Routine critique (upper/lower body)

Hi all, I've been practicing resistance training program design so I decided to plan my own routine this week. I'd like some input from all you experts, just to get some outside views. I'm posting an upper body & lower body routine (with some core/back exercises following each)... does this look balanced/reasonable to you?

**UPPER BODY**... Organized like this:

[A] [exercise] [sets] [reps] [weight] [major muscles worked]

[A] Pushup with hands on balance board or Bosu 3 12 - CHEST (push)

[A] Inverted Row 3 12 - CHEST (pull)

         

[B] Dumbbell flye (on stab. ball or bent over) 3 12 12.5 SHOULDER (Ant)

[B] Shoulder press, standing on Bosu 3 12 15 (Med)

[B] High Row with barbell 3 12 25 (Post)

         

[C] Tricep overhead extension (Cable?) 3 12 (20) TRICEPS

         

[D] Russian Twists (on ball) 3 10 each 7.5 CORE (obliques)

[D] Sit-ups using med ball 3 10 each 5 kg CORE (rect. ab.)
 

**LOWER BODY** ... Organized like this:

[A] [exercise] [sets] [reps] [weight] [major muscles worked]

[A] Barbell squat 3 15 25+ GLUTES/QUADS/HAMS

[A] Sumo Squat 3 15 40 INNER THIGH/GLUTES

         

[B] Stab. ball hamstring pull-ins 3 15 - HAMS

[B] Walking lunges with db 3 10 each 12.5 GLUTES/QUADS/HAMS 

[C] Swiss BallKnee Tucks or Piques 3 10 - CORE (rect. ab.)

[C] Sit-ups (elbow to opposite knee) 3 10 - CORE (obliques)

[C] Back Extensions 3 10 - BACK

Original Post by cellophane_star:

**UPPER BODY**

[A] Pushup with hands on balance board or Bosu 3 12 - CHEST (push)  I would say don't use the Bosu ball - if you need to make pushups more difficult (and your form is good), either wear a backpack with weights or put your feet up on a workout bench.

[A] Inverted Row 3 12 - CHEST (pull)

OK         

[B] Dumbbell flye (on stab. ball or bent over) 3 12 12.5 SHOULDER (Ant)

[B] Shoulder press, standing on Bosu 3 12 15 (Med)

[B] High Row with barbell 3 12 25 (Post)

Again, I wouldn't bother with the bosu, but instead increase weight to make shoulder presses more difficult. I'm not sure what the high row does that is different from the other row you have. And the dumbbell fly is isolation, I think, so I wouldn't do it.    

[C] Tricep overhead extension (Cable?) 3 12 (20) TRICEPS

Would not bother with this, since it's isolation. But you do need a vertical pull, so maybe pullups, chinups, or lat pulldown?        

[D] Russian Twists (on ball) 3 10 each 7.5 CORE (obliques)

[D] Sit-ups using med ball 3 10 each 5 kg CORE (rect. ab.)
Ok. Maybe add planks?

**LOWER BODY**

[A] Barbell squat 3 15 25+ GLUTES/QUADS/HAMS

[A] Sumo Squat 3 15 40 INNER THIGH/GLUTES

I would just do one type of squat, but that's just me. But you do need deadlifts.         

[B] Stab. ball hamstring pull-ins 3 15 - HAMS Not sure what this is - sounds like jacknives to me, which are good, but then I'm not sure what swiss ballknee tucks are.

[B] Walking lunges with db 3 10 each 12.5 GLUTES/QUADS/HAMS 

 

[C] Swiss BallKnee Tucks or Piques 3 10 - CORE (rect. ab.)

[C] Sit-ups (elbow to opposite knee) 3 10 - CORE (obliques)

[C] Back Extensions 3 10 - BACK

These aren't really "lower body" so I'm not sure why they are here. I guess it depends on how often you plan on doing this (with days off, or every day, split between upper and lower?)

Those are just my thoughts - do with them as you please :)

Good comments! My notes to your notes:

Upper Body:

• I'm using the Bosu/ balance board here to add more of a stability challenge (involves more core)
• True, the second row may not be necessary but I feel like the "high row" or bent-over row targets my post-delts more than the inverted row (more chest there)
• The dumbbell flye is in there to provide some lateral movement
• I wanted a tricep isolation exercise in the mix.
• Might add a lat pulldown & planks might be a good idea.

