Is there any harm in arranging a 3 way split routine so as to do more than one of each workout each week? I.e:
Push - Legs - Pull - OFF - Push - Legs - Pull - OFF
as opposed to
Push - Off - Pull - OFF - Legs - OFF - OFF
Obviously you have to get the volume of each workout right, but theoretically?
I think its the best split atm. Modok does it. Waylanderxx does it. Live does it. Its helps with progression and motivation big time. Its good.
You can do it both ways but I would choose the first option.
I do
Mon: Push
Tues: Pull
Wed: Legs(lower back too)
Thurs: Push
Fri: Pull
Sat: Legs
Sun: Off
Might be the “perfect” split for 90% of people 90% of the time…or whatever…it’s a split that’s been used for a few generations.
Copied from a buddy of mine who roams around 240 most of the time:
1.) It’s divides your bodyparts up just enough to really let you do some volume.
2.) The way it divides your bodyparts, the volume within that workout really accumulates. Chest movements hit the shoulders hit the tri’s. . .Big Accumulative effect!
3.) The split doesn’t interfere with recovery for other bodyparts.
4.) The split allows for just enough recovery, but not so much a detraining effect occurs. Once every 4 days or so. . .
5.) It perfectly allows for 3 bodyparts per workout (Chest/Sh/Tri’s) (Back/Bi’s/Abs) (Quads/Hams/Calves). It’s all inclusive, no need to worry about addiing Abs or Calves in somewhere. . .
and the list could go on. . .
I’d word it a bit differently:
Day 1: Chest/Shoulders/Tris
Day 2: Lat/Trap/Bi
Day 3: Quads/Hams/Calves
Day 4: Off
Repeat.
You could do just 6 days in a row and take Sunday off so you start the same on Monday. It’s mentally easier that way I think.
2-3 exercises per body part. Ramp up, 4-6 sets or whatever it takes to get to that top set.
I do pull, off, legs/lower back, off, push, off, cardio day repeat and it’s the best program imo. It gives you the perfect balance of rest and volume.
Then perhaps if I wanted to put in a cardio day, it could become something like:
Push - Legs - Pull - Cardio - OFF (repeat)
Of course that’s fine, if it works for you. I think that it’s just a little bit too much, but you can still try it. It depends on your body as to how frequently you train. CT has recommended training muscle groups twice every 6-8 days, which I think is a good guide.
Many people don’t usually respond all that well to training 3 days in a row, not natural trainees anyway. Usually 2 days in a row is a good general maximum (long term that is). Of course, it depends on the volume per workout, and other factors such as weekly stress.
[quote]BantamRunner wrote:
Might be the “perfect” split for 90% of people 90% of the time…or whatever…it’s a split that’s been used for a few generations.
Copied from a buddy of mine who roams around 240 most of the time:
1.) It’s divides your bodyparts up just enough to really let you do some volume.
2.) The way it divides your bodyparts, the volume within that workout really accumulates. Chest movements hit the shoulders hit the tri’s. . .Big Accumulative effect!
3.) The split doesn’t interfere with recovery for other bodyparts.
4.) The split allows for just enough recovery, but not so much a detraining effect occurs. Once every 4 days or so. . .
5.) It perfectly allows for 3 bodyparts per workout (Chest/Sh/Tri’s) (Back/Bi’s/Abs) (Quads/Hams/Calves). It’s all inclusive, no need to worry about addiing Abs or Calves in somewhere. . .
and the list could go on. . .
I’d word it a bit differently:
Day 1: Chest/Shoulders/Tris
Day 2: Lat/Trap/Bi
Day 3: Quads/Hams/Calves
Day 4: Off
Repeat.
You could do just 6 days in a row and take Sunday off so you start the same on Monday. It’s mentally easier that way I think.
2-3 exercises per body part. Ramp up, 4-6 sets or whatever it takes to get to that top set. [/quote]
This is exactly my split and I love it.
When gaining and eating a lot of food and skip the rest day if I don’t need it.
You could also set it up like this, so each body part get hits every 5 to 6 days.
Mon - Push
Tue - Pull
Thur - Legs
Fri - Push
Next week would be
Mon - Pull
Tue - Legs
Thur - Push
Fri - Pull
etc etc…
I’m a big fan of the 3-way split, there is a bunch of different ways you can go with it but I think the frequency is just right for many average sized lifters. It focuses on 2-3 muscle groups per session, thus making sure you pick the right exercise that give you the most bang for your buck. That way you hopefully won’t be going overboard on volume if you do it right.
The ways I would use it, since I do not like lifting more than 2 days in a row:
or
or (legs only once a week, and sticks to 4x/week lifting only). I wouldn’t use this for me since my legs like a 1.5-2x/week freq.
