider posting these on the board to get our members' advice on them.
Please read.
The above article was written by Scourge for www.iron-city.net on the 03 December 2005. If you are so misguided as to think that it is good enough for you to want to copy-and-paste it onto another website or forum, please do the decent thing and provide the link to it, or credit me and Iron City for it. Don't be a prick and try to pass it off as your own.
Disclaimer: Please note that the author i.e. Scourge, accepts that any or all of the above may be merely the opinion of Scourge and/or plain wrong and might not necessarily be based on any facts known to man or beast whatsoever. Scourge accepts no liability in general for anything ever, and in particular for any injury, illness, death, discomfort, pain, financial loss, adverse emotions, boredom etc. that may occur either as a result of yourself or others reading and/or implementing a training programme based on any of the information contained or not contained in this article.
The author i.e. Scourge reserves the right to modify this disclaimer without providing advance notice of any modifications to anybody at all.
As I expect that many training newbies have trouble finding productive training routines within the vast myriad of disinformation that is today's fitness industry, I thought I'd give you a simple, but proven, routine that should yield good gains, being the generous soul that I am.
This is an uncomplicated 10 week general purpose strength/mass-building routine not-too-subtly adapted from Madcow's Bill Starr 5x5 routine. While the principles behind the way the routine is structured are not that simplistic at all, beginners do not need to know the logic behind it for them to benefit from it*.
If you have any queries on the logic behind the routine or performing it correctly, feel free to post them in this thread.
*While I realise that this post is actually pretty long, performing this routine requires very little prior knowledge of training, except for the proper technique for the exercises therein and an understanding of the terminology used (some of which is explained in the 'Notes' section anyway).
Weeks 1-4: Loading Mesocycle.
Monday
Squat 5x5
Overhead Press 5RM
Bent-Over Row 5RM
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Wednesday
Squat 5x5 (20% less weight than Monday)
Bench Press 5x5
Deadlift 5x5
Pull-Ups 5x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Friday
Squat 5RM
Overhead Press 5x5
Bent-Over Row 5x5
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Week 5: Deload 1. (Using the same weight for all exercises as last week of the Loading Mesocycle.)
Monday
Squat 3x3
Overhead Press 3x3
Bent-Over Rows 3x3
Wednesday
Bench Press 3x3
Deadlift 3x3
Pull-Ups 3x3
Friday
Squat 3x3
Overhead Press 3x3
Bent-Over Rows 3x3
Weeks 6-9: Intense Mesocycle.
Monday
Squat 3x3
Overhead Press 3RM
Bent-Over Rows 3RM
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Wednesday
Bench Press 3x3
Deadlift 3x3
Pull-Ups 3x3
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Friday
Squat 3RM
Overhead Press 3x3
Bent-Over Rows 3x3
Isolation Exercise 3x5
Abs Exercise 3x5
Week 10: Deload 2.
Friday
Squat 1RM
Bench 1RM
Deadlift 1RM
Fin.
Notes
Exercises designated as an (X)RM (short for X-reps max) should be performed with progressively heavier sets with the number of reps X. Your final set on this exercise should be performed with with the most amount of weight that you can lift for X reps i.e. your (X)RM. Ideally you should be able to add weight to your (X)RM from one session to the next.
Exercises designated as (Y)x(Y) in the Loading and Intense Mesocycles should be performed with a fixed weight for Y sets of Y reps. If you can perform all of the required reps, add weight to the bar next training session you perform this exercise as (Y)x(Y). If you cannot perform all of the required reps, keep the weight the same for subsequent sessions until you can.
Exercises designated as 3x3 in Week 5 (and only Week 5 - Weeks 6-9 are explained above) will be performed with the same weight used for 5x5 on the same exercises in Week 4 (the last week of the Loading Mesocycle). As such, Week 5 will be less strenuous than previous weeks, allowing you to recover from any fatigue you may have accumulated by that point. Try to eat well and sleep well during Week 5 and Week 10.
Exercises designated as 3x5 are isolation or abdominal exercises, and can be performed with a loading method of your choice.
The 'isolation exercise' slot is given over to one exercise of your choice that targets an area of concern for you. Typical choices might be standing barbell curls, calf raises or JM presses. Shoulder isolation exercises will generally not be appropriate for this routine. Check with the board if you are not certain if a given exercise would be suitable.
I know that the JM press isn't strictly an isolation exercise, but it'll do a similar job.
The 'abs exercise' slot is given over to one exercise of your choice that targets the abdominal muscles. Good choices might be weighted sit-ups, ab pull-downs, planks and plank variants, suitcase deadlifts, dumbell side-bends, Saxon side-bends, landmines or cable woodchops.
If you are not strong enough to peform a sufficient number of pull-ups or do not have any way to progressively weight them (a dipping belt), these can be replaced by cable pulldowns (close, underhand grip in front of the face) or with another lot of bent-over rows.
This routine will not be easy. It might not necessarily be that difficult but, if performed correctly, definitely won't be a walk in the park. It will also not be appropriate for absolute beginners as your technique on a number of major freeweight exercises will need to be good enough to allow you to safely handle moderately-heavy to heavy weights on these exercises.
It would probably be a good idea to take the week after the end of the routine (Week 11, as it were) off from training before returning to the gym with a new routine.
Please do not make too many changes to the routine or, if you must tinker with it significantly, please don't complain if your progress is less than expected. The routine is designed in the way it is for a reason - Significant changes to it may lead to significant changes to the progress you make on it. If you do want to make changes to it, you may wish to consider posting these on the board to get our members' advice on them.
Please read.
The above article was written by Scourge for www.iron-city.net on the 03 December 2005. If you are so misguided as to think that it is good enough for you to want to copy-and-paste it onto another website or forum, please do the decent thing and provide the link to it, or credit me and Iron City for it. Don't be a prick and try to pass it off as your own.
Disclaimer: Please note that the author i.e. Scourge, accepts that any or all of the above may be merely the opinion of Scourge and/or plain wrong and might not necessarily be based on any facts known to man or beast whatsoever. Scourge accepts no liability in general for anything ever, and in particular for any injury, illness, death, discomfort, pain, financial loss, adverse emotions, boredom etc. that may occur either as a result of yourself or others reading and/or implementing a training programme based on any of the information contained or not contained in this article.
The author i.e. Scourge reserves the right to modify this disclaimer without providing advance notice of any modifications to anybody at all.