I say you shouldn't start with the training split. You should start by looking at your daily schedule, how many days you want to train, how many days you need to train in order to make progress, how much frequency of your lifts/muscle groups that you need, and how your fatigue patterns look for each lift/muscle group. The split will create itself at that point.
Dont let yourself be put in boxes by programs If you need more back you can train more back if you need more squat squat more… Do what you need not what some programs say
Yes, this is especially important for recreational lifters who train for health and fitness. They shouldn't make training a burden on themselves that messes up with other aspects of life.
exactly after some months of training and not being consistent because of how many days i could go, i decided to go with a upper/lower split. just 4 days a week and if i can go another day i can go and do an extra session. like this i became much more consistent.
I don't know why I'm addicted to watching videos on splits. I do an upper lower 4 times a week, don't plan on changing anytime soon but yet I devour these videos lol.
One thing I will point out regarding your take on Push/Pull/Lower: I think a lot of guys who run it do the three days and then take one or two days off and repeat it. So we’re not looking at things through a week-day basis. You looked at it more through the lends of 3 days on and four days off.
I think full-body is still way underrated. I always end up coming back to it and have gotten all of the best gains out of it even though it's usually pinned as a "beginner" split. I'm definitely not the strongest in the world but I've gotten to around a 260 bench, 380 squat (high bar), and 450 or so deadlift while staying relatively lean. I run a full body 3-days a week, and I usually dedicate one other day to conditioning/cardio. I already do light cardio basically every day due to biking/walking to work or to get groceries and stuff. I rarely do all 3 big lifts per workout, I almost always do 2 and a few accessories, one upper body and one lower body. It usually ends up being bench ~3 times a week, but with very different intensities, squatting 2 times, and deadlift once. I don't miss days often since I'm very motivated to lift/workout, but It also is the easiest in my opinion to deal with in terms of missing a day due to responsibilities/other needs. I don't feel like I just sacrificed one area of my body and need to make up for it in a weird way. I can just come in at the next day I'm free and do a full body workout and all is good with the world.
Dude who are you? I feel like you're my gym twin. I also feel the same about full body splits and keep coming back to them despite people shitting on them being for beginners. I program very similarly, mostly with 2 big lifts per day (squats and bench) and then some type of row or pullup and accessory work. I always try not to have more than 6 exercises per session, any more than that and it seem to turn into fluff. I also throw in an extra cardio/accessory day where I'll do calves/abs/bodyweight training and some conditioning. I superset pretty much everything as it's time efficient and builds work capacity like crazy. The main reason I always come back to full body is because I get great recovery and seem to progress better. Even when programming upper/lower routines I alway seem to have days where my strength/energy just isn't there. At first it might seem like you're sacrificing some movements using a full body template but because you're spreading things out over 3-4 days I actually don't find that to be an issue. Sure, you have to prioritize certain lifts over others, otherwise your middle day would become too difficult, but that's normal even with other splits. Your body only has so much recovery capacity, at least full body gives you a full 3-4 days of rest each week, unlike other splits. The biggest complaint people have with full body is that the sessions are too difficult and the workouts are too long but once you build your work capacity and understand that your movements per session have to be limited you should be good to go. My basic template looks like this: Monday-Heavy DB flat bench or incline (rotate each week) Pulldown Pause squat Seated behind the neck press Curl/extension Wednesday-Medium (this day is super flexible and seems to change the most) SLDL BW Pull-ups BW Dips Facepulls/Hypers or Leg curl Friday-Heavy Squat Bench or Incline (rotate each week) Row-your choice Curl/extension Leg accessory Saturday-Light Calves/Abs/Conditioning
@@Soccasteve Lol, we definitely have a similar split, I also limit myself to ~6 exercises per workout. I usually superset everything after the main movement of the day as well for work capacity and to save time since I usually do my workouts in the middle of the work day. I usually can get through them in a bit over an hour. My Saturday day/conditioning is usually just me running over to one of the outdoor calisthenics areas in my neighborhood and doing gpp style training like a circuit of pull-ups, pushups, inverted rows, etc. Even though I'm not "old" I'm a couple months from being 30 and can definitely feel that I need to prioritize proper rest more than I could back in college years, which is partly why a Full-Body works so well for me. I'm fluid in that if I don't feel completely rested I am comfortable just taking an additional day off and picking up things the next day, not necessarily tied to a M/W/F type thing. This only happens once in a blue moon, but at least once in a while I just have to skip a day due to other responsibilities and full-body makes this super flexible from a mental standpoint imo.
@@Jcampz01 Exactly, skipping one day is no big deal when you have the opportunity to hit body parts 3 times a week. Super flexible. Haha yeah I'm 31 and I've always had pretty average to slightly below average recovery and always needed to make sure I wasn't in the gym too much. 3-4 days has always been the sweet spot for me. I actually progress pretty well with upper/lower splits every other day except I hate having a rotating schedule. Also I tend to neglect conditioning and some smaller muscle groups when I do upper/lower splits. Another pro for full body.
I switched from one lift per day to full body, and I'm never going back. The freshness factor Bromley talks about at 33:00 cannot be overstated. I'm able to do so much more quality work over a week when I'm doing a little of everything every day.
It is a lot better for strength to work close to your max frequently instead of training once or twice a week with your performance going all the way down during the workout.
I kinda do mix of few things Deadlifts+ other pull movements-mon Bench+ other push movements-tue Squat+other leg movemets-wed OHP+mix of push and pull ( big emphasis biceps and triceps)-thu Front or zercher squat + legs again-fri Sat and sun rest
My 6-day split and the compounds they start with is: 1. Chest/Triceps (Flat Bench) 2. Back/Biceps (Deadlifts) 3. Legs/Shoulders (Squats) 4. Abs/Forearms (no compounds) 5. Upper Chest/Tris (Incline Bench) 6. Shoulders/Biceps (OHP) 7. REST Been working great for both strength and size gains, Abs/Forearms day in the middle allows recovery from the big 3 days without taking a full rest day and day 5+6 give me a lot of variety across the week for the torso (day 1's triceps is all cable work, wheras day 5's is all free weights). I feel like everything is spaced out pretty well with the only downside being only hitting legs and back once a week but larger muscle groups want longer to recover anyway. I gladly trade away some hamstring development for how popping my abs are
I used to be Push/leg/pull believer but after doing full body for about a year now. It’s been so much better! At least to size building and not getting injured.
Thanks for the video. I’ve done variations of all these splits without realizing it and am still tweaking. Going to watch it a few more times to get a better idea of how I want to approach my programming
I have found that personally, a 4 day gentlemen split has given me enough days in the gym to be satisfied, but also enough rest to not be burnt out and give it my full effort each session.
@N. Hunt That can vary greatly. However my personal program is pretty similar to the guts program he has on his channel so you can go see it for yourself :)
@N. Hunt the starting point is an upper/lower, from there he adds whatever muscle needs more frequency, like calves on upper, back every day, arms on lower...
Great overview. Just to add, you could easily transform 5/3/1 into a 2 upper / 2 lower program by swapping out the main lift for its sister lift for the secondary volume work. Wendler mentions this variation when describing the Boring But Big template. So e.g. you would pair deadlift/squat on lower days and bench/overhead press on upper days, switching the emphasis between strength and reps for each. It works out the exact same volume, just a different way to organise it.
