This routine is focused on efficiency, convenience, simple/affordable equipment, and general fitness with a slight lean towards bodybuilding. It is a long term routine and not something that "shocks" the system. Basically it is a routine that is geared for a busy home gym rat like myself.
The routine is total body 3x to 4x a week alternating between bilateral low rep movements, and unilateral high rep movements.
Bilateral (2 for notation) movements are done for strength and Unilateral (1 for notation) for balance (athletics and aesthetics).
Bilateral reps for upper body is done for a ramping set of 5x5 (Sets x Reps). For lowerbody it's a ramping set of 5x7. Ramping (also known as pyramiding) meaning weight is added after each set (usually ~ 10% of max or whatever is closer/convenient in 5lbs increments).
Unilateral reps for upper body is done for a stripping set (also known as reverse pyramid) set of 3x10. For lowerbody its done for 3x15. Stripping meaning weight and/or reps is decreased each set (usually ~ 10% of max or whatever is closer/convenient in 5lbs increments).
Because we are undulating hi-rep and low-rep we must make sure the movement patterns between the two are different enough to avoid too much muscle/neuro confusion. That is for example we don't want to do a low rep incline barbell bench press and then the next workout day do a high rep incline barbell bench press or even a high rep incline dumbbell bench press. More of that will be discussed later.
Unlike many other routines this one likes to keep push and pull together for the synergy of training opposing muscle groups in the same session ( eg chest/back, tricep/bicep). Also this saves time because we can superset by alternating between opposing muscles.
You can obviously choose alternative but similar movements to the ones I have chosen but the movements I have selected are safe, well balanced and convenient because they are easy to superset and do not require dumbells.
Finally I have tried to be very explicit about the mechanics of the routine so it may seem it is more complicated than it really is. For the TL;DR see Routines.
Upper Body (U for notation) exercises choices are an opposing push/pull pair of either:
- Above Horizon(AH)
- Below Horizon (BH)
Above (AH for notation) exercises are exercises where you are pushing or pulling above the horizontal plane. Below (BH for notation) are the opposite.
As will be shown by the exercise selection it does not mean completely perpendicular to the horizon/ground and angles are actually preferred (for example incline bench press is preferred over flat bench press or military press).
Combined with the bilateral, unilateral we have 4 exercise pairs (with example and notation):
- U1AH - 3x10 (stripping) One arm Landmine Press & One arm band Chinup
- U2BH - 5x5 (ramping) Dips & Barbell Rows
or
- U1BH - 3x10 (stripping) Uneven Ring Dips & One arm Landmine Rows
- U2AH - 5x5 (ramping) Incline Bench Press & Pullup
N.B. We are only picking one of the pairs above per workout session and two opposite pairs per period/block. see Routines.
So why not classify movements based on the horizontal and vertical planes like other routines?
There are a couple of reasons why:
- Horizontal and vertical planes are unrealistic of everyday movements. The body moves in angles and curves. Gravity is only a vertical force.
- Vertical movements are heavily shoulder based. Shoulders get plenty and don't need focus.
- AH is mostly vertical and BH is mostly horizontal so in large part its just a difference in terminology but above/below horizon is more accurate.
So what is a flat bench press or pendlay row? They are probably both BH (most arch their back to do a bench press and most pull their chest up to do a row). The reality is doesn't matter what you call the angle of movement so long as the next time you workout you do a completely different angle if training the same opposing pair.
WTF is Landmine, Band Chinups, and Ring Dips?
The short answer is you can google for youtube clips on these exercises.
- Landmine
Take a barbell and shove one side in the corner and the other side with weight. You now have a 7 foot lever that you can do rows and presses with. The press mimics a dumbell incline press and the row a dumbell row. If you prefer something a little more elegant there are landmine attachments that will attach to the floor/rack/weights so that the unweighted part of the bar pivots (google/amazon).
