kaotic's gym self assesment and progress thread

[Atlanta Man]

^^^to StackGsMans post- I was going to post a workout but this is as good as I was going to post. This is actually very good. I would like to add you need to get some more sleep and consider non alcoholic beers (pour it in a glass so your date does not think you are weird) or club soda with a lime when you are out trying to get laid. Save your heavy meals until after your workout, and again please get at least 1 more hour of sleep a night.

 

[Steelex]

Kaotic PM me.

 

[StackGsMan]

Fucking ridiculous.

You only need a handful of sets per body part to grow, they just have to be hard, and you have to keep getting stronger at them.

You're overkilling it like a mofo.

Yeah you're right, I knew that coming into here.

I know you're a professional at this, what do you think is a good workout plan ? The ones suggested ? Something more simplified ?

How many sets per workout do you think is good ? How do you split your muscle groups ?

I would stick to no more than 16 sets a day. The thing about gaining muscle and size is that it has very little to do with how much time or exercises you do in the gym. Very simply stated the way you gain muscle is by having moved more weight than you previously did. Now that doesn't mean you only gain by lifting heavy, rather it means you have to do something MORE than before in order to grow. This could be moving MORE weight, or it could mean doing more reps at the same weight.

With the volume you have posted that you do you would have to be on steroids to be able to go hard through that whole workout. You should be aiming for a workout that is about 45 minutes not including a warm up/cool down/stretching. In that time period you should work as hard as possible to move as much weight as you physically can.

-workout snip-

The routine is more than enough to get you bigger, but keep in mind the key is to consistently move more weight with time. Let me know what you think and maybe we can tweak out a better routine for you.

Yeah I understand moving more and more weight is obviously going to increase weight, or increase reps or a mix both, I do get that.

Honestly, I do feel burned out when doing so many sets and reps.

I noticed in your workout you didn't mention reps, do you recommend 6-8 or pyramid style set reps ?

Once I get this thread going on ideas, I'd like to incorporate a bit of everyone's ideas and see what's best for me.

The exact number of reps you do should be played by ear. You generally want to stick with less than 12 reps at an absolute maximum, and you probably want to do a weight where you struggle to finish 8 reps.

That being said, IMO the exact number of reps should vary week to week. Let me give you an example that will be particularly relevant to someone like you or me that prefer to do dumbbell presses for chest as opposed to barbell work.

Lets say on your chest day you start out one week with doing 90 lbs for each dumbbell on the flat bench. I forgot to mention IMO you should do the same weight throughout your 4 sets of that exercise UNLESS the weight is too heavy and makes you compromise form or it is too light and you are doing endless reps.

Now, you do your first set and hit 10 reps at failure. Then 8, then 6, then 5. That is generally what all my exercises look like, with a rep or two different here or there. Now with something like a dumbbell chest press you can't manipulate the weight by a tiny amount like you can with a barbell because at the very least you have to increase the weight by 5 lbs in each hand. My recommendation would be that for the next week or two or three keep the same weight and just focus on pumping out more reps. You might end up doing 15 reps at that weight a few weeks later and that is above the number of reps you should be going for, but it is more than alright because you are both doing more work (causing muscles to work harder) and at the same time getting slowly prepared to move up in weight.

It is for that reason that I say the exact number of reps doesn't matter per se, but yes you should be aiming to be near the 6-8 rep range for many of your sets.

 

[kavi]

From my experience:

I agree way too much volume here. Focus on freeweight coumpound exercises, these are the bread and butter of putting on muscle. Also, I am not sure why you are only doing 6-8 reps, I think you should mix it up a bit more. For instance

Set 1: Higher Weight Lower reps
Set 4: Lower weight 15-20 reps Burnout.


Monday (Legs, Chest, Shoulders, Tri)

Squats
Leg Press

Barbell Chest Press (Why are you currently not doing barbells as they are the best chest exercise)
Barbell Incline Chest Press
Some amount of dumbell presses incline and flat if you want.

