I’ve been running PPL rest repeat type of routine for a long time now, and overall I’ve been lifting for years.
But recently I tend to have less and less time so PPL rest (which means 5-6x times a week in the gym, which isn’t really far but driving, finding parking place etc. takes time) is draining me, mostly mentally.
Since I have an adjustable bench and dumbbells (40kg max each) in a basement I think I can have a pretty decent delts workout with them or even throw in some biceps or light chest. So I’m wondering what you think about this small PPL modification. Instead of PPL rest repeat, I’d run:
Try it and see. The best program for you is the one you can stick to. If your skipping days because it’s inconvenient to go then that is not gonna be beneficial.
You could also do PPL and then one day of lagging body parts or PP/r/LP/r/PP and so on.
I was training 6 days a week and doing PPL/R/PPL but i’m switching starting this week to PPL/R/PPL/R/PPL/R and so on. This way I rest every 4th day instead of one day per week.
One thing I’ve heard has good results is a five day split of Push, Pull, Off, Legs, Off, Repeat.
Haven’t tried it exactly like that personally (I do PPL whenever I have time to train and it roughly equates to this tbh so I’m in the same zip code) but it might be a bit better on recovery, especially for your shoulders if that’s ever an issue for you.
I would anticipate this being hell on your shoulders in the long run.
I would think something like this could work given your setup.
Day1: Upper (at gym, compound focused)
Day2: Lower (at gym, compound focused)
Day3: DB upper body pump (at home, isolation movements)
Day 4: off
Repeat
OR for a 5 day a week set up:
Day 1: Heavy push (at gym, compound focused)
Day 2: Heavy pull (at gym, compound focused)
Day 3: Legs (at gym, compound focused)
Day 4: Off
Day 5: Upper pump (at home)
Day 6: Lower pump (at home, stuff like DB lunges, goblet squats, RDLs)
Day 7: Off
You could try cycling in a DB day per week, and may find you recover/grow more from less maximal type of work, and more rest. The closer you get to your genetic/training potential, the more important rest should actually become. Take 4 days a week to grow/do light activity/cardio outside the gym, and have a 5th day that’s not crushing using DBs.
Why do you have less time? I have a lot of friends who’ve said this to me at any given point, but I’ve found that it’s often a case of 3-5 hours of their day is caught on their phones once I check their screen time stats.
Not a criticism mind you, this is true for almost everyone, I just love shilling for the built in screen-time monitor and app-limits on iPhones.