8:09 : Upsides of UpaLowa 9:54 : Downsides of UpaLowa 13:11 : Upsides of PLP 17:00 : Downsides of PLP 19:27 : Upsides of FullBody 23:41 : Downsides of FullBody 30:37 : How to choose Excellent review, i disagree with some points, but like the whole video
I love how you discuss the 'number of machines required' as a downside of some programs. Training out of a busy gym or a commercial gym this is an unfortunate reality. When trying to improve programming and read about giant sets etc it becomes a failure to implement great ideas because of practical limitations.
simply leave your towel or bag on the machine you need for the superset. If someone is using something you need, ask how many sets are left, then stand next to them until they are finished.
@@dessertstorm7476 You are the person I hate in the gym lol. Puts their stuff on 2 machines and one squat rack, passive aggressively stand there with their arms folded when I just got on a rack or bench and have 2 warm up sets, 5 working sets and one drop set to go😂 I have no problem working in with people as long as they aren't lifting much less or much more than me (unracking and reracking 2 45's per side between each set gets annoying and ends up taking longer than if they had just waited on me to finish). It's gotten to the point that I don't even bother hurrying up my sets for others and unless I know them I don't let them work in (besides cables, or dumbells).
For me, the most successful program I’ve ran has been the 5 day upper lower. Day 1- Upper Day 2- Lower Day 3- Upper Day 4-Lower Day 5- upper body weak points (Arms and shoulders)
This is the answer for everyone asking what to do about certain muscles not being hit. Simply add a 5th day and target what you think you’re missing. Doesn’t have to be a 2 hour session. Take 30 minutes and get it done!
Old dude here. Grew up on the bro splits. So it's a little different the way I go about it but alot of the same. 1. Legs 2. Chest and triceps 3. Back and biceps/ quads 4. Shoulders 5. Arms I do calves on legs day and do extra calves and abs on any day I have time. When I do quads on back day, sometimes I do them at night but I workout mostly in the mornings. So it kinda looks like a LPP Bro Split lol.
only hitting muscles once a week may not be optimal for muscle growth, but keeping my workout under 45 minutes makes me want to do it every single weekday no problem
@@tahutoa911 I had to change over to a super modified split with legs always on day 1. chest or back day two, day three chest or back, day 4 legs again, then minor muscle groups, but the key is each major muscle group such as legs, i finish the workout with a minor muslce group say 2 or 3 sets of 15-20 reps of delts, or biceps. I do an A, B, C week program with lots of variations of different types of lifts, but then make new program every 2-3 months. This personally has been the best optimal growth and recovery time, with keeping full body symmetry in mind. Pay attention to soreness and don't just train a specific muslce that day because your schedule says to, if its sore, trade for another group, better to be fully recovered before training hard. Do challengs sets, get a good workout partner that pushes you to hit 20 reps when you are going for 10. Get after it!! CHeers!!
Makes sense. I also have AdHD. I wondered why I found him so engaging. I guess this is what I look like emphatically explaining something I'm passionate about to folks who can't wait for me shut the heck up haha
Only issue is that you are hitting chest on Monday and Wednesday (for example), and having to wait 5 days to hit it again, while PPL has 3-4 days in-between all muscles groups.
I do the PPL split asynchronous, but I feel like doing it this way keeps me motivated and enjoying workouts. I go to the gym anywhere from 3-6 times a week depending on different things like whether muscles are healed, injury, or plainly whether I feel like driving to the gym that day. Strict programming may be better for gains, but it gets boring quick. There's also the matter of balancing gym time and life time.
@@MrKarolWlodarczykno one said async is bad for hypertrophy or strength gains, it's just inconsistent and doesn't fit the majority's schedule since life revolves around a 7 day week
Same, aaynchronous is fine for me. I like the PPL due to its variety. I always look forward to push day and this keeps me going. Full body was pretty boring and i just started adding more and more exercises so the session time was insane.
I do full body 3 x a week. Did full body 6 months, upper lower 3 months and PPL about 4 months and realized I was most consistent and looked forward to training when doing full body. The only time I switch it up is when I train with a friend because they always love some type of split and going "beast mode" on a bodypart and then not showing up to the gym for a month lolz I can't talk them out of it.
It really is near impossible to change those people's mindset. They refuse to believe a muscle can grow with anything less than 12 working sets per workout.
@@shubhamkeshari9950 I love doing full body. It takes a lot of ground work to set up, but I vary my rep ranges and vary my intensity all while doing a full body in roughly 75 mins every other day. This is by far has been my favorite way to train. One exercise per body part..three times a week...it's how the greats all worked out back in the day before the bro splits or drugs permeated our culture. It's a shame that most people ignore these principles.
How do you even do a full body workout 3x a week? My hams take like 5 days to heal, my pecs take like 2-3 days. Side delts nead atleast 2 days. I don't get how it can even be done to make sense and squeeze water out of a stone each session.
Legs/pull/push/lower/upper is by far my favorite, it allows to do enough arms work and some prehab exercices in the upper body parts without pushing workout time much further than 45-1h
So how would you divide the muscles that you workout during your split? Id love to know as I’m currently on a Push pull legs and it consumes quite a lot of my time unfortunately.
What I do is push pull, legs included. 4 days a week. Maybe a bit longer of a workout without more compound lifts but 2 less days while still hitting muscles 2x a week easily. Squats on push, hamstrings and lunges and such on pull.
I want to do upper/lower/upper/lower/upper/rest/rest, so I train during the week and chill during the weekend. Is this also what you follow? Or do you not recommend it?
This is great. I started doing pull push legs and an added arm day at the end to hit arms more often since they recover quickly and could use more frequency. Then rest repeat.
@@IAMJhonnyBravo yeah he does. I’ve been living it. Even though I find arm day to be boring. It allows me to focus on the bigger muscles on push and pull days and still get a tricep and bicep exercise squeezed in and also get more arm volume in on its own day
I tried the full body 5 times a week (different exercises for each group each time) and enjoyed it at first but my body couldn’t take the constant beating. Ended up with a sprained bicep tendon and got to the point where it hurt to hold a soda can. PPL works best for me at home and then full body when out of town without many options. 💪
@@Moccalocca100 it was a shortened version where you do all the same volume that you would have over a 5 day period. So if you’d do Squats, lunges, leg ext, leg curl, calf raise in a leg day, you’d do one of those each day. The idea was that you hit each exercise harder than if all in the same day, which worked, but your legs can’t really fully recover. It made it easier mentally to push harder too cause you knew that was your only leg exercise for the day. And you’d do the same with a movement from the other push and pull days.
I feel like the full body 5+ times a week thing is only good for very very experienced lifters with 10+ years of consistent experience. They can probably handle the volume but I know I would get injured trying it
@@lifeforgod07 anyone could probably do it, youd need to lower volume and intensity on the days tho. you could do 2 sets of chest per day for example, monday (heavy bench) tuesday (pec dec) wednesday (incline press) thursday (cable flys) friday (pushups) so you can mix a day of higher intensity, and other days with more isolation. it really isnt needed but you probably dont need to be super experienced to be able to do it.
auto-play landed me on this video while i was nodding off in front of my computer, came to and went wow this is the video on splits Ive been looking for! thank you! Also your tone of voice was very soothing yet engaging to wake up to.
Love watching these videos while doing cardio. Currently fullbody 3x & cardio 2-3x on off days. Beginner in a slight deficit recomping. Thank you for the great information.
I don’t understand what the big deal is with “asynchronous splits”. Seems like more of a GOOD thing than a bad thing to me. If you’re doing the EXACT same workout always on Monday or on Friday, one of those days is likely to be consistently better/worse for your overall strength and recovery… for example you might be better rested on Monday and you can try to beat your last-weeks numbers on multiple lifts… or maybe Monday is your bad day because you often get drunk on the weekend. By rotating which day you do which thing… you’ll have a more balanced routine
@@dessertstorm7476 Leviticus 19:19 “‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material." Imagine programming your split because we have a made up 7 day calendar. The only natural thing is listening to your body.
