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majutsu
Well-known member
Below is my basic functions workout. I am no pro-bodybuilder, so I am no expert. I just thought people would be interested to see how my workout is scheduled to give them ideas. I am a busy guy, so I can say you get good gains on this workout with very limited time. It can easily get down to 30-40min 3x/week, which works for me!
The Basic Functions workout I put together is a low-volume, high-intensity, basic compound movement routine. The key points are time efficiency and maximal mass. It should have elements of Mentzer HIT, DC, Westside, Hardgainer, and HST visible in it, as these are all systems that have influenced me, and I kept what I thought were their best aspects.
The idea behind the Basic Functions workout is that if we overload the body in all the things it does, its basic functions, then we will adapt to be bigger, stronger individuals overall. Ideally, our mass will be useful, symmetrical, and beautiful.
The Basic Functions workout is built around three concepts common to other systems of bodybuilding. antagonism, mass-building compound movements, and intense training.
As to antagonism, studies show that doing pull-ups before benching increases the one-rep maximum of the bench possible that day. Also, working one muscle group stretches the antagonistic muscle group, decreasing rest time, increasing intensity, and increasing the potential workloads that can be handled in the exercises, ultimately maximizing growth.
The compound movement principle of bodybuilding is that doing movements that involve more muscle groups will not only produce more growth in the skeletal musculature overall, but the use of so many other muscles will allow the targeted muscle to handle heavier workloads than normal, sort of like using the other muscles as spotters for the focus body part to get a few forced reps, if you will.
As to intensity. This means the briefest and most intense stimulus to growth. Therefore, all exercises are done with one heavy working set, done to maximal voluntary failure with good form. The less precise, but more desired goal, would be the minimum threshold to stimulate muscular hypertrophy. For some individuals this may be three sets of each exercise, or for some pyramiding, but most will find that over time, with some experience in a particular routine, that one heavy set to voluntary failure is sufficient for good growth. There are often many warm-up sets involved in reaching the threshold point for each exercise that are not counted or recorded in this one set idea. While after one set of a heavy bench of 7 reps to failure it may be possible to rest five or six minutes and maybe do another set of the same load, the additional muscular growth may be 3-5% for all these extra sets, but the time involved and the CNS stress accumulation make the extra investment unwise for the gains received.
The workout split itself is built around the common parts of the body and the use of antagonistic musculature.
The body parts come from the pieces of the body: the torso and the four limbs. Therefore, there is torso front (chest, abs), torso back (back), the arms and their connections to the torso (biceps, triceps, shoulders, forearms), and the lower limbs (legs and calves). Forearms are adequately worked in most compound back movements (rows and chins). So forearms may be disregarded for efficiency's sake in an off-season mass building program. So the body parts are chest, abs, back, biceps, triceps, shoulders, legs(including calves).
The split itself comes from grouping antagonistic groups: chest and back, legs and abs, shoulders and arms (bis and tris). Also arms and shoulders are separated from chest and back, since the arms and shoulders are hit heavily working chest and back, and they need rest.
