Bro Split?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Hi, I have been lifting for 3 months, in which i gained almost 30 lbs, went from 155 to 185at 6 feet 2. I did a bit of calisthenics before. The first program I did was pull-push-legs 6 days a week which burned me out. Now a bodybuilder recommended me a bro split, which I have been doing for the past month which goes like this: chest-legs-back-rest-shoulders-arms-rest. Add abs twice a week. I feel like hitting a muscle once a week is not enough. I bench 203.5 lbs x 2 and overhead press 100 lbs with dumbells at the moment.

Any suggestions from the more experienced people? I would love to hear some opinions and program suggestions. I am completely natural, no supps either, only a lot of food. If you have anything to add that I should work on, let me know.

2

I’m starting to feel like a broken record here but, what are your goals?

3

kingbeef thread

4

If you want to do a split I would recommend a 4-day split done 2 on / 1 off rather than the one you’re doing now. Either:

Legs
Chest
(off)
Back / Biceps
Shoulders / Triceps

or

Chest / Biceps
Legs
(off)
Shoulders / Triceps
Back

But there are also a lot of good reasons to do a full-body routine or upper/lower split at your stage.

5

Push / Pull / Legs is an excellent split. You getting burnt out may have more to do with training 6 days per week.
Try 2 on 1 off 2 on 2 off for example.
Also watch the length of your training sessions. No real reason to train any longer than 1 hour. Volume is another component which can be a factor in burn out. I would suggest each session to contain 5 or 6 exercises with 3 working sets .

Push/ Pull /Legs is great for recovery as all muscles involved in pushing for example are trained on the same day so then you wont be stressing them again until the next push session.

A 3 way split has the benefit of hitting a muscle group more then once every 7 days whilst still getting rest days. Once every 5 days is usually about spot on.

Another good 3 way split is :
Chest , Back.
Shoulders, Arms.
Legs.

With this split you do 3 exercises per large muscle group on the first 2 days, 2 exercises each for biceps and triceps and do any deadlift variation on leg day.
One benefit of this split is your arms are fresh so you can use higher weights . In P/P/L it can be hard to push biceps after doing pullups or heavy rows etc… On the down side it’s hard to only do 3 exercises on back day. This is one reason why deadlift variations should be done on leg day with this split.

Not to say that one split is better then the other just that they have differences.
I would recommend doing both. Do one for 3 months then switch to the other for 3 months and so on.

6

30lbs in 3 months?

7

@dagill2 My goals are to build as much mass and strength possible.

@craze9 That is a nice routine, but I want to hit my muscles more then once a week.I think it would give me better results.

@Angus1Youare right, I think its doing 6 heavy days in a row that burnt me out. I think of doing PPL rest 1 days, PPL, rest 1 day,and etc. It still can be 6 days a week but it will not be as demanding. To be honest, It felt lot more natural doing chest,delt and tris andso on. I try to keep my workouts to 50 min - an hour. This is the routine I have in mind, what do you think?

Push day 1 : 5 x BB bench Press - 3 x DB Pullover - 5 x Lateral raises- 3 x Rear Delt Flyes - 5 x Rope Pulldowns

Pull Day 1 : 5 x One arm Rows, 3 x Vbar cable rows, 3 x Pull ups to failure, 5 x Ez bar curl, 5 x Shrugs.

Leg Day 1: Narrow stance Leg Press x 5, Leg Extensions x 5, Legcurls x 5, One foot calf raises x 3, hyperextensions x 3, Leg raises x 3

Push day 2 : 5 x Db Overhead Press, 3 x Heavy Lateral Raises, 3 x Rear delt flyes or Facepulls,3 x Db incline BP, 3 x Flyes, 5 x overhead Tri Extensions

Pull day 2 : One arm rows x5, wide grip cable row x 3, Vbar pulldown x 3, 5 x Hammer curls, 5 x Shrugs

Leg day 2 : Same as day one

Alot of lat and reardelt raises,because those areas are lagging and I want tobring up my width, which is there is alot of side delt raises. No squats, becauseI tried for a month todo them, differentform, low bar and high bar, front and back, and I keep feeling it in my spine and low back no matter what, or a few times inmy glutes, which I dont want to work that much.My main focus is quads and hams.

For deadlift I would love to do them, but I have posture and low back discomfort. If somebody experienced could help me out,fine, but there is no such possibility atm.

@yogi 13 kgs, which is 28 lbs. Im not going to sitand argue how much from it was muscle, but I was pretty weak and underweight at 70 kg for 1 m90.

8

Regarding squats, if you are feeling it only in your lower back despite experimenting with multiple styles, it means you have a problem with quad and glute activation. In your case, it’s best that you learn how to do them. Not everyone needs to squat, but everyone needs to know how to use the muscles involved in a squat.