Sunday: legs-strength Monday: rotational work&technique Tuesday: torso; vertical-strength Wednesday: legs-power Thursday: rotational work&technique Friday: torso; horizontal-power During better weather, before rotational work, I will go for a light jog as recovery work and sometimes the technique work is also conditioning
So, I do what I always called "Full Body", but I would never think to do all 3 lifts on the same day. I usually did Squat-Pullups one day, then Deadlift-OHP the next. 4 days a week. With slightly different accessories every day. I guess it's definitely complex, but it let me hit everything pretty easily.
I was thinking of doing something similar, although it might be a bit more in the direction of push/pull: weighted dips and back squats one day, deadlifts and weighted pullups the other day, training 4 times a week. To that I'll add some core work and some sport specific work (bouldering). I might switch up the exercises every 12 weeks or so (e.g. substitute dips for weighted ring pushups or OHP's, back squats for front squats or single leg squats, deadlifts for RDL's, Jefferson deadlifts, or kettlebell swings, pullups for chinups, wide pullups, etc.). Still wondering if I could get enough volume in with this though, as I'm used to training both horizontal and vertical push and pull exercises.
@@kewner8556 you can still do horizontal pushes/pulls as accessories. But also Deadlifts/weighted pullups on the same day ended up not working for me, cuz my grip would be f--ked. Unless you're okay using straps for one or the other.
Full body is so underrated and highly flexible. Plus recovery is pretty much a non issue assuming you're doing a normal 3 days a week setup. I find I like 2 heavy movements and no more than 6 total movements each session, so 2 big movements like squats and bench and the rest is back work and other accessory work.
yeah i think people think "full body" means doing everything on every day, but i use a loose definition of full body: if it has at least one upper body exercise and at least one lower body exercise, it's a full body workout. the emphasis can change, one day might be bench, pull-ups, rows, overhead press, curls, and squats, the next day might be RDLs, lunges, leg press, back extensions, facepulls, and dips. you can do full body 4x a week and still only do an exercise once a week (especially if you have a wide exercise selection).
I do similar, one day will have for example bench press and deadlift and the other will have overhead press and squat. I never understood why some people have trouble comprehending this and keep reading "full body" as doing all 4 in a single day.
Rather than thinking of Frequency as a number of muscle groups you can train Monday - Sunday ... think of it more in time frames Example PPL Day 1 - push Day 2 - legs Day 3 - rest Day 4 - pull Day 5 - push ( you've trained the muscle twice within 7 days ) Day 6 - rest Day 7 - legs ( you've trained th muscle twice within 7 days ) And keep going
I do a lot of sports. Always have. And different ones all the time, like water polo, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, swimming, etc. So I have been using custom splits a lot. For instance my triceps, back and legs are not to be touched before a water polo session. Shoulders are off limits before a wrestling session, etc. So I'd have awkwards splits like: water polo, pull, boxing, legs, shoulders, swimming, chest.
This made me analyze how I’ve been working out. I work two jobs so get three days, sometimes 4 to train. I basically workout like legs/push/pull. Tuesday hypertrophy for legs/glutes Thursday OHP, rows and core stuff Saturday heavy deadlifts w cleans and snatches (oly stuff isn’t heavy as I’m not focusing on those and still learning technique) If I get a 4th day it’s usually gonna be some fluff hypertrophy for my arms and some active recovery stuff for legs. This allows me to still get a broad base since my sleep and recovery is compromised some bc of my two jobs.
I think a lot of people miss a big advantage og full body, perhaps because their life is schedule around workouts (instead of vise versa). FLEXIBILITY. If my kid gets sick, I need to travel on short notice, work is though, other life stuff… I am not missing any muscle groups. I dont have to skip leg day or back day. This really puts my mind at ease. And I tend to come back stronger 4 days later.
This. I got tired of being told that I needed to somehow change my work and life schedule to fit a split instead of customizing a split to fit into my existing schedule and around obligations.
BaseStrengthAI is more reliable than a coach, cheaper than an Excel template!👇👇👇 www.BaseStrength.com/the-app Bromley Merch from Barbell Apparel only available HERE! 👇👇👇 barbellapparel.com/Bromley To get the slides to this presentation: 👉👉👉 empire-barbell.com/full-library-of-free-video-pdfs/ For more programming breakdowns 👉👉👉 amzn.to/3d1pexd Have big training goals and don't know the next move? Reach out to me for a consultation! 👉 DM me on Insta: @Bromarama 👉 or email: bromley@empire-barbell.com
I kinda do a mix, I do a 4-day split: 1: Anterior Focus (Front Squat, OHP, Bench variation etc) 2: Posterior Focus (DL and all sorts of Pull) 3: Upper 4: Lower I feel like this keeps me from getting bored and mixes things up a little.
Most of my lifting life I’ve done full body with a focus on compounds. Last year I felt that my legs were lagging a bit and wanted to add isolations so I switched to upper/lower.
Going to come back for a personalized program soon because the last one put on approximately 7-10lb mostly on the upper body of an advanced bench guy in about 10 months! Until I get the money, I'm going to try the power version of split 5 with some light BB thrown in to round things out.
I really love a Push Pull Lower A and a Push Pull Lower B approach. I have made the lions share of my strength gains from that. I will say that although people way stronger than me have had success deadlifting and squatting in the same workout; I will never understand how that is optimal
I prefer bro splits. It’s easier for me to organize and ensure I’m not being lazy on small stuff like rear delts. Plus, my body has less aches and pains this way. I think it has to do with preventing lagging muscle groups.
@@zezeti2246I've found exactly the same thing. Now at 36 I focus on higher volume and I use splits. Strangley enough when I focus on volume the strength naturally comes. With full bodies you have to rly hit those few sets with good intensity and at times it just beats you up.
I do Push.Pull, off, Pull.Push, off, then Legs. On my Push.Pull day i do 6 sets of pushing movements followed by 4 sets of pulling movements & then 3 sets of rear delt work & 4 sets of bicep curls or 4 sets of neck work (isolation movements for my least impressive body parts). Pull.Push day, I do 6 sets of pulling movements followed by 4 sets of pushing movements then 4 sets of biceps curls & 3 sets of rear delt flyes. Movement Selection: Parallel Bar Dip Flat Bench Barbell Press Bentover Barbell Row Lat Pulldown Dumbbell Hammer Curl (alternating or sychronised) Supinated Dumbbell Curl Hex Bar: Deadlift & Romanian Deadlift Split Squat or Reverse Lunge Step Up/Goblet Squat One Leg Heel Raise Periodically: One Arm Dumbbell Row Push Up (on parallette bars) Horizontal Pull Up Lateral Raises
Here's mine (it's kind of a push/pull/leg split): Mon - Heavy Push Tues - Hypertrophy Legs Wed - Heavy Pull Thur - Rest Fri - Heavy Legs, Hyper Pull, Hyper Push (Fit in accessories wherever) I've been doing this split and it has increased my strength rapidly (455 bench, 600 squat, >700 dead). I've put friends through it and it also increased their strength rapidly. I think it provides the perfect amount of rest while using high-weight low reps and still getting good volume in. I do take a max week about every 12 weeks and then a "deload" week after. Although it's more of a massive volume week with lower percentages than anything.
I wonder what you think about hybrid form of PPL/UL? You work out 5 days a week and you still hit every muscle group twice a week. It looks like this Monday- Pull heavy Tuesday- push heavy Wednesday- legs heavy Rest Friday-upper antagonist superset light Saturday- lower/legs light Rest
I did this sort of combination for quite some time. It definitely works if you have the ability to hit 5 days a week especially as you mentioned with a combination of upper lower and ppl.