The basic functions of each body part determine the exercise selection. The chest has two functions, to press and to fly the arms. So any press may be selected and these can be rotated when weight plateaus are reached (flat/incline/decline bb/db/machine presses), and similarly any fly may be used (flat/incline/decline machine/db). The back both rows the arms as well as bends over. So, for back, any rows (bb/db/machine flat/high/low rows or chins which are high rows) and any bend (good mornings, reverse hypers or deadlifts) will do. For legs we have two functions: to press the feet out and to flex the lower limb at the knee. So, for the legs, any press (front/hack/bb/db/machine squat, lunge, or leg press) and any leg curl (ghr, leg curl seated or lying, or rdls which are isometric curls of a sort . . . ) will do. Any ab work will do for abs (weighted crunches, roman chairs, machines, leg raises). Shoulders draw the upper arm towards the head in three planes: front, middle and rear. The anterior delts are well worked in many chest presses, so the focus in this low-volume routine is going to be on the middle (machine/db/cable laterals, and bb/db/machine overhead presses), and the rear (machine/db/cable rear laterals) deltoids. The biceps flex the arm at the elbow and supinate the wrist (turn the palm to the sky like you're holding a handful of skittles). Most curls (db/bb/cable/machine) work the biceps fully, except the EZ-bar which prevents supination of the wrist, preventing full contraction. The triceps extend the arm and push the elbows down to the sides of the waist. Exercises that fulfill these two functions (dips and pushdowns) are most useful in this abbreviated program. French presses, skull-crushers, and machine tris are fun for variety, but don't work all three heads fully since the elbows remain far from the waist. Exercise selection is made from this list as follows,
(but note on day 1 the exercises are listed logically, but performed in the order as numbered in parentheses to work antagonistic groups in an alternating fashion)
Day 1
Chest
Press (1)
Fly (3)
Back
Row (2)
Bend (4)
Day 2
Legs
Press
Curl
Calves
Abs
Day 3
Shoulders
Middle
Rear
Biceps
Triceps
A Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule works, e.g. In general, this works the whole body in a one-week time frame.
My particular workout is:
Day 1
Chest
Bench (1)
Nautilus Incline Flys (3)
Back
Weighted palm-up chins (2)
Deadlifts (4)
Day 2
Legs
Hack squats
Nautilus lying leg curls
Calves
Standing calf raises
Abs
Nautilus abs
Day 3
Shoulders
Push presses
Rear DB laterals
Biceps
DB Concentration curls
Triceps
Weighted dips
The rep range is 6-10 for Days 1 & 3 (the upper body), and 12-20 for Day 2 (legs and abs). When a plateau is reached in weight progression (discussed below), the rep range cuts in half for two weeks, i.e. 3-5 for Days 1&3 and 6-10 for Day 2, before a two week layoff.
Weight progression is based upon weight or rep progression (or both) each time an exercise (and therefore a day) is repeated. When a true plateau of more than two weeks is reached, the rep range is halved for two weeks, then it is time for two weeks off and exercise reselection. After each workout, have a protein shake (I use PF Mass builder or CFM whey) and a spliff
I hope you at least enjoyed the thoughts and maybe give something different a try.
The Basic Functions workout I put together is a low-volume, high-intensity, basic compound movement routine. The key points are time efficiency and maximal mass. It should have elements of Mentzer HIT, DC, Westside, Hardgainer, and HST visible in it, as these are all systems that have influenced me, and I kept what I thought were their best aspects.
The idea behind the Basic Functions workout is that if we overload the body in all the things it does, its basic functions, then we will adapt to be bigger, stronger individuals overall. Ideally, our mass will be useful, symmetrical, and beautiful.
The Basic Functions workout is built around three concepts common to other systems of bodybuilding. antagonism, mass-building compound movements, and intense training.
As to antagonism, studies show that doing pull-ups before benching increases the one-rep maximum of the bench possible that day. Also, working one muscle group stretches the antagonistic muscle group, decreasing rest time, increasing intensity, and increasing the potential workloads that can be handled in the exercises, ultimately maximizing growth.
The compound movement principle of bodybuilding is that doing movements that involve more muscle groups will not only produce more growth in the skeletal musculature overall, but the use of so many other muscles will allow the targeted muscle to handle heavier workloads than normal, sort of like using the other muscles as spotters for the focus body part to get a few forced reps, if you will.
As to intensity. This means the briefest and most intense stimulus to growth. Therefore, all exercises are done with one heavy working set, done to maximal voluntary failure with good form. The less precise, but more desired goal, would be the minimum threshold to stimulate muscular hypertrophy. For some individuals this may be three sets of each exercise, or for some pyramiding, but most will find that over time, with some experience in a particular routine, that one heavy set to voluntary failure is sufficient for good growth. There are often many warm-up sets involved in reaching the threshold point for each exercise that are not counted or recorded in this one set idea. While after one set of a heavy bench of 7 reps to failure it may be possible to rest five or six minutes and maybe do another set of the same load, the additional muscular growth may be 3-5% for all these extra sets, but the time involved and the CNS stress accumulation make the extra investment unwise for the gains received.
