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Advanced Upper/Lower Strength Workout

Workout Category: Strength and Powerlifting Workout
Days Per Week: 4
Difficulty: Advanced
Designed By: BuiltFit.com
Reference URL: http://www.builtfit.com

Workout Goal: Increase Strength
Features:

Upper/Lower Body Workout

After you’ve spent a bit more time in the gym and have a pretty good foundation of strength behind you, you might start thinking about what you can do at this point to take things up a notch and take your muscle development to the next level.

When it gets to this stage of the game, you must constantly be making sure that you’re overstressing the muscles so that they grow back stronger and larger than they were before.

Those who fail to make changes to their workout program so they continue to challenge the body will just hit a plateau and stay in one spot forever.

Fortunately, this workout is designed to do just that. You’ll be adding one extra day of work to your workout week and dividing the body up into lower and upper sections. This allows you target each area of the body slightly more so that you can boost your specialization and add more focus to any muscle groups you may feel are currently lagging.

Be sure that you are taking the time to rest after each workout though and following proper nutritional strategies as that will play a key role in recovery and muscle growth.

Workout Overview

Always be sure to start with a ten minute warm-up of five minutes of light cardio along with an initial warm-up set on your first lift. Aim to lift only a small amount of weight on this set but focus on using correct form to get the blood flowing to the muscles
Use a heavy enough weight that has you fully fatigued by the time you hit the last rep indicated but not so heavy that you aren’t able to maintain good form
Focus on lifting heavy first and foremost. If you need to rest slightly longer than what’s indicated to keep the weight heavy, do so.
At the same time, always make sure you’re maintaining the proper form. If good form is not used, injury risk will be high.
Perform the workout using a Monday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday set-up or a Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday /Saturday set-up
Make sure to consume your post-workout meal or shake immediately after this workout to promote maximum recovery
Consider using a spotter on the heavier lifts such as bench press so that you can push yourself to the maximum
When doing supersets, perform the first exercise listed and then move to the next one listed immediately after with no rest break in between. Rest once both exercises have been completed.

Day 1:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Bench Press	3	6	2 minutes
Barbell Rows	3	6	2 minutes
Lat Pull-Down	3	8	90 seconds
Shoulder Press	3	8	90 seconds
Bicep Curl supersetted with Tricep Extension	2	10	45 seconds
Lateral Raise supersetted with Front Raise	2	10	45 seconds
Lying Leg Raise	2	12	30 seconds
Decline Ab Crunch	2	12	30 seconds

Day 2:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Squats	3	6	2 minutes
Deadlifts	3	6	2 minutes
Lunges	3	8	90 seconds
Leg Extension supersetted with hamstring curl	2	8	60 seconds
Standing Calf Raise	2	12	30 seconds
Seated Calf Raise	2	12	30 seconds

Day 3:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Bench Press	3	8	2 minutes
Horizontal Rows	3	8	2 minutes
Pull-ups	3	8	90 seconds
Shoulder Press	3	8	90 seconds
Hammer Curl supersetted with Tricep Rope Press-down	2	10	45 seconds
Upright Row supersetted with Reverse Fly	2	10	45 seconds
Ab Crunch on Ball	2	12	30 seconds
Plank	2	45-60 second hold	30 seconds

Day 4:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Squats	3	6	2 minutes
Leg Press	3	6	2 minutes
Single Leg Deadlifts supersetted with single leg split squats	3	10	2 minutes
Standing Calf Raise	2	12	30 seconds
Seated Calf Raise	2	12	30 seconds