@@ianchambers37 damn this was last year.. 😂 i stop doing this since i got busy but it does work if you have time. My current routine is a regular upper lower split 4 days a week
I'm currently running a gentlemen's split (as described by Natural Hypertrophy), something like U/L but I'll do upper back, neck and forearms on a lower day, after my squats and RDLs, for example, to get high frequency on the areas that can handle it. Finding a lot of success with it in terms of growth and recovery.
35:27 good point on the use of pre-workout and intra-workout on whole body days. I tend to drink 1/2 to 2/3 of my pre twenty minutes before the session and then sip the remainder after warmup so that a second wind comes in time for the later half.
I found the same issue with the 2 upper and 2 lower split and also found that adding a 3rd upper day for a lighter intensity pressing variation + targeting weaknesses to be a good solution
I like to hybridize. sometimes it looks very PPL, but I'm on a 4 day split so it's more push pull legs push, bro splits are always fun for chest/tricep days when you're feeling a little meh, most of my stuff is upper/lower though, lot of midline separation (powerlifter currently doing some hypertrophy) Each split has it's upsides and downsides, and if you're like me and allergic to pure regimen, getting elements of all the traditional splits can be helpful. I've done push-pull days when my deadlift is suffering, I've done bro splits while working with an injury or weak point in a certain lift, but I mostly like upper/lower with a little full body mixed in
For overall strength development full body as many days per week as one can manage is best. I can see how powerlifting competition lifting could benefit from something else to maximize recovery and really dial in into the main lifts for specificity. I hadn't thought of it that way but as you well brought out full body training is both most complex for experienced lifters and most useful to beginners.
Hey Bromley, I know this is an old video by this point, so you may not even see this, but wanted your take: Is it better to do your assistance work on the same day as your main lift or move it to a second day to get it a little better set quality? I started out my lifting in a 3 day PPL and realized that I was recovering way before my next session; I'm a former endurance athlete and novice lifter. I swapped over to 3 day Full body and liked it a lot better (ie 3 days of 3 sets of chest felt better than 9 sets of chest on 1 day). about a year and a half into lifting now, and I think I missed the boat on Strength progression so I wanted to try some time with a more Linear or Wave progression. However the idea of going back to Chest + Chest assistance on the same day feels like going backwards, and I'm very inclined to try and spread the work out to look a lot more like a full body workout. Thoughts?
I’ve liked a modified ppl. Upper push, upper pull, legs then full upper, quads/calves (lower push), hams/glues (lower pull). Some extra arms/delts can get added to the second lower body days, if desired. Ppl always ends up feeling like too much upper work and/or long, brutal leg days in order to get enough lower body work
Full body is undefeated for me. I've consistently made the best progress on all of my lifts utilizing it, and I actually get to have a life away from the gym. As long as volume and intensity are equated, it doesn't really matter if you're doing a bro split or a 6x per week high frequency program. Having A weeks and B weeks is really good if you're stuck in between splits too.
I do total body 1 month, bro split 1 month, total body 1 month then a 3 week max strength cycle then a push pull and repeat that. works good for hypertrophy and strength makes it simple to program. 4 day split 4 on 1 off sometimes 2
As natty I'd say muscles in anabolic state as often as possible is better for natural trainers. Also your bodyweight is relevant for programmin as joint, ligaments and bones aren't that much stronger between 80kg and 100kg guy. However the weights can be. Thus volume of lighter guy isn't always great for big guy as wear and tear is less. Thus more Bb building work might be better driver for lifts Also different people are different on volume and intensity recovery spectrum. So some people strive on volume but get offed by intensity or vice versa. Most of us fall somewhere in between Psychology: is often forgotten part. Just doing work is different than trying to do things meaningfully. Often intention of driving lift up and really focusing on the support lifts is what drives the development. Vs doing some extra work. Also just going to different style let's you to recover possibly intensity. As I find intramuscular recovery quicker then cns recovery. I think as natural, driving lifts up often breaks down to managing week to week exhaustion. And often people forget that once the growth stimulus is achieved. You're no longer developing lifts but ur energy system and taxing ur recovery. Often question comes down to: am I making meaningful progress or am I just grinding myself down. And sure often it seems ur driving ur lifts up, while ur actually just obtaining just a peak. Not actually increasing ur baseline. And if the peak ends up with long recovery and reduced lifts for long time. And fall back down the same baseline. Have you really improved lifts? However if your constant baseline strength has improved and it stays after 3 months you've gotten stronger baseline. This in my opinion is most important for long term sustainability. I believe firmly that lot of systems are great. I've tried many. Each have upsides and pitfalls. Often the largest is long-term sustainability.
To start lifting, you first need to get into the habit. So train every day at home, alternating a pushup day, pullup/inverted row day, Bulgarian split squat day for example. You can do this at home. Even just doing upper body only and running/cycling the other days, can get you into the habit of training. Even just doing pushups every day. And you will boost your general strength too, because it doesn't matter what you do as a complete beginner. You just need to train the main muscle groups to put on some size and strength. That's how I started and I have always seen training as a part of my life ever since.
Full body 3x a week is solid especially with the tiger system but I’d say it’s easier to say focus on upper strenght while maintain lower then switch after a meso …makes concurrent a lot easier if you need to run and do other activities for say a tactical athlete … kind of rough sometimes haha
1 year ago i was a PPLcel. Now ive seen the FB light and i aint going anywhere for the moment. Btw if you want a wide strenght base and you are not peaking for a specific sport you can combine FB higb frequency with 1 lift per day no problem. Accessories on the rest of the days such as lunges, extensions BSS for quads for example and then you have a day where you squat. The same for pulls and pushes and ohp. To avoid overreaching and connective tissue fatigue, build deloads/detraining phases into the program. As part of the program. I personally cease all training (no gym) for about a week to 12 days every 5-6 weeks or so and because the progression during these working weeks seems to be in general faster than any other split (at least for me, anecdotally) you dont really lose much, if anything when you come back. And since you are now completely rested from accumulated fatigue and connective tissuee wear catches back up to muscle and strenght levels, you can push the envelope hard again for another 5-6 weeks meso. Yes you overreach but in my eyes this is worth it and its sort of by design. Id rather have spurts of growth follow by rest than being continuously to the gym with no break because resting also resets you psychologically to go hard at it again.
I have been doing fbw since day 1 and people was calling me crazy😂. Bro split, ppl never feel right to me, too much volume in a session plus sore muscles, joints
Hi Bromley, have you checked r/weightroom lately? Half the people there are running Bullmastiff right now, would probably be a nice ego boost to check the daily. I will be joining the "jacked puppy" crew soon.
I do PPL but split 2 days on one day off (push / pull / rest. Legs / push / rest. Pull / legs / rest. Etc) . I also have it split with the first cycle being a more powerlifting / heavy focus and the second cycle through more of a bodybuilding focus.
I get so confused with sets and reps and how much to do. Been doing Upper/Lower because I love the pump especially upper body. I do 2 excersise for Chest and Back and 1 for shoulders bis and tris. Twice per week. Then legs, squat, ext, leg curl and 2nd day…Deadloft, leg press and extension.
Do your patreon subscribers still receive the base and peak strength books? Thinking about signing up for your patreon or buying your books, cant do both rn.
