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Up until now I have never really seriously done a full body workout. I heard good things about it in my advantage so I decided to write my own full body plan. I've got 4 days per week, and I was wondering if I could get any advice on it.

Height/weight : 173 cm (5'8"), 68 kg (149.6 lbs) Goals: Gain mass, lose some fat History: Been working out a couple years

So this is my program:

Day 1 (focus on back): Deadlifts 4x 5-8 reps

Superset - Seated Bent Over Two Dumbbell Row 4x 8-12 - Incline Dumbbell Press 4x 8-12

Superset - Rope Straight Arm Pulldown 4x 8-12 - Landmine Press 4x 8-12

Superset - Dumbbell Lunges 3x 10 - Romanian Deadlifts 3x 10

Superset - Arnold Dumbbell Press 4x 8-12 - Upright Row 4x 8-12

Superset - Dumbbell Bicep Curls 4x 8-12 - Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 8-12

Bosu ball crunch 4x to failure

Day 2 (focus on legs):

Squats 4x 8-12

Superset - Smith machine stiff legged deadlift 4x 8-12 - Smith machine stiff calf raise 4x 8-12

Superset - One arm dumbbell row 4x 8-12 - Decline dumbbell press 4x 8-12

Superset - Side laterals to front raise 4x 8-12 - Face pulls 4x 8-12

Superset - Standing palms in dumbbell press 4x 8-12 - External rotation with cable 4x 8-12

Superset - Triceps pushdown rope attachment 4x 8-12 - Standing one arm cable curl 4x 8-12

Hanging leg raise 3x to failure

Day 3 (focus on chest)

Superset - Dumbbell bench press 4x 8-12 - Dumbbell bench press narrow neutral grip 4x 8-12

Superset - Smith machine incline bench press 4x 8-12 - Seated Dumbbell rows 8-12

Superset - Standing cable flyes 4x 8-12 - Standing cable rows 4x 8-12

Superset - Weighted bench dip 4x 8-12 - Close grip ez-bar curl 4x 8-12

Superset - Single arm linear jammer 4x 8-12 - Seated bent over rear delt raise 4x 8-12

Superset - One leg barbell squat 4x 8-12 - Floor glute ham raise 4x 8-12

Superset - Bottoms up 3x to failure - Hyperextensions 3x to failure

Day 4 (focus on shoulders)

Superset - Standing military press 4x 8-12 - Kneeling shrugs 4x 8-12

Superset - Bent over low pulley side lateral 4x 8-12 - Crossed trap raise 4x 8-12

Superset - Twisting trap shrug 4x 8-12 - Single arm cable crossover 4x 8-12

Superset - Triceps overhead extension with rope 4x 8-12 - Cable hammer curls rope attachment 4x 8-12

Superset - Leg press 4x 8-12 - Calf press on leg press machine 4x 8-12

Superset - Leverage ISO Row 4x 8-12 - Pushups 4x to failure

So far I have only done the first day and I'm thinking about switching the upright rows for something else, because the exercise doesn't feel right it's just bad for the shoulder joints.

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  • It would help answering immensely if you could give us your workout history, height/weight, and the goals behind this workout program. Just as a quick glance, however, it seems...muddled. For example, you have "Day 2 - Legs", however only 2 out of the 7 exercises are for the legs. The rest are arms/chest and an abs exercise.
    – JohnP ♦
    Feb 20, 2018 at 18:18
  • Well the thing is when I focus on legs for example I start with heavy leg exercises so most of the energy goes into legs which was my reasoning behind it. My goal with this is first of all to make a big change in my workout to see if this will help me gain more muscle. Also like I noticed on the first day it demands much more energy so I'm hoping to also get leaner with this. I've been training for a couple years, and I'm 173cm tall. My weight is 68kg currently I'm trying to gain muscle mass and hoping to lose a little fat at the same time.
    – Sinan Samet
    Feb 20, 2018 at 18:56
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    How long did you want to spend in the gym, because to me this looks like way too much work per session.
    – Dark Hippo
    Feb 21, 2018 at 9:48
  • 1 to 1:30 hours the first day took me about 1:30 but as I am doing the workout I notice I have to edit some things. Mostly I feel like I should make the last exercises 3 sets instead of 4 because by that time I'm out of energy.
    – Sinan Samet
    Feb 21, 2018 at 14:10
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    Yes, upright rows are "bad": they essentially require impingement of soft tissue within the shoulder joints.
    – Christian Conti-Vock
    Feb 21, 2018 at 14:27

2 Answers 2

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Since your stated goals are to gain mass and to lose some bodyfat, I highly recommend that you consider the Starting Strength Program. With it, you can use your gym time much more efficiently and gain strength and useful bodymass much more quickly. When you're stronger, losing bodyfat is easier.

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  • I've been doing 5x5 stronglifts for about a year I definitely got stronger but in terms of muscle mass it didn't work that well for me.
    – Sinan Samet
    Feb 21, 2018 at 18:14
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    @SinanSamet, I humbly suggest that if you are "173 cm (5'8"), 68 kg (149.6 lbs)" after having done SL for even a few months then you did not eat enough food to support significant muscular hypertrophy during your training. "You gotta eat big to get big."
    – Christian Conti-Vock
    Feb 21, 2018 at 19:21
  • Well this does make sense however I actually ate too much back then and I got to 80kg bodyweight. The problem was most of it was fat and I made the mistake of doing a carbless diet which made me lose most of that power I had. Would it be a bad idea to give my plan with a few tweaks a try for a few months and then get back to strong lifts?
    – Sinan Samet
    Feb 22, 2018 at 13:58
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    @SinanSamet, thanks for the additional details. I think it would be more effective and efficient to switch to SS or SL, with more-appropriate dietary intake, than to use the (tweaked) plan that you proposed. Regardless, I wish you the best!
    – Christian Conti-Vock
    Feb 22, 2018 at 17:48
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It's not a bad plan. looks a little exhausting with 12-14 exercises a day ( be prepared to be tired ) but it should work fine. Full-Body lifting programs can get a little tricky trying to avoid muscle burnout. Just pay attention to what your body is telling you. You may have to reorder some exercises or drop some in order to give some muscle groups a light day or rest.

The key to building muscle is lifting heavy and your sets and reps are in a good range. The amount of energy you'll be burning will help with the fat loss as long as your diet isn't crazy bad.

One suggestion is add cleans(power or hang cleans) somewhere in your program. Maybe to replace upright rows? They are a great full body lift.

Overall have fun and be safe

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  • I'm on the same page as you this makes sense. I noticed I need to drop 1 superset on most days since I can't handle it yet. Also the last few supersets I have too little energy left to fully go for those. And thanks for the suggestion I will definitely try to fit it in somewhere instead of the uprights!
    – Sinan Samet
    Feb 21, 2018 at 18:19

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