@@nickfanzothen lower your sets. If you’re dead by 3/4 of the way through, drop your sets from 4 to 3 and focus on those 3 sets getting a really good stretch and hitting failure on the final set
The soccer mom and grandpa jokes had me lol. Love your presentation style Mike. You keep stuff entertaining. Could listen to you speaking for hours on end. Please do a lecture series on presentation and public speaking, humour, etc,...
Something like this ALWAYS works for me and I keep coming back to it. Using a horizontal emphasis one upper body day, and a vertical emphasis the next keeps things nice and balanced and let's you start the second upper body session w/dips and chins which hammer the shit out of bis/tris as well as chest/back. Plus you hit arms and delts w/supersets at the end of both upper days and then a high rep arm and delt accessory day to finish the week. Plenty of volume and all very balanced. Exercises are just examples: D1) Upper: Bench, Row, OHP, Pulldown, Tris/Bis (superset), Side/Rear Delts (superset). D2) Lower: Squat, Leg Ext, RDL, Lying Leg Curl, Calves D3) Off D4) Upper: Dip, Chin, Incline DB Press, DB Row, Tris/Bis (superset), Side/Rear Delts (superset) D5) Lower: Leg Press, Back Ext, BSS or Lunge, Seated Leg Curl, Calves D6) Accessories: side/rear delts, bis/tris. Chest back isolation work is optional this day. D7) Off
been doing the upper and lower body split weekly. Feels the most sustainable and muscles have enough time to heal + feel rested and motivated to keep the routine! during rest days doing running/walking
also if you just adjust your intensity it will negate all the "cons" of the workout and recovery will be fast and easy. You can't destroy muscles on full body, Just stimulate. The goal is to simulate them just enough to grow. Not to tear them to shreds so you need 6 days of recovery.
Full body (Mon, Weds, Friday) works for me. Anything for than 3 days in the gym is too much of a commitment. Also if you know you can only do 2 sessions a week you can increase volume massively on full body and have 3 days rest before hitting it again. Best split for balancing gym and having a life.
I've been working out more seriously for 6 months, what I'm doing now is P>P>L>calisthenics(upper)>accessory/isolation(upper)>legs. It's been working pretty well so far (doing it like this for 2 months) and almost every day I'm looking forward to work out.
All I know is I only wanna b in the gym no more than 4 days a wk. Every two to two and a half month's ill take a wk off just to heal. I do upper, lower, just started so far I love it. Upper days I'm in and out in just over a HR which I want to b no more than that ever. Legs r super easy, in and out in like 20 mns. I've been doing the myo technique and that will help in time for hammering the muscles. I'm 45 have been lifting for yrs but stupidly been on a plato for a few yrs so I'm really excited to c how much more I can do especially now that I'm writing drown all that I do, I'm old school I like pen and paper. Also slower more targeted no garbage sets is super important. I feel and look great especially for my age so I want this bad and this sight is amazing! Love this channel! Much appreciated, I've learned a lot!
"Hypertrophy Specific Training" is the most scientifically backed up hypertrophy training I've seen. The studies found that it's not actually the max load that triggers hypertrophy but the progressive increase from about 70% of your rep-max. This changed everything for me. Now I always do 3 full body workout per week, been doing it for 10 years. In other words, you can get a lot more from a lot less and save yourself from injury. And since the progression is built-in there's no need to switch things up, super-set, multi-set etc.
YESSSS.... I've tried everything.... full body is the best and the fastest in terms of gainZ.... moreover.... full body also strangely increases your work capacity... as in the PPL split... however.... if you add more sets, overtraining simply kicks in.... and YESSS!!!.... Adding more reps close to failure in full body is like hypertrophy on Steroids!!!.... this really keeps progressive overload and gainZ!!!!👍
A.) Upper (Chest and Triceps focus). B.) Lower (Quads and Calves focus). C ) Upper (Back and Biceps focus). D.) Lower (Hams and Glutes focus). It's a hybrid of the Push/Pull/Legs and Upper/Lower splits. Upper Push/Lower Push/Upper Pull/ Lower Pull BUT all muscles are worked on the Upper day and Lower day, just volume dialed way down and the exercise on the back burner is carefully picked as to what is lagging and or possibly less intense depending on how recovered. Lots of flexibility, especially with the possibility of antagonistic super sets.
I found that it works really well to tweak a bit the standard Upper Lower. On Upper i do big upper body muscles like chest and back and shoulders, while on Lower I do legs and some isolation for the upper body (arms or lateral/rear raises). In this way you can sneak in more volume for those smaller muscles without making the Upper day like 2h long.
You can mix it: ppl, day off, upper lower, day off. 5 workout a week, 2 day of rest, and you hit everything twice (or just do legs once a week if you like to be able to walk normally ...)
@@janzehnder1787 is it okay if i do that like pp/rest/ppl/rest so i got 2 days to recover because i think 6 days is too much for me but i really like ppl programs😢.
@@janzehnder1787 only one day of legs per week though? I actually prefer prioritizing legs since I feel like a lot of amateur bodybuilders tend to look too heavy and don’t personally want that look.
@@1brunner699 yeah I know but my Legs are easier to grow than my Upperbody. But I Chaned it back regardless, been hitting legs 2x again since mid last year..
Combine them. I tried almost all available splits in my 6+ years of training experience, and I think Full Body - Push - Pull - Legs is the best split I've ever done.
Currently I use a push-pull-legs but only one leg day with two rests days from lifting. This is mainly due to the fact I swim, and run as well in addition to lifting. Which I will say, balancing running, swimming, and lifting definitely a challenge. So typically keep my lifting sessions between 30-40 minutes.
I love the upper lower split, but I noticed that my arms are really lagging, sobbing decided to do UPPER, LOWER, REST, UPPER, LOWER, ARMS(side delts,forearms, etc.) REST
Or ULPLP, or ULUL with the fifth day for faster healing groups or those you want to prioritize. Dr. Mike said upper-lower goes a long goes a long way, but I’d go a step further and say that with modifications like those it goes as far as 90% of us will ever care to go.
I landed on the U-L-U-L-U split a while ago, and I think it is my preferred approach. It allows me to: get more frequency/ volume in on upper body throughout the week; more recovery for lower body; train push and pull movements on the same day which feels better from an injury prevention perspective; and finally, each session is manageable between 60 - 90 minutes.
Thanks for this. I do a PPL with an asynchronous split. I feel like I can do more bicep and maybe back due to recovery, but like you said the structure.
All this information for free. Damn. This is fricken amazing. I only have 3 days a week, family, work etc etc. I’m doing upper / lower / full body. Or upper / lower / upper (week1) then lower / upper / lower (week 2). Bearing in mind the gyms (in the uk) have only recently opened back up. Thanks once again for all this info.
Masterpiece. This is simply the best and most comprehensive video on bodybuilding splits ever! Extremely valuable premium quality information that we’ve access to in the video for free. That’s just outstanding! I’m quite grateful for your presence and appreciative of all the content that you produce for us. I’m forever thankful and indebted to you for your help and advice! 💪🙏👍
I do 5 days with a bonus day: 1. Glutes/Legs 2. Core/Abs 3. Chest/ Shoulders 4. Arms 5. Back 6. Bonus day of one of the above based on recover 7. Rest I dont do these in the same order every week but I try to offset the ones that effect each other (ie not doing chest and arms back to back). If I have time I throw a couple sets on a fast recovering muscle at the end of my other workout ie preacher curls at the end of leg day.