Learning comes by repetition so please don’t worry about repeating things you have covered before. Im sure you also have evolved on some things too since last time or you could put a different emphasis on certain things than you did before
What if, instead of upper/lower or PPL, you run just a push/pull but include the pushing and pulling motions of legs into each? Like, just a straight-up push/pull every other day, and 20 minutes of cardio every day, or 40 minutes at the end of every lift sesh, or 40 minutes every alternating day from lifting. So Push, Cardio, Pull, Cardio, Push, Cardio, Pull, Cardio etc. Or Push+Cardio, rest, Pull+Cardio, rest, etc.
bro split focuses on each muscle group once a week, but it trains many times a week every muscle group, that's why it works so weel for muscle building (except for legs that need to have 2 dedicated days, when i did bro split, I trained legs once a week and could tell they didnt get stimulus as the rest)
currently following grey skull for the main lifts twice a week and a bodybuilding day in-between to allow for random days, I do shift work so it works when you have to train the day after.
What said around 5:30 is exactly what I just experienced. I actually was struggling with my deadlift at 88% two weeks ago. When I had just repped it for 4 the week before. I just wasn’t recovering enough because I was so used to just adding weight or reps every 2 weeks.
I had a friend warn me early on that I was doing too much volume with my deadlifts and that this would likely occur. I declared the next week a deload and didn't even deadlift during it and when I resumed after that week was able to proceed again.
I would love a video talking about rep schemes. Recently I've seen a lot of stuff saying that as long as you are hitting the right RPE and # of sets in a week, reps almost don't matter. Obviously for powerlifting they generally taper from "high" reps (6-8) down to triples, doubles and singles right before a meet. But for other sports and training styles, what do we program? When to do high reps, when to do low reps, and how to fluctuate between them.
So with my upper lower split, I hit all my upper body parts with 2 excersises each, I do drop sets for the time convenience,it's working for me well, u can hit all upper body parts on this split.
It would not be easy. I was doing Muay Thai last summer about 3-4 days a week and trying to run a 4x/week ULUL split and really got beaten down by it. If you want to do martial arts 5x/week you probably should do 2-3 days max lifting and really just focus on the main lifts and 1 variation for each. I wouldn't do any fluff work either. Honestly The Minimalist program from Base Strength is a good template to start from for someone in your position.
My current focus is decreasing my 5k time. What kind of split/plan/program do you suggest that will help maintain my strength but also help my running? (If there is any)
What about Arnold Split? I have been doing that from 4 months and the rest time is cut in half by doing alternate exercise and I can leave the gym in an hour while still hitting every body part twice weekly.
I like greySkull It does not blast my body each workout making it harder to recover for the next workout 💪. I can also focus on pushing to the max on each exercise without one effecting my energy levels for the next exercise as it's only 3 exercises per workout. GreySkull with arms
It's fascinating how younger people tell older people how much training they need, a great man once said theirs them that know and them that think they know. If your 70 two to three workouts per week divided and abbreviated works best.its about recovery and old people recover slower.
Thank you for your work sir!Any suggestions on what would be the best split for a 65 year old?Most if not all the information for my age is geared to lighter weight fitness,I want to gain muscle and strength(6" 170 lbs).I've been training at a gym for the past 7 months and really enjoy it(I should have started when I was younger)Thank you sir!
Yes, im actually doing a video that addresses this right now. Older lifters generally benefit from more frequency with heavier weight than younger lifters. Its actually the opposite of the 'take it easy" approach most would think. Andy Baker has some good stuff on training for people in your age bracket
I actually find it really easy to overtrain with something like a bro spit simply because you're having to work out many days in a row. Full body can be daunting but you're really only having to commit to performing two really intense workouts, the other days should be lighter and easy to recover from.
Yea when i did a couple full body days everything was rushed also workouts would be very long doing that. Ive always focused on bench and spend about 30-40 mins on flat bench alone so full body is impossible for me. Depends how much time you have but ive just always done chest/tri/shoulder back/bi/abs and legs but we all respond differently to different splits. And i alternate powerlifting and bodybuildings which I recommend for everyone since you can focus on strength and also getting a good pump. Heavy compound lifts first and then isolated movements after to failure has worked for me
I think they both work, but it depends on what your body is adapted to doing. Also, they both have limitations. If you like bro splits, you have to be careful not to go too heavy on your main compounds or you’ll fry your nervous system quickly.
@@jakk221 and if you don't care about having elite strength? Not everyone here is trying to go pro, most are just competing with their past self and not wanting to be frail and helpless in old age.
If only we had a 8-day week PPL would be easier to program for higher frequency. I personally can get gym time any day of the week, so currently I do Legs, Push, Pull, Rest through a 4 day rotation, doing 1 big lift each day (squats, bench, DL). It's allowing each muscle group nearly twice a week without being overly fatiguing in any one area.
I say you shouldn't start with the training split. You should start by looking at your daily schedule, how many days you want to train, how many days you need to train in order to make progress, how much frequency of your lifts/muscle groups that you need, and how your fatigue patterns look for each lift/muscle group. The split will create itself at that point.
100% agree best starting point is how manny days you have available to train
Dont let yourself be put in boxes by programs
If you need more back you can train more back if you need more squat squat more…
Do what you need not what some programs say
Yes, this is especially important for recreational lifters who train for health and fitness. They shouldn't make training a burden on themselves that messes up with other aspects of life.
exactly after some months of training and not being consistent because of how many days i could go, i decided to go with a upper/lower split. just 4 days a week and if i can go another day i can go and do an extra session. like this i became much more consistent.
Most weeks i can only go twice so its full body for me
I don't know why I'm addicted to watching videos on splits. I do an upper lower 4 times a week, don't plan on changing anytime soon but yet I devour these videos lol.
Same here, hail Caesar!
Me too 😂😂
i personally am a U/U/U/L/L but same
Same here, but they're starting to pull me to PPL. I just don't want to lift 6 days a week or run a split that doesn't match the week.
The lifter in me gives this a like, the psychologist in me says we seek out validation 😂
One thing I will point out regarding your take on Push/Pull/Lower: I think a lot of guys who run it do the three days and then take one or two days off and repeat it. So we’re not looking at things through a week-day basis. You looked at it more through the lends of 3 days on and four days off.
I think full-body is still way underrated. I always end up coming back to it and have gotten all of the best gains out of it even though it's usually pinned as a "beginner" split. I'm definitely not the strongest in the world but I've gotten to around a 260 bench, 380 squat (high bar), and 450 or so deadlift while staying relatively lean. I run a full body 3-days a week, and I usually dedicate one other day to conditioning/cardio. I already do light cardio basically every day due to biking/walking to work or to get groceries and stuff.
I rarely do all 3 big lifts per workout, I almost always do 2 and a few accessories, one upper body and one lower body. It usually ends up being bench ~3 times a week, but with very different intensities, squatting 2 times, and deadlift once.
I don't miss days often since I'm very motivated to lift/workout, but It also is the easiest in my opinion to deal with in terms of missing a day due to responsibilities/other needs. I don't feel like I just sacrificed one area of my body and need to make up for it in a weird way. I can just come in at the next day I'm free and do a full body workout and all is good with the world.
