Opinions on Current Training Plan

Morning,

Looking to get people’s opinion on current split. I can get into the gym 4 days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

I have been running a upper/lower split for a while now so just looking to change things up a bit.

Current set up
Monday - Upper (chest dominant)
Tuesday - Lower (Deadlifts and front squat)

Thursday - Push (shoulder dominant)
Friday - Pull/Legs (Squat and rows)

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Nothing particularly special to comment on with this. A split is not a training plan but a way of helping us to organize our training plan. Any split with a sensible exercise selection and rest between different muscle groups will work. The information you’ve given us isn’t really enough to say any more than that.

If the training plan you’ve built around this split is what makes you excited to train and you can stay consistent with it then it is a good split for you.

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What kind of squats are you planning to do on Friday?

Just back squats

It matters maybe by like 2% at most.

Your plan is to do only back squats the day after you heavily train shoulders? Holding the bar in the rack position is going to suck

Too much squats, Not enough curls.

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I would have a heavy leg day and a light leg day, especially if you are training without AAS.

I would switch Tuesday and Friday. If you heavy deadlift heavy, you need the extra day of recovery. I would be doing a light leg day here after doing heavy deadlifts and some additional back work. (I liked doing deadlifts and bent over rows the same day. I started with the rows heavy and the second back exercise was fairly heavy deadlifts, then Nautilus Pullover machine, long pull rows and then Lat Machine wide pulldowns. I only trained back once a week, but was on AAS.)

I like to back squat heavy, and would rather do them early in the week. I would pick Tuesday from your choices.

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I’ve seen you mention a higher frequency for naturals a couple times, which is certainly a popular opinion recently. Your opinions weren’t formed recently nor by the online community; rather, you tend to speak near-solely from personal experience. I’m curious what you’ve observed that drives your recommendations here?

I’ll give this a shot:

Training strategy must address recovery and balance that with stimulation. You want sufficient stimulation, but that must be balanced with necessary recovery.

Let’s stop there and discuss one of the prime reasons AAS work. IMO, when taking sufficient AAS, the androgen binding sites accept the steroid. When the binding sites are full of AAS there is no place for cortisol (steroid) to attach. [This is the thought we had by the 1980’s] So the person on sufficient AAS has much less concern with the amount of cortisol released during high volume training. All he must concern himself with is recovery from the stimulation. I practiced a single Back day and a single Leg (thigh) day per week when on cycle. I placed those workout days with an off day between them. Both are high systemic stressed days. Because I only did 2 set, 10 rep deadlift days I usually did Back on Monday (along with light Chest following Back) and Tuesday was an off day. Then on Wednesday I did very intense Leg day. I waddled out of the gym. Thursday was an off day. I worked the rest of my body parts Friday and Saturday and took Sunday off. I considered Monday as a light Biceps and Triceps day due to their contribution doing the compound exercises.

Back to natural training. The natural lifter doesn’t have the luxury of ignoring cortisol release. They must keep their volume and intensity low enough to not be overcome with cortisol attaching to their androgen binding sites. That inhibits growth (adaptation from stimulation). But we all understand there will be no adaptation without stimulation. Without AAS the lifter must look to frequency to add more stimulation.

With a good approach of minimizing cortisol, his next concern is recovery. [I have always approached weight training with the thought that recovery was required before muscle was added. Even the most basic training of lifting 3 days a week, as in Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, was practiced by most all.]

Now let it be said that no natural lifter is going to have a “heavy” leg day that remotely approaches what an AAS assisted leg day would be. IMO, this is the low rep 3 to 5 minute rest between sets Leg day, where you are trying to get strong, as in 5 sets of 5 reps, or some other similar routine. Then on light Leg day would be lighter weights for higher reps with less rest between sets, looking more for a pump than build strength (back in my days 10 reps would be high reps.) This will stimulate the thighs twice a week and still allow for recovery.

Because it is difficult to tell who is on AAS and who is not, it was hard to see what seemed to work and what did not. So most I what I came to believe is based on what I heard discussed, and what I saw from my own personal experience.

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That was an awesome response - I really appreciate the detailed explanation!

This isn’t a training plan. It’s just a weekly outline?..at best.