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All Pro's Simple Beginner Routine Explained
All Pro's Simple Beginner Routine is a three-day full-body barbell program from the bodybuilding.com forums. Where most beginner programs add weight every session, this one adds reps for five weeks, then tests, then adds weight. It is strict, short on choices, and built to be run for months.
Who it is for
"Beginner" in this routine is defined by strength, not by how long you have trained. The spreadsheet that carries the routine sets the line at a single squat of twice bodyweight and a single bench press of one and a half times bodyweight. Anyone below that counts as a beginner here, including somebody who has trained for years without much structure.
The session
Every session is the same seven lifts, in the same order, for two work sets each: squat, bench press, bent over row, overhead press, stiff legged deadlift, curls and calf raises. The three days differ only in load.
| Day | Load |
|---|---|
| Heavy | 100 percent of your working weight |
| Medium | 90 percent |
| Light | 80 percent |
Training a lift three times a week is a lot for a beginner, and the medium and light days are what make it recoverable. The squat, bench and row get two warm-up sets at 25 and 50 percent of that day's weight. The other four lifts start straight at work weight.
Five weeks of reps
The weight stays the same for the whole cycle. The reps climb, on every lift and on all three days:
The first weeks are meant to feel easy, and the routine forbids adding weight mid-cycle. The early weeks are where you practise the lifts at a load you can control.
The test, and why it is strict
Week five's heavy day decides each lift on its own. Get all twelve reps on both work sets and that lift goes up 10 percent next cycle, counted on the total weight including the bar. Miss a single rep and that lift repeats the same weight for another full five weeks. Eleven reps is a fail.
That strictness is the point. A lift only moves when you have fully earned it, so you rarely get pushed into weights your technique cannot handle. If you finish a cycle and it was far too easy, the routine allows a little more than 10 percent next time.
What it leaves out, and why
- No conventional deadlift. The squat and the stiff legged deadlift cover the back of the body between them, and heavy squats plus heavy deadlifts in the same beginner week cost more recovery than they earn.
- No direct triceps work. The bench press and overhead press are enough, and extra triceps work is a common way to stall both presses.
- No substitutions, with one exception: curls can become upright rows, which the spreadsheet calls the better whole-body movement.
- No added exercises for at least three cycles. After that, at most one assistance movement for one set, after the calf raises, and only one new addition per cycle, so a stall has one likely cause.
- Three sessions a week, not two. If a week has to drop to two, both become heavy days with at least two rest days either side of the second.
How it compares
| All Pro's | r/Fitness Basic Beginner | StrongLifts 5x5 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Days per week | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Lifts per session | 7, the same every day | 3, alternating A and B days | 3, alternating A and B days |
| Reps | 8 climbing to 12 over five weeks | 3x5, last set for as many as you can | 5x5 (deadlift 1x5) |
| Weight goes up | 10 percent after a passed test, every five weeks | Every session | Every session |
Original source
Ægir Iron's template is built from this source. Under it is what the template takes from it.
- All Pro (bodybuilding.com forum poster); spreadsheet extended by tr3pid (n.d.). All Pro's Simple Beginner Routine. LiftVault spreadsheet (original at workout-calculator.com).Three days of the same seven lifts at 100, 90 and 80 percent, the 8-to-12 rep ladder over five weeks, and the 10 percent step for a passed test
Running All Pro's in Ægir Iron
Load it from the Program Wizard under Strength & Muscle. All Pro has you test a 10 rep max to start; Ægir Iron reads one off your saved max instead, so the heavy day is 75 percent of your one-rep max. You choose how many five-week cycles to load (three, four or six) and whether the sixth lift is curls or upright rows. At the end of each cycle the app offers to advance your maxes with its own standard step, so type 10 percent for each lift that passed its test and leave the others where they are.