But after non-stop research and 12+ years of experience in the gym, a tried-and-true approach is the push-pull-legs routine.
By separating muscles based on their function, we can minimize overlap so that you hit the muscle hard and then allow it to recover before hitting it again.
Here’s an example of how this split might look:
Day 1: Push A – Strength
Day 2: Pull A – Strength
Day 3: Legs A – Strength (Quads)
Day 4: Push B – Hypertrophy
Day 5: Pull B – Hypertrophy
Day 6: Legs B – Hypertrophy (Glutes/Hamstrings)
Day 7: Rest
As you can see, the first 3 days will be strength focused…this means we’ll focus on using heavier loads in the 5-8 rep range. The following days will be hypertrophy focused…in other words, we’ll be using lighter loads in the 8-15 rep range to accumulate more training volume.
Like I hinted at earlier, training volume is the key to muscle hypertrophy. A study from Lehman College examined lifters doing 1 set, 3 sets, or 5 sets per exercise. The more sets they performed, the more muscle growth they experienced.
That said, it’s not about how much volume you can perform, but rather, how effectively you can recover from said volume.
Which is why I am a huge advocate of undulating volume as a form of fatigue management.
If you’ve seen some of my other videos, you’ve probably heard of daily undulating periodization, or DUP…this is where you change training variables between days in a single routine.
One study from Arizona State University compared DUP to linear periodization…The DUP group literally experienced twice the results [3].
Which is why we’re doing something similar by splitting up the strength and hypertrophy days.
The reason for doing this is to allow you to hit each muscle 2x/week, by which one workout is a “heavy” day and the other is a “light” day in which you allow a little more recovery to dissipate fatigue.
Now that you understand the reasoning behind this split and why it works, let’s get into the actual routine.
Keep in mind this is simply a template and not an actual program. This way, you can tailor the exercises, sets, and reps to your personal needs.
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References
1. https://muscleandstrengthpyramids.com/
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30153194/
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11991778/
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC449729/
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21068680/
6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19197209/
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6047503/