WEEK A: LEGS w/ shoulders, BACK w/ biceps, CHEST w/ Triceps, LEGS only, ARMS/Shoulders WEEK B: LEGS w/lower back, Chest w/ Biceps, Back w/ Triceps, Legs w/shoulders, ARMS w/traps *** Continue to diversify but keep in mind the day of the week doesn't matter, change your schedule to train muscle groups that aren't sore. Better if you killed legs Monday, and your legs are still sore Thursday, to trade days and Legs Friday. Try pairing specific muscles that you are lacking in on days you aren't training that as your main muscle group.
Full Body every other day, Best gains I ever made. Still using full body after 20 years of training. Just adjust the intensity and try to stimulate and not destroy the muscle and you will never overtrain ( I stay around 40 to 50% of 1RM on all exercises. Ive been training this way almost 20 years without needing any deloads or time off. I already get 3 to 4 days of rest per week. That's a lot of time to recover. And they are full days of recovery because you aren't training anything on the off days. Much deeper recovery. If your goal is strength you probably won't enjoy this routine as SNS fatigue -tendon pain will set in from the heavy weights. But If your only goal is hypertrophy I personally think its the best. Depends on your goals. All paths lead to the top of the mountain eventually with enough time.
Just started a more unique rotation that suits me well. It's based on an 8 day cycle. 3 days on 1 day off. Upper/Lower/Upper/Off Lower/Upper/Lower/Off Thats 6 days on out of 8 and hitting each body part 3x in an 8 day time frame. So over the course of a year you'd hit upper and lower 136 times each vs 104 each on a standard upper lower split. Hitting each body part for about 4 sets per body part for an average of 12 sets per body part per 8 day cycle. I've allowed for some additional volume to be added to weak points at the end of each day that drives some additional volume. Usually this is a 2 set AMRAP type workout on a single joint exercise to limit cumulative fatigue over the long run. There are a total of 6 unique workouts in the program that continually get fucked over the 8 days. I will exchange some of the lifts after 8 to 12 cycles, mostly with upper days as I believe they require more variation than lower body, but it's basically the basics. I've never seen a reason to get to fancy with exercise selection
I've done all of these splits over the years (bro-split, PPL, U/L, full-body), and I didn't really notice any difference in the rate of gains that I experienced. There are probably minor advantages to hitting a muscle 2-3x a week vs 1x a week, but if you're just a natty recreational lifter, it doesn't really matter, because you've made about 90% of the gains you're ever going to make after 3-5 years of consistent lifting. Better to just do what you enjoy and will adhere to.
I personally definitively saw a drastic difference when I started training bodyparts 2 times per week, and another boost for bench specifically when I started doing it 3-4 times per week. It almost felt like second newbie gains for me. Maybe it's genetics, who knows.
Definitely true for 90% of lifters, but for someone more advanced taking everything possible into consideration to optimize their program this would be helpful
@@tallLifts Same as far as hypertrophy goes I gain a lot of mass quickly when I started PPL, now I'm doing U/L with an arm day a lot easier to do when you have a physically demanding job.
I’ve been training for about 11 years and I’m about 6 weeks into my kinda advanced/going by what’s healed full body day routine. I’ve found that going full body but at all times finding 1 joint to keep on active recovery for about a week or more if needed at a time works best. I’ll be doing my normal routine but going lighter on knee intensive work one week or elbow intensive work another week and shoulder and so on. It’s really been a game changer for me (someone who hasn’t always taken care of my joints the way I should have)
My favourite split is: Upper (strength focus, big lifts) Lower (strength focus, big lifts) Push (hypertrophy focus, arms) Pull (hypertrophy focus, arms) Legs (hypertrophy focus)
@@michellec9402 programming means choosing exercise, volume, reps range and progression so it depends on your goal and your personal structure. The big lifts are mainly heavy compound Barbell exercises (overhead press, incline press, bench press, rows [ I personally hate bent over rows, I would choose a T-bar row because it's in the middle, between a free weight exercise and a machine exercise] , squat, any type of deadlift you like), choose what do you need and do preferably strength progression, sets progression or even reps progression, who cares, the rep range are something between 2-8, it depends on the exercise, RIR 3-1, I personally avoid reaching faliure in heavy compound lifts. On the hypertrophy day have fun with accessory movements, machines, dumbells, train especially lacking body parts (mine are calves, biceps and upperback), the rep range is around 8-20, RIR 2-0, get a pump and reach faliure on secure and not extremely fatiguing exercises like lateral raises, triceps extension or leg extension, you got the point. Have fun
@@fn3200 can i do like pp/rest/ppl/rest? So i have 2 days to recover because i think 6 days is kinda too much for me although i really like ppl program.
@@aqshal8552 so basically 5 x Week, Push Pull Legs Push Pull? Yeah you can but only if you have a well developed lower body (or a really great genetis for legs in general) because training lower body only 1xWeek could be sub optimal
Layne Norton’s PHAT program was probably the best split I’ve ever used. Best gains and really opened my eyes to how much volume in the leg sessions I was lacking
Rn I'm able to recover on push, pull, legs, push, legs, pull, legs and it's made huge difference on my lower body volume capacity I do 1: quads, glutes and calves 2: quads, hams and calves 3: glutes, hams and calves Food for thought for whomever needs to hear it... note: exercises mention out of order
I've gained over 17lbs of muscle since I switched to full body 3X a week. I'm always excited for the next workout. No muscle is sore on workout days because there's always a day off between working days. I include strength as well as hypertrophy exercises on each day interchangeably. I never skip ancillary muscles like calves or abs. It's just the perfect split for me.
@@PlaywithDaisy That was a year ago, I've been going to the gym for 2 and a half years so far. I'm now on the original PHAT workout program and I'm loving it
I do push legs pull for 3 days a week and a fourth day for everything I feel like needs extra attention. Also if I have extra energy left on some days I do wrists, calfs, neck, things like that.
@@zachcolgrove5660 Goes together with forearms. I do statics and streches for mobility and strength. Like gymnastics can be really taxing on your wrists and for example front squats. Couldn't do them normally at first because of my wrists, now I can rest the bar even fully on my hands. No pain at the end of a workout feels good.
27:35 exactly Btw the thing that gets me, my main issue is mental fatigue. I've tried lowering down my volume and intensity so many times, I just need to restrict my self to every second day. But i love the gym and still do 5x Push / pull / rest / push / legs / pull / rest And before i did pull push legs rest and repeat on 8x cycle rather than 7x being a week
I do Push Pull Legs Push Pull and two days off for my weekly workout. I start each session with 5 mins of cardio (rowing machine, treadmill, or stair machine) followed by 1-2 mins of stretching and then 5 targeted exercises (pushing, pulling, or legs) with 2-4 working sets of each (doing heavy compounds first), with a rep range of 10-15 (upping the weight it I get to 15 reps or over). I take each set to failure and beyond by doing lengthened partials for most exercises (exuding heavy compound's). I do myo-rep matching for every set of non compound exercises, with a 10-20 second rest pause. If I can only get one rep after resting 10-20 seconds I call it quits on that set and take a real rest (2-3mins). Note: I find it very hard to get more than this in before it just feels like junk volume... Thank you Dr Mike for your invaluable knowledge!
I research different splits a long time ago and picked one I liked best and I still like it. Split A: Chest, shoulders, triceps Split B: Back, legs, biceps, (and I also do forearms because they're my weak point). Edit: Right now I do full body because I'm coming back from a surgery. My body is still decently hit three times a week, and that's also pushing it a bit.
I’ve been doing upper lower for years but I feel I’m missing out on some muscle groups, it can only be solved with having more sessions or going PPL. It’s really easy to be consistent 4x a week but time becomes an issue if I try 6x a week
I see that all the time. Twenty minutes of discussion and analysis, only to end on “so really it comes down to what works best for you.” If I knew what worked best for me I wouldn’t be here.
