How’s my 3 day split

hum

New member
Hello all,

I’ve been working out and taking it not so seriously the past 3 years and I’ve made some decent gains but definitely not at the rate I’d prefer. After a year of some joint pain from bad form and fixing said form, and stretching more seriously, I’ve finally started to feel better and want to start progressing faster.

I def feel like the showy muscles (chest and biceps) growing at a decent rate but everything else lags slightly behind, most especially my quads. It’s silly but rdls destroy my legs and my hammies have gotten big insanely quick but the quads are lacking.

I currently work out only 3 days a week, with a push/pull/legs split Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday. I wanted thoughts on if my routine needs improvement, more intensity, or if there’s something I should be switching up, e.g. doing a back exercise on my chest day so I’m not going a whole 7 days without hitting back, and vice versa)

I try to aim for failure on my last 2 sets of each exercise, so I don’t usually hit my 10th or so rep on those 2, and I progress with higher weight with each subsequent set.

Push day:
Flat Bench 4x10
Shoulder press 4x10
pec fly 4x10
tricep cable extensions 4x10
Tricep push down 4x10
Weighted crunches 4x10

occasionally I throw in face pulls 4x10 when I do tricep extensions

Pull day:
Pull up negatives (4xas many as I can)
Pull downs 4x10
Cable row 4x10
Back extension 4x10
Preacher curls 4x10
Bicep curls 4x10
Reverse curls 4x10

Leg day:
Step ups 4x10 (this is more for ankle strength and balance)
Leg extension 4x10
Leg press 4x10
RDLs 4x10
Ham curls 4x10
Calf raise 4x10

I should add I don’t use any creatine or preworkout ever. I’m 6’1 and 180 lbs. and I try to get atleast 120g protein a day, whether I’ve worked out that day or not.

Thanks
 
@hum You're gonna get a lot of flak for not having a variant of either squats or deadlifts. Those two would save you some time. Overall, you're fine. The most important thing is that you stick to it, use enough weight to keep the challenge up as you get stronger, and you eat enough.
 
@joyce65714 I was doing squats for awhile, I’m curious though, if my main goal is quad growth, does it really matter if I’m doing squats vs doing leg press instead? If I’m getting my core work in the form of weighted crunches and back extensions., what is the benefit? I often feel like my core is my limiting factor in my squats so I don’t get great quad activation

As for deadlifts, I just feel like they hit too many things and not one thing very hard, and that I want to die after them.
 
@hum
everything else lags slightly behind, most especially my quads.

You train legs once a week and the only quad focused work you do are leg extensions.

Your entire routine is essentially just assistance work.

I try to aim for failure on my last 2 sets of each exercise, so I don’t usually hit my 10th or so rep on those 2, and I progress with higher weight with each subsequent set.

I'd argue that this is fine for assistance excercises, but unless you already have advanced/elite strength levels and/or are on gear, you really need a more strength focused approach to your main excercise for the day.

I wanted thoughts on if my routine needs improvement, more intensity, or if there’s something I should be switching up

You'd get a lot more out of a 3 day full body or a 4 day upper/lower. That way you can hit each muscle group more than once a week.
 
@lnjblessings When you say more strength focused, I think you mean: less reps more weight? As for less assistance exercises: start incorporating squats? And possibly deadlifts (we will see about the deadlifts 😬)
 
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