Lower Body:

• One type of squat doesn't seem like enough to me!
• I hate deadlifts. I've tried again and again but I don't feel like I'm doing them properly. I know they're good for me though.
• I have a core set on the upper AND lower body days.

Original Post by cellophane_star:

[A] [exercise] [sets] [reps] [weight] [major muscles worked]

[A] Pushup with hands on balance board or Bosu 3 12 - CHEST (push)

[A] Inverted Row 3 12 - CHEST (pull)

Don't bother with the balance ball, it'll limit your strength gains and make you more prone to injury.

Inverted rows are not a chest exercise, they mainly work your pulling muscles (back, biceps, etc).

       &nb sp; 

[B] Dumbbell flye (on stab. ball or bent over) 3 12 12.5 SHOULDER (Ant)

[B] Shoulder press, standing on Bosu 3 12 15 (Med)

[B] High Row with barbell 3 12 25 (Post)

Get rid of the flyes, unless you know of a specific muscle imbalance that needs correcting isolation exercises aren't necessary.

Get rid of the bosu ball for your shoulder presses.  Again, less strength gains and more injuries.

Is the 'high row' and upright row? standing strait up and pulling a bar up to your chin? if so nix that too, it puts a bunch of your joints in less than ideal positions.  You need a vertical pulling movement anyway so switch it with pullups or chinups.

       &nb sp; 

[C] Tricep overhead extension (Cable?) 3 12 (20) TRICEPS

Skip these, your triceps are getting plenty of work from your pushups and shoulder presses.

       &nb sp; 

[D] Russian Twists (on ball) 3 10 each 7.5 CORE (obliques)

[D] Sit-ups using med ball 3 10 each 5 kg CORE (rect. ab.) Switch with some sort of stability exercise, your abs are there to keep your lower back still, not move it back and forth.
 

**LOWER BODY** ... Organized like this:

[A] [exercise] [sets] [reps] [weight] [major muscles worked]

[A] Barbell squat 3 15 25+ GLUTES/QUADS/HAMS

[A] Sumo Squat 3 15 40 INNER THIGH/GLUTES

You don't need two different kinds of squats, they aren't doing anything that differently from each other.

       &nb sp; 

[B] Stab. ball hamstring pull-ins 3 15 - HAMS This is fine as long as it stays challenging, once it get's too easy it hard to make harder

[B] Walking lunges with db 3 10 each 12.5 GLUTES/QUADS/HAMS 

 

[C] Swiss BallKnee Tucks or Piques 3 10 - CORE (rect. ab.)

[C] Sit-ups (elbow to opposite knee) 3 10 - CORE (obliques) again, use your abs for stability not movement.

[C] Back Extensions 3 10 - BACK If done correctly back extensions should work your hamstrings and glutes, the only thing your back muscles do in this move is keep your spine rigid.

 A few more random things to consider:

 Anything done standing on a Bosu has zero or negative transfer to anything done not standing on one, so you lose strength, agility and athletic power when doing standing shoulder presses or squats on them. The instability under your legs makes your body limit force production to have a reserve for keeping your balance with, so you're actually limiting the results by artificially lowering your max.

 Pushups with your hands on the Bosu on the other hand are good for shoulder stability and a whole host of other things - as long as your legs are on stable ground.

 So, you have the horizontal push/pull covered - someone with a good strength balace should be able to to as many inverted rows as pushups; someone like me with crappy gorilla posture and inward rotation can do twice as many pushups as inverted rows :-P (With postural issues its often good to do an unbalanced program - I'm trying for more pulling movements than pushing movements to correct this postural imbalance)

 High row does a few interesting things, most notably it sets you up for serious shoulder problems if your shoulder girdle mobility/stability isn't up to snuff so it might not be ideal.

 I'm using the DB flye on a friend of mine now since he's got a whole plateful of shoulder issues and can't do bench, pushups or dips but still needs a little somethign in the way of chest exercise - once his shoulder stability issues are fixed and he can do pushups without risking blowing out a joint we'll probably cut down on that or dop it entirely if he can get enough total volume on the pecs with basic compounds.

 Isolation moves are mostly a bodybuilder thing, but there's some use for functional training if you need to train around a few issues. Or if you've discovered that a certain muscle is understrength compared to the rest of the kinetic chain in a particular movement and you need to target it specifically in isolation so the other, stronger muscles don't take over.