I've wasted months deliberating what program I should use! I'm currently on a modified PHUL split: Upper Power (Compounds) / Lower Power (Compounds) / Upper Size (Isolation) / Lower Size (Isolation) / Upper Size (Lagging Muscles) / Legs again if I can be bothered! Working really well for me so far.
Great discussion. Doc knows his stuff. For efficiency, I went from a 4 days per week upper/ lower split (45-60 minutes) to a 2 days per week full body (90 minutes to 2 hours). It saves me drive time, getting changed, chit-chatting with the trainers, etc. And allows me to stay focused on work, home, and family commitments 5 days a week because I can slot in cardio any time, usually as a 40-minute HIIT Tabata session in the garage 2x a week, or a jog when it's nice outside. I've always had fast recovery times and solid endurance though, going back to 9th-grade football strength and conditioning (I'm now 55), so it may not be for everyone.
I fucking love your channel. Your analysis of these three splits addresses every concern I've had with each of them. You really, really know what you're talking about.
As a single dad I can’t get in the gym on weekends at all so I structured a split that combos PPL/UpperLower Push-Pull-Legs-Upper-Lower. Monday through Friday respectively. I love it.
Ive been doing Upper Lower with a twist. I do upper (arms, shoulders, core, and chest) and lower body (legs, and back) 3 times a week with calisthenics on rest days. Keeps me energized, and keeps me on track.
I’ve been loving total body 3x a week. Got my ACL and shoulder done within 3 months of each other and I really can’t do full leg days without irritation. So the full body allows me to adapt accordingly
P-L-P is my routine. I find i'm always healed to smash each group of muscles for the next session. 6 days a week. I do side delts every upper day too. My only criteria in the gym is to get in....smash it out and be done within the hour. As much as i love weight training.....i really dont like spending any more time in the gym than i need. Love your channel, Mike.
Also, I love how you, reference Jeff Nippard. I love his channel, and Bret Contreras too. They are are always referencing your work. Nice to see you guys supporting and collaborating with each other. I also like how body building has become very science and research driven, and it's not just bro science anymore, but people spending years carrying out scientific studies to tell us the most biomechanically advantageous way to lift and grow.
8:09 : Upsides of UpaLowa
9:54 : Downsides of UpaLowa
13:11 : Upsides of PLP
17:00 : Downsides of PLP
19:27 : Upsides of FullBody
23:41 : Downsides of FullBody
30:37 : How to choose
Excellent review, i disagree with some points, but like the whole video
What do you disagree with?
Thank you!!
Just what I was looking for thank you
Thx dood
@DH tripping
I love how you discuss the 'number of machines required' as a downside of some programs. Training out of a busy gym or a commercial gym this is an unfortunate reality. When trying to improve programming and read about giant sets etc it becomes a failure to implement great ideas because of practical limitations.
4am giant sets brah. No ones there
Fr. My gym had 1. ONE squat rack. 3 benches. 1 platform 🤦♂️
simply leave your towel or bag on the machine you need for the superset. If someone is using something you need, ask how many sets are left, then stand next to them until they are finished.
@@dessertstorm7476 You are the person I hate in the gym lol. Puts their stuff on 2 machines and one squat rack, passive aggressively stand there with their arms folded when I just got on a rack or bench and have 2 warm up sets, 5 working sets and one drop set to go😂 I have no problem working in with people as long as they aren't lifting much less or much more than me (unracking and reracking 2 45's per side between each set gets annoying and ends up taking longer than if they had just waited on me to finish). It's gotten to the point that I don't even bother hurrying up my sets for others and unless I know them I don't let them work in (besides cables, or dumbells).
Thats why im jelly of rich people that have their own private gym or people with garages that make that garage a home gym
This is one of the greatest videos on splits I've ever watched. Thank you.
What did you get out of it? Like .. what did you enjoy the most?
@@sean.momentum the science and Dr Mikes humour, duh
Dr.M consistently cranking out the best on any topic
Amen
Woah a youtuber that i watch is watching another youtuber that i watch
RUclipsception
For me, the most successful program I’ve ran has been the 5 day upper lower.
Day 1- Upper
Day 2- Lower
Day 3- Upper
Day 4-Lower
Day 5- upper body weak points (Arms and shoulders)
This is the answer for everyone asking what to do about certain muscles not being hit. Simply add a 5th day and target what you think you’re missing. Doesn’t have to be a 2 hour session. Take 30 minutes and get it done!
I was thinking exactly about that. Gonna try it to see. Day 5 is going to be delts and bis.
I'm going to follow this routine!
Another example for 5 times a week and then rest on weekend:
1. Legs
2.Pull
3.Push
4.Lower
5.Upper
Old dude here. Grew up on the bro splits. So it's a little different the way I go about it but alot of the same.
1. Legs
2. Chest and triceps
3. Back and biceps/ quads
4. Shoulders
5. Arms
I do calves on legs day and do extra calves and abs on any day I have time. When I do quads on back day, sometimes I do them at night but I workout mostly in the mornings. So it kinda looks like a LPP Bro Split lol.
A lecture with practically applicable concrete explanations. Served with no bullshit and good humor. Nice work.
only hitting muscles once a week may not be optimal for muscle growth, but keeping my workout under 45 minutes makes me want to do it every single weekday no problem
Honestly, this. I do a PPL only 3 days a week and it works out great, still seeing good growth as I'm focusing on 15-20 reps per set
You've gotta train hard to grow. You can grow working out 4 days a week, but the key is 10-20 sets of 10-20 reps per week each muscle group.
@@tahutoa911 I had to change over to a super modified split with legs always on day 1. chest or back day two, day three chest or back, day 4 legs again, then minor muscle groups, but the key is each major muscle group such as legs, i finish the workout with a minor muslce group say 2 or 3 sets of 15-20 reps of delts, or biceps. I do an A, B, C week program with lots of variations of different types of lifts, but then make new program every 2-3 months. This personally has been the best optimal growth and recovery time, with keeping full body symmetry in mind. Pay attention to soreness and don't just train a specific muslce that day because your schedule says to, if its sore, trade for another group, better to be fully recovered before training hard. Do challengs sets, get a good workout partner that pushes you to hit 20 reps when you are going for 10. Get after it!! CHeers!!
@@user-rb7ns9yj5y solid advice brother
If that's how you feel, do what works for you. Keep grindin man.
my favorite was the "upalowaupaluwaupaluwa" split
Is that Hawaiian
😂
In other words upper lower upper lower upper lower
😂
I prefer the beltalowda split
dr mike is the hero we need but dont deserve.
Agree this was wonderful.
Upper lower 4 times per week is optimum for 90 %people who work 9 to 5
You a dark knight guy too??
So detailed 💯 informative and very calming the way guy talks ☕ he knows his shit 💯
@@GVS hey
Love that you present the slides of info along with talking - can listen and get a lot, but watching with the slides allows for ease of note-taking.
It's a blessing to have dr mike in this sport.
This video held my interest so easily the whole time. My mind normally gets so distracted
Irony being Mike has adhd. He’s medicated though
I’m glad you felt that way bc I found it overwhelming….and yet still quite informative…. And entertaining….I’m quite the simpleton. 🙏
Yeah. He's the fucking man
Makes sense. I also have AdHD. I wondered why I found him so engaging. I guess this is what I look like emphatically explaining something I'm passionate about to folks who can't wait for me shut the heck up haha
Upper/Lower/Push/Pull/Legs/Lagging muscle(s): 6 day split
That's fucking fire 🔥
Wow genius. Big muscles 2x a week. And smaller/lagging 3x a week. Maybe even 4.
Why I never had this idea? Gem!