- Band Chinups
Take an elastic lifting band (the ones powerlifters use) and make a ring knot on your pullup bar with the band and then wrap the other part of the band below your knee. This will provide assistance for exercises like the one arm chinup. To do ramping you can keep the same band through out the sets but add a dip belt with weight to each set.
- Ring Dips
Hang Gymnastic Rings or Blaster straps from your pullup bar. Because each ring has its own strap you can create an uneven dip like movement for unilateral focus by having one of the rings higher than the other (this works for other bodyweight movements as well like inverted body rows or pushups). As mentiond earlier with band chinups you can also use a dip belt and bands if needed.
These exercise are great because they don't require dumbells and most home gyms just don't have adequate dumbells. Good dumbells take a lot of time, space and money. Bad ones are dangerous (e.g. the powerblock).
The additional equipment you need for landmine, band pullups and ring dips is trivial in cost and is typically easy to carry with you if you go to a gym. I also recommend a loading pin and dip belt if you are already strong.
I usually don't endorse products but IronMind makes the best dip belt and a very good loading pin. Yes it is expensive but is highly worth it. As for bands I recommend http://www.elitefts.com/. If in doubt buy bands that powerlifters would use.
As an alternative to barbell and bodyweight exercises a good option particularly for unilateral upper body training is a cable machine. The problem is professional gym cable machines are expensive and take a ton of room.
There are a bunch of novelty products that will turn a power rack or a pullup bar sort of into a cable machine but I find these products to generally suck. They are too hard to adjust the length of the cable and they use subpar pullies.
What I recommend is using a good loading pin (see previous section) and buying two high quality pullies and rope. You want two pullies to mimic above horizon and below horizon movements. Just attach the pullies to your ceiling (or rack) and floor (or rack). An obvious caveat you will probably find out is you will want the pullies to not be directly over each other or else the weight will hit the line.
Many people recommend climbing gear but I highly recommend sailing gear over climbing gear. Sailing rope (called line in sailing parlance) is far more ergonomic to the hands and the pullies (called blocks in sailing parlance) are superior for actually slowly pulling on.
The problem is sailing gear is goddamn expensive but if you know what you are looking for you can shop carefully. Mauri Pro sailing is a cost effective place to shop.
What you want to buy is two 60mm Single Block (50mm-80mm is fine as well) with a swivel shackle and preferable without a ratchet. I believe Selden makes some cost effective blocks at around $30. You want to two single blocks so that you can make a pulling point above as well as below (below will have a greater mechanical advantage as it requires two pullies but this is normal for all pully machines).
After you pick out the blocks next pick out the line (rope) by looking at what the max line size the block supports and getting something a tad smaller but not that much smaller (like 2mm or so less). You want line typically used for mainsheets or halyards (high strength low stretch). Dyneema, Spectra and Vectran are the best but are expensive (IIRC). Plain polyester is also fine as well. The reality is sailing line is high quality stuff and will not break easily (in many cases it is stronger than steel cables) so you are pretty safe so long as you pick the right diameter. Besides line to go into the block (pully) you might want some smaller line to attach the shackle of the block to your rack. Dyneema is a good choice for that.
I will leave out the explanation of buying carabiners as those are exceedingly easy to find. However one should know how to make a loop in a rope quickly to attach a carabiner or whatever else. An easy way to make a loop with out needing an end that is strong is a called an "Overhand loop" (google it). If you see the knot you will know how to tie it. Because sailing rope is made for tying and untying knots it is easy to untie this knot.
Lower body (L for notation) is pretty simple as its mainly just bilateral or unilateral. Bilateral would be squat/deadlift type exercises and unilateral would be lunge/step exercises. With unilateral though we do some additional hip movements. We further classify the lower body movements as either Concentric (C), or Eccentric (E) focused. Unlike the upperbody this is a fairly arbitrary classification (do not let the classification effect how you do the exercise). If you like you can use Hip/Knee or Push/Pull but the reality is almost all the lower body movements are extremely compound and can be classified in many overlapping groups. For example is a deadlift a push or pull? Is it a knee or hip exercise?