Barbell Shoulder press (Your shoulders should already be fatigued from the above, so it is better to work on them now)
Dumbell latereral shoulder raise (or another light shoulder exercise)

Two Tricep excercises (They should be worked already from the Chest and Shoulder exercises so shouldnt need to spend much more time on them)

Traps


Tuesday (Back, Biceps)

Deadlift

Pull ups
Bent over rows
Pull downs
Seated rows (mix up grips for these exercises, my experience says narrow grip takes priority)

Biceps (Should already be fatigued due to above)


Monday Pushing Exercises
Tuesday Pulling Exercises
Wednesday Rest
Thursday Pushing Exercises
Friday Pulling Exercises

You just have a two day split but it may be that 2x Squats and 2x Deadlifts are too much for one week, especially given that deadlifts also require use the leg muscles. What you can do is do each one just once a week and use the time for other (isolation) exercises (eg flys, traps, calves)

Other than that, you should definitely aim to hit each body part twice a week.


I think of exercises falling into the below grouping

Group1 - Maximum Impact, Maximum weight. These exercises will affect your hormonal profile, they are highly taxing to the system, but will result in massive muscle, strength and temperament gains. They should be performed first in the workout because you do not want to be tired, and you will set yourself up to have a higher intensity work out. It is easy to overdo it with these however, so be wary of that.

Squats
Deadlifts


Group 2 - Medium impact Exercises

Bench Press (inc Incline and dumbell press)
Bent Over Rows (inc seated rows and single arm rows)
Leg Press (inc leg extension and curl)


Group 3- Low intensity, low weight, mostly isolation exercise. Due to the nature of these exercises they have minimal impact on the body but can be used to take body parts to fatigue after compound exercises if they need the extra work. These are not very taxing on the body so you will normally have enough energy at the end of a workout to do a few.

Shoulder Press
Shoulder Raises
Bicep Curls
Tricep Extention
Calf work
Traps
Flys
etc


As you can see there are few Group1 exercises, more Group2 ones and even more Group3 ones. This is because we are going from highly compound exercises to less compound exercises and then to isolation work.

Your workouts should be focused on hitting group1 and group2 exercises with high intensity, as this is where most of your gains will come from. The reason you are spending so much time in the gym is because you are spending too much time on isolation exercises, and these are generally not very taxing.

Think about how much weight you can lift while doing deadlifts vs tricep curls.

 

[General Stalin]

Tons of great info in this thread from people that know.more than me. My comments are:

Less supplement intake.

Build a simpler program with less volume and workouts. You don't need to be hitting half a dozen different accessory movements.

 

[SamuelBRoberts]

Kaotic-

Are you still having trouble sleeping?
I know I recommended melatonin to you one time. That stuff is amazing and will knock you out like a rock. Just take 1.5mg or 3mg at 7:00 or 8:00 PM and you'll probably sleep just fine.

 

[Hannibal]

The amount of volume that you're doing is unnecessary and probably detrimental. Assistance exercises are just that, assistance. You shouldn't be hitting them for 4-8 reps for four or five sets, it should be more like 3-4 sets at 20+ reps a set. Assistance exercises are supposed to be light shit to pump up the muscle, bolster the joint and all that. There are no contests for the heaviest tricep extension.

I'm guessing that your goal is to put on mass. From what I've read, you've staled out and your body isn't responding to the volume or the reps. I don't like to use the word "overtraining", but I'd say this would be a good example of it.

I would say to cut the isolation exercises, do a regular push/pull/legs routine with some very heavy weights three or four times a week, throw in some high intensity cardio (be it sprints, swings, clean and press for time, whatever) twice a week and don't eat any carbs after 4 or before noon. Simple changes.

Based on your original workout you'd probably do just fine with a 5/3/1 kind of program with the Boring but Big template (one accessory exercise 5 sets of 10 reps). It'll save you a lot of time and give your body a rest. You'll probably get stronger too. Find a hill around where you live and sprint up it a dozen times twice a week and you're golden.

 

[kinjutsu]

Kaotic, there's no such thing as a hard gainer.
You simply aren't eating enough.
I thought i was a hard gainer and struggled to put on mass until i counted out my calories. It turns out i wasn't eating nearly as much as i thought i was.
Once i figured that out all of my meals had potatoes, pasta or rice with them. A generous helping of it. At the end of the day if you want to get big you're going to need to bulk up. That means eating some trash food in your diet. It sucks and it kills your abs but it's a must do in this situation.

Also there's no point in cutting now, just go right into bulking.
Once you figure out your Total daily calorie needs add about 500 calories to it and start your bulk there. As you get bigger you'll need to gradually increase your calorie intake.