Only issue is that you are hitting chest on Monday and Wednesday (for example), and having to wait 5 days to hit it again, while PPL has 3-4 days in-between all muscles groups.
@@yourpops6901 The power of this formula is that you can do whatever you want on the "lagging muscles" day. It may be chest if this is what you want.
so glad to see the grownups taking over this space. thank you for the work youre doing.
I do the PPL split asynchronous, but I feel like doing it this way keeps me motivated and enjoying workouts. I go to the gym anywhere from 3-6 times a week depending on different things like whether muscles are healed, injury, or plainly whether I feel like driving to the gym that day. Strict programming may be better for gains, but it gets boring quick. There's also the matter of balancing gym time and life time.
Same.i don't quite understand why asynchronous is bad.
@@MrKarolWlodarczyk Exactly, I mean your body doesn't know what a week or a month is, just like it doesn't know what a Tuesday is.
@@MrKarolWlodarczykno one said async is bad for hypertrophy or strength gains, it's just inconsistent and doesn't fit the majority's schedule since life revolves around a 7 day week
Same, aaynchronous is fine for me. I like the PPL due to its variety. I always look forward to push day and this keeps me going. Full body was pretty boring and i just started adding more and more exercises so the session time was insane.
@@Remixrator
Everyone likes push day. Lol.
That "peppering" in biceps calves shoulders into my ppl routine to make it more advanced was a game changer for my program. Tha nks
"Push, legs, pull Marge welcome to the fire."
19:07
I do full body 3 x a week. Did full body 6 months, upper lower 3 months and PPL about 4 months and realized I was most consistent and looked forward to training when doing full body. The only time I switch it up is when I train with a friend because they always love some type of split and going "beast mode" on a bodypart and then not showing up to the gym for a month lolz I can't talk them out of it.
It really is near impossible to change those people's mindset. They refuse to believe a muscle can grow with anything less than 12 working sets per workout.
Currently I am doing Full body 3 times.a Week .. . happy to hear your experience
@@shubhamkeshari9950 I love doing full body. It takes a lot of ground work to set up, but I vary my rep ranges and vary my intensity all while doing a full body in roughly 75 mins every other day. This is by far has been my favorite way to train. One exercise per body part..three times a week...it's how the greats all worked out back in the day before the bro splits or drugs permeated our culture. It's a shame that most people ignore these principles.
😂😂😂
How do you even do a full body workout 3x a week? My hams take like 5 days to heal, my pecs take like 2-3 days. Side delts nead atleast 2 days. I don't get how it can even be done to make sense and squeeze water out of a stone each session.
Ded at “I want you to watch 18 Ronnie vids” 😂
😂😂
I lost it the line before that: "Push-pull-legs, Marge! Welcome to the fire!" 😆
Yeaaaah buddeh
me too
they gonna be callin her Large Marge after them ronnie vids
@@JustWantedToGrill or when he said "here do this don't kill yourself" for the crazy ppl to keep them sane hahaha. this guy is a good teacher.
Legs/pull/push/lower/upper is by far my favorite, it allows to do enough arms work and some prehab exercices in the upper body parts without pushing workout time much further than 45-1h
So how would you divide the muscles that you workout during your split? Id love to know as I’m currently on a Push pull legs and it consumes quite a lot of my time unfortunately.
What I do is push pull, legs included. 4 days a week. Maybe a bit longer of a workout without more compound lifts but 2 less days while still hitting muscles 2x a week easily. Squats on push, hamstrings and lunges and such on pull.
For one of the upper/lower downsides I tried training 3 days upper body and 2 days lower body, and the recovery is going good.
Thanks for the info bro
I want to do upper/lower/upper/lower/upper/rest/rest, so I train during the week and chill during the weekend. Is this also what you follow? Or do you not recommend it?
@@MK_619 It worked well for me bro, same workin days!
M K I’m getting on upper lower. I’m doing upper/lower rest, upper/lower rest
@@Avidsaur i switched to leg/push/pull/lower/upper and I prefer it a lot more
M K I was doing something similar but I got bored and plateaued.
"Welcome to the fire Aunt Marg!" 🔥
Love his stories hey!!
xD best part of the video
This is great. I started doing pull push legs and an added arm day at the end to hit arms more often since they recover quickly and could use more frequency. Then rest repeat.
I never worried about my split being synchronized to the day of the week.
HUNTER LABRADA uses the same split for a reason! BEST ONE!
@@punkandlifting yeah same. No need to tie muscle groups to days. Just follow PLP rest and repeat
@@IAMJhonnyBravo yeah he does. I’ve been living it. Even though I find arm day to be boring. It allows me to focus on the bigger muscles on push and pull days and still get a tricep and bicep exercise squeezed in and also get more arm volume in on its own day
@@punkandlifting 100% agree
"some women doing 50 rep leg extension with 50 RIR" nearly fell off my chair, lmao 😂
I tried the full body 5 times a week (different exercises for each group each time) and enjoyed it at first but my body couldn’t take the constant beating. Ended up with a sprained bicep tendon and got to the point where it hurt to hold a soda can. PPL works best for me at home and then full body when out of town without many options. 💪
Full body should be 3 days a week, longer sessions to compensate. I tried what you did, also got an injury.
Since when is a full body 5 days a week?🤣 ofc your body became it tired. It should be 3 days a week
@@Moccalocca100 it was a shortened version where you do all the same volume that you would have over a 5 day period. So if you’d do Squats, lunges, leg ext, leg curl, calf raise in a leg day, you’d do one of those each day. The idea was that you hit each exercise harder than if all in the same day, which worked, but your legs can’t really fully recover. It made it easier mentally to push harder too cause you knew that was your only leg exercise for the day. And you’d do the same with a movement from the other push and pull days.
I feel like the full body 5+ times a week thing is only good for very very experienced lifters with 10+ years of consistent experience. They can probably handle the volume but I know I would get injured trying it
@@lifeforgod07 anyone could probably do it, youd need to lower volume and intensity on the days tho. you could do 2 sets of chest per day for example,
monday (heavy bench) tuesday (pec dec) wednesday (incline press) thursday (cable flys) friday (pushups) so you can mix a day of higher intensity, and other days with more isolation. it really isnt needed but you probably dont need to be super experienced to be able to do it.
auto-play landed me on this video while i was nodding off in front of my computer, came to and went wow this is the video on splits Ive been looking for! thank you! Also your tone of voice was very soothing yet engaging to wake up to.
this is one of the most under rated TY channel. Always putting out great stuff.
Love watching these videos while doing cardio.
Currently fullbody 3x & cardio 2-3x on off days. Beginner in a slight deficit recomping.
Thank you for the great information.
Wow this is awesome, feels like being in college and getting a lecture except it’s enjoyable and interesting topic
I don’t understand what the big deal is with “asynchronous splits”. Seems like more of a GOOD thing than a bad thing to me. If you’re doing the EXACT same workout always on Monday or on Friday, one of those days is likely to be consistently better/worse for your overall strength and recovery… for example you might be better rested on Monday and you can try to beat your last-weeks numbers on multiple lifts… or maybe Monday is your bad day because you often get drunk on the weekend. By rotating which day you do which thing… you’ll have a more balanced routine
things not breaking into 7 days periods is just unnatural God made 7 days for a reason
@@dessertstorm7476 Leviticus 19:19 “‘Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material."
Imagine programming your split because we have a made up 7 day calendar.
The only natural thing is listening to your body.