Just like the upperbody we have 4 movement groups with the exception that the bilateral movements do not have an antagonist pair.
- L1EC - 3x15 (stripping) Lunge & Single Leg Hip thrusters
- L2C - 5x7 (ramping) Deficit Snatch Deadlift
or
N.B. L1 and L2 are done on different days. L1 is two exercises and L2 is one exercise. see Routines.
One of the greatest muscle building exercises ever.
It is a widegrip deadlift on a platform. Yes this is a controversial exercise so if you really have doubts a regular deadlift or a trap bar squat are good alternatives.
You need about a 4" platform but this may vary greatly on invidual. Ideally you want to go as low as possibly while maintaining a neutral spine. The easy way is just to use 35lbs plates instead of 45lbs plates as 35lbs plates are 4 inches smaller in diameter. The other option is stacking two 25lbs-45lbs plates which gets you close to 4".
You will also most likely need or eventually need lifting straps for this exercise. You can try alternating grips but I find that unlike the deadlift it doesn't feel right.
Unlike the Deadlift I find this exercise does not trash your CNS so you can do it more than once per week. It also has a greater ROM so you will feel it more in your legs.
Unlike the overrated low bar backsquat you will know you are going deep enough and the same deepness every time. And unlike the underrated trap bar squat you have a little more stability since the bar is closer to your body (yes the trapbar seems safe but some weird swaying can happen).
Finally the movement is actually more realistic of picking shit off the ground. I have yet to see a tire or large rocks where you do not have to bend down lower than a deadlift.
For both ramping and stripping sets I do not recommend you constanstly push yourself to failure. See Programming.
As discussed earlier for the low rep bilateral exercise pairs we add weight to each subsequent set. This is often called "pyramiding".
I recommend you antagonist superset the first 2-3 sets rapidly since they will be relatively easy (albeit the third set should be fairly tough if you are going fast enough). For superset in this case I mean alternating between the opposing exercises (ie push then pull) so that you will have done a totally of 3 sets of both exercises. Because you will be trying to do this fast as possible (zero rest) I recommend having the weight you need to add to each set near by and available.
Then before your last two sets (these are often called the work sets) I recommend you rest at a minimum of 4 minutes before each set. I usually take that time to log my progress, drink water, and maybe go the bathroom.
Example: Ramping for 5x5 Dips & Barbell Rows
- Dips: 1 set of BW + 10 lbs x 5 reps
- Barbell Row: 1 set of 100 lbs x 5 reps
- Dips: 1 set of BW + 20 lbs x 5 reps
- Barbell Row: 1 set of 110 lbs x 5 reps
- Dips: 1 set of BW + 30 lbs x 5 reps
- Barbell Row: 1 set of 120 lbs x 5 reps
- Rest for 5 minutes
- Dips: 1 set of BW + 40 lbs x 5 reps
- Rest for 1 minute or whatever feels right
- Barbell Row: 1 set of 140 lbs x 5 reps
- Rest for 5 minutes
- Dips: 1 set of BW + 50 lbs x 5 reps
- Rest for 1 minute or whatever feels right
- Barbell Row: 1 set of 150 lbs x 5 reps
1 through 6 are done with little to no rest so bring the barbell close to the dip bar.
BW = bodyweight. Ignore the imbalance of this hypothetical lifter. This is just an example to show the pattern.
As discussed earlier for the high rep unilateral exercise pairs we decrease weight or reps to each subsequent set. This is often called "reverse pyramiding".
For stripping pairs I recommend you just take whatever time feels comfortable. Time is not really critical here because we are not messing with strength (ATP) recovery.
