Lifting is about self-discovery - finding the volumes/frequency/exercises that seem to work well for you. With that said, you don’t know what you don’t know, hence why novice & intermediate routines exist to be followed by people who don’t yet know what works best for them. All that a pre-existing routine written by someone else on the internet can be, is a ‘template routine’. Intended to be run as is, for a time, & then adjustments to be done by the person running it based on their individual needs. ‘Advanced’ programs which float around the internet, intended to be followed by others, as a general rule are stupid because when you are advanced, you should be doing your own routine. You do a couple of intermediate programs, reduce volume where you’re under-recovered & add it when you’re not getting enough stimulus, change exercises where you’re not feeling it, & slowly mix & match your way to the ‘ideal’ setup RE your stimulus & recovery needs. Your stimulus & recovery needs will also slowly adjust over time as you make progress & get older, so even when you’re where you need to be, part of the job is remaining vigilant to being ready to adjust when required.
For a template routine to be as good as possible, it needs to prescribe stuff, (volume, frequency, intensity, exercise selection), to benefit the greatest possible number of people. If it does that, it’s the perfect routine in the strict sense of what, ‘template routine’ means. There’s no promise of it working perfectly for everyone, that’s a dream. Working well for the greatest number of people, that’s perfection from a realistic standpoint. Anyway, I thought I’d write a few down below for my copy+pasting when required.
Push/Legs/Pull
Push
Bench Press 3X8
Incline DB Bench 3X10
Machine OHP 3X8
Reverse Pec Deck 3X12
Lying Tricep Extension 3X10
Lateral Raise 3X12
Tricep Pushdown 3X12
Legs
Squat 3X8
RDL 3X8
Hack Squat 3X10
Leg Curl 2X10
Calf Raise 3X10
Weighted Crunch 1X10
Pull
Pulldown 4X8
Chest Supported Row4X10
Shrug 2X12
Preacher Curl 3X10
Hammer Curl 3X10
There we go, just a basic template PPL. No trying to manage recovery with conventional deadlifts or barbell rows, the lower back loading is all on leg day, simple as. Run 6 days a week its weekly volume is 12 sets of chest, quads, biceps, triceps, 10 sets of hamstrings,18 sets of shoulders, 20 sets of back. This is quintessential moderate volume that will tick the boxes for an absolute shitload of early intermediates. A novice could run this, but why? A full body routine with 5 exercises every second or third day is plenty of stimulus for them. It’s actually less volume than a lot of ‘rate my PPL’ threads I see where they’re doing 4 chest exercises, two OHP movements, 4 tricep exercises, ETC. Here’s the same volume, (roughly), on a couple different setups.
Arnold Split
Chest & Back
Bench Press 3X8
Pulldown 4X8
Incline DB Bench 3X10
Chest Supported Row4X10
Pec Deck 2X12
Shrug 2X12
Legs
Squat 3X8
RDL 3X8
Hack Squat 3X10
Leg Curl 2X10
Calf Raise 3X10
Weighted Crunch 1X10
Shoulders & Arms
Machine OHP 3X8
Reverse Pec Deck 3X12
Lying Tricep Extension 3X10
Lateral Raise 3X12
Tricep Pushdown 3X12
Preacher Curl 3X10
Hammer Curl 3X10
Upper/Lower Variant - Biceps on Lower Day
Upper
Bench Press 3X8
Pulldown 4X8
Machine OHP 3X8
Chest Supported Row 4X10
Pec Deck 3X10
Reverse Pec Deck 3X12
Lying Tricep Extension 3X10
Lateral Raise 3X12
Tricep Pushdown 3X12
Shrug 2X12
Lower & Biceps
Squat 3X8
RDL 3X8
Hack Squat 3X10
Preacher Curl 3X10
Leg Curl 2X10
Hammer Curl 3X10
Calf Raise 3X10
Weighted Crunch 1X10
Now this is more volume than I do, but I already know I’m a low volume type. I’m a racehorse, not a workhorse. If I were to write a quintessential high intensity program, I’d probably write something similar to DC Training but slightly higher volume, & I stress the word slightly. I think if something like the below were really popular, you’d possibly maybe have literally half of early to late intermediates getting on this & absolutely thriving on it to the point that they end up training like this for the rest of their lives, (with a little variation obviously), so long as the irrational need to simply be in the gym more overtakes their rational mind & ruins a good thing.
[High Intensity Routine]
Performed three days a week on non-consecutive days, alternating A & B workouts.
-All exercises to be performed with two second concentrics & eccentrics - 4 seconds per rep. Don’t be concerned with hitting the concentric tempo on your final reps if they take longer than 2 seconds, but otherwise, stick with this. Take an eccentric longer than 2 seconds on large ROM exercises if you feel it’s useful for keeping your form tight.
-Exercise selection based on movements with greatest difficulty around mid-point as these are the most effective exercises for hypertrophy.
All exercises are trained with two sets.
-The first set is an ‘acclimation set’ done with about 10% less weight than the top set, with the same, or slightly fewer, number of reps. You should feel that you had about three more reps left in the tank before reaching muscular failure.
-The second set is your top set - an intense all-out set followed by two ‘rest-pause’ sets, each one performed after about 30 seconds rest. For example: After performing a set with 180lb for 9, you move to your working set weight of 200 pounds, for 10 reps, followed by two rest-pause sets of 4 & 3 reps. The rule around completing reps: If you know you can perform another rep, do it. If you’re certain you can’t, don’t. If you’re unsure, attempt it.
Workout A - Chest, Shoulders & Arms
Chest Press Movement: 1X8-12 RP**
Seated OHP Movement: 1X8-12 RP**
Pec Deck: 1X8-12 RP**
Reverse Pec Deck: 1X8-12 RP**
Cable Lateral Raise: 1X8-12 RP**
Lying Tri Extension: 1X8-12 RP**
Supinated Curl Movement: 1X8-12 RP**
Tricep Pushdown: 1X8-12 RP**
Hammer Curl Movement: 1X8-12 RP**
Workout B - Legs & Back
Vertical Pull: 1X8-12 RP**
Seated Leg Curl: 1X8-12 RP**
Horizontal Pull: 1X8-12 RP**
Hack Squat: 1X8-12 RP**
RDL: 1X8-12 RP**
Shrug: 1X8-12 RP**
Calf Raise: 1X8-12 RP**
Weighted Crunch: 1X8-12 RP**