My complete workout

Here’s a post of my actual routine. This is just what I do. Take what you think has merit. And discard the rest. That way through trial and error you’ll find what works for you and YOUR body. 

How I apply each of the principles within it will be mentioned as well

The main premise in terms of exercises is I pick a main compound exercise for each muscle group/ with additional variations that I rotate through, to balance supporting muscles as well.

In order to get enough volume (reps/sets)

I split these into antagonistic days (opposite) how so? 

Two workouts: rotating every other day + throwing an extra day of rest every several weeks, when something comes up or it is needed

How I set up each of these exercises. It’s a little confusing to explain. But bear with me, it’s quite simple once you understand and apply.

I warm up a muscle group, with 1 set of around 50% of my strength building set. 

Let’s take two exercises from workout A for example

Each exercise has

-warm up set (1st green dot)

(objective to get blood pumping and moving through muscle, and to get muscles and tendons stretched and ready for work)

6-8 reps, focus on slowww reps, feeling and conscious contracting through the whole movement

-Heavy Strength/Power building set (2nd green dot) 

(Pick a weight that, with perfect form, you would fail between 4-6 reps, you should be in perfect control of the weight. Form should be perfect. If you’re not in control here. You will inevitably injure yourself in time) when you hit 7+ reps with this weight, increase the weight by the smallest amount you can, and build back up to 7+ reps over the next several weeks/months. Repeat!) 

Immediately after my heavy set, I would do the warm up for the next exercise 

(1st red dot)

(I’d pick an exercise that has no common muscle group with the one I just performed. Eg. If I just did heavy set shoulder press, I’d go warm up back.)

After warming up the next exercise I’d now do a take a 2-2.5 minute rest (depending on size of muscle group (2 mins for smaller I.e. abs, biceps, etc. And 2.5 for larger I.e. Shoulder press, pull ups, incline dB press,etc. Adjust accordingly)

Moderately heavy strength/explosiveness/endurance set

(3rd green dot)

(Here I’d lower my heavy weight about 10% or so, so that I would fail at 6-8 reps, a key here is to focus on exploding the weight up as fast as you can. )

Then I’d finish that body part with a 

Lighter Explosiveness/Endurance set

(4th green dot)

(Here I’d lower my weight again by about 10% or so, so that I would fail between 8-12 reps, while keeping perfect form. Also focusing on exploding the weight up. And keeping full control on both parts of the movement.) 

After this 

I would begin my 

-Heavy Strength/Power building set for the second exercise (2nd red dot) and repeat/continue on the procedure

These three phases/rep ranges will hit most of the functional uses of the muscle group. To be clear each exercise has 

1 warm up set, and 3 working sets.

Workout A: 

Shoulders

->Shouder press

->Lateral Raise (medial head)

Back

->pull ups

->chin ups

Abs

Triceps

Quadriceps 

Workout B:

Chest

->Incline Dumbell Press

->Dips

Mid Back

Rear Deltoids

Trapezius 

Biceps

Hamstrings

Calves

Let me go into a little bit of detail into each of these muscle groups. How I approach them. And how the principles apply to each of them.

Keep in mind, for smaller muscles, I find that lighter weight and higher reps seems to work best for myself. I.e. abs, medial delts, rear delts, biceps, triceps, calves.

Shoulders:

My primary shoulder builder is seated shoulder press or standing barbell press. I also do handstand push-ups. I variate every few weeks. At times I might do my 2 heavier sets with shoulder press, and my last set with handstand push ups. 

Lateral raises: 

->dumbbell lateral raise or cable, rarely use machine but is still good. Since the medial delts are a small muscle I do my heavy set with a weight that I hit 12 reps, and the next two sets I aim for a weight I can do 15, then 20 reps. 

Pull ups:

Primarily do pull ups. With a weighted belt on my waist. Aim for heavy set, 4-6 reps, then 6-8, then 8-12. Assisted pull up machine is great if you’re building your strength up for that. Lat pull down. 

Chin ups: 

This is a palms facing in movement. Works more of entire back. Rather than isolating lats like a pull up does. Same ranges as pull up. 

Abs: 

Either hanging leg raises, decline sit ups are my go to. I never do these weighted. They are delicate muscles on me. I just wear them out with explosive reps until failure. I warm up with a gentle set of about 8. Then all 3 working sets are just to failure. No need to count. You’ll continually be able to do more and become more efficient over time. 

Triceps: 

Typically rope extensions, also dips. And close grip push ups. I adapted this one a little differently because I find I never get a solid contraction my primary movement.

So I do perfect reps with the rope extension to warm up. Focusing on contraction. Then for my heavy sets I do 8-10 rep extensions, then close grip push ups explosively to failure.

The next set is 10-12, explosive push ups

Then the final is usually just tricep dips to failure.

Quadriceps: 

I don’t squat. It fucks with my knees lol. But I do functional leg movements. 

I.e my main one is single leg pistol squats. 

I usually warm up with regular body weight squats. And squeezing glutes and quads at top of movement. 

Then I do pistol squats while holding dumbbells. To build up. You can hold on to something. It’s a difficult movement at first. But performing these explosively will add tremendous strength and power to your sprints/jumps/quick movements. It’s awesome. I fail at 5 reps each leg

I just do two sets. I drop the weight, about 20 percent and do another 5 reps each leg. 

I don’t do a third heavy set for any lower body exercises. I’m thinking I’m doing cardio and walking a lot. That will take care of the endurance portion.

Now workout B:

Chest:

Incline dumbell press, basically how I do shoulder press. I rarely bench press. 

Mid back:

Either the weighted rowing machine

Barbell rows. Close grip chin ups (pulling toward my chest and angling my torso more horizontally). 

Warm up with half weight of heavy set. 

Then a weight for 6-8 reps

Second set 8-10

Third 10-12ish

Rear deltoids:

Just bent over dumbell raises, sometimes use the cables. This muscle naturally gets a lot of work from pull ups, deadlifts and most back exercises.

I treat these the same way I treat lateral raises. Make sure to stop in line with your back. No need to flap like a bird all the way back (the traps take over at that point)

Trapezius:

Primarily dumbbell shrugs. Also variate with barbell shrugs

Heavy set 6-8

Second 8-10

Third 10-12

Biceps:

Primarily curls. Or the cable machine with a bar attachment while the cable is between my legs (targets the lower portion of the movement as well) 

Make sure to do other variations with wrist facing forward, hammer curls as well 

Heavy set 8-10

Next set 10-12

Next set 12-15

Hamstrings:

Stiff leg deadlifts. Normal deadlifts

Lying hamstring curls. 

4-6

6-8

8-10

Calves:

I love a standing calf machine. But I’ll sub with single leg calf raises while holding dumbbells. Aim to get a full stretch on the bottom of the movement. 

Heavy set 10-12

Second set 12-15

Third set 15-20

Explosiveness is key on this one.

That’s mostly all of it. 

All the principles I listed are at work in this routine I use. 

Targets the entire body, in every rep range, and is filled with functional movements to balance a physique in terms of overall strength/power as well as efficiency.