@@tonipernar8745 we made a calendar because routine is usually good for us
@@mrbouncelol doesnt change the fact its completely arbitrary made up thing. its got nothing to do with "nature"
@@tonipernar8745 sounds like some leftist anti god, anti family nonsense
This summer I did this (and really liked it):
Full body
Rest
Full body
Rest
Upper
Lower
Rest
Full body
Heavy bag training
Rest
Full body
Heavy bag training
Tendonitis
Rest
The issue I had with fully body is your tired as shit by 3/4 of the way through
@@nickfanzothen lower your sets. If you’re dead by 3/4 of the way through, drop your sets from 4 to 3 and focus on those 3 sets getting a really good stretch and hitting failure on the final set
The soccer mom and grandpa jokes had me lol. Love your presentation style Mike. You keep stuff entertaining. Could listen to you speaking for hours on end. Please do a lecture series on presentation and public speaking, humour, etc,...
“For the rest of us that don’t have lives and we just want muscle growth, this is the place to be” good to know I’m in the right spot 😂
This video is wildly helpful for guys like me who spend a week obsessing on which split/routine to go with.
Something like this ALWAYS works for me and I keep coming back to it. Using a horizontal emphasis one upper body day, and a vertical emphasis the next keeps things nice and balanced and let's you start the second upper body session w/dips and chins which hammer the shit out of bis/tris as well as chest/back. Plus you hit arms and delts w/supersets at the end of both upper days and then a high rep arm and delt accessory day to finish the week. Plenty of volume and all very balanced. Exercises are just examples:
D1) Upper: Bench, Row, OHP, Pulldown, Tris/Bis (superset), Side/Rear Delts (superset).
D2) Lower: Squat, Leg Ext, RDL, Lying Leg Curl, Calves
D3) Off
D4) Upper: Dip, Chin, Incline DB Press, DB Row, Tris/Bis (superset), Side/Rear Delts (superset)
D5) Lower: Leg Press, Back Ext, BSS or Lunge, Seated Leg Curl, Calves
D6) Accessories: side/rear delts, bis/tris. Chest back isolation work is optional this day.
D7) Off
Rest, rest , rest , rest , rest ,rest , biceps
been doing the upper and lower body split weekly. Feels the most sustainable and muscles have enough time to heal + feel rested and motivated to keep the routine!
during rest days doing running/walking
In my experience, full body is the most enjoyable, which results in the easiest 'mental' battle.
also if you just adjust your intensity it will negate all the "cons" of the workout and recovery will be fast and easy. You can't destroy muscles on full body, Just stimulate. The goal is to simulate them just enough to grow. Not to tear them to shreds so you need 6 days of recovery.
I do full body two times per week. It's okey, I enjoy it. It's a bit of a struggle towards the end, when I need to train legs.
What's up caleb s.
Sincerely, Caleb S.
Agreed. I do it 3 times a week. I fucking love it
@@TheMaxik I always do legs first lol Squats 3 x week, Deadlift 1/2 x week and then the rest. This way I force myself to do legs first
Full body (Mon, Weds, Friday) works for me. Anything for than 3 days in the gym is too much of a commitment. Also if you know you can only do 2 sessions a week you can increase volume massively on full body and have 3 days rest before hitting it again. Best split for balancing gym and having a life.
I wouldn't increase the volume like that. Increases injury risk. Just miss the day and call it recovery.
this routine, with light cardio on rest days is the best i would say.
I've been working out more seriously for 6 months, what I'm doing now is P>P>L>calisthenics(upper)>accessory/isolation(upper)>legs. It's been working pretty well so far (doing it like this for 2 months) and almost every day I'm looking forward to work out.
All I know is I only wanna b in the gym no more than 4 days a wk. Every two to two and a half month's ill take a wk off just to heal. I do upper, lower, just started so far I love it. Upper days I'm in and out in just over a HR which I want to b no more than that ever. Legs r super easy, in and out in like 20 mns. I've been doing the myo technique and that will help in time for hammering the muscles. I'm 45 have been lifting for yrs but stupidly been on a plato for a few yrs so I'm really excited to c how much more I can do especially now that I'm writing drown all that I do, I'm old school I like pen and paper. Also slower more targeted no garbage sets is super important. I feel and look great especially for my age so I want this bad and this sight is amazing! Love this channel! Much appreciated, I've learned a lot!
Love having so many different chapters to skip to when I come back to a video. This video is good. Thank You.
“Push legs pull Margaret welcome to the fire” hilarious!
"Hypertrophy Specific Training" is the most scientifically backed up hypertrophy training I've seen. The studies found that it's not actually the max load that triggers hypertrophy but the progressive increase from about 70% of your rep-max. This changed everything for me. Now I always do 3 full body workout per week, been doing it for 10 years. In other words, you can get a lot more from a lot less and save yourself from injury. And since the progression is built-in there's no need to switch things up, super-set, multi-set etc.
YESSSS.... I've tried everything.... full body is the best and the fastest in terms of gainZ.... moreover.... full body also strangely increases your work capacity... as in the PPL split... however.... if you add more sets, overtraining simply kicks in.... and YESSS!!!.... Adding more reps close to failure in full body is like hypertrophy on Steroids!!!.... this really keeps progressive overload and gainZ!!!!👍
My new split
Back traps biceps rear delts
Chest triceps front delts
Legs side delts
Rest
Repeat.
Really enjoying it so far
A.) Upper (Chest and Triceps focus).
B.) Lower (Quads and Calves focus).
C ) Upper (Back and Biceps focus).
D.) Lower (Hams and Glutes focus).
It's a hybrid of the Push/Pull/Legs and Upper/Lower splits. Upper Push/Lower Push/Upper Pull/ Lower Pull BUT all muscles are worked on the Upper day and Lower day, just volume dialed way down and the exercise on the back burner is carefully picked as to what is lagging and or possibly less intense depending on how recovered. Lots of flexibility, especially with the possibility of antagonistic super sets.
Upper/lower 3x week for me. Everything is hit 2x/10 days instead of 2x/ 7 days on normal UL 4day split.
I found that it works really well to tweak a bit the standard Upper Lower.
On Upper i do big upper body muscles like chest and back and shoulders, while on Lower I do legs and some isolation for the upper body (arms or lateral/rear raises).
In this way you can sneak in more volume for those smaller muscles without making the Upper day like 2h long.
You can mix it: ppl, day off, upper lower, day off. 5 workout a week, 2 day of rest, and you hit everything twice (or just do legs once a week if you like to be able to walk normally ...)
Yeah Do Legs once Per Week like so (PP/PPL/P)
So its async but i think my Legs dont need more Volume because my Upperbody needs more Volume.
@@janzehnder1787 is it okay if i do that like pp/rest/ppl/rest so i got 2 days to recover because i think 6 days is too much for me but i really like ppl programs😢.
@@janzehnder1787 only one day of legs per week though? I actually prefer prioritizing legs since I feel like a lot of amateur bodybuilders tend to look too heavy and don’t personally want that look.
@@aqshal8552 I really wouldn’t recommend legs only once weekly especially if you’re hitting each of your upper body muscle groups at least twice.
@@1brunner699 yeah I know but my Legs are easier to grow than my Upperbody. But I Chaned it back regardless, been hitting legs 2x again since mid last year..
How I train.
Mon - chest & back
Tues - legs & shoulders
Wed - chest & back
Thurs - legs & shoulders
Fri - arms & core
Only train for 45mins max.
Combine them. I tried almost all available splits in my 6+ years of training experience, and I think Full Body - Push - Pull - Legs is the best split I've ever done.
that sounds about right tbh. it would let you hit pretty much every muscle in a week with just 4 workout days
On an upper lower push pull leg split and it works for me.
@@Moi_81Same :)
That's what I do too, getting best results ever with 2 rest days
Currently I use a push-pull-legs but only one leg day with two rests days from lifting. This is mainly due to the fact I swim, and run as well in addition to lifting. Which I will say, balancing running, swimming, and lifting definitely a challenge. So typically keep my lifting sessions between 30-40 minutes.