 

[SegaSaturn1994]

The amount of volume that you're doing is unnecessary and probably detrimental. Assistance exercises are just that, assistance. You shouldn't be hitting them for 4-8 reps for four or five sets, it should be more like 3-4 sets at 20+ reps a set. Assistance exercises are supposed to be light shit to pump up the muscle, bolster the joint and all that. There are no contests for the heaviest tricep extension.

I'm guessing that your goal is to put on mass. From what I've read, you've staled out and your body isn't responding to the volume or the reps. I don't like to use the word "overtraining", but I'd say this would be a good example of it.

I would say to cut the isolation exercises, do a regular push/pull/legs routine with some very heavy weights three or four times a week, throw in some high intensity cardio (be it sprints, swings, clean and press for time, whatever) twice a week and don't eat any carbs after 4 or before noon. Simple changes.

Based on your original workout you'd probably do just fine with a 5/3/1 kind of program with the Boring but Big template (one accessory exercise 5 sets of 10 reps). It'll save you a lot of time and give your body a rest. You'll probably get stronger too. Find a hill around where you live and sprint up it a dozen times twice a week and you're golden.

My only addition to this, or the most important one, is that there's no one right exercise when it comes to compound lifts. He does not have to do free weight deadlifts or squats or bench to grow but it would be convenient for him to do some kind of compounds to save time, energy and to work in fewer splits.
This young dude already has some spinal abnormalities; if he eagerly deadlifts and squats for ten years, he could have the spine of an old man. Fortunately there are safer alternatives for that.

This may also sound heretical but in addition to the risks involved, just getting his upper body workouts right would still put him ahead most of the population. The erector muscle of the lower back is poorly visible and legs are not as important as the upper body for aesthetics. I would rather have a guy figure out a safe way to work on his erectors (weighted extensions on a special bench), ass and legs (hack squats, leg press, leg curls etc.) rather than have him jump at deadlifts and ATG squats immediately.

I would also argue that the term 'accessory exercise' has more meaning for powerlifters and weightlifters as opposed to bodybuilders. A lat pulldown works just as many muscles or more as a bench press but it is not a competition lift, which is why we think of it as an icing on the cake instead of the inner core.

 

[Ringo]

On the topic of writing down your workouts:

I think this is a must, can't imagine recording it all by memory.

You could track your workouts old school, notebook and pencil.

I prefer to use Google Spreadsheets. Easy to use on both desktop and cellphone.

Obviously there's a thousand ways to organize the spreadsheet, divide each day of the split in different tabs, etc - that's up to you.

What I love about it is that I can always have it handy - since I love working out listening to podcasts or music, I carry my phone with me to the gym. No risk of forgetting last week's numbers or what exercise you have to do next.

I've been tracking my workouts this way since 2013, it's cool to see the progress.

You can also use it to track your bodyweight week by week.

Not sure if this is the case, but if you have a target weight for a certain lift, say deadlift 315lbs, it's easier to program what your week by week schedule should look like until you peak at 315 at the end of the cycle.

There's a ton of templates online, but PM me if you need help setting it up.

 

[Hannibal]

That's a swell idea, never thought of Google Spreadsheets.

I used to use one of those bound notebooks that you get for 99 cents at wally world, but they generally get all messed up after about six months. After a year or two of doing that I didn't need to write anything down anymore, although it is a good idea if you're really gunning for a particular goal (like a 315 bench or something).

Nowadays I use Madbarz under the "Create Your Own Workout" and I just let that time the sets and record everything for me. Much easier, imo.

 

[kaotic]

Kaotic-

Are you still having trouble sleeping?
I know I recommended melatonin to you one time. That stuff is amazing and will knock you out like a rock. Just take 1.5mg or 3mg at 7:00 or 8:00 PM and you'll probably sleep just fine.

No I don't, I just choose to go to bed late, staying up doing random shit at home, going out, or on a date, or banging a plate.

I actually take ZMA's right now. I'll check out that Melatonin thanks !

The amount of volume that you're doing is unnecessary and probably detrimental. Assistance exercises are just that, assistance. You shouldn't be hitting them for 4-8 reps for four or five sets, it should be more like 3-4 sets at 20+ reps a set. Assistance exercises are supposed to be light shit to pump up the muscle, bolster the joint and all that. There are no contests for the heaviest tricep extension.

I'm guessing that your goal is to put on mass. From what I've read, you've staled out and your body isn't responding to the volume or the reps. I don't like to use the word "overtraining", but I'd say this would be a good example of it.

