Hi guys, I’ve been training for a few years and put on a decent amount of muscle. My physique-type goal is men’s physique (I’d like to compete in an amateur competition next year). Up to now I’ve run an Upper/Lower split over 3 days/week that served me well (ABA BAB). It looks that I am quite leg dominant (at least for that cathegory) so I wanna put more emphasis on upper body.
Still, over 3 days/week what kind of split would you reccomend?
A/B Push Pull (Coach Thibaudeau calls it Modified Hatfield Split), where you work on day
A: Chest, Deltoids, Triceps and Quadriceps
B: Lats, Upper Back, Biceps and Glutes/Hamstrings
It’s basically like a modified PPL where more focus is put on upper body
Upper - Lower - Upper
Basically The same Routine I’m running, but instead of alternating ABA BAB, every week looks the same: Upper body on monday and Friday and Lower body on Wedneday, so that Upper body is getting worked more often
For routine, it really just depends on you. Maybe you respond better to high volume so you should aim for density, or maybe you respond better to low volume so HIT is for you. There isn’t necessarily one best routine, but anything you can tweak to meet 2x upper body days per week is probably the way to go IMO. For example: instead of doing ABA BAB, doing ABA ABA to double-down on upper body sounds better when your quads, hams and glutes will be covered by board shorts.
Standard hypertrophy splits like Full Body, Upper/Lower, PPL, are always fine, but I’ve also done some reading into DC training, which sounds promising if you respond well to that type of training. Also, Fortitude Training (although 4x per week) may be a good option for you. It’s difficult to recommend a training split, because most provide similar results - the only real variable is your effort.
I very seriously doubt Men’s Physique competitors use anything other than a classic bodypart split (“bro split”), because targeting specific bodyparts is a priority for the goal.
If you need to stick to three days a week, I’d go for a tried and true push-pull-legs. Simple, effective, and a favorite of the original Men’s Physique competitor - Frank Zane. (Kidding, sorta.)
I disagree that being leg-dominant is a bad thing, even in MP, but having under-developed upper body muscle can definitely be a thing and should be addressed. Also worth noting that the modified Hatfield split could be seen as giving legs extra attention, since it’s essentially quads in one workout and glutes/hams in another - an approach sometimes used to bring up lagging legs.