I love the upper lower split, but I noticed that my arms are really lagging, sobbing decided to do
UPPER, LOWER, REST, UPPER, LOWER, ARMS(side delts,forearms, etc.) REST
All are great- you can also do upper- lower with 3 days upper and 2 days lower!
I was going to suggest/ask about this.
Or ULPLP, or ULUL with the fifth day for faster healing groups or those you want to prioritize. Dr. Mike said upper-lower goes a long goes a long way, but I’d go a step further and say that with modifications like those it goes as far as 90% of us will ever care to go.
madness
Yes, I just created a program structured like that and it's awesome. Good recovery and nicely spread volume for maximum hypertrophy.
I landed on the U-L-U-L-U split a while ago, and I think it is my preferred approach. It allows me to: get more frequency/ volume in on upper body throughout the week; more recovery for lower body; train push and pull movements on the same day which feels better from an injury prevention perspective; and finally, each session is manageable between 60 - 90 minutes.
Thanks for this. I do a PPL with an asynchronous split. I feel like I can do more bicep and maybe back due to recovery, but like you said the structure.
Currently doing
Monday - Chest, biceps
Tuesday- Back, Tris, Shoulders
Wednesday- Legs, Abs
Thursday - chest, biceps,
Friday - Back, triceps, shoulders
Monday, Wed, Friday are lower volume higher weight, and Tuesday and Thursday are high volume low weight.
Day one: chest/quad Day two: hams/glute/shoulder Day three: back/abs Day four: shoulder/quad Day five: biceps/triceps/chest Day six: glute/back/hams
All this information for free. Damn. This is fricken amazing. I only have 3 days a week, family, work etc etc. I’m doing upper / lower / full body. Or upper / lower / upper (week1) then lower / upper / lower (week 2). Bearing in mind the gyms (in the uk) have only recently opened back up. Thanks once again for all this info.
Same. Full body just takes too long without a lot of super sets. Once I switched to Upper/Lower/Full Body I recover well and can be consistent.
Masterpiece. This is simply the best and most comprehensive video on bodybuilding splits ever! Extremely valuable premium quality information that we’ve access to in the video for free. That’s just outstanding! I’m quite grateful for your presence and appreciative of all the content that you produce for us. I’m forever thankful and indebted to you for your help and advice! 💪🙏👍
Damn! Quality eduction with sprinkled in well timed humour! It doesn't get better than that 😂
I do 5 days with a bonus day:
1. Glutes/Legs
2. Core/Abs
3. Chest/ Shoulders
4. Arms
5. Back
6. Bonus day of one of the above based on recover
7. Rest
I dont do these in the same order every week but I try to offset the ones that effect each other (ie not doing chest and arms back to back).
If I have time I throw a couple sets on a fast recovering muscle at the end of my other workout ie preacher curls at the end of leg day.
WEEK A: LEGS w/ shoulders, BACK w/ biceps, CHEST w/ Triceps, LEGS only, ARMS/Shoulders
WEEK B: LEGS w/lower back, Chest w/ Biceps, Back w/ Triceps, Legs w/shoulders, ARMS w/traps
*** Continue to diversify but keep in mind the day of the week doesn't matter, change your schedule to train muscle groups that aren't sore. Better if you killed legs Monday, and your legs are still sore Thursday, to trade days and Legs Friday. Try pairing specific muscles that you are lacking in on days you aren't training that as your main muscle group.
Dude just seems so wholesome man, Idk what to say lol
Just say thanks :)
One of the best videos I have ever watched on Training Splits! Amazing work 👏🏻
Full Body every other day, Best gains I ever made. Still using full body after 20 years of training. Just adjust the intensity and try to stimulate and not destroy the muscle and you will never overtrain ( I stay around 40 to 50% of 1RM on all exercises. Ive been training this way almost 20 years without needing any deloads or time off. I already get 3 to 4 days of rest per week. That's a lot of time to recover. And they are full days of recovery because you aren't training anything on the off days. Much deeper recovery. If your goal is strength you probably won't enjoy this routine as SNS fatigue -tendon pain will set in from the heavy weights. But If your only goal is hypertrophy I personally think its the best. Depends on your goals. All paths lead to the top of the mountain eventually with enough time.
40%? R u even training
Until I see physiques idc
I can't believe that you put this content out for free. Thank you, Dr. Mike!
Just started a more unique rotation that suits me well. It's based on an 8 day cycle. 3 days on 1 day off.
Upper/Lower/Upper/Off
Lower/Upper/Lower/Off
Thats 6 days on out of 8 and hitting each body part 3x in an 8 day time frame.
So over the course of a year you'd hit upper and lower 136 times each vs 104 each on a standard upper lower split.
Hitting each body part for about 4 sets per body part for an average of 12 sets per body part per 8 day cycle.
I've allowed for some additional volume to be added to weak points at the end of each day that drives some additional volume. Usually this is a 2 set AMRAP type workout on a single joint exercise to limit cumulative fatigue over the long run.
There are a total of 6 unique workouts in the program that continually get fucked over the 8 days. I will exchange some of the lifts after 8 to 12 cycles, mostly with upper days as I believe they require more variation than lower body, but it's basically the basics.
I've never seen a reason to get to fancy with exercise selection
I've done all of these splits over the years (bro-split, PPL, U/L, full-body), and I didn't really notice any difference in the rate of gains that I experienced. There are probably minor advantages to hitting a muscle 2-3x a week vs 1x a week, but if you're just a natty recreational lifter, it doesn't really matter, because you've made about 90% of the gains you're ever going to make after 3-5 years of consistent lifting. Better to just do what you enjoy and will adhere to.
I personally definitively saw a drastic difference when I started training bodyparts 2 times per week, and another boost for bench specifically when I started doing it 3-4 times per week. It almost felt like second newbie gains for me. Maybe it's genetics, who knows.
Wise words.
Definitely true for 90% of lifters, but for someone more advanced taking everything possible into consideration to optimize their program this would be helpful
I do 0 times per week and still look boss
@@tallLifts Same as far as hypertrophy goes I gain a lot of mass quickly when I started PPL, now I'm doing U/L with an arm day a lot easier to do when you have a physically demanding job.
I’ve been training for about 11 years and I’m about 6 weeks into my kinda advanced/going by what’s healed full body day routine. I’ve found that going full body but at all times finding 1 joint to keep on active recovery for about a week or more if needed at a time works best. I’ll be doing my normal routine but going lighter on knee intensive work one week or elbow intensive work another week and shoulder and so on. It’s really been a game changer for me (someone who hasn’t always taken care of my joints the way I should have)
My favourite split is:
Upper (strength focus, big lifts)
Lower (strength focus, big lifts)
Push (hypertrophy focus, arms)
Pull (hypertrophy focus, arms)
Legs (hypertrophy focus)
How do you program it?
@@michellec9402 programming means choosing exercise, volume, reps range and progression so it depends on your goal and your personal structure.
The big lifts are mainly heavy compound Barbell exercises (overhead press, incline press, bench press, rows [ I personally hate bent over rows, I would choose a T-bar row because it's in the middle, between a free weight exercise and a machine exercise] , squat, any type of deadlift you like), choose what do you need and do preferably strength progression, sets progression or even reps progression, who cares, the rep range are something between 2-8, it depends on the exercise, RIR 3-1, I personally avoid reaching faliure in heavy compound lifts.
On the hypertrophy day have fun with accessory movements, machines, dumbells, train especially lacking body parts (mine are calves, biceps and upperback), the rep range is around 8-20, RIR 2-0, get a pump and reach faliure on secure and not extremely fatiguing exercises like lateral raises, triceps extension or leg extension, you got the point.
Have fun
@@fn3200 can i do like pp/rest/ppl/rest? So i have 2 days to recover because i think 6 days is kinda too much for me although i really like ppl program.
