"Choose Your Own Adventure" Program

A Perfect Program Setup Guide For Beginners or Busy People

While I was in a brainstorming session designing my next downloadable program, I accidentally came up with a fantastic program concept for beginners based on some of the aspects that make 5x5 Stronglifts so simple to follow.

Ideally, who this will work best for is probably beginners, especially those who are very new to the gym due to the simplicity and nature of the structure of this programming setup.

I can also see this working very well for anyone who is very busy and just wants to get into the gym only 3 times a week for an hour or less while still managing to make progress.

The premise is a 3-day-a-week Full-Body split that is focused on mastery of base exercise/movement pattern fundamentals by taking advantage of frequency and some leeway in volume for those who might not have the skill of honing in max intensity to failure dialed in yet.

Before anyone gets too excited, this is a setup guide not weeks of written programming like PPL or Density (the next downloadable programs like that are my Upper/Lower and a Bro Split programs). Actually, doing it like that would defeat the entire purpose, this is somewhat of a “choose your own adventure” type of programming where I give you the parameters and you pick and choose your favorite exercises to fit those parameters (my preferred way of writing programming on here).

Anyway, let’s get down to bidness.

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Program Philosophy

While the overarching principles and philosophy remain the same (and always will, they are biological/physiological laws) this specific programming has some small differences than what I usually talk about.

Mainly, this won’t utilize the 2-set Load and Back-Off set scheme I typically use for a couple of reasons:

1. This is geared for those newer to the gym who might need a tad extra volume to ensure they’re getting enough stimulus because some beginners aren’t comfortable or good at gauging where failure is during a set—a healthy margin of error that doesn’t add much time or hurt recovery really at all

2. The extra set serves as essentially extra practice in terms of speeding up their comfortability and movement pattern/technique/form skills at the actual exercises themselves—the “10,000 hours to mastery” concept is more like “10,000 reps to mastery” when it comes to the gym

Other than that, the same principles apply:

• Work in a rep range that best supports hypertrophy (6-20 reps is my general recommendation, 5-30 reps works as well)—this program setup will utilize almost all of this effective rep range within the 3 sets of every exercise to ensure we are doing all we can do for muscle growth

• Lift with enough intensity that our sets are effective, which means at least within 5 reps of failure, preferably within 2

• Utilize progressive overload by increasing weight and reps over time AS WELL AS improving our technique and getting better at the exercises themselves

• Work each muscle at least once a week (this does 3 times a week)

• Rest enough between sets to keep performance as high as you can, my general recommendation is to rest until you feel you can do this which comes out to around 2-5 minutes

• This covers most things in the gym, of course sleep, nutrition, and all that matter but you’re reading this on a resource that covers all these topics in depth…

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Running The Program

During the program, our goal when doing the exercises is to try to achieve muscle failure on exercises when it is safe to do so (meaning it’s not something like a squat or bench press without a spotter where going to failure would be very dangerous). If it’s not safe or you’re not comfortable, we are aiming for 1-2 RIR (reps in reserve) meaning that all you estimate you could do was 1 or 2 more reps before failing.

When I say “failure” what I mean by this is that you cannot perform another concentric portion (lifting portion, i.e. going up on a squat or pressing up on a bench press) of the lift.

Don’t let the word “failure” scare you, when it’s done in a controlled, safe manner it is perfectly fine and even better in many cases when we factor in the above.

The reason I like failure as the goal when it’s safe is because most people, especially newer people to the gym, are terrible at estimating how many reps they have until failure which is important to know for effective sets and ensuring you’re progressing. Where if we train to failure we have an absolute point of knowing exactly where we are to build off of.

This is important because the entire basis of this program will revolve around progressive overload, meaning we are going to be trying to do more reps than we did last workout with the same weight, then after we progress to the top of our rep range we will then add weight.

Rep Ranges

This program uses rep ranges, not rep goals (which I think are stupid). What this means is you will be given a range, call it 5-8 reps, what this means is you will choose a weight you can get for 5 reps, every workout for the set that is listed 5-8 reps you will continue to use this weight until you can get it for 8 reps, when you finally can complete that 8th rep on that exercise, you will select a heavier weight you can only lift for 5 reps and repeat the process.

Sometimes you will progress the 2nd or 3rd set before the 1st or some variation of this, that is fine, for that specific rep range you will add the prescribed weight for that set.

Warmup

Before each movement you will warm up the muscle, this could be very light loads for 10-15 reps to get blood flowing and the muscle warmed up. The point of warming up is priming your muscle for the lift, but not taxing it at all—an example warmup would look like the following:

1 set 135 for 12

1 set 185 for 5 

1 set 225 for 3

Then into your working set of 315 for 6-9 reps

Form

Form should always stay as close to perfect as we can, however, if new you will make mistakes so just focus on getting better each time—this also fuels growth itself. If you have to sacrifice form to complete the set you were doing too much weight. This not only increases the risk for injury, but you are also taking the tension off the targeted muscle by recruiting other muscle to complete the lift. You can see how this is not optimal. 

Tempo

Tempo should be kept at a steady rate, I like a 3121 tempo meaning 3 seconds on the eccentric, 1 second at the bottom of the movements, 2 seconds on the concentric, and 1 second at the top. This takes momentum out of the equations and adds time under tension. Time under tension is what will cause the mechanical tension for muscle growth. Tempo should be kept constant to ensure you are progressing with the same time under tension always, otherwise, you are making it easier on the muscle and not giving it the equal stimulus it needs to start the adaptive response.