Agreed, my gut was telling that something was working right. For example, I cut down my shoulder workouts a bit and felt way more stronger yesterday, even did higher weight.

I would say to cut the isolation exercises, do a regular push/pull/legs routine with some very heavy weights three or four times a week, throw in some high intensity cardio (be it sprints, swings, clean and press for time, whatever) twice a week and don't eat any carbs after 4 or before noon. Simple changes.

Based on your original workout you'd probably do just fine with a 5/3/1 kind of program with the Boring but Big template (one accessory exercise 5 sets of 10 reps). It'll save you a lot of time and give your body a rest. You'll probably get stronger too. Find a hill around where you live and sprint up it a dozen times twice a week and you're golden.

Yeah my goal is mass, and Steelex has reached out to me, I'll write more about that later.

It's funny you mention that because we do have a big ass hill on my street, perfect.

Kaotic, there's no such thing as a hard gainer.
You simply aren't eating enough.
I thought i was a hard gainer and struggled to put on mass until i counted out my calories. It turns out i wasn't eating nearly as much as i thought i was.
Once i figured that out all of my meals had potatoes, pasta or rice with them. A generous helping of it. At the end of the day if you want to get big you're going to need to bulk up. That means eating some trash food in your diet. It sucks and it kills your abs but it's a must do in this situation.

Also there's no point in cutting now, just go right into bulking.
Once you figure out your Total daily calorie needs add about 500 calories to it and start your bulk there. As you get bigger you'll need to gradually increase your calorie intake.

I should have stated im not a hard gainer, I'm just leaner naturally hence calling myself an ectomorph.

Like I said, I was 130 wet years ago, I ate good, I ate alot and currently around 164 (Just weight myself today)

You're right, I'm already leaning that, so might as well keep moving that way and cut later.

My only addition to this, or the most important one, is that there's no one right exercise when it comes to compound lifts. He does not have to do free weight deadlifts or squats or bench to grow but it would be convenient for him to do some kind of compounds to save time, energy and to work in fewer splits.
This young dude already has some spinal abnormalities; if he eagerly deadlifts and squats for ten years, he could have the spine of an old man. Fortunately there are safer alternatives for that.

I do barbell deadlifts and squats, I'd never do dumbbell versions of them.

I do have some lower back issues, especially with dead lifts, however, I alleviated the issues by doing sumo dead lifts, and focusing on my footing when doing deep squats with a lighter weight.

This may also sound heretical but in addition to the risks involved, just getting his upper body workouts right would still put him ahead most of the population. The erector muscle of the lower back is poorly visible and legs are not as important as the upper body for aesthetics. I would rather have a guy figure out a safe way to work on his erectors (weighted extensions on a special bench), ass and legs (hack squats, leg press, leg curls etc.) rather than have him jump at deadlifts and ATG squats immediately.

Basically advocating not having leg day ? I still enjoy dead lifts and squats - currently my record on squat is 315 - that's with almost getting my ass to grass.

Leg day is honestly one of my favorite days since I have goals to chase. We do have a hack squat machine, press and curls, which I do also.

On the topic of writing down your workouts:

I think this is a must, can't imagine recording it all by memory.

You could track your workouts old school, notebook and pencil.

I prefer to use Google Spreadsheets. Easy to use on both desktop and cellphone.

Obviously there's a thousand ways to organize the spreadsheet, divide each day of the split in different tabs, etc - that's up to you.

What I love about it is that I can always have it handy - since I love working out listening to podcasts or music, I carry my phone with me to the gym. No risk of forgetting last week's numbers or what exercise you have to do next.

I've been tracking my workouts this way since 2013, it's cool to see the progress.

You can also use it to track your bodyweight week by week.

Not sure if this is the case, but if you have a target weight for a certain lift, say deadlift 315lbs, it's easier to program what your week by week schedule should look like until you peak at 315 at the end of the cycle.

There's a ton of templates online, but PM me if you need help setting it up.

I 100% agree and I'm checking out some workout logs apps for my iPhone, some look really promising and I'll be sure to set this up before starting my new program.

 

[kaotic]

+1 To Steelex for reaching out to me.

I spoke on the phone with him at length about my goals, what I should be doing, where I should be headed, etc.

This guy knows his shit, he's super intelligent, and I think we're on the same bandwidth about where we're I should be headed.

