I count 4 leg exercises total over the whole week (not counting calves). Why so few? Why the avoidance of squats/deadlifts/lunges/RDL’s? Leg extensions and leg curls are nice to supplement leg work, but usually shouldn’t consist of the bulk of leg work unless you have specific reasons for doing so such as an injury or medical condition. And I use “bulk” lightly, because the amount of leg work you’re doing really isn’t much.
You do big compound movements for your upper body, why are you avoiding doing them for your lower body? Outside of the leg press for 4 sets on one day.
Adjust volumes as you get more efficient in your training. Then, for example, progress into 5-3-1 with first set last for squat, bench, overhead press, deadlift and clean.
Be careful to not mayor in the minors with your current plan.
I’ve done a few Push/ Pull splits over the years and the biggest problem with it is how to incorporate legs.
The obvious answer is squats and leg press on push day and Deadlift / RDL’s and leg curls on pull day.
This looks fine on paper but in practice can end up making the sessions really long and doing legs 2 days in a row can be really taxing on the lower back , glutes and hips.
The solution is however very simple and far better then the above scenario. Simply add in a legs day.
Push /Pull /Legs.
The benefit of this is you aren’t over stressing your lower back as you are doing for example Squats, Leg Press, Romanian Deadlift, Leg Curls, Calf Raises all in the one day then you have plenty of time to recover before you hit them again.
You can also focus harder on hitting Chest, shoulders and Triceps without worry about how to fit in squats. And you can focus on hitting your Weighted Pull Ups and heavy Dumbbell Rows hard on their own day.
You can do it same days as you had planned. Push,Pull Off, Legs,Push Off,Off, Pull,Legs, Off, Push, Pull and so on.
If your keen on doing Push Pull then do it how I first mentioned . Squats and Leg Press on push day and RDL’s and Leg Curls on pull day. It limits your upper body exercises so go with the big ones. Bench Press, Military Press, Dips, Pullups, Dumbbell Bent Over Rows etc…
[quote]Angus1 wrote:
I’ve done a few Push/ Pull splits over the years and the biggest problem with it is how to incorporate legs.
The obvious answer is squats and leg press on push day and Deadlift / RDL’s and leg curls on pull day.
This looks fine on paper but in practice can end up making the sessions really long and doing legs 2 days in a row can be really taxing on the lower back , glutes and hips.
The solution is however very simple and far better then the above scenario. Simply add in a legs day.
Push /Pull /Legs.
The benefit of this is you aren’t over stressing your lower back as you are doing for example Squats, Leg Press, Romanian Deadlift, Leg Curls, Calf Raises all in the one day then you have plenty of time to recover before you hit them again.
You can also focus harder on hitting Chest, shoulders and Triceps without worry about how to fit in squats. And you can focus on hitting your Weighted Pull Ups and heavy Dumbbell Rows hard on their own day.
You can do it same days as you had planned. Push,Pull Off, Legs,Push Off,Off, Pull,Legs, Off, Push, Pull and so on.
If your keen on doing Push Pull then do it how I first mentioned . Squats and Leg Press on push day and RDL’s and Leg Curls on pull day. It limits your upper body exercises so go with the big ones. Bench Press, Military Press, Dips, Pullups, Dumbbell Bent Over Rows etc…[/quote]
I would agree with that if OP wasn’t an absolute beginner. I think he would benefit from a higher frequency for legs. He would also still be learning the basic movements and frequency will help there as well. And he can also really focus on the primary exercises that way and not get lost in a bunch of accessories.
If they want I have beginners sometimes work a push pull split 6x a week with squats on every push day, and deadlift, clean and bent-over on the pull days (1 per pull day). It works just fine for beginners since they’re not pushing a shitload of weight yet. They can focus nicely on their primary exercises that way and get in and out of the gym in a reasonable time.