Push/Pull/Legs Routine

Longboy

New Member
Hi guys

I've recently started a push/pull/legs routine, 2 days on 1 off. I'm intrested to hear from experienced lifters on this to see if it worked better than training one particular muscle group per day or should I stick to my Monday legs, Tuesday chest etc routine?
 
It's far superior to one part per day splits. It should be push, pull, legs, push, pull, legs, rest, repeat or the higher frequency advantage gets reduced though. The way you're describing it you'd be better off just doing upper/lower four days per week.
 
Thanks for your reply mate

Its good to see the first reply a positive one. As I'm pretty active during the day at work I don't think I'll have recovered quick enough to do the 6 days on the bounce as I've read that is whole point of this routine - recover quicker, train more often. With the 2 days on 1 off I'll still be hitting everything twice a week so I'll see how it goes
 
Twice a week works, too. I have a pretty active job myself and I train four days a week. I generally work my entire body all four days because I respond really well to high frequency.

Anyway, I think you'll really like this if you haven't done higher frequency before. The first time I switched I made a ton of progress really quickly.
 
Sounds good, hard but good. Yeah, I started training 1 year ago and despite reading about how important compound movements are I jumped straight in to one part per day so I think this will be a good way to build on my neglected core haha
 
For sure heavy squats and deadlift will do wonders for your core. If you're not accustomed to it I'd watch doing squats the day after deadlift. It tends to fatigue the lower back where it becomes a serious problem for squatting. Doing deadlift the day after squats won't be that much of an issue in my experience.

Personally I'd do it like legs, pull, push to avoid that. Higher reps (6-10) the first three days and lower reps (3-5) the second set of days. Then repeat.
 
Aye, I don't think I'd fancy squatting after deadlifts. That's a sure turn on for my sciatica haha. I like the idea of legs pull push though, cheers for that.

When your talking about lowering the reps for the second days, would you up the weight or keep it the same?
 
More weight on the lower rep days. It's just a way to work on strength and hypertrophy concurrently. It's synergistic that way, bigger muscles get stronger easier, stronger muscles get bigger easier, you know?

Varying the intensity keeps you from hitting plateaus as often. Just banging away at the same rep range week after week tends to get stale. If you make improvements on a set of 5, then a set of 8, then back to 5 or 3 or whatever it tends to keep the gains coming in my experience. Keeps it always fresh.

As far as weight and reps if you're doing 3x10 with 225 on bench on the high rep push day then maybe do 250-275 for 5x5 on lower rep push day. The combinations are almost endless.
 
Your young bud you shouldn't be too worried about your job and training if you do your training correctly. I'm going to say I work a more active job then probably 99.9% of people and my job doesn't hamper recovery because I'm never pushing my CNS to the brink any day I workout. There are tons of different practices you can employ and make great results. As Perrin stated the regular push,pull,legs,push,pull,legs rest repeat is one if you wish to be in the gym 6 days a week but the key is you are not frying your muscles when you are in the gym you are stimulating them enough to cause growth but not so much that it'll elongate a 36hour recovery period and this will be different for most if you are feeling DOMs you've done too much. Another style which I much prefer is 3x a week full body always starting with squat then onto a pushing compound and then a pulling compound then 2 accesories and then one other day of the week you work on a specific lagging muscle and core/mobility for myself that's Saturday's and I do Olympic lifting and core work some guys would rather make it an arms day doesn't matter it's just up to your goals
 
So I shouldn't go in and smash out every last set of each exercise to failure I should stop at rep 8 if that's the reps I've been doing and if i can't reach 8 I'm going to heavy? I'm just thinking of ways to stop myself not overdoing it but preventing the 3 days recovery. It's all about trial and error now, I like the idea of this as I'd rather train twice a week well than one good pull day then hit the wall half way through my second pull day. I'll give the high reps, low reps a try too.

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm glad I started this thread now.
 
I don't think high frequency training and going to failure is a good mix. You should feel like you have 1-2 reps left on each set.

I have had success with doing an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) for the last set once a week. Personally I'd do it on the lower rep days, but that's up to you. Using your example of three sets of eight it'd look like this.

Warm-up sets
225x8
225x8
225xAMRAP

For your purposes I think doing exercises like incline bench, front or high bar squat and Romanian deadlift on the higher rep days and flat bench, low bar squat and standard deadlift for the lower rep days would be a good idea. Vary the reps on the isolation stuff, too.
 
Out of curiousity cause I've put zero effort into looking, what are your stats and training history (programs used) and what is the ultimate goals here

lol, that would be helpful. I've been sick all week, I'm not thinking clearly enough to ask the right questions. That meet prep ran me down and I think I picked up some out of state germs or allergies or something.
 
lol, that would be helpful. I've been sick all week, I'm not thinking clearly enough to ask the right questions. That meet prep ran me down and I think I picked up some out of state germs or allergies or something.
Ya I typed up my long winded response without realizing I have no clue what he's trying to accomplish or what he's done to get were he is. Maybe he's trying to win an arm wrestling competition and we are giving all the wrong advise
 
OK so always leave enough steam in the engine for a rep or 2 on high rep days, got it and thanks for the advice on the exercises Perrin.

I'm 22 years old, 6ft 4" and weigh 204lbs. I started training 18 months ago at 184 lbs however I've had a few 2 month spells where I lost motivation in between. Recently im the most dedicated i have ever been, i really am hooked now and my habits have changed from bad ones (drinking and drugs) to good ones. With regards to a training plan, there hasn't been one I've always just trained one muscle group per day picking things up along the way from guys in the gym and the Internet. Now I'm taking it more seriously hence the reason of this thread. Training keeps my head on the straight and narrow and away from all the badness.

My ultimate goal atm - hit 15+ stone.
 
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