Alot of people seem to be rather clueless as to what it takes to build a program on your own. So I'll try to break it down. This is a long read, but if it can help some of you...well...that's that.
Splits:Do you work full time? Have a busy schedule? Then use a weekly split.
You can refer to this thread: http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=33108122&f=60Or understand the basic principles. Avoid putting days where the same muscle group gets used close to each other. The largest amount of rest days should be put before the hardest lifts (squats/deadlifts). Don't overdo it. If you feel beat down all week long because you workout 5 days a week, go down to 4. Even 3 if necessary. When you're down to 3 times a week, fullbody routines are preferable.
If you're the kind of person who has alot of free time or an ever-changing schedule, the best thing is to go with a continuous split. Meaning, you don't base it on the 7 days of a week, but on the rest days there SHOULD be between the workout days.
What muscles to work on each day:Assuming you want to work on endurance, more muscle groups can be put in the same days or be done multiple times a week. Never more than 3 times a week however.
But for mass and strength, you want your days to not have too many muscle groups per day. Both because too many would mean not enough work on each and because you'll be sore for the other days.
You also don't want to mix muscles that are related to each other. For example, chest and shoulders. Never on the same day. Back and legs, etc. The exception being the smaller muscle groups that you want extra work on during your week. Obviously you will be doing very little volume on those, at the END of your workout. For example doing triceps at the end of a chest day. Biceps after back, etc.
The rest is all about not doing exactly the same thing over and over. You can work on your calves after your shoulders if you want. You can do alot of things, just do it smartly.
How to choose the exercises:Are you hurt? Look up which exercises can help you recover. Don't be a little lazy bitch asking trolls what you should do. If google is too hard, forget training properly. Don't put an excessive load on a recovering joint or muscle just because people tell you to.
Injuries aside, always begin with compound movements. Those are...
Chest: Barbell bench press//Inclined barbell bench press
Back: Deadlift//Bent-over Rows
Legs: Squats//front squats
Shoulders: military press//Seated military press
Biceps: Chin ups//Barbell curls
Triceps: Dips//Close-grip bench press//Skull crushers
Depending on your goals, you can do 2 compounds a day (this doesn't apply to Back day, you kinda HAVE to do both). But usually 1 compound a day + other exercises is plenty.
Following your compounds, you go with decreasingly difficult exercises and finish with an isolation. Isolation exercises are to put extra work on what you believe is a weak part of yours. Don't just go randomly.
How to make sense of all those reps and sets:There's a shitload of people claiming a shitload of things. There's also a shitload of things that work. Finding what works for you takes time. And even if it works for you, it doesn't mean it'll work forever. It doesn't mean everyone should do what you're doing. Chances are you're just a little bitch getting noob gains. No you won't be 220 lbs at 10% bf next year. Stop kidding yourself. You don't know shit, that's why you're asking a gaming forum community how to build muscle. So stop being so proud of your 10 lbs gain and your super awesome 405lbs deadlift. You're a twig and you can still learn, can still vary your training and get excellent results from other types of rep and set schemes.
However, the rules of thumb remain the same. 1-5 reps will make you gain strength primarily. 6-12 reps will make you gain mass primarily (sometimes even up to 15 reps). 15+ reps will work on endurance. Things aren't always this pretty tho.
3 sets per exercise is a minimum. When we say "3 sets", it means 3 WORK sets, not 1 hard set and 2 awfully light warm ups. 4 sets is for the every day guy. You'll make gains on that for quite a few years. 5 sets is if you either have alot of experience OR you're working in rather low rep ranges. 6+ sets is for endurance OR extremely low rep ranges (I.E.: Singles, doubles, triples)
But after all that, what makes the REAL difference is HOW you do those sets.Tempos:0-0-0-0
This is how tempos are written. What you'll most commonly see however is this one: 0-0-0.
I'll use an example to explain: 2-0-1-1
Assuming you're doing a bench press repetition, the "2" is how long (in seconds) the bar should take to reach your chest. 0 is how long the bar should remain on your chest. The first "1" is how long the bar should take to get back to the starting position. The 2nd "1" is how long the bar should stay at the starting position. For a bicep curl tho, the 2 is how long the bar should take to go back down to starting position after your 1 second concentric.
Various tempos can and SHOULD be used. However I believe for your everyday life purposes (and for maximum strength purposes), any concentric repetition should be done in 1 second or less. As if you were throwing the bar away.
Eccentric repetitions can be done in multiple ways. By going slowly, you can still build mass and strength, but this shouldn't be done ALL the time as you do not want your concentric phase to be weak. Usually 2 to 3 seconds for that phase is enough.
Failure and how to load:Training to failure has its perks, but doing it on every set is only for very specific workouts. In general, 1 failure set as the last set of your exercise is PLENTY. Reaching failure that causes you to BREAK FORM in exercises is also fine, assuming you're doing rather high repetitions (10+). Because you can still push a few reps out with sloppy form. Nothing wrong with that.
As for loading, make sure you warm up properly before starting your sets and go for a progressive loading of the weights that lead to a failure set. Isolation exercises can all be done to failure.
That covers most of it I guess. Lmk.