I’ve been doing the PUSH PULL split for quite some time now hitting Chest Shoulder Triceps and Quads twice a week and Back, Biceps and Hamstrings twice a week, and i’ve gotten pretty good results, but i’d like to try a ‘‘BRO SPLIT’’ hitting every muscle once a week.
The program is inspired by Paul Carters ‘‘30 minutes to mass’’ article.
Basically i do Back, Chest, Legs, Rest, Shoulders, Arms, Rest.
I do 2 compound movements and 2 isolation movements for each body part, using one set of rest pause on the isolation exercises, one 50 % set for the first compound movement and one 8/8/8 drop set for the second compound movement.
So im doing 4 sets per bodypart once per week, i belive this was how Dorian Yates trained as well.
I have a bit of experience training so i know what exercises stimulate my muscles best and have solid mind muscle connection.
Do you guys think this is too low volume, or does it look good?
Any critizsm is welcomed.
How effective has it been?
Haven’t done the routine, gonna get after it once the gyms open again. Just wanted to know if anybody has tried a low volume bro split before and have any criticisms
“Volume too low” can’t be universalized. It’s entirely dependent on the recovery ability of the trainee, along with how close to their max they can push themselves within a set. Some trainees need tons of volume to drive progress: others can do so with little.
Try it, see what happens. If it works, change nothing. If it doesn’t, change SOMETHING.
And it should be noted, recovery ability does not scale fully with training history and size. So when Yates was a newb, he had x amount of muscle and y amount of recovery ability. At his most massive, he had somewhere in the neighborhood of 10x muscle, but his recovery ability hardly budged–say, it was now 1.5y. (I’m inventing these numbers to make a point–don’t take them literally.) Thus, he needed to train less frequently in order to let his (relatively) puny recovery ability do its thing. In contrast, those of us with far less muscle do not put nearly so large a burden on our recovery abilities, and thus are able to train more frequently.
tl;dr Assuming you are at a very different point on the muscle-size continuum than he, Yates’ routine will likely result in suboptimal gains for you.
Disclaimer I freely acknowledge I am grossly oversimplifying a very complex and multifaceted subject.
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Last spring I used the low volume approach, just for my once per week back workout.
1 row, 1 pulldown and 1 shrug motion. “One” top set of each move, using rest/pause or a drop set or 5 count eccentrics to make it more intense. (intensity techniques from Thib’s "Best Damn Workout).
It took a week or two to figure out appropriate weights and how to really get all the effort into “one” set. From there it was Good to Go. With low volume I was able to make week to week progress and get into some PR numbers on pulldowns and rows.
When things got stale I switched up which lift got a drop set and which lift got rest/pause or eccentic focus and that was enough to get things moving forward.
To me, your plan doesn’t seem 100% crazy.
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Did you discountine using the approach? And if so, why?
Thanks
I was following Thib’s guidelines from “Best Damn,” two warm up sets then one Money Top Set.
After 4 months it got a little clumsy trying to pick weights. I’d do the top set and it didn’t feel “right.” Like I could have busted ass more on the top set if I did one extra warmup set to be “more ready” for the heavy stuff. Or like I ran out of breath and had to stop before I really fatigued the muscle I was trying to hit.
One day it just felt like I’d get a better workout with less mental stressing about fitting in the guidelines if I did straight sets, ramping up in the “normal” way.