Anyone here use the beginner routine in Ron Harris' article?

The routine he gives at the end of his article "So you Wannabe a Bodybuilder?"

Just curious how you divvied up the weight between the sets. Going to failure on each set is obviously not possible. I was thinking about going up in weight by 10% each set. Also, setting it up so I reach failure on the final set. That way I can add 5 pounds or whatever to the final set each workout and therefore will be utilizing progressive overload. Does this sound right?

You could do that, although I would always prefer to start with my max weight and then strip off the weight to allow for me to still hit my rep ranges. That way you can start with a max weight at your freshest and ultimately lift more.

Make sure you warm up well though. So for example before approaching 4 x 8-12 on bench, do a warm up set with say 60% and 80% first, just enough reps to warm up and then go at it.

Make sense?

Yes. You are talking about basically doing drop sets, right?

I always thought drop sets were when you stripped some of the weight immidiately after a set and then went at it again straight away.

I was more thinking that you just work with a lower total weight for each subsequent set enabling you to keep the rep scheme the same for a given exercise.

My friend and I just finished with that workout and just moved to the second one. On every lift we usually added 5-10lbs each set (depending on the lift) if we could. On the last set I would usually go til failure.

I have a question about this program.

On leg days it says to do leg presses but at home I don't have a machine that would allow me to use this exercise, are there any acceptable substitutions for this? Or is there a way to do this exercise without the machine?

Day three
• Squat 6 x 8-20 (pyramid up in weight, down in reps)
• Stiff-legged deadlift 4 x 10
• Leg press 3 x 10-15
• Lying leg curl 4 x 10
• Standing calf raise 3 x 10