I just thought about this program in the shower and it seems very intense. However I have a good ability to recover and I’m seeking feedback to decide whether or not I should bust my ass this hard. Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated. The set/rep scheme follows the recent principles Coach Thib has published in the I,BODYBUILDER program. Therefore autoregulation will play a big part on my daily regimen. Here is the program:
Day 1 Pulling (Upper Body)
Session 1: Wide Grip Barbell Shoulder Press
Lateral Flies
Skull Crushers
Session 2: Wide Grip Bench Press
Decline Dumbell Bench Press (Semi-Pronated Grip)
Incline Dumbell Flies
Day 2 Pushing (Upper body)
Session 1: Chinups
Cable Pronated Wide Grip Straight Arm Pushdowns (Not sure of the correct name)
Dumbell Seated Bicep Curls (at about 15 degrees posterior to anitomical position)
Session 2: Bentover Barbell Row (Pronated & Close Grip)
Wide Grip Cable Rows (Neutral [semi-supinated] Hand position)
Wide Grip Dumbell Rows
Day 3 Legs
Session 1: Back Squat w/box Powerlifter Style
Leg Press Medium Stance
Barbell or Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat
Session 2: Deadlift (traditional)
Barbell Hip Thrusters (Bret Contreras[sp’] exercise)
45 Degree Back Extensions
I am a current student in the Fitness Program at George Brown. My goals are to increase my general strength, speed, and aesthetics. I have participated in track and field, rugby, wrestling, and karate.
is there a question or are you just letting us know what you are doing? i mean, the movements you are classifying as pushing/pulling don’t make much sense (e.g. chins aren’t a push) and i’m not sure this is the best approach for bodybuilding purposes.
I posted this late last night and mixed up the pushing and pulling categories. The exercises however are the same. I was just requesting some feedback. I’ve decided to split the two a day workout for legs into a quad dominant and hip dominant day with an isolation and ab exercise tacked on.
Just give it a go man, and make changes as necessary. Only way to find out if shit works for you is to try it, as long as it isn’t blatantly stupid. Depending on how you adjust frequency/volume/quantity of food and sleep, this may or may not work.
There was a good article a while back which summarised some different options for twice a day workouts.
For me the best split was chest+back/legs/shoulders+arms for 3 on and 1 off. I did low rep compounds in the morning and higher reps in the evening and add in some isolation stuff.
Shoot for less than 40 mins per session.
I appreciate the advice. My main goal is to become stronger and appear more muscular at around the same body weight(185lbs). However I’m abit iffy as to whether or not I should even try higher reps. I’ve found that my muscle gains in higher rep ranges pathetic even for smaller muscle groups However I’ve never tried them in a two a day workout. I’m just wondering…has anyone here lost strength when they used higher reps on the same day as lower reps in a microcycle? I know that when I’ve tried cycling higher reps in my programs and I lose strength fairly quickly…
I dunno, personally all I really use high reps for on a somewhat consistent basis is squat variations, and that’s about it. But that of course is because of the fact that legs naturally have a lot of slow-twitch muscle fibers…
Hey man,
I just started a similar split, training twice per day 2 weeks ago and so far, great results…however, as of today I am in need of deloading!!
Anyway, here is my exact split, exercises etc:
Day 1: PUSH AM
A. Push Press 6-8x3
B. Slight decline BB bench press 6-8x3
C. Dips 6-8x3
D. Trap 3’s - 3x10
PUSH PM
A. Seated DB Presses 5x5
B. Flat DB Presses 5x5
C. Floor flys 5x5
D. EZY tricep extensions 5x5
Day 2: PULL AM
A. Chins 6-8x3
B. Upright Row 6-8x3
C. BB Row 6-8x3
D. Shrugs 3x10
PULL PM
A. Rope lat pulldown 5x5
B. Lateral raise 5x5
C. Seated Row 5x5
D. Preacher curl 5x5
Day 3: LEGS AM
A. Snatch grip deadlift 6-8x3
B. Leg curls 6-8x3
C. Leg Press 6-8x3
D. Standing Calves 5x5
LEGS PM
A. BB Lunges 5x5
B. Romanian deadlift 5x5
C. Leg Extensiosn 5x5
D1. Seated calves 3x15
D2. Donkey calves 3xMax reps
So during the AM workout, I rampo up the weight and my AM workouts REALLY get my nervous system AMPED…the PM workouts, I also ramp, but not as long…maybe the first 2 sets then use a weight I can accelerate really well for 5 reps, hitting Max Force Point. I have been making nice gains so far…but like I said, time to deload…so pay attention to how your are feeling etc. Feeling rundown, lacking motivation etc = DELOAD…Just do the AM session at 60% volume during the deload.
GJ
Gymjunkie I appreciate you spending the time to post your split. I like the idea of changing the rep scheme only slightly (I hate going above 6 reps). Regarding your point on deloading (well more of the fact that it was after two weeks), I had anticipated this to happen when training at such a viscous intensity twice a day. However when I deload I usually cut the intensity of BOTH of my session and I notice you advocated cutting the intensity of just the AM session. Is there specific reasoning behind this?