 Yeah, you've got the vertical push and need a vertical pull - the chinup is sort of the upper-body equivalent of the squat but not everyone can do one straight off. I don't remember if you can, if not, you could always use a progression towards a chinup as your vertical pull exercise. (With two pushing exercises and two pulling exercises your biceps and triceps will have been worked over twice already, but it's possible that if your grip gives out before your biceps and triceps on the compound moves that you could benefit from isolation exercises to strengthen the weak link. In this case, that would be the grip.)

 I've been told that women frequently find the Sumo squat a lot more comfortable than the regular version 'cause of hip angles and pelvic joint mobility, but aside from that I think lunges or other unilateral work has more practical applications for performance - you get to use the inner thigh/glute for what it's meant to do, stabilize you while you've got one foot in front of you and one to the back ;)

 And a deadlift variation for the hamstring/glute complex or something like a glute-ham raise; women are frequently over-exposed to ACL tears and other knee injuries due to hamstring weaknesses and quad/ham strength imbalance, so a deadlift variation would be good.

 When it comes to ab exercises I love/hate planks, side bridges, rollouts, jackknifes and tornado ball slams. Not so much with the crunches - we sit in flexion all day at work, in the car, in front of the TV, the last thing we need is even more exercises where we hunch over forward.

 The fun things about designing your own program though is that you can look at all these things, keep them in mind, and then do your own thing regardless and see if you learn something about how your body and mind works ;)

Melkor mentioned alternatives to deadlifts - in New Rules, I've done dumbbell 1-legged Romanian deadlifts that are quite challenging.

I'm not sure what doesn't work for you with regular deadlifts, but in my case, I don't have the hip mobility to lift the bar off the floor and keep my back's natural curve (and I'm not using big enough weights to get the bar high enough) so I put the bar on milk crates so that I don't have to go down as far to start the lift. When I started, I had the milk crates on the side that made them highest, now they are at the lowest point, as mobility has slowly increased. I think if I ever get up to using 45lb plates, I'll be able to do it from the floor (maybe).

Anyway, might be worth a shot?

Wow... thanks guys! I'm taking all your comments into consideration. I removed some things, added some planks & a lat pulldown and I'll do some Googling deadlift variations. We'll see how it goes.

While I'd like to be able to recreate my own balanced program, I'd rather have an experienced personal trainer help me/tell me what to do! I was in trainer-limbo (my PT just left her job and I have a substitute PT now) but I have a new session/program coming on Wednesday.

I think this was mentioned on your "trainer is leaving me" thread, but what about following a plan like New Rules?

I've never looked into the details of New Rules (is it a book? video?) but I'd rather have one-on-one instruction to make sure my form is correct & that I'm doing the correct exercises for me personally. I don't know if the NR program could give me the individuality I'm looking for.

It's a book. I can see wanting a trainer over a book, but I was just suggesting it as an alternative to creating your own.

And my feeling is if you are doing a routine and you find that something doesn't work (or you aren't able to do the version they suggest) you can always decide to sub in your own version (for instance, I don't have a lat pulldown, so when the book says to do that, I do assisted pullups).

Original Post by melkor:

 A few more random things to consider:

 Anything done standing on a Bosu has zero or negative transfer to anything done not standing on one, so you lose strength, agility and athletic power when doing standing shoulder presses or squats on them. The instability under your legs makes your body limit force production to have a reserve for keeping your balance with, so you're actually limiting the results by artificially lowering your max.

Wow that's good to know. I see the trainer at my work's gym having women doing a whole bunch of stuff on the Bosu and made me consider trying it. Now I won't bother! Though sometimes I feel like it need to work on balance since mine sucks but i think there's better things to focus on. 

My first thought when looking at this was... wow seems time consuming!

If you are ever crunched for time or want to shake things up a bit try using this routine to make a circut training session. When circut training you do not rest between sets because you work a different muscle group. For example today i did:

Circuit 1

(a) 20 pushups

(b) 30 bosu weight squats then hold squat 30 seconds

(c) 20 tricep kickbacks per arm

repeat x3.

Then I rested for a minute and did Circuit 2:

(d) 90 second wall squat

(e) 30 reps on the abductor machine then hold pulse for 30 reps

(f) 20 single leg lunges with cable row per leg

repeat x3.

You could take the list you have here and make your own circut (a upper, a lower, b upper etc).  Julian Michaels' Making the Cut (book) contains 30 days worth of circuits (and when to take a break) that build and become more challenging. It also has great descriptions of how to do each exercise.

Great job and remember to just keep moving :)