I’ve tried full body, but never really enjoyed it. When life has prevented me from having my preferred gym access (due to kids, work, travel, whatever) I usually do one week of full body as a “warm up” set, one week of push-pull-legs, and sneaky cardio in the background so my VO2 max isn’t a limiting factor when I’m back in gym rat mode, then defaulted to this.
I like a 5/2 split best, so a week would look like this -
1.) Upper body - compound heavy day - low volume, high weight powerlifting, accessory work
2,) Lower body - compound heavy day - Olympic lifts, squat movement, hinge movement, calves, accessory crap
3.) Off - Good sleep, learn more about lifting, cook something and eat it
4.) Chest and back - pump day - Vertical press, horizonal pull, vertical pull, horizontal push, accessory work, but with different equipment, higher volume, and different techniques to finish and burn out.
5.) Legs - pump day - Run the muscle ladder - glutes, quads, hams, calves, abs.
6.) Arms/Shoulders - pump day - We all like to do this. Have fun.
7.) Rest - Do something new that is dumb and interests you.
i don’t prioritize cardio since I keep ending doing 20k steps for work, and swimming a ton to relax.
Back to the ADD initial question (and thank you for tagging me!) I feel that this structure gives some breathing space and doesn’t make a lifter feel like they are losing progress. You bounce between strength and hypertrophy progression, with a couple of positive and non-gym rest days to allow consistency (which is really all that matters.}
Hope this helps, I’m going to make some eggs and yell and suffer through my kid playing a soccer game.