With his permission I'm posting his message to me with the workout:

It's divided into A days and B days. You just alternate them, and do them as often as possible. By often as possible I mean that you do the workout when you feel you're recovered and can add more weight to the bar. Each exercise has a rep range, and the idea is to take all your sets to the high end of the rep range before you add weight (you'll add as much as you can while still keeping it within the rep range, whether that be 20 lbs or 5 lbs).

The idea here is to stimulate muscle growth just enoigh so you grow, but not trash it. You want to get back in and hit the same workout as soon as you can make progress. The exercises are listed in the order I would recommend you do them in, but it's all up to you. You might want to do a google search on how to do the rack chin and the Kroc row.

I recommend that for your first couple exercises of each workout you do a couple of warm up sets before you hit your heavy work sets. It's also mandatory that you keep a paper log book and consistently beat the log book every workout.

A Day (upper body)
Overhead dumbbell press 2 sets 8-13 reps
Wide grip rack chins (with straps) 3 sets 8-13 reps
Dumbbell bench press 3 sets 11-15 reps
Preacher curls 2 sets 5-10 reps
Lateral raises 3 sets 11-15 reps
Kroc dumbell rows 2 sets 25-40 reps

B day (legs, core)
Rack pull deadlifts with a shrug (pull the bar up over your junk and hold it for 5 seconds at the top)
3 sets 5-8 reps
Bb squats 2 sets 6-10 reps, 1 set 18-20 reps using 60% of what you used on your first two sets.
3 sets of planks held for 1-2 minutes.

I typically have 3-4 mins between sets.

So far the people I've shown it to said it's solid, but it doesn't hurt for other guys to check this workout out, or suggest tweaking it, or etc.

I'd appreciate any feedback as well.

 

[redbeard]

Doctor Redbeard is in the house, and my diagnosis is a clear case of...Fuckarounditis.

This may be the greatest fitness article ever written.

Hannibal gets to the point spot on. Focus on strength for six months, doing one of the 5/3/1 or Greyskull templates, then come back and let us know how it goes.

Edit: cosign the Steelex routine

 

[Balkan]

What Steelex posted sounds near identical to DC training without the fascia stretching. If you're injury prone, be careful as you're gunning for a pr every day. I'd recommend throwing in some mobility after every workout or on a separate day (thoracic bridges, j-curls, and dead hangs from a pull up bar are great stables). B day seems a tad light but super high intensity could compensate. Remember to deload every once in a while, particularly when you're plateauing, to give your CNS a chance to recover. I usually do the same exercises but ~50% weight and shoot for volume.

I've been doing DC training for a few months now and I love it. Strength is slowly but steadily rising. I have a moleskin journal to track all my lifts. I'd recommend that over using your phone, although I have used the gravitas app when I forget the journal.

Edit: H1N1 and Hannibal on the money

 

[SamuelBRoberts]

What app is the gravitas app? I looked and don't see anything obvious.

 

[Steelex]

The routine I recommended to kaotic is a variation of DC. I don't feel like anybody but advanced lifters can really get maximal use out of the single rest pause set. I don't even do that shit, I still get a lot of good out of a few sets.

But to say that Dante didn't influence my training would be a huge lie.

 

[Balkan]

What app is the gravitas app? I looked and don't see anything obvious.

My bad, it's actually gravitus

 

[Truth Tiger]

What an awesome thread, I am certainly going to revisit my workout. I did scan-read the posts for the nutritional information as that's what my brief contribution will focus on.

I'm lactose intolerant, and also sensitive to wheat. My blood type of O and the recommendation of the blood type diet by Dr. D'Adamo (ND) really make sense for me and others I've checked out of other types. I would look into your blood type and see if there are foods you do well with, or are allergic / sensitive to.

There's enough research that indicates modern wheat is no bueno for our bodies / guts / brains. Even if you don't think it's hurting you, it almost certainly is tearing up your cilia and compromising your stomach lining plus potentially affecting your mood. Ditch it and eat rice instead, or some other non-GMO / unmodified source for starches. I do occasionally (very rarely, say once every couple weeks) have a sourdough and cheddar sandwich but take some enzymes ahead of time to mitigate the effect. I've also followed a GAPS diet in the past to help correct gut and skin issues, link in my sig. I also linked to a few YT vids such as 'Wheat: The UNHealthy whole grain' by Dr. William Davis. An engaging and important talk. The research clearly links wheat consumption (and I'd personally say dairy as well but that's more individual) to 'what belly' as he calls it. Just with diet adjustments I was able to get much closer to a flat stomach than ever before. I'm early 40s so hormone balance is an important consideration for me to stay fit and vigorous.