Dude who are you? I feel like you're my gym twin. I also feel the same about full body splits and keep coming back to them despite people shitting on them being for beginners. I program very similarly, mostly with 2 big lifts per day (squats and bench) and then some type of row or pullup and accessory work. I always try not to have more than 6 exercises per session, any more than that and it seem to turn into fluff. I also throw in an extra cardio/accessory day where I'll do calves/abs/bodyweight training and some conditioning. I superset pretty much everything as it's time efficient and builds work capacity like crazy.
The main reason I always come back to full body is because I get great recovery and seem to progress better. Even when programming upper/lower routines I alway seem to have days where my strength/energy just isn't there. At first it might seem like you're sacrificing some movements using a full body template but because you're spreading things out over 3-4 days I actually don't find that to be an issue. Sure, you have to prioritize certain lifts over others, otherwise your middle day would become too difficult, but that's normal even with other splits. Your body only has so much recovery capacity, at least full body gives you a full 3-4 days of rest each week, unlike other splits.
The biggest complaint people have with full body is that the sessions are too difficult and the workouts are too long but once you build your work capacity and understand that your movements per session have to be limited you should be good to go. My basic template looks like this:
Monday-Heavy
DB flat bench or incline (rotate each week)
Pulldown
Pause squat
Seated behind the neck press
Curl/extension
Wednesday-Medium (this day is super flexible and seems to change the most)
SLDL
BW Pull-ups
BW Dips
Facepulls/Hypers or Leg curl
Friday-Heavy
Squat
Bench or Incline (rotate each week)
Row-your choice
Curl/extension
Leg accessory
Saturday-Light
Calves/Abs/Conditioning
@@Soccasteve Lol, we definitely have a similar split, I also limit myself to ~6 exercises per workout. I usually superset everything after the main movement of the day as well for work capacity and to save time since I usually do my workouts in the middle of the work day. I usually can get through them in a bit over an hour. My Saturday day/conditioning is usually just me running over to one of the outdoor calisthenics areas in my neighborhood and doing gpp style training like a circuit of pull-ups, pushups, inverted rows, etc.
Even though I'm not "old" I'm a couple months from being 30 and can definitely feel that I need to prioritize proper rest more than I could back in college years, which is partly why a Full-Body works so well for me. I'm fluid in that if I don't feel completely rested I am comfortable just taking an additional day off and picking up things the next day, not necessarily tied to a M/W/F type thing. This only happens once in a blue moon, but at least once in a while I just have to skip a day due to other responsibilities and full-body makes this super flexible from a mental standpoint imo.
@@Jcampz01 Exactly, skipping one day is no big deal when you have the opportunity to hit body parts 3 times a week. Super flexible.
Haha yeah I'm 31 and I've always had pretty average to slightly below average recovery and always needed to make sure I wasn't in the gym too much. 3-4 days has always been the sweet spot for me. I actually progress pretty well with upper/lower splits every other day except I hate having a rotating schedule. Also I tend to neglect conditioning and some smaller muscle groups when I do upper/lower splits. Another pro for full body.
Brothers!! A and B full body splits. I love it!
This is almost exactly how I workout. I love it
I switched from one lift per day to full body, and I'm never going back. The freshness factor Bromley talks about at 33:00 cannot be overstated. I'm able to do so much more quality work over a week when I'm doing a little of everything every day.
It is a lot better for strength to work close to your max frequently instead of training once or twice a week with your performance going all the way down during the workout.
There's a ton of videos on choosing the right split, but this is the best I've seen so far. Lots of good points.
I kinda do mix of few things
Deadlifts+ other pull movements-mon
Bench+ other push movements-tue
Squat+other leg movemets-wed
OHP+mix of push and pull ( big emphasis biceps and triceps)-thu
Front or zercher squat + legs again-fri
Sat and sun rest
Always makes my day to see a new one of your videos drop.
My 6-day split and the compounds they start with is:
1. Chest/Triceps (Flat Bench)
2. Back/Biceps (Deadlifts)
3. Legs/Shoulders (Squats)
4. Abs/Forearms (no compounds)
5. Upper Chest/Tris (Incline Bench)
6. Shoulders/Biceps (OHP)
7. REST
Been working great for both strength and size gains, Abs/Forearms day in the middle allows recovery from the big 3 days without taking a full rest day and day 5+6 give me a lot of variety across the week for the torso (day 1's triceps is all cable work, wheras day 5's is all free weights). I feel like everything is spaced out pretty well with the only downside being only hitting legs and back once a week but larger muscle groups want longer to recover anyway. I gladly trade away some hamstring development for how popping my abs are
I do a leg/push/pull/lower/upper....it's mixing the two....and it works for me.
I used to be Push/leg/pull believer but after doing full body for about a year now. It’s been so much better! At least to size building and not getting injured.
Thanks for the video. I’ve done variations of all these splits without realizing it and am still tweaking. Going to watch it a few more times to get a better idea of how I want to approach my programming
This is some great content! Your videos have inspired me to revamp my training and start powerlifting again. Thanks!
I have found that personally, a 4 day gentlemen split has given me enough days in the gym to be satisfied, but also enough rest to not be burnt out and give it my full effort each session.
@N. Hunt That can vary greatly. However my personal program is pretty similar to the guts program he has on his channel so you can go see it for yourself :)
@N. Hunt the starting point is an upper/lower, from there he adds whatever muscle needs more frequency, like calves on upper, back every day, arms on lower...
Great overview. Just to add, you could easily transform 5/3/1 into a 2 upper / 2 lower program by swapping out the main lift for its sister lift for the secondary volume work. Wendler mentions this variation when describing the Boring But Big template. So e.g. you would pair deadlift/squat on lower days and bench/overhead press on upper days, switching the emphasis between strength and reps for each. It works out the exact same volume, just a different way to organise it.
Can’t wait for more books from you Mr Bromley. I have your Base Strength and it’s a damn good book!
i personally do the "my gym only has 2 benches and squat racks so i do whatever's available" split :(
The worst!!
These videos make me happy. God bless you señor.
I like your very sensible approach to training. Well done
Sunday: legs-strength
Monday: rotational work&technique
Tuesday: torso; vertical-strength
Wednesday: legs-power
Thursday: rotational work&technique
Friday: torso; horizontal-power
During better weather, before rotational work, I will go for a light jog as recovery work and sometimes the technique work is also conditioning
So, I do what I always called "Full Body", but I would never think to do all 3 lifts on the same day. I usually did Squat-Pullups one day, then Deadlift-OHP the next. 4 days a week. With slightly different accessories every day. I guess it's definitely complex, but it let me hit everything pretty easily.
I was thinking of doing something similar, although it might be a bit more in the direction of push/pull: weighted dips and back squats one day, deadlifts and weighted pullups the other day, training 4 times a week. To that I'll add some core work and some sport specific work (bouldering).
I might switch up the exercises every 12 weeks or so (e.g. substitute dips for weighted ring pushups or OHP's, back squats for front squats or single leg squats, deadlifts for RDL's, Jefferson deadlifts, or kettlebell swings, pullups for chinups, wide pullups, etc.). Still wondering if I could get enough volume in with this though, as I'm used to training both horizontal and vertical push and pull exercises.
@@kewner8556 you can still do horizontal pushes/pulls as accessories. But also Deadlifts/weighted pullups on the same day ended up not working for me, cuz my grip would be f--ked. Unless you're okay using straps for one or the other.