Example: Stripping for 3x10 1 arm Landmine Press & 1 arm band Chinup
- Left arm Press 10 reps for 50lbs
- Right arm Press 10 reps for 50lbs
- Left arm Chinup 10 reps for BW+50lbs
- Right arm Chinup 10 reps for BW+50lbs
- Left arm Press 10 reps for 45lbs
- Right arm Press 10 reps for 45lbs
- Left arm Chinup 10 reps for BW+40lbs
- Right arm Chinup 10 reps for BW+40lbs
- Left arm Press 10 reps for 40lbs
- Right arm Press 10 reps for 40lbs
- Left arm Chinup 10 reps for BW+30lbs
- Right arm Chinup 10 reps for BW+30lbs
The Chinups are done with heavy band wrapped under the knee for assistance.
You can rest for however long you like between sets. Even though you are alternating between exercises I really don't recommend trying to do all 12 sets as fast as you can. That being said take advantage of the opposing groups and not rest as long as you would if doing the same exercise back to back.
Alternatively you can strip an exercise by reps and do an extra set:
- 10/15 reps each arm/leg
- 8/12 reps each arm/leg
- 6/9 reps each arm/leg
- 6/9 reps each arm/leg
I find stripping by rep useful for body weight exercises like the pullup or sometimes just as an alternative.
Yes some of this stripping and ramping (above) is probably tad bit of broscience bullshit but the above tips have worked well for me for shooting through plateaus.
Here is an example routine for 3 times a week for two 4 week periods alternating between X and Y workouts.
- Monday = X, Tuesday = Y, Friday = X
- Monday = Y, Tuesday = X, Friday = Y
- Repeat Week 1
- Repeat Week 2
Week 1-4:
Important: For each week we add addiontional sets besides the ones shown below. This will be abbreviated as PAV (programming additional volume). This is covered in programming.
Day X:
- Power movement
- L2C - 5x7 (ramping) + PAV Snatch Deadlift from platform
- U1AH - 3x10 (stripping) + PAV One arm Landmine Press & One arm band Chinup
- Mobility exercises (e.g. rotational ab workout and shoulder band work)
Day Y:
- Power movement
- U2BH - 5x5 (ramping) + PAV Dips & Barbell Rows
- L1EC - 3x15 (stripping) + PAV Lunge & Single Leg Hipthruster
- Beauty exercises (e.g. ie biceps/triceps)
Week 5-8:
Day X:
- Power movement
- U2AH - 5x5 (ramping) + PAV Incline Bench Press & Pullup
- L1CE - 3x15 (stripping) + PAV Step Up & Single Leg RDL
- Mobility exercises (e.g. rotational ab workout and shoulder band work)
Day Y:
- Power movement
- L2E - 5x7 (ramping) + PAV Frontsquat
- U1BH - 3x10 (stripping) + PAV Uneven Ring Dips & One arm Landmine Rows
- Beauty exercises (e.g. ie biceps/triceps)
Repeat weeks 1-8 adjusting weights.
Obviously you can discard the power, mobility and beauty exercises for whatever. I often omit them altogether.
So for the first 4 weeks we are focusing on strength/power for our below horizon (BH) movements and hypertrophy/endurance for above horizon (AH) upper body movements. After this workout period is done we reverse this for the next four weeks.
You could easily turn this into a 4 times a week schedule by splitting upper body, lower body and hitting each muscle group twice a week instead of three. For example:
Week 1-4:
Monday = U1AH, Tuesday = L2C, Thursday = U2BH, Friday = L1EC
Week 5-8:
Monday = U2AH, Tuesday = L1CE, Thursday = U1BH, Friday = L2E
You can also convert from 3 day total body to 4 day upper/lower split (or vice versa) after any two weeks. This is useful if you find the frequency or the time in gym of 3 days too intense after two weeks (this can happen if your planned increments to your RM were not big enough or your advanced enough).
You can also plan to switch from 3 day total body to 4 day split as a means of periodization and/or peaking. I have found this effective as well.
For intermediate and experienced lifters I recommend a 4 week period (also known as block) where you slowly add weight and volume to eventually achieve a higher RM. At the end of the period we start a new period where we change the exercises and lower the weight and volume. That is the weight, volume and exercises are modulated and not the reps like in other periodization schemes.
Each week I recommend adding additional sets to the Set x Reps mentioned above.