Rest

I actually don’t like giving prescribed rest times, as stated above my recommendation is to rest enough between sets to keep performance as high as you can, which essentially is to rest until you feel you can do this which comes out to around 2-5 minutes.

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Setting Up The Program

When it comes to this program we are utilizing a Full-Body split 3 times a week, which is where your first “choose your own adventure” option comes up:

You can do this on whatever days of the week and time between workouts you want as long as you keep at least 1 day of rest between workouts and get all 3 sessions in a week.

This could be Monday, Wednesday, Friday; could be Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday; could be Monday, Thursday, Sunday one week then Tuesday, Friday, Sunday the next if you want to stagger it like that; you get the point.

Within this, we will have 2 separate types of workouts:

1. Compound Lifts Day

2. Accessory Lifts Day

The stroke of genius that led to this program was the question “How do we keep the workouts simple and not too long or demanding while still getting people familiar with various different exercises and enough work to make great progress?”.

Breaking it up this way does it.

It allows you to get experience on all types of exercises from compounds to accessories without having them in one workout that takes over an hour and might feel like too much for a beginner.

It also has a very beneficial built-in method with the “Accessory Lifts Day” to make sure you’re recovering well/managing soreness + have a day that is way easier (while still very effective) that can be crucial for keeping motivation thus consistency and adherence high—this (consistency) is the true “secret” sauce to getting great progress.

How this will work is your 1st workout of the week will be the Compound Lifts Day, the 2nd workout will be the Accessory Lifts Day, and the 3rd workout will be the Compound Lifts Day. This will not alternate, there will be 2 Compound Lifts Days a week and 1 Accessory Lifts day a week which will always be between the 2 Compound Lifts Days.

For example if doing this on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule:

Monday = Compound Lifts Day, Wednesday = Accessory Lifts Day, and Friday = Compound Lifts Day

Please don’t mess this up, my 15-month-old son (which I’ll be talking about next post) could grasp this.

Now, the other part that might confuse some (that shouldn’t, it’s also very simple) is that we will alternate our Compound Lifts Days and ONLY our Compound Lifts Days every workout so that one of the days starts with our upper body and the other day is starting with our lower body/legs.

Using the same example as above with Monday, Wednesday, and Friday:

Monday = Upper-First Compound Lifts Day, Wednesday = Accessory Lifts Day, and Friday = Lower-First Compound Lifts Day

That simple, to even further keep this from confusing anyone, the Lower-First Compound Lifts Day will be labeled “Alternate Compound Lifts Day” when I list the program setup and example workouts later in this post.

Now, where the “choosing your own adventure” comes into play:

I will give you the types of exercises to do, you can choose whatever exercises you want as long as they fit the description. If I say something is a Vertical Pull Compound then that means any exercise that is a pull-up type compound movement pattern like plate loaded pulldowns, pull-ups themselves, cable lat pulldowns, etc. is on the menu.

I will give you an example set-up at the end that is what movements I would likely personally do with a video tutorial linked (the links are the underlined name) on how to do them so if you’re absolutely clueless then you can just follow that and should also consult my series of posts that address muscle group specific training and my favorite exercises for each body part: Targeting Specific Muscle Groups:

Guide To Training Calves And Abs - The first post in my series of specific strategies for building certain body parts. Starting with calves and abs—these are two important muscles that are unique compared to other muscles.

Your Guide To Training Arms - This post is to provide you with some tips and advice that can really help blow up your arms and make this a reality. Pt. 2 of Specific Strategies for building certain body parts.

Your Guide To Training Chest - Pt. 3 of Specific Strategies for building certain body parts. A well-developed chest is an extremely powerful and aesthetic feature to your body, it is really the major focal point of your upper-body.

Your Guide To Training Back + Width vs Thickness - Pt. 4 of Specific Strategies for building certain body parts. Back is a rather complex beast when it comes to training and actually training the muscles correctly—this will also clarify what I mean when I say back thickness and back width. The training methodology for both have key differences.

Your Guide To Training Legs - Pt. 5 of Specific Strategies for building certain body parts. Your legs are arguably your most important muscle group—they are up there in importance with your back. This is because your legs are the foundation of your body and all movement. Without legs we would be useless.

Your Guide To Training Shoulders - Pt. 6 of Specific Strategies for building a certain body part. The shoulders are very important in terms of upper body structural health (they control the movement of your arms), and they are also a very aesthetically pleasing muscle.

Improving Weak Body Parts - In this post I explain how to improve muscles you are struggling with.

My Favorite Exercises For Each Body Part

Part 1: This post is part one of my favorite exercises for each body part including → Chest, Back, and Shoulders. I list my favorite movement, barbell and dumbbell variation, and accessories for each.

Part 2: This is part two of my favorite exercises for each body part including → Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves + Arms, and Abs—like part one I list my favorite movement, barbell and dumbbell variation, and accessories for each.

If you find yourself struggling to progress a movement and haven’t been able to increase reps or weight for some time, then my general recommendation is to swap that movement for another similar movement for that muscle and see if that solves the issue—typically it will unless something like sleep, nutrition, or some other outside-the-gym factor is off. If this doesn’t do it then it could be that you need more or possibly less volume for that muscle, try to add or subtract a set to see if that helps, or even add an entire new exercise to see if that solves the issue.

Again, the whole premise here is a structure and setup that you have the leeway to fit to your own needs and preferences within the set parameters. I want you to have to think on your own and experiment with what works best for YOU as that is crucial to developing your knowledge as a lifter—I want you to be able to write your own self programs like this eventually, or hell maybe even for other people like me if you get good enough.

With all that, let’s look at what the workouts will actually look like: