Have a look at my PPL Program. Then post a good comment.

A change of program is needed at this in my lifting shenanigans to freshen things up in the gym. I like the PPL program because I want to reduce volume per session but increase frequency and intensity as I embark on a lean bulk over the next few months. I have done my best to achieve a 2:1 pull push ratio here. Comment if this is not the case, or if I programmed something kooky in there and don't even know it.

6 Day Training Schedule: Push A / Pull A / Legs A / Push B / Pull B / Legs B / Rest.

Push (Chest/Triceps/Shoulders):

Military Press: 3x5 (A Days only)
Barbell Bench Press: 3x5 (B Days only)
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3x10-12
Weighted Dips: 3x10-12
Overhead Dumbbell Extension: 3x10-12
Optional - Hex Press: 3x5 (time permitting)

Pull (Back/Biceps):

Deadlift: 3x5 (A Days only)
Romanian Deadlift: 3x5 (B Days only)
Pendlay Rows: 3x5
Pull-Ups: 3x8-10
Incline DB Curls: 4x-10-12
Face-pulls: 3x-10-12
Optional - Shrugs: 3x10-12 (time permitting)
Optional - Seated Rows: 3x8-10 (time permitting)

Legs (Quad/Ham/Calves):

Barbell Back Squats: 4x5-6 (A Days only)
Front Squats: : 4x3-5 (B Days only)
Lunges: 3x8-10
Hamstring Curls: 3x10-12
Ab Wheel: 3x12
Hanging Leg Raises: Leg Raises 3x12

Works out to be 5 exercises per session. Should be done and dusted in an hour. Yay, nay, I shall rep you OK?

Where's the love for the baby cows?

Looks good, but I'd do flyes or even pullovers rather than hex press.

Should be able to knock that out in well under an hour

6 weights sessions a week?
Are you stretching every night?? What injury prevention techniques do you have?? Band work etc?

White_Lie said:

Where's the love for the baby cows?

Looks good, but I'd do flyes or even pullovers rather than hex press.

Should be able to knock that out in well under an hour

Click to expand...

Calves don't respond well to direct work (for me), but they tend to blow up when I do HIIT stuff. Such as bike riding, squash, and even some hilly hikes.
Fantastic idea about the flyes. They really stretch out the pecs and blow them up real good and I don't even have to go heavy!

On spread spread spread..

taurus said:

6 weights sessions a week?
Are you stretching every night?? What injury prevention techniques do you have?? Band work etc?

Click to expand...

1hr session 6 mornings a week should be ok yeah? I do a lot of mobility (foam roll, mobility WOD stuff) before I go to the gym, foam roll and static stretch afterwards. Learning more about band work now. I have the green and black bands begging to be taken advantage of at home.


On spread spread spread!

Forever on spread

Looks pretty good to me. I'd personally include some reverse flys as they seem to hit rear delts well compared to face pulls for me.

Also, 3 sets of 5 deadlifts takes me 45mins including mobility and warmups. No way I'd get that one done in an hour!

Oh and what is your method of progression? Just adding weight when you can hit the top reps I take it? And also deload? (when required)

Cheers @jzpowahz; I'll swap the facepulls for reverse flys as I haven't done them in a while.

Method of progression is bit hazy at the moment. Would you recommend adding weight once I hit ALL the reps for every set? Or add 0.5kg a week (linear style as proposed by the original PPL program) until I stall = can't get prescribed reps even in the first set?
So for example if it 3 x 8 and I go:
Set 1: 3 x 8
Set 2: 3 x 7
Set 3: 3 x 6
That's a no go, so keep trying until I can get 3 x 8 across all 3 sets.

P.s Agree the DL days will take the most out of me, but I generally start mobility work and warm up at home earlier before I head to the gym.

Rep'd to the max!

I think that depends on your current strength levels mainly. What are your lifts currently?

I typically increase when I can hit my prescribed sets and reps for at least 2 (or 3) workouts in a row. e.g. started reverse flys at 17.5x10, gradually increased to 17.5x10 and did that 3 times before I went up to 20x10.

jzpowahz said:

I think that depends on your current strength levels mainly. What are your lifts currently?

I typically increase when I can hit my prescribed sets and reps for at least 2 (or 3) workouts in a row. e.g. started reverse flys at 17.5x10, gradually increased to 17.5x10 and did that 3 times before I went up to 20x10.

Click to expand...

SQ 125kg BP 110kg DL 150kg SOHP 75kg are my conservative 1.R.M. So I might start at 80% of this and work up. I just been reading up on autoregulation and RPE (rate of perceived exertion), so I'm going to apply that to my training too. Have 2 light days, 1 medium day, and one heavy.

Hitting the prescribed sets for 2 workouts in a row is a good idea.. so you know its no fluke!

Light Days - 10-15 reps @ RPE 10
Medium Days - 6-10 reps @ RPE 9-9.5
Heavy Days - 3-5 reps @ RPE 9

where RPE 9 means 1 rep left in the tank, 9.5 means none left, and 10 is failure!

Sounds like a good plan mate. I also like the idea of the RTS/RPE system (planning on using it myself for world's prep) but I prefer to use it for the main compound lifts only. Reason being, I am fairly sure I can go to a 10 RPE on preacher curls fairly routinely without negatively affecting my recovery but doing the same on deadlifts is going to fark me up pretty quickly

e.g.
Push (Chest/Triceps/Shoulders):

Military Press: 5reps @9, 5% fatigue drop (A Days only)
Barbell Bench Press: 5 reps @9 5% fatigue drop(B Days only)
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3x10-12
Weighted Dips: 3x10-12
Overhead Dumbbell Extension: 3x10-12
Optional - Hex Press: 3x5 (time permitting)

Pull (Back/Biceps):

Deadlift: 5reps at 9 5% fatigue drop (A Days only)
Romanian Deadlift: 5reps at 9 5% fatigue drop (B Days only)
Pendlay Rows: 3x5
Pull-Ups: 3x8-10
Incline DB Curls: 4x-10-12
Face-pulls: 3x-10-12
Optional - Shrugs: 3x10-12 (time permitting)
Optional - Seated Rows: 3x8-10 (time permitting)

Legs (Quad/Ham/Calves):

Barbell Back Squats: 5-6 reps at 9 5% fatigue drop(A Days only)
Front Squats: : 3-5 reps at 9 5% fatigue drop(B Days only)
Lunges: 3x8-10
Hamstring Curls: 3x10-12
Ab Wheel: 3x12
Hanging Leg Raises: Leg Raises 3x12

Start with 5% fatigue drop. Increase up to 10% for increased volume phases. Decrease back to 5% if training maxes appear to be stagnating or decreasing. That is basically my plan. Well not the above workout but the method behind it. I'm going to "attempt" some high frequency deadlifting as long as the body will cooperate

Massive props for that mate. Yeah I am still getting my head around RPE but totally agree on not going to 10 (failure) on compounds. Its not conducive for strength gains anyway doing it that way.

Got a lot of catching up to do strengthwise, I hope this is gonna be it!

Uh, I think I might have screwed this up! My program which I started this week looks like this: (just the push/pull bit for my question)

Push A (Chest/Triceps/Shoulders):

Warmup: Ring Pushups
Flat Barbell Bench Press: 3x5-8
DB Bench Press: 3x8-10
Cable Flyes: 3x10-12
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3x10-12
Overhead Dumbbell Extension: 3x10-12
(Total reps = 129)

Push B (Chest/Triceps/Shoulders):

Warmup: Ring Pushups
Standing Barbell Overhead Press: 3x5-8
DB Overhead Press: 3x8-10
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3x10-12
Dips: 3x12-15
Overhead Dumbbell Extension: 3x10-12
(Total reps = 135)

Pull A (Back/Biceps):

Warmup: 5 min Rower
Deadlift: 3x5
DB Rows: 3x10-12
Pull-Ups: 4x8-10 (AMAP then go weighted)
Incline DB Curls: 4x-10-12
DB Shrugs: 3x10-12
(Total reps = 147)

Pull B (Back/Biceps):

Warmup: 5 min Rower
RDL: 3x5
Barbell Rows: 3x10-12
Pull-Ups: 4x8-10 (AMAP then go weighted)
Reverse BB Curls: 4x-10-12
Reverse Flyes: 3x-10-12
Seated Rows (circuit machine): 3x8-10
(Total reps = 171)

Total Push Reps (minimum) = 264
Total Pull Reps (minimum) = 312

So as you can see, even though Pull > Push, I am not even close to the 1:2 ratio for push pull. Does this mean I got to up the sets for my pull days until my reps are twice the amount of push? For muscle body balance.

Depends how prone you are to injury, most people do way too much pressing because they want big man titties and the 1:2 ratio is suggested to stop their dumbasses from messing up their shoulders

The push pull ratio is just plucked out of someone's arse.

I wouldn't touch any ratio that's been up someone's arse
It would have poo all over it

Darkoz said:

I wouldn't touch any ratio that's been up someone's arse
It would have poo all over it

Click to expand...

Depends if they've bleached

So you guys don't ratio anything, just 1:1 or whatevers? I always thought Pull > push is needed for muscle balance. (mind you this is more to do with BB but hey..)

I used to look at push/pull ratios, but I think that's over complicating things. Focus on number of sets per muscle group.

For example you could be training shoulders and one week do overhead press and the next do upright rows. Both working the front delt, but one a push and one a pull.

It's not something I've ever considered.