How I Structure My Program

What´s up guys, hope you are doing well.
Over the past few months I have been noticing issues with my program at the time, also it is true
that i wanted to experiment and get out of my comfort zone so I can keep learning as a lifter. So,
after some trial and error, trying out and ditching ideas and possible programs, i finally arrived at
a new approach that although i think that it requires some extra polishing, i believe it is gonna
be my new “style” of training. So after putting my program in a google sheet so you can check it
out (link in the description) i am making this video to explain to you guys how i this program
came to be, how it works and what i´ve learned from it.
So first, let´s start with
THE WHY (Undertale sound effect)
After finishing an involuntary cut/body recomposition and starting to bulk again i found myself
with a couple of issues with my current program, those being:
1) Not enough focus: The program was too “general” and even though that is not
technically a bad thing, it is very important that when you design a program, you keep in
mind your goals and build the program around it. In my case, the 2 muscle groups i want
to grow the most is my Lats and my arms, specially my triceps. My program had a lot of
lat and arm emphasis, hell i have 2 arm days and 2/3s of my back work is pullups, but
the problem was that it wasn´t proportional to the level of priority that i wanted to give it.
For me, having a training session meant an excuse to train the lats and the arms, either
2) directly or indirectly. Therefore, i needed to step it up a notch and start biasing my
training even more towards those areas.
3) Not enough EXERCISE variety: Something that i noticed after finishing that period of
training, is that i was starting to get overuse in a lot of areas, specially the shoulders. I
was currently doing all movements that i LOVE, like L-sit Archer Chinups, Wide Grip
Pullups, Dips, Ring Handstand pushups and more. But the issue is that after running it
for 3 months, you start to accumulate some serious overuse and that forces you to stop
doing what you are doing and fix it. So i had to find a way to include new exercises. The
issue lies with the fact that i don´t add weight to my movements, so trying to stick to the
conventional rep range of 4-12 reps was not going to happen. That restricted me in
adding new movements, due to the fact that i was gonna go over that 12 rep limit….
Unless
4) Not enough REP RANGE variety: I have always been a firm believer in the fact that Rep
ranges matter, all of them . Lower reps of 4-6 have benefits that reps of 15-25 simply do
not have. And viceversa. Every rep range if used properly will allow you to maximize the
amount of effective reps or effective tension that you accumulate. The previous point
made me question: “Why am i not allowing higher reps?” “Do i have a reason to not do
20 rep sets?” “Could i be missing something from not incorporating them?” And that is
when i realized that point 2) and 3) where connected and that by solving 3), i also solved
2. Minimizing overuse and maximizing variety of stimulus, both from the exercise and
rep range perspective
5) No organization outside of “I have to hit these muscles”: Although i had a program, the
reps and sets where all over the place, there was no fixed nature to it, outside of “I have
these movement patterns to do and i have to go hard on the sets” so i needed to fix that
ASAP
So now that you understand why i needed to change my program we can move on to…
THE HOW
So to go straight to the point:
1) The upper sessions of the program are now periodized in 4 weeks. 2 of those weeks are
more “General” and then the next 2 are “Arm and Lat biased”.
2) Every week i rotate exercises to prevent overuse
3) By the end of the 4th week i deload and then i repeat the cycle again.
4) The arm sessions are rotated independently of the upper sessions
Let´s tackle one by one
1) The program is now conformed by 4 weeks, the first 2 being general and the other 2 arm
and lats. They both operate via a “2 week cycle”. For both cycles we have 1 heavy
session on Monday #1 in the 4-6 or 4-8 rep range, 1 Medium session on Monday #2 in
the 6-12 rep range and 2 Light sessions on Thursdays #1 and #2, following the Heavy or
Medium sessions, in the 12-25 rep range.
This allows me to do a variety of exercises and rep ranges, while still being able to push
sets hard and keep volume relatively moderate.
3) By the end of the 4th week, what i will do is to do either week 4 or 2, BUT i will reduce volume
by 50%, while keeping RIR the same
4) The arm sessions operate by not repeating the same exercises that you did in the previous
sessions, having the chance to choose between 2-4 different options each.
Lastly, something i want to mention is that the upper sessions themselves have exercise options
and also that i count TOTAL sets per movement pattern and not sets per exercise. This means
that if you have the option of doing Wide Grip pullups or Ring Pullups for a TOTAL of 4 sets, you
could do 3 and 1 or 4 and 0 or 2 and 2 or 1 and 3 sets. It´s in whatever proportion you see fit.
Now, i could go over each exercise and tell you why i chose it, but that would take forever and i
really want to make this as short as possible. So go click in the description so you can check out
the new exercises i have been doing. Over time i will be posting the supersets on the channel
so you can check how good the exercises are. For now im gonna leave you with that.

How I Structure My Program

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What´s up guys, hope you are doing well.

So first, let´s start with

THE WHY (Undertale sound effect)

So to go straight to the point:

Let´s tackle one by one

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