mike7's picture
mike7
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Upper body/lower body work out routine questions

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I have been told to look into splitting my workouts into upper and lower body days rather then muscle specific worn outs. As well as focusing on pulling exercise one day and pushing the next, I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction of a good plan to follow or maybe give me a few pointers on the best way to begin doing this. Thank you in advance for any advice

My current routine is

I used to do

Monday chest / triceps
Tuesday backs biceps
Wednesday legs
Thursday off
Friday shoulders
Saturday arms
Sunday off

Black90tsi's picture

I do chest/arms/shoulders/core Mon & Thurs
Back/legs Tues & Fri
Arms Sat

You don't need a week in between training sessions for each muscle. 2-3 days is plenty of time for you to recover. Try to hit each muscle group at least twice a week. I've been running the below linked program for a year now with just minor alterations each time i go through it. Still getting stronger and putting on more size so i don't really see a reason to change it yet. I can get in and out of the gym in no more than 45-60 minutes typically. Even less for the added arm day.

https://www.boostcamp.app/coaches/bald-omni-man/raider

Imagedynamiks's picture

I used to run the reverse pyramid routine or whatever you want to call it because I was interested in getting strong - but now I want to get bigger, so I kept the same compound lift rep range (you’ll see if you look into it, it’s pretty nice), but I added more accessory exercises/sets/reps. So far it’s doing me good, I guess.

Just make sure to find a routine you like and are interested in progressing in. Whether strength, size, endurance, whatever - if it doesn’t interest you then you probably won’t stick with it.

Be aware - it’s going to take time to figure out a routine that works for you. Don’t be discouraged if a specific routine isn’t working for you, but stick with it for a while before abandoning it.

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mike7's picture

I will say right now my biggest discouragement is feeling unsure of myself in the training process currently but I’ll get it dialed in .

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irongame427's picture

At your stage of development you don’t have the ability to call on enough muscle fibers and really push them hard enough to need 7 days to recover. You’ll be fully recovered in 3-4 days or so. So it’s best to increase the frequency of working each muscle group and Decrease the volume per muscle per workout and hit everything twice as often. Seems like over the last 7-8 years there’s been a lot of studies coming out that show twice weekly is best for most people regardless of stage of development, but it’s definitely extra important when you’re new to this.

So you could do that in an upper lower split. 4 days a week. Day 1 upper, day 2 lower, day 3 rest, day 4 upper day 5 lower and day 6 and 7 off. I’d start one upper day with chest, and the other with back, so each muscle group gets 1 workout where you’re doing it first with full energy in the tank.

Or you can do push pull legs, where you hit everything twice a week and go 3 days on 1 day off. day 1 push, so that’s chest and tri’s and shoulders, day 2 pull which is back and rear delts and traps. Day 3 legs, day 4 off. Rinse and repeat that 4 day cycle for about 8-12 weeks before doing a deload or rest week. Or if you’re like me and you need set workout days to arrange for childcare and shit you could do a variation of push, pull, legs that hits everything twice every 8 days with set workout days and set rest days. I do something like starting monday, push, pull, legs, off Thursday, push, pull, off Sunday. Then on Monday start back on legs, then push, pull, off Thursday, legs, push, off Sunday again etc etc. so you’re basically lifting the same 5 days a week always taking off Thursday and Sunday.

Focus on big compound lifts. Bench, overhead press, dead lifts, BB rows, squats, Roman deadlifts, pull ups, dips. Plus some isolation stuff thrown in for good measure. Hit those legs hard, they’re yours biggest muscle group and where you’ll be able to add the most muscle/weight to.

Send me a PM and I’ll try to give you an exact routine if you want.

mike7's picture

Hey man I shot you that message , would love to dial in my diet

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Aggieguy's picture

There is tons of youtube videos with muscle builders and most of them are muscle specific per day. I for one will do two groups of muscles a day and the reason is because you can focus on those and get them fatigued. Everyone I know who is built breaks their workouts into muscle specific days so that is what I do.

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