Hey guys, I think its about time I started my Journal.

I'm not going to write up every day, but I'm going to start posting up my workout programs.

I am following "The New Rules of lifting" by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove.

For those of you that don’t know 'new rules' has 9 programs,
Fat loss I, II and III
Hypertrophy I, II and III
Strength I, II and III

The idea is that you mix and match the programs as you reach your goals and set new ones in the 3 different areas.

For example, I have started on Hypertrophy I and after 8 weeks I will evaluate my progress and decide if I want to build more strength by doing Hypertrophy II, loss fat with Fat Loss I or gain strength will Strength I.

Here is my current program from 8th Oct 06.

For anybody that wants to know the ‘lingo’ this is a “Upper/Lower body split, superset heavy with periodized set/rep systems.” Because sometimes its just nice to at least sound like you know what your talking about.

The program is split into 2 workouts, Upper body and Lower body.

Workout A

Superset
- Dumbbell Bench press
- Bent over row

Superset
- Dumbbell Shoulder press
- Wide grip chin ups

Superset
- Very close grip Barbell bench press (great for balance)
- Barbell High-pull

Core - Hanging leg raises

Workout B

Superset
- Squat
- Deadlift (wide grip to put more pressure on traps)

Superset
- Lunge
- Step up (with dumbbels on to a 20 inch box)

Superset
- Wood choppers (high to low cable twist)
- Reverse wood choppers (low to high cable twist)

So... Sets/reps and rest.
I have not built my Cardio into the program as most of my fitness exercise come from martial arts training, swimming, rowing, running or skipping. I fit this in whenever I can, based on if my legs are sore or not.

day 1 - upper - 5x5
day 2 - Lower - 4x10
day 3 - rest
day 4 - upper - 3x15
day 5 - lower - 5x5
day 6 - rest
day 7 - rest
day 8 - lower - 3x15
day 9 - upper - 4x10
day 10 - rest
day 11 - lower - 4x10
day 12 - upper - 5x5
day 13 - rest
day 14 - rest
day 15 - upper - 3x15
day 16 - lower - 5x5
day 17 - rest
day 18 - upper - 4x10
day 19 - lower - 3x15
day 20+21 - rest
Repeat days 1-21 for total of 6 weeks.

End of program.

As you can see there is lots of controlled variation between rest periods for the upper and lower body (3-5days), as well as variations in sets/reps systems and order of workouts to keep the body guessing.

The reasons for the 3 set/rep systems.

There are 3 basic ways to create maximum tension in your muscles, and I do all 3 in different workouts to vary my training.

5x5 - This creates maximum tension by lifting a heavy weight.
4x10 – When using this set/rep system I make each rep as explosive as possible, creating maximum tension by lifting the weight as fast as possible.
3x15 – Lifting a high number or reps gives the muscle maximum tension created by exhaustion.

***Please note***
This is not a beginners workout. Please do not look at this and think
“yeah I’ll just do that.” – There is in introductory conditioning required before jumping into exercises you are unfamiliar with, and training in a way that your body is not used to. Contact me for the conditioning program. I will write it up if there is enough interest, but you should 1st read the weight lifting stickys at the top of the weight lifting forum.

Feel free to post comment and questions, but I once a question has been answered I will tidy up to keep this thread simple, so please dont be offended when I delete your posts. Thanks

It will be an interesting read. Can you put up your stats (as far as measurements go) each week?

I would -But I'm a bit of a number hater.
My goal is size (obvously) but I dont like working toward numbers. I feel its takes the fun out of it.
Lets just say my arms are currently "yay big", and my goal is to get them "Yeah Big". I Measure my progress with a mirror and how particular T-shirts fit.

Plus I do put on loads of fat when I'm bulking and I wont get a true indication of size.

By the way. Yesterday was the 1st time I had ever done 4 different leg exercises in one workout. I was doing squat, deadlift and lunge. So it was also the 1st time I had supersetted lower body and the 1st time I had ever done Step ups.

I did steps up on a 20inch box. 3sets of 10 with 32kg dumbells.
Ive never hurt so much in my life. I almost gave up, But I really wanted to stick by Cosgrove and do exactly what he told me to do.
As he predicted in the book, I was cursing his name for the last 3reps of every exercise!!!!

But I gotta say, Ive never done an exercise which worked my glutes so well as step ups. Squats are great, but my quads always fail 1st before I get maximum tension in my glutes.

lol let us know how your legs feel tomorrow!

Oh they are bad enough now. I'm thinking of just staying in bed so I dont have to try and walk!!!!

I love doing step-ups, I us a bb though. Good luck, looks interesting.

In this setup, are the set/rep patterns the same for all movements?

At the mo yeah.
Change of tempo tho.

301 - 30x - 211 - 22x are the tempos that I use.

How is it setup as far as rest? Do you do SS 1, rest, SS 2, rest...repeat or SS 1, rest, SS1, rest...

I know I should varry rest times but at the moment its

superset 1

exercise 1-set 1
no rest
exercise 2 - set 1
90sec rest
...etc...

full rest (4-5mins) when finished with the superset.

Do you repeat the same superset or go to ss2? Basically is it vertical or horizontal loading?

Yeah you repeat ss1 for the total amount of sets before moving on to ss2.

Getting on really well with this program. Recovery time with my legs is getting better. The 1st couple were a right bitch.

Not really feeling that pumped after my upper body workouts, but then My frequency is up and I'm making good gains so I'll stick with it.

Almost finished this now, and will be moving on to hypertrophy II.

Whoa, i remember this.
I did finish the whole 20weeks and made some great gains at the start and end and actually made some good strength gains to!

After this I had about a month off, then did hypertrophy II for 15weeks.
Then did full body oly style prog for 6months.

Ive been chopping and changing since then but essentially doing fullbody programs fluctuating set/reps and loading techniques.

back to full body now and loving it. I'll post my workout when i get the chance.