The workout split itself is built around the common parts of the body and the use of antagonistic musculature.
The body parts come from the pieces of the body: the torso and the four limbs. Therefore, there is torso front (chest, abs), torso back (back), the arms and their connections to the torso (biceps, triceps, shoulders, forearms), and the lower limbs (legs and calves). Forearms are adequately worked in most compound back movements (rows and chins). So forearms may be disregarded for efficiency's sake in an off-season mass building program. So the body parts are chest, abs, back, biceps, triceps, shoulders, legs(including calves).
The split itself comes from grouping antagonistic groups: chest and back, legs and abs, shoulders and arms (bis and tris). Also arms and shoulders are separated from chest and back, since the arms and shoulders are hit heavily working chest and back, and they need rest.
The basic functions of each body part determine the exercise selection. The chest has two functions, to press and to fly the arms. So any press may be selected and these can be rotated when weight plateaus are reached (flat/incline/decline bb/db/machine presses), and similarly any fly may be used (flat/incline/decline machine/db). The back both rows the arms as well as bends over. So, for back, any rows (bb/db/machine flat/high/low rows or chins which are high rows) and any bend (good mornings, reverse hypers or deadlifts) will do. For legs we have two functions: to press the feet out and to flex the lower limb at the knee. So, for the legs, any press (front/hack/bb/db/machine squat, lunge, or leg press) and any leg curl (ghr, leg curl seated or lying, or rdls which are isometric curls of a sort . . . ) will do. Any ab work will do for abs (weighted crunches, roman chairs, machines, leg raises). Shoulders draw the upper arm towards the head in three planes: front, middle and rear. The anterior delts are well worked in many chest presses, so the focus in this low-volume routine is going to be on the middle (machine/db/cable laterals, and bb/db/machine overhead presses), and the rear (machine/db/cable rear laterals) deltoids. The biceps flex the arm at the elbow and supinate the wrist (turn the palm to the sky like you're holding a handful of skittles). Most curls (db/bb/cable/machine) work the biceps fully, except the EZ-bar which prevents supination of the wrist, preventing full contraction. The triceps extend the arm and push the elbows down to the sides of the waist. Exercises that fulfill these two functions (dips and pushdowns) are most useful in this abbreviated program. French presses, skull-crushers, and machine tris are fun for variety, but don't work all three heads fully since the elbows remain far from the waist. Exercise selection is made from this list as follows,
(but note on day 1 the exercises are listed logically, but performed in the order as numbered in parentheses to work antagonistic groups in an alternating fashion)
Day 1
Chest
Press (1)
Fly (3)
Back
Row (2)
Bend (4)
Day 2
Legs
Press
Curl
Calves
Abs
Day 3
Shoulders
Middle
Rear
Biceps
Triceps
A Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule works, e.g. In general, this works the whole body in a one-week time frame.
My particular workout is:
Day 1
Chest
Bench (1)
Nautilus Incline Flys (3)
Back
Weighted palm-up chins (2)
Deadlifts (4)
Day 2
Legs
Hack squats
Nautilus lying leg curls
Calves
Standing calf raises
Abs
Nautilus abs
Day 3
Shoulders
Push presses
Rear DB laterals
Biceps
DB Concentration curls
Triceps
Weighted dips
The rep range is 6-10 for Days 1 & 3 (the upper body), and 12-20 for Day 2 (legs and abs). When a plateau is reached in weight progression (discussed below), the rep range cuts in half for two weeks, i.e. 3-5 for Days 1&3 and 6-10 for Day 2, before a two week layoff.
Weight progression is based upon weight or rep progression (or both) each time an exercise (and therefore a day) is repeated. When a true plateau of more than two weeks is reached, the rep range is halved for two weeks, then it is time for two weeks off and exercise reselection. After each workout, have a protein shake (I use PF Mass builder or CFM whey) and a spliff
I hope you at least enjoyed the thoughts and maybe give something different a try.
Last edited:
I remember thinking, "I'll hit it next time," and the bar just went down.