Here is what I recommend for additional volume:
For Bilateral (2) I recommend:
PAV = (Week-1) x 3 sets of 3 reps af your 3rd set weight.
For Unilater (1) I recommend:
PAV = (Week-1) x 3 sets of 6 reps of your 3rd set weight.
So for week 4 you will be doing 9 sets! The idea is to create almost overtraining and then when you restart a new block the volume is drastically decreased.
If you are a beginner I don't really recommend this programming and even this routine. Instead use a traditional big 3 5x5 (google Starting Strength routine). If you do anyway just keep adding weight slowly till you stall and then change exercises.
Each period we basically are trying to beat our 5/7/10/15RM (Rep Max). However for most people you will want to start a new period of the routine well below your RM. A rough rule is if you are an immediate to advance lifter is to hit your old RM in the third week in a four week period or whatever is 3/4 of the way.
Because this routine is undulating between light/heavy every other day we focus on rotating exercises long term instead of intensity. Every four weeks we change the movements.
However I recommend not getting too extravagant with exercise selection. Rotate a few really good exercise and get really strong at doing them instead of the ADHD that is crossfit. If you have too many exercises it's hard to track if you are getting stronger. Almost all the exercises I do regardless of what time of year have already been mentioned. If you are looking for a slight change to break a plateau I recommend changing grip. For example instead of pullups do chinups. For bench press go wider. For ring dips change the height of one side. So on.
There are tons of articles on workout programming and periodization. I'm not going to cover all of that here. Ripptoe has written a book as well as many others. Its basically shoot for a goal and plan to build up to it. Plan for failure/adapdation.
I am by no means an expert but over the course of 20 years I have tried many routines and this works well for me as its the combination and culmination of what has worked and what has not.
What is semi unique about my routine is:
- bilateral and unilateral training
- supersetting antogonist pairs
- ramping and stripping
- planned movement changes every 4 weeks
Invariably many will disagree with the choices in this routine and will cite various scientific articles to show the contrary. The sad fact with the fitness world is that you can almost find any pseudo academic article to support or rebudle a claim. There is a lot of selective bias.
Over the last two decades I have basically seen 8 groups of strength/muscle routines:
Traditional
- Power lifting
- Olympic weight lifting
- Strongman training
- Traditional bodybuilding
Vogue
- TUT bodybuilding - Mind muscle connection sluts
- Softcore functional - Rehab, Core training, Stability Ball whores
- Hardcore functional - CrossFit hipsters
- 5x5 - MadCow, StrongLifts, Progressive overload, Squat rats
The first 4 groups of training or highly specific to a result and require specific equipment, talent and genetics to be successful.
The last 4 groups are general fitness and aesthetics. This is what most people are interested in as well as the routines are typically geared for the general population. I have tried all 4 of those groups and I will discuss what I like and don't like.
To start I found routines revolving around TUT (Time under Tension) to work at first but overall lead to overtraining and strength loss. What do I mean by TUT.. I mean concentrating on tempo (just google TUT). Never I have had more disappointing results which is fairly annoying given the plethora of academic references the TUT crowd can pull out of their asses.
The softcore functional core crowd is what you see most "sport club" trainers preach. Basically doing exercises on a stability ball and focusing on the core yet ironically ignoring the posterior chain. Sometimes there is some plyo and power movements. Decent for the old and injured but not intense enough for most.
That leaves two that I admire which are almost complete opposites: 5x5 and CrossFit. 5x5 is all about programming (periodization) and progressive overload. Increase weight and muscles will grow. CrossFit is all about movement variety. Change exercises to challenge the body and test aka compete once in a while.
I think there are merits to both and so I change exercises every month while still adhering to progressive overload and programming.
There are articles to show that more abundant movement selection is very advantageous to strength, hypertrophy and injury avoidance. It is also frankily more interesting. Squatting, Bench Pressing, and Rowing three times a week can get boring.
