12 Week Program for Size and Strength by James Kothrade

[The_Bulldog]

12 Week Program for Size and Strength
Contributed by James Kothrade


This the twelve week program that helped me to put on 20 pounds. Of course, the eating habits takes credit for a lot of that too. :-) This is a program that anyone can use.
 I tried to base it for strength and size and it worked for both, for me anyways.

To start off; the first two weeks perform 12-15 reps on all exercises, then two weeks of 10-12 reps, then 8-10 reps, to 6-8 reps then four weeks of 4-6 reps. All warmups are a 10, 3, 1 rep scheme. You may need to add more singles as the weight goes up (or if you already have a suitable warm up, use it). Do a maximum of 6 sets per muscle group (except for a couple). After the four weeks of 4-6 reps, take a week off to completely recuperate the muscles.


Now the days go like this:

Day 1...................Arms
#1 DB hammer curls (5 sets; 3 warm up sets and then 2 working sets)
#2 Seated DB tricep press (same as above)
#3 BB (or ez bar) curls (2 sets)
#4 skull crushers (2 sets)
#5 alt DB curls (2 sets)
#6 reverse grip cable press downs (2 sets)

Day 2..................Legs/Abs (this is the only day that you will do 4-6 reps on the whole routine)
#1 DL (6+ sets with 3 working sets. Depends on how many warm up sets you need here,
but 3 will do until you get into the heavier weights then you will need more)
#2 BB hack squats (3 sets)
#3 Leg press (2 sets)
#4 Leg press calves (2 to 3 sets)
#5 one leg calf raise (2 sets)
#6 some sort of weighted ab exercise (3 sets of 8-10 reps)

NOTE: Now if you plan on doing squats instead of BB hack squats, do one of
two things: 1) alternate heavy squats and the deads each week [I.O.W. Heavy
squats one week then light DL then the other week light squats then heavy
DL] or 2) go light on the squats before the heavy DL each week.

Day 3..............Chest/Delts
#1 BB bench (5 sets; 3 warm up and 2 working sets)
#2 Incline BB (or DB) bench (2 sets)
#3 Decline BB bench (2 sets)
#4 seated DB Military press (2 sets)
#5 side lateral raises (2 sets)
#6 bent over side lateral raises (2 sets)

Day 4....................Back/Traps
#1 pullups (3 sets used for warm ups only)
#2 cable pull down (3 sets)
#3 BB rows (3 sets)
#4 cable rows (2 sets)
#5 BB shrugs (4 sets)