It's Been A while, opinions are appreciated.

[DeadlyDinTx]

First things first, I'm a long time lurker and really enjoy this forum. Secondly, I'll throw in a little background about myself so you all aren't taking shots in the dark here, so to speak. Coming from an 18 month layoff due to working in the oil fields, and now that I'm back home for good, I've got my power rack set back up and I'm looking to get back on the wagon. 30 years old, 6'2 240lbs at what I would estimate to be around 25% body-fat due to 18 months of less that stellar nutrition, lack of sleep, and no training. I'm going to be doing a slow cut with the objective of prancing around in a speedo come next June/July, but all jokes aside, getting back to my prior physique is the goal.

Lifts prior to layoff were as follows:

Bench - 345 (paused)
Squat - 445 (paused)
Deads - 510
Press- 230 (strict)

Just to get an idea of where I'm currently at lift wise and how much I've regressed, I went for some "near" maxes (left some in the tank to be on the safe side on Tuesday.)

Bench-225 (paused)
Squat-265 (paused)
DL-330
Press- 175 (strict)

It's unfortunate, but it's what I expected after not lifting for 18 months.

Prior to my layoff I did mainly a 4 on 1 off split, focusing more on volume, but I'm looking to get back in the saddle and I'm pondering the idea of running full body again like I did years ago. It just makes sense. I'm no longer interested in going to the gym several consecutive days in a row and the most I would entertain is something like a Upper/lower 4 days a week. I've worked out off and on since I was 18 and have ran many different splits, so I'm not unfamiliar with the basic rules to follow. Instead of just following a pre-written program, (I know, I know) I've thrown together a full body routine, as I enjoy a little variety and the actual writing of the programs themselves. I just find it enjoyable, and I like to experiment and make revisions and changes as time goes on (in a logical manner of course.) Just looking for a little insight to see if I'm on the right track here as it's been a while since I've done any sort of thinking towards this subject.

Monday:
1. Safety Bar Squat- 3x5
2. Bench- 3x5
3. RDL - 3x5
4. BB Rows- 3x5
5. Curls- 2x8
6. Skull Crushers- 2x8

Wednesday:
1. Low bar Squat- 3x5
2. Pull Ups -3x5 (weighted)
3. Clean & Press- 3x5
4. Dips- 3x5
5. DB Curls- 2x10
6. Push Downs- 2x10


Friday:
1. Deadlift - 3x5
2. Close Grip Bench- 3x5
3. Chins- 3x5 (weighted)
4. Bulgarian Split Squats- 3x8


Instead of just posting the program, I'll detail my reasoning for doing it in such a way so there is no confusion. For starters, the movements I've chosen are those that I've done in the past, as well as the movements I feel I get the most out of. When you factor in the muscles involved in every movement, whether they be primary movers or not, you're looking at 12-18 sets per muscle group respectively when factoring in over lap. Might be a tad high on the volume side, but I figure with the extra body-fat I've accumulate I can get away with it for a few months, at which point I will reduce volume by one set if necessary as I get leaner. Progression method will be to add 5lbs to upper body lifts each session on the main lifts and 10 for the lower body until that is no longer feasible. At that point, once I can get 8 reps with my previous 5 rep set, I will then add weight accordingly, as opposed to every session or every week.

Since legs account for half of the body, I ensured they'd get half of my attention. On day one I'm doing Safety bar squats as I own one of those bars, and because I choose not low bar 3 days a week due to dislocated shoulders several times through the years so the mobility is less than stellar, thus making sense to me to throw RDL as my second leg movement due to the safety squat bar putting more emphasis on quads. Day 2, I will run low bar squats, followed by the clean and press a couple of movements later to balance out hamstring to quad involvement on day 1. I'm referring the clean & press that incorporates the squat in the movement. More like clean,squat,push press.

Day 3, I'm obviously leading off with dead-lifts and chose to put those on Friday since I'll have 2 rest days following that. I also chose to keep the rest of that day lower back friendly and threw in Bulgarian split squats for a little extra volume for legs without it being too taxing. One thing that will be noticed, is the lack of strict pressing directly. Going off what I've done in the past, I feel with the heavy pressing and pulling that I will be doing, my front and rear delts will be taken care of, and the clean and press will be my preferred press once a week which should cover delts, all things considered. I also threw in some arm work on day 1 and 2 (yea I'm that guy) because I've always had decent arms and when I throw a little extra at them, they grow and a couple of super-sets at the end of a workout isn't a problem time wise. I might even subtract the arm work from day 2, depending on how things go. You'll also see I prescribed zero arm work on day 3, as I feel close grip bench and weighted chins would suffice in regards to arm work. In terms of back, you'll note I only put 1 rowing movement, which is BB rows on day 1. My reasoning for that, is I feel the weighted pull up/chins, plus the lower back invovlemnt in the RDL, Clean & Press and Deads will add up over the course of the week. I have entertained the idea of replacing the weighted pull ups on day 2 with rows however, and keeping weighted chins on day 3.

