No Friday might be a pain......but here goes:

Fingers crossed your gym has a power rack and an olympic bar? It will make life easier if they do.

2 basic workouts A + B

Workout A
Squats 5x5
Bench press 5x5
Barbell rows 5x5

Workout B
Squats 5x5
Overhead press 5x5
Deadlifts 1x5

Week 1
Mon - workout A
Wed - workout B
Fri - Workout A

Week 2
Mon - workout B
Wed - workout A
Fri - workout B

And so on alternating each workout. Do the exercises in order (ie always start with squats). And do it with free weights, don't use Smith machines

Do 2 warm-up "sets" before launching into your 5 working sets. If you are squatting 90kg, do a set of 5 reps with an empty bar (olympic bars are ~ 22kg), then a set of 3 reps at about half your working weight, then 5 sets of 5 at 90kg.

Now the hard part - start out with an empty bar. Empty olympic bar is 45lb, and you will look silly, but if you add 5lb (2.5kg) per workout you will be over 200lb by the end of week 12.

WEEK 1

Monday
Squat 5x5 45lbs
Bench Press 5x5 45lbs
Barbell Rows 5x5 65lbs (add some plates as it is difficult to "row" and empty bar)

Wednesday
Squat 5x5 50lbs
Overhead Press 5x5 45lbs
Deadlift 1x5 95lbs

Friday
Squat 5x5 60lbs
Bench Press 5x5 55lbs
Barbell Rows 5x5 70lbs

WEEK 2

Monday
Squat 5x5 60lbs
Overhead Press 5x5 50lbs
Deadlift 1x5 105lbs

Wednesday
Squat 5x5 65lbs
Bench Press 5x5 55lbs
Barbell Rows 5x5 75lbs

Friday
Squat 5x5 70lbs
Overhead Press 5x5 55lbs
Deadlift 1x5 115lbs


Because you are doing deadlifts less and less often, add 10lb per workout until it gets challenging and drop it to 5lb additions. Ideally you keep going adding more and more weight, but there will come a time when you cant complete 5 x 5 of an exercise. If that happens, stay at that weight - dont lower the weight to complete it! If you fail to complete 5 sets of 5 at that weight for an exercise (ie bench) 3 workouts in a row, then drop 10% of the weight and start climbing back up 5lb per workout again - deloading should help you get through the barrier.

And that is about it really. Clean diet and you'll be good to go.

Once you deload on an exercise twice (ie bench press), it will be time to change up your routine to a 3 x 5 for that exercise and contiune adding 5 lb per workout again. Deload twice on 3 x 5 and drop back to 1 x 5 for that exercise. But keep up the 5 x 5 on exercises that you are completing - it will mean higher volume on some exercises, lower volume on others.

A year or so of that and you'll be well strong and you can do isolation weights on the show muscles or further power lifting training - up to you. But there is no point doing a whole lot of finesse weights (ie isolation exercises) unless you lay the foundations first.