Full body is so underrated and highly flexible. Plus recovery is pretty much a non issue assuming you're doing a normal 3 days a week setup. I find I like 2 heavy movements and no more than 6 total movements each session, so 2 big movements like squats and bench and the rest is back work and other accessory work.
yeah i think people think "full body" means doing everything on every day, but i use a loose definition of full body: if it has at least one upper body exercise and at least one lower body exercise, it's a full body workout. the emphasis can change, one day might be bench, pull-ups, rows, overhead press, curls, and squats, the next day might be RDLs, lunges, leg press, back extensions, facepulls, and dips. you can do full body 4x a week and still only do an exercise once a week (especially if you have a wide exercise selection).
I do similar, one day will have for example bench press and deadlift and the other will have overhead press and squat. I never understood why some people have trouble comprehending this and keep reading "full body" as doing all 4 in a single day.
Rather than thinking of Frequency as a number of muscle groups you can train Monday - Sunday ... think of it more in time frames
Example PPL
Day 1 - push
Day 2 - legs
Day 3 - rest
Day 4 - pull
Day 5 - push ( you've trained the muscle twice within 7 days )
Day 6 - rest
Day 7 - legs ( you've trained th muscle twice within 7 days )
And keep going
Applying critical thinking and considering possible logical fallacies in our conclusions of what works and what doesn't - wow. Great vid, boss.
I do a lot of sports. Always have. And different ones all the time, like water polo, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, swimming, etc. So I have been using custom splits a lot. For instance my triceps, back and legs are not to be touched before a water polo session. Shoulders are off limits before a wrestling session, etc. So I'd have awkwards splits like: water polo, pull, boxing, legs, shoulders, swimming, chest.
This made me analyze how I’ve been working out.
I work two jobs so get three days, sometimes 4 to train.
I basically workout like legs/push/pull.
Tuesday hypertrophy for legs/glutes
Thursday OHP, rows and core stuff
Saturday heavy deadlifts w cleans and snatches (oly stuff isn’t heavy as I’m not focusing on those and still learning technique)
If I get a 4th day it’s usually gonna be some fluff hypertrophy for my arms and some active recovery stuff for legs.
This allows me to still get a broad base since my sleep and recovery is compromised some bc of my two jobs.
I think a lot of people miss a big advantage og full body, perhaps because their life is schedule around workouts (instead of vise versa).
FLEXIBILITY.
If my kid gets sick, I need to travel on short notice, work is though, other life stuff…
I am not missing any muscle groups. I dont have to skip leg day or back day. This really puts my mind at ease. And I tend to come back stronger 4 days later.
This. I got tired of being told that I needed to somehow change my work and life schedule to fit a split instead of customizing a split to fit into my existing schedule and around obligations.
Agreed
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Link to slides appears to broken, or at least not working for me
@@brockmeade4450 Forgot to update this one. Try it now!
I kinda do a mix, I do a 4-day split:
1: Anterior Focus (Front Squat, OHP, Bench variation etc)
2: Posterior Focus (DL and all sorts of Pull)
3: Upper
4: Lower
I feel like this keeps me from getting bored and mixes things up a little.
It's also important that the program be one that you can stick to and lack of boredom really helps.
Most of my lifting life I’ve done full body with a focus on compounds. Last year I felt that my legs were lagging a bit and wanted to add isolations so I switched to upper/lower.
Going to come back for a personalized program soon because the last one put on approximately 7-10lb mostly on the upper body of an advanced bench guy in about 10 months! Until I get the money, I'm going to try the power version of split 5 with some light BB thrown in to round things out.
I really love a Push Pull Lower A and a Push Pull Lower B approach. I have made the lions share of my strength gains from that. I will say that although people way stronger than me have had success deadlifting and squatting in the same workout; I will never understand how that is optimal
Squat (Hang Clean/Front/Back), Back (Pull Ups/Rows/Rear Delt), Press (Overhead/Lamdmine/Single arm press), Deadlift (Snatch/Clean/Standard/RDL), Neck/Traps.
Best split video ever made , 👍🏻 , good job 💪🏻
I prefer bro splits. It’s easier for me to organize and ensure I’m not being lazy on small stuff like rear delts. Plus, my body has less aches and pains this way. I think it has to do with preventing lagging muscle groups.
I've had to switch to a bro split in my 30s,why,I just wasn't recovering from 2-3 times a week full body,plus now I'm able to incorporate more volume
@@zezeti2246I've found exactly the same thing. Now at 36 I focus on higher volume and I use splits. Strangley enough when I focus on volume the strength naturally comes. With full bodies you have to rly hit those few sets with good intensity and at times it just beats you up.
I’ve been doing a 2Upper 2 lower for a bit now. I like keeping presses on one day, arms on the other day and sprinkle back everywhere lol
Awesome thank you for covering these various approaches.
I do a 5 day PPL with 2 alternate weeks
Monday - legs,
Tuesday - push
Wednesday - pull
Thursday - legs
Friday - push
Monday - legs,
Tuesday - pull
Wednesday - push
Thursday - legs
Friday - pull
27:50 sent me cause you didn't get the inflection right the first time lol
I run a 6 day PPL but it’s horizontal push, horizontal pull, quad dominant, vertical push, vertical pull, ham dominant or some mix of that.
Putting quad and back together is insane dude.
I do Push.Pull, off, Pull.Push, off, then Legs. On my Push.Pull day i do 6 sets of pushing movements followed by 4 sets of pulling movements & then 3 sets of rear delt work & 4 sets of bicep curls or 4 sets of neck work (isolation movements for my least impressive body parts). Pull.Push day, I do 6 sets of pulling movements followed by 4 sets of pushing movements then 4 sets of biceps curls & 3 sets of rear delt flyes.
Movement Selection:
Parallel Bar Dip
Flat Bench Barbell Press
Bentover Barbell Row
Lat Pulldown
Dumbbell Hammer Curl (alternating or sychronised)
Supinated Dumbbell Curl
Hex Bar:
Deadlift & Romanian Deadlift
Split Squat or Reverse Lunge
Step Up/Goblet Squat
One Leg Heel Raise
Periodically:
One Arm Dumbbell Row
Push Up (on parallette bars)
Horizontal Pull Up
Lateral Raises
Here's mine (it's kind of a push/pull/leg split):
Mon - Heavy Push
Tues - Hypertrophy Legs
Wed - Heavy Pull
Thur - Rest
Fri - Heavy Legs, Hyper Pull, Hyper Push
(Fit in accessories wherever)
I've been doing this split and it has increased my strength rapidly (455 bench, 600 squat, >700 dead). I've put friends through it and it also increased their strength rapidly. I think it provides the perfect amount of rest while using high-weight low reps and still getting good volume in. I do take a max week about every 12 weeks and then a "deload" week after. Although it's more of a massive volume week with lower percentages than anything.
5 day, PUSH PULL LEGS UPPER LOWER works the best for me
Upper lower pull push legs 🫶🏼
Would this be good for optimizing strength on the Big 3???
@@zaydgaf7547 yeah it’s great
Heck yeah! 🔥
You only have one day in between the leg days here
I wonder what you think about hybrid form of PPL/UL? You work out 5 days a week and you still hit every muscle group twice a week. It looks like this
Monday- Pull heavy
Tuesday- push heavy
Wednesday- legs heavy
Rest
Friday-upper antagonist superset light
Saturday- lower/legs light
Rest
I did this sort of combination for quite some time. It definitely works if you have the ability to hit 5 days a week especially as you mentioned with a combination of upper lower and ppl.