I've also thought about doing a HLM set up, but for the time being, I think sticking to 5's primarily will work on most movements. I have however entertained changing the rep scheme to 2 sets of 8 for my second leg movement on each day. For instance instead of 3x5 for RDLs and 3x8 for split squats on days 1 and 3, doing 2x8 for those movements instead.

Any opinions on anything that should be changed or moved around please don't hesitate, as I can take constructive criticism and enjoy a good conversation about lifting with knowledgeable folks. I hope all of that made sense.

Take care,
Dave

[DeadlyDinTx]

Just a shameless bump.

[Charles Jenkins]

Just a shameless bump.

I don't have experience with programming for your previous numbers, but for now just run an LP until it stalls out.

[Adam Levine]

If that's what you want to do, do it. You know what you are doing.

That said, the SS advice would be to do a standard NLP (or DTFP). That will get you stronger faster.

However, it sounds like you enjoy lifting and the variety, and may not care if you get stronger faster, as long as you are on a trajectory of getting stronger. If that's the case, just lift how you want to lift, and only adjust if your progress stalls out.

Personally, your program would drive me mad. I barely can find enough time and patience for standard NLP, all that volume would wear on my schedule, body, and drive me batty... And not get me as strong as fast... So, only do it if you just like doing it.

-->Adam

[DeadlyDinTx]

Understood Adam. Since I posted I took a look back at the program and made some changes. The first two movements are essentially my "power" movements and will be done in a 3x5 fashion utilizing LP until I stall out, and the following 2 exercises will be done in a 2x5 or 2x8 fashion depending on the movement. Not counting arms, (which is just a couple of super sets at the end on day 1, possibly day 2) I'm looking at 10 sets roughly, per workout. I think that's manageable in a slow cut. I'll just give it a go and and see how I need to adjust the volume, as I currently work from home so time is not really a big constraint at the moment. In all reality, I'll probably run this FB until lifts start to stagnate, then move over to a solid Upper/Lower I wrote up yesterday. Thanks for the reply.

[FatButWeak]

I don't have experience with programming for your previous numbers, but for now just run an LP until it stalls out.

This.

Take 20% off your current lifts lifted above; quit the accesory bullshit work; Run ABA BAB; add ten pounds per workout until it becomes heavy, then add 5 pounds, and so on. Welcome back. For a few weeks at least, you're a novice again.

[chrisza]

I would start off more basic and then add stuff in later. That's a lot of volume and lift variants to dive into right off the start . Especially after a long layoff. Good luck. I'm sure you'll reach your old numbers again.

[DeadlyDinTx]

Thanks to those that took the time to reply, I appreciate it.

[Brandon Teer]

I'm currently working my way back through the NLP and had previously gotten through novice to intermdiate territory and switched to a basic HLM which worked well for me. I had about 9 month layoff in-between. So I'm not really qualified to give advice but here goes anyway.
For your main lifts, it looks like you're already close to an HLM setup.
I would switch the squats and do low bar on Monday as a 'heavy' and safety squat on Wednesday as a lighter variation.
Then I would cut the deadlift down to 1x5 and then do back off sets of deadlift, SLDL or move your RDL 3x5 to there. I would also squat something like 90% of Monday's squats for maybe 2x5 to warm up for deadlifts and keep the frequency up some.
As others said I'd probably hold off on some of the assistance until you're work capacity is back up. Maybe drop everything except low bar squat, safety squat, bench, cgbp, c&p, chins, deadlift, RDL, BB rows, and one type of curls. I think you would be hitting all the muscles with just those, but your experience is above mine so I'm sure you're a better judge of that.
Again I'm not very qualified so just my opinions.

[DeadlyDinTx]

Thanks for the recommendations Randall, I appreciate that and gives me some additional info to throw into the equation. My first workout will be today and that will give me a good indicator of my current level of work capacity/strength etc. Should be interesting.