- Olympic Barbell (required)
- 2" hole plates (ie weight for the barbell, required)
- Squat Rack (required) or Power Rack (recommended)
- Dip bar
- Pullup bar (required)
- Gymnastic Rings (or blast straps) (required)
- Elastic Bands (required)
- Landmine attachment (optional)
- Dip Belt (required)
- Loading Pin (optional but recommended)
- Lifting straps (optional)
- Incline/Flat/Decline Bench (optional)
- Some sort of stepping box (required)
- Rope and pullies for cable machine (optional)
So what will it cost for a typical home gym with the required stuff:
| Equipment | Cost |
|---|---|
| Barbell | $150 |
| Weight | $0 - $1000 |
| Squat+Pullup Rack | $400 - $1000 |
| Gymnastic Rings | $50 |
| Dip Belt | $70 |
| Loading Pin | $50 |
| Bands | $50 |
| Step Box | $70 |
| Rubber mats | $100 - $400 |
Total: ~ $800 - $3000
The equipment is roughly in order of priority.
While $3k seems like a lot up front it is often trivial compared to the long term cost of the space that the home gym takes up. That is the real cost is the space you loose (even storage space) particularly if you live in a urban area.
That being said home gyms save you travel time and depending on your opportunity cost maybe even money. There are also some amazing space saving options for squat racks these days (ironmind, roguefitness, etc) (funny personal note... my gym is on the third floor in my attic).
Another advantage of home gyms besides immediate obvious ones are that I believe they are safer (yes even with out a spotter) since traveling with cars is fairly dangerous, there are less distractions and the equipment you use will be consistent.
Obviously the actual weights is a critical component to cost. I recommend cheap ass CAP plates preferable the black ones because they are readily available and easy to buy more of. The gray CAP ones seem to be lower in quality. Walmart sells them online (and sometimes in stores) which is good because frequently you will find some plates are exceptionally off in weight by more than 10% (CAP is notorious for this) so you can just return them back to Walmart with out paying shipping costs.
Yes rubber or urethane encased plates (steel in the middle) would be ideal but they are damn expensive (particularly urethane). There are only a few good manufactures that make these kinds of plates (Ivanko). Thanks to the CrossFit phenomenon pure rubber/urethane bumper plates are surprisingly about the same price if not cheaper than encased but take up a lot more space and are an absolute pain in the ass to pickup. They are nice though because they are generally more accurate, corrosion resistant and most importantly you can drop them. However rubber plates regardless of weight are the same diameter as the standard 45lbs which makes exercises like landmine rows and presses awkward. I use thick rubber mats instead but you really can't do serious olympic lifting with out these plates. Consequently some people buy just a pair of 45lbs and then load up with smaller steel plates.
If you don't have enough money at one time you can buy 10 pounds every week on Amazon or Walmart (two 5 pound steel plates) to slowly build up your collection (both I believe will do free shipping). Lots of little plates are good for ramping and stripping. I have also noticed that the smaller plates seem to have less variance in weight (even percentage wise).
You can also try Craigslist for weights but its amazing how often people charge more than Walmart or Amazon per pound.
Regardless I highly recommend you do not buy octagon shaped plates or any plates that have holes or other weird shapes to make it easier to grab. There are some plates that are well balanced and easy to grab but are extremely costly. Ivanko's rubber encased plates would be an example. If in doubt the plates should be a uniform cylinder.
The only piece of equipment that I really recommend you take time to consider and buy correctly is the Squat + Pullup Rack. A shitty barbell is unlikely to hurt you. A bad rack can kill you. If you have room a power rack with saftey bars and a dip bar attachments is ideal. I recommend straight pullup bars and not the ones that are shaped like a lat bar and or have all kinds of angled grips. Also with straight pullup bars you can hang things like gymnastic rings.
You do not need a dip bar or a bench for this routine. For a dipping movements you can just use the gymnastic rings.
The only exercise that requires a bench is the incline bench press of which you can just do landmine presses with both hands at the same time or regular barbell presses (ie shoulder presses).