@@ianchambers37 damn this was last year.. 😂 i stop doing this since i got busy but it does work if you have time. My current routine is a regular upper lower split 4 days a week
I'm currently running a gentlemen's split (as described by Natural Hypertrophy), something like U/L but I'll do upper back, neck and forearms on a lower day, after my squats and RDLs, for example, to get high frequency on the areas that can handle it. Finding a lot of success with it in terms of growth and recovery.
35:27 good point on the use of pre-workout and intra-workout on whole body days. I tend to drink 1/2 to 2/3 of my pre twenty minutes before the session and then sip the remainder after warmup so that a second wind comes in time for the later half.
For people intersted in PPL, it may be worth considering Mountain Dog's variant he mentioned in one of his YT videos:
Push/Pull/Rest/Legs/Rest repeat
Thanks for all the great info!
I found the same issue with the 2 upper and 2 lower split and also found that adding a 3rd upper day for a lighter intensity pressing variation + targeting weaknesses to be a good solution
I like to hybridize. sometimes it looks very PPL, but I'm on a 4 day split so it's more push pull legs push, bro splits are always fun for chest/tricep days when you're feeling a little meh, most of my stuff is upper/lower though, lot of midline separation (powerlifter currently doing some hypertrophy)
Each split has it's upsides and downsides, and if you're like me and allergic to pure regimen, getting elements of all the traditional splits can be helpful. I've done push-pull days when my deadlift is suffering, I've done bro splits while working with an injury or weak point in a certain lift, but I mostly like upper/lower with a little full body mixed in
For overall strength development full body as many days per week as one can manage is best.
I can see how powerlifting competition lifting could benefit from something else to maximize recovery and really dial in into the main lifts for specificity.
I hadn't thought of it that way but as you well brought out full body training is both most complex for experienced lifters and most useful to beginners.
Hey Bromley, I know this is an old video by this point, so you may not even see this, but wanted your take: Is it better to do your assistance work on the same day as your main lift or move it to a second day to get it a little better set quality?
I started out my lifting in a 3 day PPL and realized that I was recovering way before my next session; I'm a former endurance athlete and novice lifter. I swapped over to 3 day Full body and liked it a lot better (ie 3 days of 3 sets of chest felt better than 9 sets of chest on 1 day). about a year and a half into lifting now, and I think I missed the boat on Strength progression so I wanted to try some time with a more Linear or Wave progression. However the idea of going back to Chest + Chest assistance on the same day feels like going backwards, and I'm very inclined to try and spread the work out to look a lot more like a full body workout. Thoughts?
Do you suffer from bad indigestion? Or did you eat just before this? It seems like it's bothering you quite a bit
I’ve liked a modified ppl. Upper push, upper pull, legs then full upper, quads/calves (lower push), hams/glues (lower pull). Some extra arms/delts can get added to the second lower body days, if desired.
Ppl always ends up feeling like too much upper work and/or long, brutal leg days in order to get enough lower body work
Which is the best for women for strength? Upper lower 6x or push pull legs 6x a week?
my prefere split is push/push/push
Based
The only time you pull is to get the bar back into position to push again.
@@orkleth nah i do pushpull/pushpull/pushpull
Already know this will be good
Full body is undefeated for me. I've consistently made the best progress on all of my lifts utilizing it, and I actually get to have a life away from the gym. As long as volume and intensity are equated, it doesn't really matter if you're doing a bro split or a 6x per week high frequency program. Having A weeks and B weeks is really good if you're stuck in between splits too.
Love full body, definitely my go to. So flexible and recovery is always good. Builds the work capacity like crazy.
What are your numbers
I do total body 1 month, bro split 1 month, total body 1 month then a 3 week max strength cycle then a push pull and repeat that. works good for hypertrophy and strength makes it simple to program. 4 day split 4 on 1 off sometimes 2
Wow. Def need this. Thanks.
As natty I'd say muscles in anabolic state as often as possible is better for natural trainers.
Also your bodyweight is relevant for programmin as joint, ligaments and bones aren't that much stronger between 80kg and 100kg guy. However the weights can be. Thus volume of lighter guy isn't always great for big guy as wear and tear is less. Thus more Bb building work might be better driver for lifts
Also different people are different on volume and intensity recovery spectrum. So some people strive on volume but get offed by intensity or vice versa. Most of us fall somewhere in between
Psychology: is often forgotten part. Just doing work is different than trying to do things meaningfully. Often intention of driving lift up and really focusing on the support lifts is what drives the development. Vs doing some extra work. Also just going to different style let's you to recover possibly intensity. As I find intramuscular recovery quicker then cns recovery.
I think as natural, driving lifts up often breaks down to managing week to week exhaustion. And often people forget that once the growth stimulus is achieved. You're no longer developing lifts but ur energy system and taxing ur recovery. Often question comes down to: am I making meaningful progress or am I just grinding myself down.
And sure often it seems ur driving ur lifts up, while ur actually just obtaining just a peak. Not actually increasing ur baseline. And if the peak ends up with long recovery and reduced lifts for long time. And fall back down the same baseline. Have you really improved lifts? However if your constant baseline strength has improved and it stays after 3 months you've gotten stronger baseline. This in my opinion is most important for long term sustainability.
I believe firmly that lot of systems are great. I've tried many. Each have upsides and pitfalls. Often the largest is long-term sustainability.
To start lifting, you first need to get into the habit. So train every day at home, alternating a pushup day, pullup/inverted row day, Bulgarian split squat day for example. You can do this at home.
Even just doing upper body only and running/cycling the other days, can get you into the habit of training. Even just doing pushups every day. And you will boost your general strength too, because it doesn't matter what you do as a complete beginner. You just need to train the main muscle groups to put on some size and strength.
That's how I started and I have always seen training as a part of my life ever since.
Man I just sent you a email about buying a program and I'm so hype about it lol
Woot woot 💪🙌 your the man
Full body 3x a week is solid especially with the tiger system but I’d say it’s easier to say focus on upper strenght while maintain lower then switch after a meso …makes concurrent a lot easier if you need to run and do other activities for say a tactical athlete … kind of rough sometimes haha
1 year ago i was a PPLcel. Now ive seen the FB light and i aint going anywhere for the moment.
Btw if you want a wide strenght base and you are not peaking for a specific sport you can combine FB higb frequency with 1 lift per day no problem. Accessories on the rest of the days such as lunges, extensions BSS for quads for example and then you have a day where you squat. The same for pulls and pushes and ohp.
To avoid overreaching and connective tissue fatigue, build deloads/detraining phases into the program. As part of the program. I personally cease all training (no gym) for about a week to 12 days every 5-6 weeks or so and because the progression during these working weeks seems to be in general faster than any other split (at least for me, anecdotally) you dont really lose much, if anything when you come back. And since you are now completely rested from accumulated fatigue and connective tissuee wear catches back up to muscle and strenght levels, you can push the envelope hard again for another 5-6 weeks meso. Yes you overreach but in my eyes this is worth it and its sort of by design. Id rather have spurts of growth follow by rest than being continuously to the gym with no break because resting also resets you psychologically to go hard at it again.
I have been doing fbw since day 1 and people was calling me crazy😂. Bro split, ppl never feel right to me, too much volume in a session plus sore muscles, joints
@@Han-nk3io amen
Hi Bromley, have you checked r/weightroom lately? Half the people there are running Bullmastiff right now, would probably be a nice ego boost to check the daily. I will be joining the "jacked puppy" crew soon.