[quote]View 1 wrote:
You could also set it up like this, so each body part get hits every 5 to 6 days.
Mon - Push
Tue - Pull
Thur - Legs
Fri - Push
Next week would be
Mon - Pull
Tue - Legs
Thur - Push
Fri - Pull
etc etc…
[/quote]
I got another shot for my hip and I think I’ll be able to start hitting legs again.
I’m probably going to end up doing.
Push, pull, legs, off, push, pull, off. For a mon-sun cycle. Would this be a stupid idea?
Depending on how the hip/legs feel, I might alternate that with what I’m doing right now, which is:
push, pull, off, push, off, pull, off.
Too much volume?
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
or (legs only once a week, and sticks to 4x/week lifting only). I wouldn’t use this for me since my legs like a 1.5-2x/week freq.
I quite like this sort of routine (roughly once a week for legs). In the past I responded quite well to training them every 6th day - every 7th day was just a little too long rest, but problem is it doesn’t stick to a ridged 7 day week plan (its a rolling plan).
I always found that it’s quite easy to go overboard with fatigue as regards lower body - so if you only do lower body once a week roughly, then you don’t cut into recovery too much and it gives the upper body more chance of growth.
How would something like this look then?
Push-
Military press
Slight incline bench
Dips
Lateral raises
Triceps skullcrushers
Pull-
Chins
DB BOR
Lat pulldowns
Reverse delt flyes
DB hammer curls
Legs-
Squats
SLDL
Leg extensions
Lying hamstring/glute curls
Calf raises
[quote]ridethecliche wrote:
I got another shot for my hip and I think I’ll be able to start hitting legs again.
I’m probably going to end up doing.
Mon:Push
Tues:pull
Weds:legs
Thurs:off
Fri:push
Sat:pull
Sun:off.
For a mon-sun cycle. Would this be a stupid idea?
Too much volume?[/quote]
Another quick accessory question:
If you want to hit every body part twice.
Is it a stupid idea to do:
Monday:Push
Tuesday: Pull.
Weds: Legs
Thurs: Off
Fri: Push/Pull (take one exercise out of each body part to make it 2 exercises per part instead of 3)
Sat: legs
Sun: off
Just throwing some ideas out there.
Seems a lot of splits people like only go with one day off between workouts (rather than having two consecutive off days in a row). I’ve also seen CT mention that he doesn’t like splits where there are two consecutive days off.
I’m just curious what the reasoning behind this is? Is it just that it allows you to get more volume or do people feel that two off days may impact gains somehow?
[quote]its_just_me wrote:
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
or (legs only once a week, and sticks to 4x/week lifting only). I wouldn’t use this for me since my legs like a 1.5-2x/week freq.
I quite like this sort of routine (roughly once a week for legs). In the past I responded quite well to training them every 6th day - every 7th day was just a little too long rest, but problem is it doesn’t stick to a ridged 7 day week plan (its a rolling plan).
I always found that it’s quite easy to go overboard with fatigue as regards lower body - so if you only do lower body once a week roughly, then you don’t cut into recovery too much and it gives the upper body more chance of growth.[/quote]
I like it because in a total of 3 weeks (week 1 = push emphasis, week 2 = legs emphasis, week 3 = pull emphasis and so on), you can get your legs accustomed to a higher frequency without going overboard.
[quote]ds1973 wrote:
I’m just curious what the reasoning behind this is? Is it just that it allows you to get more volume or do people feel that two off days may impact gains somehow?
[/quote]
Well when you have 2 days of consecutive lifting off, that usually means they are only lifting 3x or so a week. That is not conducive to getting big. Even in your basic Upper/Lower split where you lift 4x a week, you are still only resting one day between workouts.
[quote]ridethecliche wrote:
[quote]View 1 wrote:
You could also set it up like this, so each body part get hits every 5 to 6 days.
Mon - Push
Tue - Pull
Thur - Legs
Fri - Push
Next week would be
Mon - Pull
Tue - Legs
Thur - Push
Fri - Pull
etc etc…
[/quote]
I got another shot for my hip and I think I’ll be able to start hitting legs again.
I’m probably going to end up doing.
Push, pull, legs, off, push, pull, off. For a mon-sun cycle. Would this be a stupid idea?
Depending on how the hip/legs feel, I might alternate that with what I’m doing right now, which is:
push, pull, off, push, off, pull, off.
Too much volume?[/quote]
I dont know what your stats or goals are ( or how you recover ) so the thing you have to keep in mind is that if you are going to hit each muscle group with more frequency then will have to adjust the volume as well.
I’m a newb, and I think I end up doing too much volume on most of my workouts which is something I need to be more conscious of and stick to the plan better. If I do that, I think I’ll be able to handle it.