3 days/week fullbody workout
 

Is this program good for bulk?


Monday

1. Full Squat 4x8
2. Incline barbell bench press 4x8-10
3. Pull ups 4x8
4. Side lateral raise 3x8
5. Dumbell curl 3x8
6. Sit ups 5x25

Thursday

1. Dead lift 6x5/6
2. Barbell Close Grip Bench Press (shoulder width) 3x8
3. Dumbbell Bent-over Row 3x8
4. Barbell Behind Neck Press 3x8
5. Barbell curl 3x8
6. Barbell Standing Leg Calf Raise 4x20

Friday

1. Barbell Front Squat 5x5
2. Barbell Bent Knee Good-morning 3x8
3. Dumbell Bench Press 3x8
4. Barbell Bent-over Row 3x8
5. Side lateral raise 3x8
6. Leg raises 4x20

Please comment and tell me if I should change anything :)

Damn, I don't understand... When I read "Why aren't you growing??" article I see that there is written "Training a bodypart once per week (and one bodypart per day) is one of the worst ways to train. The simple fact is that training using an upper/lower split or a push/pull split or 3 full body days will provide double or triple the training stimulus than training a muscle once per week and thus, if done correctly will lead to much, much greater growth and strength gains."

I am confused. When I find a fullbody program people say that it's better to use split and that means I will train bodypart once per week...

:wtf:

It's personal preference. Some people recover easier than others so a full body 3 days a week works well and some people recover badly so a split is the best. If you recover well, your program is fine, although I would switch Friday to Saturday if possible because your body needs rest overall.

Any program based on the major compound exercises is going to be good for bulk. Bulk comes from the amount of calories you eat.

You have way too many exercises listed, and if you're actually able to do all of that without over training, then you aren't lifting heavy enough, especially if your goal is bulk not withstanding fat.

Base your work out around the Bench Press, Deadlift, Squat, and Overhead Press. Eliminate about half of those exercises in your list, and decrease your reps to 5, while increasing the weight. Even consider going down to 3 reps and further increasing the weight, if you can. The only muscles you won't hit with those 4 are your biceps and calfs. Do isolation movements to hit those however you wish, whenever you wish.

Just keep in mind the idea behind bulking is more calories and heavier lifting, but with an emphasis on the calories part. You WILL not get big if you don't eat more.

Thanks everyone. :)

So if I base my workout on deadlift,squat,bench press and shoulder press, should I just do it 3times a week? All the same..? :D

I agree with everything bluecore said. With that many exercises you will over train at some point if you are lifting with any appreciable weight.

If you want to do 3x a week then I would try

Workout A
Deadlifts
Bench Bench Press
+ 1 or 2 accessory lifts

Workout B
Squats
Overhead Press ( I would suggest in front of chest for the sake of your shoulders)
+ 1 or 2 accessory lifts

Then on week 1 do A, B, A ... week 2 do B, A, B.

For rep ranges for the large compound lifts I would suggest in the 3-5 but up to 10 or even 12 can be useful.

Rep ranges on the accessory lifts should be in the 8-12 or even 15 range.

Eventually this workout will become too much as well depending on how advanced you are.... At that point I would recommend 4x a week workout focusing on 1 of the big lifts per day with 2 accessory exercises.

That's my take on it.

IW

I appreciate your help. Thanks! :)

jaafar, the simple answer to your question is yes.

beginners (something i would even consider myself, even though i happen to know a decent amount about body building, i am not always vigilant) put on lots of muscle doing simple 3 day splits based on these movements. what iron worker posted is a prime example of what a beginner should be doing. again, i can't stress it enough: the important thing is that you are doing these movements correctly, and are progressing slow enough so that your mechanics do not suffer and you don't over train or injure yourself. every 6-7 weeks, deload: do some cardio, or some easy lifting. there are more detailed methods on how you can deload but i wouldn't see them as applicable to a beginning lifter.

that said, assuming proper eating (A LOT, remember you're bulking, who cares about the fat), you should be able to progress on EACH of these lifts at a rate of 5lb (bench press, overhead press) to 10lb (squat, dead lift) every week for a period several months. at that point, you should be starting to see blatant results, and you'll still be able to progress like this most likely, but at a slower rate (like, 5 pounds every 2 weeks or something to that effect). after THAT stops working, more careful manipulation of the process will be needed in order to gain. i wouldn't expect to get to that point (where you actually need to change your routine) for at least a year.

in my experience as a baseball player and an all around decent athlete, the biceps and calfs are the most useless muscles on my body. as for calfs, the biceps are almost a purely cosmetic muscle, and what's more, from what i have read people seem to have a heavily influencial genetic pre-disposition on whether or not they can even make their calfs get bigger. in other words, you can do iso movements for them as much as you want, but for most people they're stuck with the calfs that were given to them. point being, i wouldn't worry about them much, unless your concern is women (women like biceps).

Haha, bluecore, lold at the last sentence. I didn't expect to get so much information in this forum. Thanks, man! :)