Oh good, Im always in need of an ego boost! I had seen a handful of reviews months back but haven't checked in recently. Ill drop in!
My squat is ass, and I really just don't feel like I get into a groove of consistent good reps below 2 times per week, but 3 is my sweet spot.
I have perfect squat form in a matter of 6 months of training. Absolutely perfect. What is ass about your squat? Depth or form in general?
I do PPL but split 2 days on one day off (push / pull / rest. Legs / push / rest. Pull / legs / rest. Etc) . I also have it split with the first cycle being a more powerlifting / heavy focus and the second cycle through more of a bodybuilding focus.
I get so confused with sets and reps and how much to do. Been doing Upper/Lower because I love the pump especially upper body. I do 2 excersise for Chest and Back and 1 for shoulders bis and tris. Twice per week. Then legs, squat, ext, leg curl and 2nd day…Deadloft, leg press and extension.
Do your patreon subscribers still receive the base and peak strength books? Thinking about signing up for your patreon or buying your books, cant do both rn.
I do a classic bro split. 20 sets per day and instead of arm day I do a calisthenics/arm hybrid day.
Learning comes by repetition so please don’t worry about repeating things you have covered before.
Im sure you also have evolved on some things too since last time or you could put a different emphasis on certain things than you did before
What if, instead of upper/lower or PPL, you run just a push/pull but include the pushing and pulling motions of legs into each? Like, just a straight-up push/pull every other day, and 20 minutes of cardio every day, or 40 minutes at the end of every lift sesh, or 40 minutes every alternating day from lifting. So Push, Cardio, Pull, Cardio, Push, Cardio, Pull, Cardio etc. Or Push+Cardio, rest, Pull+Cardio, rest, etc.
bro split focuses on each muscle group once a week, but it trains many times a week every muscle group, that's why it works so weel for muscle building
(except for legs that need to have 2 dedicated days, when i did bro split, I trained legs once a week and could tell they didnt get stimulus as the rest)
currently following grey skull for the main lifts twice a week and a bodybuilding day in-between to allow for random days, I do shift work so it works when you have to train the day after.
I run a push pull squat. But do benefit from an added upperbody push/pull day on a 4th day.
Ive started doing PPL split over four days, with front legs one day and rear legs another. So it ends up being PLPL. 6-7 days a week.
What said around 5:30 is exactly what I just experienced. I actually was struggling with my deadlift at 88% two weeks ago. When I had just repped it for 4 the week before. I just wasn’t recovering enough because I was so used to just adding weight or reps every 2 weeks.
I had a friend warn me early on that I was doing too much volume with my deadlifts and that this would likely occur. I declared the next week a deload and didn't even deadlift during it and when I resumed after that week was able to proceed again.
Ive been doing nothing but push, pull, legs for the entirety of my training. I want to change to a split that has an arm and shoulder specific day
This forces 2 upper body muscle into 2 days….I was looking at you like you were hesitant to give ground breaking information lol
Excellent thanks ❤😮😊
Still should do one for the Hepburn method for us :) lol
Consistently get a lot of requests for that. Its on the list!
@@AlexanderBromley
Woot woot 💪🙌
You're blocking some of the images!
With PPL you can never go wrong
I would love a video talking about rep schemes. Recently I've seen a lot of stuff saying that as long as you are hitting the right RPE and # of sets in a week, reps almost don't matter. Obviously for powerlifting they generally taper from "high" reps (6-8) down to triples, doubles and singles right before a meet. But for other sports and training styles, what do we program? When to do high reps, when to do low reps, and how to fluctuate between them.
So with my upper lower split, I hit all my upper body parts with 2 excersises each, I do drop sets for the time convenience,it's working for me well, u can hit all upper body parts on this split.
Leg pull/ push upper push/pull
Currently trying to implement your "forever" program for deadlift. I'll let you know.
What split would you suggest for those who cross train high intensity sports such as grappling whose goals are to still add strength and/or size?
Bromley, do you believe an ULUL split would work while training MMA 5 days a week or would that be too much work to recover from?
It would not be easy. I was doing Muay Thai last summer about 3-4 days a week and trying to run a 4x/week ULUL split and really got beaten down by it. If you want to do martial arts 5x/week you probably should do 2-3 days max lifting and really just focus on the main lifts and 1 variation for each. I wouldn't do any fluff work either. Honestly The Minimalist program from Base Strength is a good template to start from for someone in your position.
My current focus is decreasing my 5k time. What kind of split/plan/program do you suggest that will help maintain my strength but also help my running? (If there is any)
Go to Natasha Oceane, she has video about this. And a pretty solid training program.
What about Arnold Split?
I have been doing that from 4 months and the rest time is cut in half by doing alternate exercise and I can leave the gym in an hour while still hitting every body part twice weekly.
I like greySkull It does not blast my body each workout making it harder to recover for the next workout 💪. I can also focus on pushing to the max on each exercise without one effecting my energy levels for the next exercise as it's only 3 exercises per workout. GreySkull with arms
Thanks bro
On Tuesday you have CG pulld. What is that?
It's fascinating how younger people tell older people how much training they need, a great man once said theirs them that know and them that think they know. If your 70 two to three workouts per week divided and abbreviated works best.its about recovery and old people recover slower.
Thank you for your work sir!Any suggestions on what would be the best split for a 65 year old?Most if not all the information for my age is geared to lighter weight fitness,I want to gain muscle and strength(6" 170 lbs).I've been training at a gym for the past 7 months and really enjoy it(I should have started when I was younger)Thank you sir!
Yes, im actually doing a video that addresses this right now. Older lifters generally benefit from more frequency with heavier weight than younger lifters. Its actually the opposite of the 'take it easy" approach most would think. Andy Baker has some good stuff on training for people in your age bracket
@@AlexanderBromley Wow!Thank you sir!I'm looking forward to it!It's been difficult finding any credible advise and I know your advise will be!
I do ppl but with two rest days. My workout week is an 8 day cycle. My body doesn’t care that we define work weeks in 7 day increments
I actually find it really easy to overtrain with something like a bro spit simply because you're having to work out many days in a row. Full body can be daunting but you're really only having to commit to performing two really intense workouts, the other days should be lighter and easy to recover from.
You'll never have elite strength like that
Yea when i did a couple full body days everything was rushed also workouts would be very long doing that. Ive always focused on bench and spend about 30-40 mins on flat bench alone so full body is impossible for me. Depends how much time you have but ive just always done chest/tri/shoulder back/bi/abs and legs but we all respond differently to different splits. And i alternate powerlifting and bodybuildings which I recommend for everyone since you can focus on strength and also getting a good pump. Heavy compound lifts first and then isolated movements after to failure has worked for me
I think they both work, but it depends on what your body is adapted to doing. Also, they both have limitations. If you like bro splits, you have to be careful not to go too heavy on your main compounds or you’ll fry your nervous system quickly.
@@jakk221 and if you don't care about having elite strength? Not everyone here is trying to go pro, most are just competing with their past self and not wanting to be frail and helpless in old age.
@@zerrodefex he said a bro split causes overtraining. Hogwash pay attention to the argument bro
If only we had a 8-day week PPL would be easier to program for higher frequency.
I personally can get gym time any day of the week, so currently I do Legs, Push, Pull, Rest through a 4 day rotation, doing 1 big lift each day (squats, bench, DL). It's allowing each muscle group nearly twice a week without being overly fatiguing in any one area.