@@aqshal8552 so basically 5 x Week, Push Pull Legs Push Pull?
Yeah you can but only if you have a well developed lower body (or a really great genetis for legs in general) because training lower body only 1xWeek could be sub optimal
Am not even watching this for training splits. Im watching for the underlying ideas and gems this man is giving about training in general. Thank you
Push-Pull-Legs-rest-Push-Pull-rest/long cardio, training forearms every u.b. session and planning to do the same with deltoids ;) Great video!
DUDE this was gold! Im going full push legs pull next week
Why are using my profile picture!! Imposter!!
14:44 the way he said it got me 😂
Layne Norton’s PHAT program was probably the best split I’ve ever used. Best gains and really opened my eyes to how much volume in the leg sessions I was lacking
Same here. Actually I'm still using it
I rotate, PHAT and PPL usually, sometimes throw in Arnold's blueprint
What is PHAT
@@marcusearnshaw1816 Power and Hypertrophy Adaptive Training
@@BigfootUnibrowMan thank you sir
My preferred split:
1) Upper push/pull supersets
2) legs squat back/front,
3) Middle push/pull supersets,
4) legs deadlift shrugbar/RDL,
5) Lower push/pull supersets,
6) Bi/Tri superset/off
7) off
Rn I'm able to recover on push, pull, legs, push, legs, pull, legs and it's made huge difference on my lower body volume capacity
I do 1: quads, glutes and calves
2: quads, hams and calves
3: glutes, hams and calves
Food for thought for whomever needs to hear it...
note: exercises mention out of order
I've gained over 17lbs of muscle since I switched to full body 3X a week. I'm always excited for the next workout. No muscle is sore on workout days because there's always a day off between working days. I include strength as well as hypertrophy exercises on each day interchangeably. I never skip ancillary muscles like calves or abs. It's just the perfect split for me.
you cant gain that amount unless you are on cycle dumbass
@@truestrength-oz5kk bro he didn't mention when he switched to Full body workout..... He could have switched it like 5-7 yrs ago who knows
@@PlaywithDaisy That was a year ago, I've been going to the gym for 2 and a half years so far. I'm now on the original PHAT workout program and I'm loving it
I do push legs pull for 3 days a week and a fourth day for everything I feel like needs extra attention. Also if I have extra energy left on some days I do wrists, calfs, neck, things like that.
Ummmmmm .... neck????
@@gglreallysucks5512 Yeah, what?
Wrists?
I know about neck. I train that too. With neck curls.
But how do you train wrists and why?
@@zachcolgrove5660 Goes together with forearms. I do statics and streches for mobility and strength. Like gymnastics can be really taxing on your wrists and for example front squats. Couldn't do them normally at first because of my wrists, now I can rest the bar even fully on my hands. No pain at the end of a workout feels good.
27:35 exactly
Btw the thing that gets me, my main issue is mental fatigue. I've tried lowering down my volume and intensity so many times, I just need to restrict my self to every second day.
But i love the gym and still do 5x
Push / pull / rest / push / legs / pull / rest
And before i did pull push legs rest and repeat on 8x cycle rather than 7x being a week
I do Push Pull Legs Push Pull and two days off for my weekly workout. I start each session with 5 mins of cardio (rowing machine, treadmill, or stair machine) followed by 1-2 mins of stretching and then 5 targeted exercises (pushing, pulling, or legs) with 2-4 working sets of each (doing heavy compounds first), with a rep range of 10-15 (upping the weight it I get to 15 reps or over). I take each set to failure and beyond by doing lengthened partials for most exercises (exuding heavy compound's). I do myo-rep matching for every set of non compound exercises, with a 10-20 second rest pause. If I can only get one rep after resting 10-20 seconds I call it quits on that set and take a real rest (2-3mins).
Note: I find it very hard to get more than this in before it just feels like junk volume...
Thank you Dr Mike for your invaluable knowledge!
I research different splits a long time ago and picked one I liked best and I still like it.
Split A: Chest, shoulders, triceps
Split B: Back, legs, biceps, (and I also do forearms because they're my weak point).
Edit: Right now I do full body because I'm coming back from a surgery. My body is still decently hit three times a week, and that's also pushing it a bit.
I swear to god Dr mike is the most hilarious fitness guy out there! I always laugh at his subtle jokes.
Yeah and he’s smart too!
Don't swear to the Lord
I’ve been doing upper lower for years but I feel I’m missing out on some muscle groups, it can only be solved with having more sessions or going PPL. It’s really easy to be consistent 4x a week but time becomes an issue if I try 6x a week
I liked the video less than a minute in simply for the "just depends" part...thank you
I see that all the time. Twenty minutes of discussion and analysis, only to end on “so really it comes down to what works best for you.” If I knew what worked best for me I wouldn’t be here.
Long time listener, first time caller. Love the content and how you’re not taking things too seriously!
I've wasted months deliberating what program I should use! I'm currently on a modified PHUL split: Upper Power (Compounds) / Lower Power (Compounds) / Upper Size (Isolation) / Lower Size (Isolation) / Upper Size (Lagging Muscles) / Legs again if I can be bothered! Working really well for me so far.
would love to see a video comparing the arnold split to ppl
Didnt even mention my favourite split. Chest/Back, Legs, Shoulders/Arms. I just love antagonist supersets. Awesome video tho 👌
@@juanprc10 how good are the pumps bro
how many rest days?
This is the type of content that makes the internet incredible
Great discussion. Doc knows his stuff.
For efficiency, I went from a 4 days per week upper/ lower split (45-60 minutes) to a 2 days per week full body (90 minutes to 2 hours). It saves me drive time, getting changed, chit-chatting with the trainers, etc. And allows me to stay focused on work, home, and family commitments 5 days a week because I can slot in cardio any time, usually as a 40-minute HIIT Tabata session in the garage 2x a week, or a jog when it's nice outside. I've always had fast recovery times and solid endurance though, going back to 9th-grade football strength and conditioning (I'm now 55), so it may not be for everyone.
I love this guy! I already know all this but the delivery kept me going all 30 min
Why does he always look like he's laying down in these videos
I fucking love your channel. Your analysis of these three splits addresses every concern I've had with each of them. You really, really know what you're talking about.
How is it possible to have 152k subscribers with this god like content?!
Because they don't target the "how to get six pack in 30 days" quality ^^
Cause many people realized that train a muscle 6 days a week isn't going to get you anywhere besides hospital.
As a single dad I can’t get in the gym on weekends at all so I structured a split that combos PPL/UpperLower
Push-Pull-Legs-Upper-Lower. Monday through Friday respectively. I love it.
Ive been doing Upper Lower with a twist. I do upper (arms, shoulders, core, and chest) and lower body (legs, and back) 3 times a week with calisthenics on rest days. Keeps me energized, and keeps me on track.
Full body here. Nothing like being in the gym for most of the day...
I am absolutely loving these sophisticated answers to simple questions. Please, more of these! These and the nutrition myth series are gold.
I’ve been loving total body 3x a week. Got my ACL and shoulder done within 3 months of each other and I really can’t do full leg days without irritation. So the full body allows me to adapt accordingly
P-L-P is my routine. I find i'm always healed to smash each group of muscles for the next session. 6 days a week.
I do side delts every upper day too.
My only criteria in the gym is to get in....smash it out and be done within the hour. As much as i love weight training.....i really dont like spending any more time in the gym than i need.
Love your channel, Mike.
Also, I love how you, reference Jeff Nippard. I love his channel, and Bret Contreras too. They are are always referencing your work. Nice to see you guys supporting and collaborating with each other.
I also like how body building has become very science and research driven, and it's not just bro science anymore, but people spending years carrying out scientific studies to tell us the most biomechanically advantageous way to lift and grow.