Any cons on doing upper-lower split 3 x week?

[greenmart123]

Hi! Well, I don't like full body (less pump and more fatigue, at least for me) and I only have 3 days rather free.

I mean like this:

Week1: ULU

Week2: LUL (in this week, with just 1 upper workout I feel less motivated)

Please, How do you deal with this 2nd week and the less amount of upper work?
Which few upper movements can I incorporate in order to make the lower days in that week less "boring"?
Any Suggestions?

And no, I don't want another split.

 

[tsomnlie]

@greenmart123 No cons at all. If you’re progressing, keep at it. If you’re not progressing and feel rundown, work less. Simple as that. Maybe for some people their most optimal is doing 6 instead of 3. But there’s huge diminishing returns with every set. So outside of being a professional bodybuilder, your potential loss if there are any is probably slim on a long enough timeline.

 

[beaufordqrastus]

@greenmart123 Honestly, if I had only three days to train I'd rather just stick to ULU. Are your legs lagging or do you build leg muscle particularly slow? If not you can just do one lower workout per week with more volume than usual. It's more of a detriment to only train upper once a week rather than lower. I train similar to that as well just with an added arm day between lower and the second upper day.

If you're really deadset on doing this for whatever reason (like severe lack of leg muscle) I'd do it like this:

Week 1 Upper, Lower, Upper

Week 2 Lower+Arms, Upper, Lower+Arms

So just coupling together biceps and triceps (maybe bit of side delt) with the leg days in the second week, so it's more fun and engaging.

Bis and tris are also relatively small compared to other upper body muscles, meaning they recover much faster. So training them only once a week just makes you miss out on arm gains in that week.

 

[munya]

@beaufordqrastus A variation on your suggestion I’ve considered would be on first upper day, add some light work for quads, like leg extensions, and then on second upper day at end of the week, some light work for hams. This, plus a good bit of volume on the dedicated leg day in the middle of the week, could accumulate much of the volume you’d get with 4x upper/lower.

 

[greenmart123]

@munya paralysisviaanalysis Thank you! Your suggestion is good, too. The only con I see is I have 7 exercises on the upper workouts and dunno if I can cope with it. But, I'll take note. Thanks again

 

[greenmart123]

@beaufordqrastus Thank you!
Your adjustments look good.
My legs need more growth, but now I don't care. I'll focus on upper body for now. So I take the ULU.
I'm doing all exercises 3x10 (except first heavy compounds) How would I increase the volume?

I think doing all 4x10 and put in 1 or 2 exercises, but I don't know how to manage squat and deadlift on the same day. On P.H.U.L. I was doing squats following by conventional deads, but was very taxing.

My exercises would be

SQUAT-DEAD- LEGPRESS (added)

-LEG CURL-HIPTHRUST AND LEG EXTENSION.

Your second option is appealing, too. For sure I'll try it further.
Do you do both tris and bis & lateral raises on 2nd week lowers? I think You swap'em from the upper workout. Is it not?

IF SO, my 2nd week lowers would look like this:

SQUAT-DEAD- leg curl-leg.extension- BIS/TRIS/LAT.DELTS

 

[doks]

@greenmart123 This is essentially the old school DC split (popularized by Dante Trudel who’s still one of the most respected underground figures in bodybuilding). If your exercise selection is on point and you’re progressing across all your exercises, you should have no issues

 

[pamelamarie89]

@doks I did DC training in the early early 2k’s. That two way split is awesome and I still use that rotation a lot minus the rest pausing aspect as I train at home. The moderate frequency is excellent especially now at 46. Thanks to frank calta popularizing that sort of rotation for 3 days a week

 

[doks]

@pamelamarie89 ya same! I mostly do straight sets with a couple minutes rest in between each set. Also ive ran some of the DC modifications that people like Jordan Peters and Dusty Henshaw have put forth.

 

[pamelamarie89]

@doks Yep I do the top set and back off set normally but will occasionally rest pause say floor skulls etc.

 

[greenmart123]

@doks Thanks for the info. Just read about this method and it sounds interesting for focusing on intensity for a while and gain some strength. I'll try it further

 

[mcolley10]

@greenmart123 nothing wrong with it, just do it. Dont look at your "split" as per week volume, look at it across the month, if hitting Upper twice a week in one and once a week in the second you are still getting sufficient work in if of course you are training hard in those sets.

 

[greenmart123]

@mcolley10 Do you mean hard: "progressive overload"?

 

[tinkiepanda]

@greenmart123 A training week doesn't have to be Mon-Sunday.

Doing a UL 4 day split but done over 8 or 9 days is a solid option if you only have 3 days per 7 days to train. This could give more time to recovery which means you probably could do 8 or 10 exercises per session if you so wish

 

[greenmart123]

@tinkiepanda That's new to me! I Will try this concept of a "longer week". Thank you very much bro!