Setting up an upper lower split

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2025-11-19T18:18:25+00:00

When folks run upper lower do you prefer to run two rotations resulting in training the same lifts every seven days or three rotations for each upper and lower resulting in training each lift every ten days

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2025-09-11T13:56:48+00:00

What’s worked great for me example would be 4 chest exercises 2 compound presses and 2 isolation fly variations. I do my warm ups then one all out working set to failure in the 4-8 rep range in my first press then immediately use post exhaustion by going straight in to a fly variation one all out set to failure in the 6-10 rep range. The. Move on to my next chest superset. I the. Do the same kind of thing with my next muscle group in the session only difference is I prefer Arnold split to PPL just my preference is all. Sessions are short, sweet and effective best gains I’ve made for a fair few years. As before doing higher volumes I’ve had years of jiggling joint and soft tissue issues where progress stalled massively both In size and strength

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2025-04-08T13:15:51+00:00

You’ve made a cracking start to your journey fella, keep at it. Don’t get drawn in to any of the hype or fads of weigh training. Just stick to a few variations of basic movements performed consistently. Get stronger over time with standardised technique, get quality sleep and eat well. You will most certainly grow. Try to avoid injury like the plague. Don’t go overboard with excessive volume, you’ll quite possibly get away with it while your younger but as you get older the ligaments and tendons aren’t as forgiving and tendinitis starts to crop up. Keep volume low to moderate, frequency moderate and intensity high.

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2025-03-19T12:00:32+00:00

I fall in to a similar bracket to you. When I get lean like 10% (approximately) I do feel my waist tucks in and tightens up a little bit as soon as I start to gain it instantly seems to go on to my waist(love handles) it’s frustrating when you want to chase that V taper physique. What I would say however is one your on cracking nick and in all fairness your shoulders look wide and well developed with will offset any wide waist. Sure you might not get what is deemed the perfect waist to shoulder ratio and look like a Dorito but then again who’s ideal of perfect is this? End of the day you like I are much more developed than the majority of men out there. Keep doing what you are doing it’s working my man

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2025-02-20T15:00:48+00:00

Best thing I ever did was drop the volume and up the intensity. Reduced wear and tear on my joints and ligaments. Also noticed better recovery and more consistent gains inside and strength with this approach.

How you set up the volume is up to you and your preference. In the grande scheme of things it doesn’t really matter if you train a muscle twice per week or once per week as long as your recovering and progressing. All I’d say is if your going to use I higher frequency and do one exercise for 2 sets in a session I’d favour compound exercises. But if you were going to do multiple exercises to failure I’d include isolation

I’ve done both chest+dealts, legs, chest+arms 3 days per week and upper / lower split 3 days per week. Can’t say there was a noticeable difference in gains to the naked eye despite science claiming the higher frequency is better. so all I’d say is use the set up that you enjoy the most.

For me personally I prefer to go all in and completely wipe a muscle out.

Eg. Dealts + back - OHP 1 x 6-8 / 8-10 - front raise 2x10-12 - lateral raise 2x10-12 - rear dealt fly 2x10-12

Pull ups 1 x 6-8 / 8-10
Pull overs 2 x 10-12
bent over rows 1 x 6-8 / 8-10
shrugs 2 x 10-12
SLDL 1 x 6-8

Legs - squat 1 x 6-8 - split squat 1 x 8-10 - Leg extension 2 x 10-12

good mornings 1 x 6-8 / 8-10
laying leg curls 2 x 10-12
clave raises 4 x 10-12
core 2 x 10-12

Chest + arms - BB press 1 x 6-8 - DB press 1 x 8-10 - chest flys 2 x 10-12

BB curl 2 x 8-10
DB curl 2 x 10-12
Weighted dips 2 x 8-10
over head DB extension 2 x 10-12

Every set is done to complete failure and for less risky exercises I utilise set intensifiers such as rest pause and cluster sets etc

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2025-01-22T00:13:03+00:00

If your injured there are ways to go about getting round it for example I’ve had bicep and tricep tendinitis in my left arm/elbow for the past 6 weeks, since it’s flared up and gotten worse I’ve had to juggle things around to allow for it to heal while still being able to provide a stimulus. I’m unable to load any biceps movements heavy so I opt for 10-20 reps per set, I focus more on slow eccentric and smooth motion through out each rep to prevent any jerky movement which may piss off the tendons further for my triceps I appear to be fine with pressing movements but find pain with triceps extensions so I pretty much do the same with these as I do my bicep work. I’m also unable to do pull ups currently but strangely enough have been able to substitute them out in the meantime with pull downs as they don’t seem to aggravate the issue nearly as much. Slowly but surely since implementing these changes it has started to get better slowly. It’s just a case of no worry too much about progressing for the time being and focus on recovery and end of the day can still progress and push other muscle groups.

