The Best Muscle Building split: The Push Pull Legs Split.

In the last blog we talked about the full body split , its basics , its pros , its cons and why it is more then a beginner’s split.

In this blog however we will be talking about a split who happen to make a huge comeback in recent years . You see since the 80s bodybuilders all over planet , both professional , amateurs and even regular joes have been using the body part split exclusively, and don’t get me wrong it delivered awesome results but in this blog we are focused on natural trainees who might not get as much results from that split , why? Recent scientific literature by brad schoelfield indicates that for optimal  muscle building results  , each body part must be hit at least twice per week which is not doable within the body part split. Also, a lot of fitness gurus like famous coach Christian Thibeaudeau’s believed in the importance of training frequency for natural trainees from longtime ago before the scientific studies , and if you don’t know coach Thib , he is one of the strongest most jacked natural athletes on the planet , probably the smartest as well.

Also I am sure if you have been around youtube lately you will notice that most of the famous fitness youtube influencers use the push pull legs split , am talking about guys like Jeff Nippard ,Mike Thurston , Vitruvian physique , Christian Guzman and many more . And you know what is the most common thing between this dudes beside being famous , they are natural, exactly right?

And why are they doing the push pull leg split , because in my humble opinion is one of the best if not the best split for natural trainees looking too build strength and muscle and even lose fat.

A push pull leg split is simply a split where on the first  day you will do your pushing muscles which are chest , shoulders and triceps , on the second day you hit your pulling muscles means your back, rear delts and biceps.

Then third day is everyone favourite day , leg day , this the day to work on all your lower body muscles , your quadriceps , your hamstrings , your glutes and your calves. That is one cycle , usually you rest one day and repeat again.

The beauty about this split is that it optimises both recovery and frequency , for instance your pushing muscles would be rested for more 72 hours before you hit them again , also they get the benefit of being stretched during the back workout which is reported to enhance recovery and reduce DOMS , am speaking about that sweet pain in your chest muscles after some series benching , yes it is satisfying but trust me having DOMS for more than one day is no fun walk, and here where an opposite muscles workout comes in handy.

Also , in the third day all of your upper body will be rested  so when you hit again in the next cycle it is fresh and ready.

Now let’s do a quick review of pros and cons of this split before moving to the program design part , the one that everyone loves.

Pros:

- It allow to an optimised frequency of training of two times per week for each muscle group

- It enhances recovery and avoid local fatigue in certain muscle parts

- It is very promising in terms of muscle gain and hypertrophy and it is the favourite for many researchers and experts

- It allow the use of a slightly more volume which means the possibility of working the muscles from different angles.

Cons

-None but for the reasons of courtesy I would say it is kind of boring , I mean you can’t have an arm day right , and we as bodybuilding enthusiasts love our arm pump, just as Arnold said in pumping iron “ it feels like cummi**”.

Now on how to design your own push pull split workout , first of all I highly recommend you change the exercises from the first cycle so you are able to hit as many muscle fibers as possible.

Another important part is that since you will be hitting each muscle twice a week you need to reduce the overall volumes for each session, also , each muscle group require a certain amount of volume , for instance you won’t need as much volume for your triceps as you would for your back.

So the first step is to dial in your weekly volume target , here is a quick guideline for the best weekly volume for each individual body part.

Body part	Weekly volume	Notes
Chest	16 sets	-Try to include both presses and flyes
Shoulders	20 sets	-Building a 3D Delts require the use of many angles so we will use a slightly higher volume
Triceps	9 sets	-Try to include at least one exercise for the long head
Back /rear delts	30 sets	-Focus one day on vertical pulling(pull ups) and the other on horizontal pulling(rows)
Biceps	9 sets	-Make sure to hit both the biceps brachii and brachialis
Quadriceps	16 sets	-Make sure to include at least a big basic movement like squat for your quads and I would encourage the inclusion unilateral exercises.
Hamstrings	16 sets	-Include a leg curl variation and a hip hinge variation like stiff leg deadlift or romanian deadlift.
Calves	24 sets	-Since they have a dominance of  slow twitch muscle fibers , calves require higher amounts of volume to  adequately stimulate hypertrophy.
Abdominals	24-30 sets	-Hit your abs often, 3 times a week at least because abs respond very well to high frequency training.

- The amount of volume listed above will certainly vary depending on several factors like your training status since obviously experienced lifters may need more volume and absolute might not be ready yet to handle such amount of volume. Also , thing like your recovery , nutrition and stress levels may affect how much you volume you can handle.

-Small body parts like biceps and triceps may benefit from increased volume if they are especially lagging, but generally they shouldn’t require lots of isolation work since they will be stimulated often in the big compound exercises.

However , more volume doesn’t always equal better gains since there is a pointing of diminishing returns where volume might lead to a lot of fatigue and eventually overtraining. Here is the curve of the volume response in hypertrophy so you get  a visual feeling of the matter :

So next time you want an 18” arms don’t hit your biceps every day with few hundred curls because it will only make you weaker and derail your progress.

Tomorrow, I will share with you a sample workout routine to use next time you want to give this split a try.

See you later.