Q on Made Up Template

Docs,
Appreciate all you do. You have helped me navigate choppy waters and I’m back for more!

I have Ulcerative Colitis and Thyroid Cancer. Both are “under control” but fatigue can be a real issue for me. I’ve been training off and on for years, did the whole Starting Strength thing and whatever. Most recently I completed the Powerbuilding I.

Lower body work is most fatigued inducing for some reason. Much more than it used to be. I used to love squats and deadlifts, now it’s a grind. But I’ve developed my own program and run it for 6 weeks. I have noticeable muscle gain, mainly in the upper body which is what I’d like to see anyway for now. But I wanted to be sure this prog is somewhat reasonable and that I won’t run into issues I’m not experienced enough to foresee if I continue to run this for a while.

Stats:
35 yo male
200lbs
36” waist
Noodle arms and weakish chest and I don’t want that anymore hence the upper body round robin I got goin.
LISS= Trail running or Rucking

Day 1:

Bench Press 5x8 @ RPE 7-8

DB 45deg Press 3x12 @ 7-9

DB Flat Fly 4x12 @ 6-8

Low Bar Sq 3x8 @ 6-8

Arm Work 3x12 @ 8-10

Day 2:

LISS Cardio 45min-1hr RPE 6-7

Day 3:

Chin-ups 4 sets @ RPE 8-9

Seated Cable Row 4x12 @ 6-8

DB Reverse Fly 4x12 @ 6-7

Deadlift 3x8 @ 7-8

Arm Work

Day 4:

OFF

Day 5:

Mil Press Strict 4x5 @ 6-8

DB Lateral Raise 4x12 @ 6-8

Arnold Press 3x12 @ 6-8

Banded Hamstring Curl 3x20

Banded Leg Extension 3x20

Arm Work

Day 6:

LISS 1hr-1.5hr RPE 6-7

Day 7:

OFF

Like I said, been doing for 6 weeks and have some good results. And mostly I’ve not been having as much severe fatigue after leg days. This one seems to be reasonable for me, but I don’t want to neglect legs.
My goals are mostly health and to not be a dadbod.

Any suggestions doc?

If you are making good progress on this and are having fun with it, that’s great! Carry on.

While a full program review is outside the scope of a forum reply, I see a few things that stand out to me:

  1. Double the pressing volume vs rowing (23 sets v 12 sets). I suspect you’d want something a bit closer for upper body development, though I don’t think this matters for injury risk.
  2. Placing squat and DL after upper body work is probably not helping with developing work capacity and fighting fatigue on those.
  3. Not sure fixed rep ranges are the best choice for hypertrophy on exercises where the next weight jump is pretty big
  4. Arm work looks a bit light and for someone interested in arm growth.

Like I said though, if you are enjoying the program and making progress on it…my feedback should be taken with a grain of salt. I do think that the Push Pull Legs-Hypertrophy template may be useful given your preferred split and goals.

Awesome! Thanks for the tips.

I’ll give moving the leg work to the front of the program days a shot, experimenting with more rep ranges, and balancing the press/row volume a bit more.

Arm work I’m definitely tweaking, adding more as I’m able to tolerate it. Im reading some of your past work on it and adding as recommended.

I did purchase the Push Pull Legs, it looks great! I’m going to run this for a while longer and then give that one a shot! Thanks Doc!