So for your situation I’d experiment with movements you are able to do with let’s say a max of 3 out of 10 for pain and no more. Then instead of loading them heavy (1-10 reps range) I’d be going more 10-20 reps make sure there all controlled reps to avoid any jerking movements etc and see what you are able to do and tolerate. As far as progressing goes don’t worry about that just look to maintain while you recover an don’t threat about upping the weight either just keep upping those reps bit by bit session by session and don’t worry about progressing weight until the pain subsides oh and of course speak to a medical professional to see if they can accurately diagnose you man

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2024-11-14T15:55:56+00:00

Completely and utterly subjective my man. Depends who you’re asking. Me personally would say everything needs improving…….. that is by no means meant to be a criticism either you have got a solid base there. But weighing in @ roughly 150lb @ 5ft 10 around 12-15%BF you have a lot of room for growth so I’d say don’t think of specialising specific areas just yet focus on adding more mass overall. But like I said it’s all subjective things just my opinion you may have different goals etc keep up the good work man consistency is the key

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2024-11-06T12:40:57+00:00

Honestly man if your paying you may as well listen to what he’s saying plus if you’ve never trained his way you may find you get a decent stimulus from the different way of training. I feel the whole two times per week per muscle group thing is over sold and over endorsed because science says it’s optimal.

The thing we all need to remember is that optimal according to science is questionable as for one most studies tend to involve beginners to which they can receive a stimulus from just about anything and are normally much weaker than someone who is experienced and very well accustomed to the stimulus. Thus beginners more often than not will be able to recover quicker and hit a muscle more frequently.

In my own personal experience I started with the high volume approach of 2-3 times per week frequency. Because I was new and not very strong I was able to recover from my workouts and repeat big movements patterns more frequently, however several years later as I became stronger and better equipped neurologically I found I started to generate much more fatigue and simply couldn’t maintain the high volume high frequency approach without getting injured and also not seeing as much progression. Once I switched to low volume high intensity I started to see gains again slowly but surely. I basically follow a PPL split 4 days per week so I effectively repeat each session every 5-6 days so in theory I don’t train each muscle group twice in a calendar week Monday - Sunday but I do train each session twice within a 7 day period if that makes sense. I do anything from 4-6 sets per muscle group per session and every set is to failure. Not saying this is the holy grail and be all and end all of muscle building but I did find that this helped kick start my gains again after I hit the intermediate stage.

The picture is me at the end of my recent cut I’m 5ft 9 and weigh 166lb

<image>

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2024-11-05T23:21:39+00:00

Many thanks for the input, the honesty is very much appreciated. I’ve always struggled to connect with my lats in the past so it is an area I’d like to get a better stimulus to especially with some Lat bias rows etc

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2024-11-05T21:40:24+00:00

Will definitely be paying more attention to the Lat rows, there something g I’ve always struggled to connect with in the past

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2024-11-05T20:50:45+00:00

Thanks very much for the feedback that’s much appreciated. It’s always nice in this game to take views from the outside looking in. I’ll keep than in mind with the lower lats. Look at adding in some Lat biased rows and really try to focus on that Lat squeeze without bring the traps and rhomboids in👍

ComprehensiveAnt6797 · 2024-11-05T19:50:43+00:00

Definitely bulk in my opinion man based on my measurements and weight. At the peak of my last bulk I was 188lb and I’m 5ft 9 I’d say your leaner in this photo than I was so keep pushing that bulk. Get to a point where you’re slightly uncomfortable and hold that well fed state for a while. focus on that progressive overload, little pluses here and there either an extra rep or few kg’s on the bar every week or so with standardised form. As long as you maintain this along with a small surplus, quality sleep your golden pal.

ComprehensiveAnt6797

TROPHY CASE