Push/pull/legs 3 on 1 off

louman

New member
What do you guys think about a push/pull/legs 3 on 1 off split? Low volume but more frequency. Does this allow for enough recovery?

Push=chest/shoulders/triceps
Pull=back/biceps
Legs is legs

I'll go three days in a row. Rest then repeat. I'll be doing 12 sets for chest/back. 8 sets for delts/biceps/triceps. And 15 for legs. Incrwasing weight each set. Not training to musfle failure except last set of each lift. That's the goal at least
 
Only you can answer whether or not there's enough recovery time. It also depends what exactly your goals are. If you're goal is to grow, you'll want to wait until soreness is gone before working that muscle again. My current split is:

Chest/shoulders
Back/abs
Legs
Biceps/Triceps

Depending on how I feel, sometimes I take a rest day before repeating the split and once every three months I take an entire week off. There's no "right" split. It's up to you to try a few things out and see what gets the best results.
 
On cycle I hardly get sore. I always push myself. Only way I get sore on cycle is if I do a completely new routine but After that hardly get sore. And I increase weight each week or change rep or rest. But still just not sore. I know soreness is not an indicator of recovery that's why I brought it up. Just trying to get some input how to hit aisle more frequently and not train 6x in a row. Was hitting each muscle once per week but want to add more frequency for a bit.
 
Soreness is an indication of hypertrophy. If your goal is to increase strength, in most cases you'll want to avoid excessive soreness. If your goal is to grow, you should be training for hypertrophy. If you do it right, you will get sore whether you're on gear or not. Not counting light warm up sets, every set should be to the point of failure(and beyond if you have a spotter). Reps should be in the range of 8-12 for most movements and should be done very slowly, with a complete focus on keeping tension on the targeted muscle throughout the range of motion. The amount of weight you use will be considerably lighter than if you were to crank out 8-12 reps as fast as possible.

If your goal is to increase strength, we'll need one of the powerlifters to chime in. I'm not into strength training since my days as a competitive athlete are long over.
 
I mean I get sore just not doms like when I was natural and taking a lot of sets to failure and doing excessive volume. When training like this I saw no gains felt like shit. Was ofertraining for sure. Now say if I do 4 sets I aim to leave 1-2 reps left in tank each set then last set up the weight to hit failure last few reps and get forced reps in or use rest pause or drop set if not spotter. Obviously sometimes hit failure earlier or not at all. In that case I add another set with heavier weight. But for me taking efery set to failure doesn't work. I respond better to a strength based routine. Saw amazing mass gains on jim wendlers 5/3/1 bodybuilder template. Used 1-5 reps on big 4 compounds then 6-15 on accessory lifts. Got good strength and mass gains
 
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I don't see good results hammerig out tons of volume and lots of sets to failure. Could be outside factors limiting recovery. I'm a stressful person and have anxiety so sleep is bad and I'm sure cortisol is high. Could be that high volume/intensity is just too much for me to recover from. But I def get results from a conservative program with more strength base.
 
What do you guys think about a push/pull/legs 3 on 1 off split? Low volume but more frequency. Does this allow for enough recovery?

Push=chest/shoulders/triceps
Pull=back/biceps
Legs is legs

I'll go three days in a row. Rest then repeat. I'll be doing 12 sets for chest/back. 8 sets for delts/biceps/triceps. And 15 for legs. Incrwasing weight each set. Not training to musfle failure except last set of each lift. That's the goal at least

I like the push/pull routine that you described due to its efficiency and recovery. I always feel like my shoulders and tris get blasted on chest day, and I'm pretty cynical on form, so the best option for me has been the split you described. One thing I recommend to all of my clients (I'm a personal trainer), is to tax the back muscles a bit harder than your chest. For one, your back muscles are larger than your pecs. Also, If you've ever seen those guys who obviously work chest more than back, you'll notice that their shoulders tend to slump forward a bit, and over time, this will contribute to poor posture, and potentially, a host of other issues. That being said, maybe do 14-15 sets of back, if you're set on the previously mentioned volume schematic. Also, as legs are the biggest and most often neglected muscles, you need to hit them the hardest (so your planned volume on legs being the highest is good). GET SWOLE my friend!!
 
I def love working the lats. A lot of guys don't realize strong lats help ur bench go up. And also that v taper is gonna make u look leaner. Id much rather have a wide v taper than huge chest
 
I think this routine is great for guys who are beginning or want to add overall mass. I think the Bidy part specific splits are best for advanced guys with good mass and want to bring up specific body parts
 
Pull/Push/legs is the ticket for me!

