I'm lost. Upper/Lower or Push/Pull/Legs

N

njgarage001

New member
Hi !

Sorry for my english, it's not my native language.

I started the calisthenic in january and i have some results (i took some centimeters to measurements even if I always skinny fat... I take weight but muscle building is very low...) but I want to grow up my muscles faster.

I began with Fullbody program and elastics then i completed with dumbells. I read everywhere (articles, forums) that the U/L and P/P/L programs are the best for the bodyweight but I can't decide whether to use both.

The programs I built :

U/L :
Upper 2 or 3 per week :

Superset :
Weighted dips / Chin-up
Superset :
Weighted push-up / Inverted rowing
Superset :
Dumbell lateral raise / Dumbell reverse fly

Magic tryceps
Hammer curl

Lower 2 per week :

Training of L-sit

Pistol squat
Gobelet squat
Bulgarian squat
GHR or Hip trust
Jump squat

Triset :
AB Wheel
Hanging leg raise
Sheating

P/P/L :
Push 2 per week :

Weighted dips
Weighted push-up
Dips
Elevated push-up
Dumbell lateral raise
Magic tryceps

AB Wheel

Pull 2 per week :

Chin-up
Inverted rowing
Assisted Chin-up (for volume)
Dumbell row
Dumbell reverse fly
Hammer curl

Hanging leg raise

Legs 1 or 2 per week :
Same program as Lower.

So, have you advices please ?

Thanks you !
 
@njgarage001 There's 3 things that contribute to muscle growth; training, diet and rest. Most people who do not put on muscle are usually lacking in 1 or more of those area.

From what you've said, it seems like your workout is fine and doesn't have any major issues. Is it still challenging you though? Have you progressively made it harder? If you haven't then that might be contributing to your lack of gains. The body growing more muscle is an adaptation, and if you don't constantly push it, it won't adapt. No adaptation means no new muscle.

How much protein are you getting? You made progress in the past, but the more muscle you have the more you have to eat to maintain it or grow past it. So you might need to increase your intake of protein or even calories.

Rest is the most straightforward. Get more high-quality sleep if you aren't. 8 hours a night at least I reckon, but maybe even more. Include more rest days if you need, and take a deload week now and then.

Try to tweak these things and then see if it helps, if not you might just have unrealistic expectations of how quickly your muscles can grow. An average person with VERY optimised workout, diet and rest may only put on 250g of muscle a week naturally (it's even less for women). For most people it's going to be significantly less than that. Not to mention its going to get harder and harder to put on muscle the bigger you are.
 
@archercrebb Thank you very much for your answer !
I challenge myself at each training with weight and use variants of exercices. But I don't know which is more optimal beetween PPL and UL for volume. I eat more and more with many proteins and I have 2 days of rest. I think it's good enough to grow up my muscles. Just, I have uncertainties about training..
 
@njgarage001 Whether PPL or UL, just commit to one and don't try to combine in some convoluted way. Just stick to one and you should be fine. If you want to optimise it then that takes time and an awareness of your body and works for you, it won't come overnight or no matter how much research you do. I'd personally say that at the beginner level, a UL or even fullbody workout would yield quicker results for the first few months or even longer. Focus on compound movements to work as much of your body as you can.

Just keep realistic expectations of progress, this kind of thing takes years and years to develop. You won't get to the level of fitness models and athletes you see online in just a few months, or even in the first few years. Maybe not even ever, considering many are on the juice. You also have life to deal with, work or studies, commitments outside of that, relationships, kids, etc, etc...you're not a fulltime athlete who gets paid to do this and can commit most of their time to training, eating and rest. Like I said, keep realistic expectations.
 
@archercrebb Ok I understand. I will have realistic expectations and chose U/L program to progress with it. I have to accept that my body will take muscles with time. Thank you, really, for your complete answer.
 
@njgarage001 I'd definitely suggest Upper/Lower. You can use an Upper/Lower split + Antagonistic Pairs and that will let you get the entire body done with 2 days. PPL takes 3 days.

The advantage of getting it done in 2 days is that you have a full day of rest for recovery and muscle growth. You can also put some low-intensity cardio in there which may also help with recovery.
 
@njgarage001 Splits are merely a tool to manage volume and time. Doing an upper lower is great because you don't need as many days in the gym, can do super sets with opposing muscle groups. The downside is that you have to me careful with your movement selection because you have a limited amount of time in the gym. On the other hand, a push pull leg allows you to dedicate a lot more movements to certain muscle groups. You can be a lot more comprehensive with your exercise choices, while not being as pressed for time since you'll be able to cover the other half of your upper body in a different section. So in that regard push pull legs is a bit more upper body biased. But it requires more training days and fewer rest days, which can impede your progress.

But there are also different ways you can arrange your training than just those two. A cool one is the half body split, or anterior posterior. Posterior days would include any back, bicep, glute and hamstring movements, anterior would include core, chest, shoulders, tris and quads. This way you can get the best of a full body and push pull legs without needing as many days.

The second alternative is combing the two. Do push pull legs upper lower. You cut down on the number of days while retaining the same frequency. A good compromise between the two.
 
@njgarage001 I'd do something like this:

Anterior: Dips/Pistol Squat/Push up/ Goblet squat/Triceps Extension/Core

Posterior: Pull up/ RDL/ Row/ GHR/ Bicep Curl/ Hip Thrust

Just an example. I think what I like about this, similar to a full body routine, is that one part of your body rests while the other works.
 
@njgarage001 The secret, all of the 3 day full body, 4 day upper/lower, and 6 day ppl all have kind of similar results combined with great diet, volume, form and rest. It's generally just a matter of preference and or what works best with your lifestyle. Doing all 3 I found PPL the most hardcore and difficult to follow so I prefer upper/lower myself, but the routine, so long as it's good with enough volume matters so much less than consistency, diet, effort and rest.
 
@njgarage001 Volume would be many working sets per muscle group per week. Say you do 6 sets of chest as per the RR, 3 days a week so your volume is 18 sets. If you do upper/lower since you only do that muscle group twice a week you would need to add in 3 more sets to have the same volume.

I had to google what polyarticular means so I'm probably not the man to answer that question.
 
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