I'd also strongly recommend getting your blood work done (thanks MikeCF) and if you're willing posting that here. Most G.P. western MDs will NOT prescribe the full complement of tests you would need, including things like vit D3 levels, the full complement of testosterone / estradiol / estrogen / leutinizing hormone. If your doc does, count yourself lucky! Otherwise, check out privateMDlabs - which is where MikeCF pointed folks.

Based on your blood work, you can look into correcting any deficiencies and will have a clearer direction for supplementation. Yes, it IS important! I would study the work of Dr. Joel Wallach (lots of info available online). I do NOT use tangy tangerine product in the dose he recommends as the levels of some vitamins are higher than feel correct for my system, but he has very high quality supps. Selenium is a crucial one and he fought to have the FDA recognize how important it is to health neo-natal development. The guy is a badass, if long-winded (ahem!). The RDA is a bare minimum in many cases. I think Zelcorpion was or did post a supplement thread but I haven't dug around for it. That's also very individual but not something to ignore. We do NOT get sufficient vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids from most of our foods. The soil is too depleted. I've stayed healthier and recovered faster from workouts by putting attention and a moderate amount of money into this area. It's my #1 form of preventative medicine (I avoid the western doctor like the plague).

Also, please ditch the high-fructose corn syrup heavy Gatorade and consider 'Rebound' from youngevity. It's designed as an electrolyte-rich post workout replenisher. They do use a sugar substitute (not one of the franken ones) but I haven't had any issues with it. When you sweat you're vitamins and minerals. Runners have very high incidence of heart attack (you're not running and I don't do hard cardio either) and most aren't supplementing properly. You need to get those essential nutrients back into your system after a workout. By the way, from research I've done on human growth hormone (HGH) production you must AVOID SUGAR in a two hour workout window. That's why I prefer having sushi as my post-midday workout snack, and then a bigger dinner.

https://web.archive.org/web/2016043...ur-human-growth-hormone-hgh-levels-naturally/

I typically try to fast at least 12 hours from last evening meal to morning meal. I used to think I needed to eat first thing when I woke up but found I could just wait a couple hours before having breakfast. I do tend to have a cup of coffee with 200mg of L-Theanine (a combination of caffeine and theanine is a great attention / focus booster!) usually with coconut milk and some organic honey. And I'm happily using my Sunbox Jr. (thanks Lizard of Oz!) for Bright Light Therapy which has really helped me feel sleepier earlier, naturally. Oh, the IF / intermittent fasting has a host of benefits for growth hormone production, lower insulin levels, and general overall longevity. The fewer times you need to eat, the less oxidative stress you're putting on your body (and the longer your mitochondria will last). I was curious about how Hugh Jackman got so cut and IF (he does a 16 hour fast apparent and eats within an 8 hour window) was mentioned.

Antioxidants are very important. After a workout I suggest earthing / grounding to help your body regulate the anti-inflammatory response. I made a post a few weeks ago in the thread Youngblade started. You'll also tend to sleep deeper.

https://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-60550-post-1483517.html#pid1483517

Many of us are deficient in magnesium and have an abundance of calcium which makes us more prone to cramping and heart disorders. I use Magnesium Calm before bed and it really helps relax me. Throw in 1-2 mg melatonin (3 if you really need it but not recommended to stay with a high dose more than a month IIRC) on nights when you gotta knock out early.

As I said, great workout info and I will personally review it in more detail. This is what came up to help balance the rest, recovery, and nutrition side from my studies and experience.

 

[H1N1]

Steelex's routine is good, and you should follow it. You've had personal input from a guy who clearly knows what he's doing. Most programs work, but the ones that work best are the ones that you believe in and which fit most closely with your goals. What Steelex has put together seems to have been tweaked to suit your goals, and you are rightly (from what I can tell) persuaded that he knows what he's talking about. This is a good reason to do the program exactly as it is. You may want to vary your exercises slightly every 4 weeks or so, as a simple AB program done frequently can get insanely boring very quickly for some people. Again though, you're on Steelex's program now, and you should defer to his judgement, assuming he is happy to help you from time to time.