Its the only way I can get it in considering my work hours and family stuff.
But for recovery I do 1 on 1 off straight thru then after legs 2 or 3 days off. I cant see how you can do a serious pull day and then do legs the very next. In fact after deadlifting even the one solid day off sometimnes isn't enough so I will take my 2 days off and then do legs.

I dunno everyone is different.
 
I posted this awhile ago, seems kind of relevant - just what works for me on cycle:

Fairly typical five day split, but bodyparts don't correspond to a weekday, other than 1,2,3,4,5. I don't schedule rest days but take them if I'm extremely tired (I go to the gym before work) or, god forbid the gym is closed.
1: Legs (squats [high and low bar, volume or heavier depending on my mood/energy level] stiff leg deadlifts, leg press, calf raise variations, quad & ham machines +upper abs)
2: Chest (extensive shoulder warmup due to past rotator cuff issues, then-> incline DB press, flat bench, weighted dips, incline bench, DB & cable flyes, sometimes dropset flyes / sometimes pec dec to burn out +lower abs)
3: Back (deads - heavy or volume depending on energy level, superset with pullups usually, wide rows, seated rows, inverted rows, lat pulldowns, then depending on time / energy left: DB pull-overs, Tbar rows, 1-arm DB rows +upper abs)
4: Delts (warmup, then seated DB press, hang clean & press OR overhead press, behind the neck press, DB laterals, front barbell raises, rear delts [either bent raises or reverse Pec dec] +lower abs)
5: Arms and things (I don't focus a lot on arms for whatever reason, mine aren't huge but they seem to come along proportionally as accessories to the bigger lifts, so I concentrate more on what I missed over the past few days, but: close grip bench, chin-ups, rope tricep pushdowns, cable curls, barbell curls or concentration curls, weighted tricep dips if I didn't do chest dips, high-volume bench press, smith machine shrugs, dumbbell shrugs, +obliques)
 
Oh I'm not deadlifting right now. I strained my back hitting a pr of 435x3. I rounded back on last rep and has been killing me since. When get back into deads I will run wendlers 5/3/1 bodybuilder template. Powerlifting mixed with hypertrophy training. I swear
By this but since I can't dead or push too heavy on squat it's pointless.
 
What do you guys think about training on cycle? Doing more and taking advantage of better recovery or stay the same and just let the gear work as you train like u did of cycle? I trained less my first cycle. Focused on strength. Gained amazing mass and strength. Second cycle I trained more saw less gains. I think I just answered my question lol. Although I think first cycle always shows best gains. Started third cycle this past week. Still figuring out if doing 5 day body part split or p/p/l rest repeat.
 
What do you guys think about training on cycle? Doing more and taking advantage of better recovery or stay the same and just let the gear work as you train like u did of cycle? I trained less my first cycle. Focused on strength. Gained amazing mass and strength. Second cycle I trained more saw less gains. I think I just answered my question lol. Although I think first cycle always shows best gains. Started third cycle this past week. Still figuring out if doing 5 day body part split or p/p/l rest repeat.

Depends on your goals. Split for hypertrophy (bodybuilding/asthetic goals), push/pull/legs with more rest for strength/powerlifting.
 
Wht I mean is do u push yourself hard, more volume, less recovery some the AAS helps recovery or do u still follow standard rest and recovery protocol.
 
When I say standard I mean for yourself I know everybody is diff on how much they can take and recover. Having trouble wording this. Not sure of it clears it up for y'all.
 
I can't speak for everyone, but I push much harder on cycle. 5 day split, no rest days - there's a lot of overlap even with a split, especially since I don't exclude compound lifts the way I probably should. Example, this morning (wednesday) was chest, which automatically taxes tris and front delts to an extent. Tomorrow is back, so a day of rest for those muscles but friday and saturday are delts and arms already.
 
Thats how I train PUSH/PULL/LEGS...my off day is usually abs.

The whole "If youre pushing yourself you should be sore" is bullshit, being sore has nothing to do with building muscle or strength. There is no set routine for size or strength, everyones' body is different and will adapt and overcome differently.
 
Day 1: Chest (9-12 sets), Shoulders (6-9 sets), Triceps (4-8 sets)
Day 2: Back (12 sets), Biceps (6-9 sets), Traps (4-8 sets), Forearms-optional (2-4 sets, 15 reps)
Day 3: Legs- Glutes, Quads, Hamstrings, Calves (4 sets each, 10-15 reps)
Day 4 or 5: Abs (6 sets, 12-20 reps), 1 hour cardio
Day 4 or 5: Rest

*All reps 8-12 unless otherwise noted; Weight- pyramid up; Final set to failure or drop(optional)
*Cardio every day 15-45 mins unless otherwise noted
 
Did push/pull/legs off for years. Made steady progress, just varied exercises, sets and volume. Was my go to for close to 15 years.
 
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