Please critique my programme: moving from the RR to SM's PPL

[reallylongnickname]

Hi I'm looking for feedback on my take on SM's PPL programme.

I'm 35yo male, 5'10.

I've been doing RR for 10 months but am moving on as the only way I was gaining was by doing 5 sets of everything and this made the workout 2–2.5 hours long which was proving mentally unsustainable.

My goals are simple: to be super good at pull ups and L sits, and to be able to do a handstand push up.

My questions:

1. My understanding is that PPL allows you to do some isolation exercises, however, should I replace tricep extensions / bicep curls with higher rep PB dips / chin ups (unweighted) to get more weekly compound volume?
2. Are L sits ok to include as a core exercise? As its a goal of mine I wanted to make sure I had a decent amount of weekly volume, however, would it be better to just translate the RR core triplet across the days? I tried to add hanging leg raises but I can't really get a good ROM due to having a low pull up bar.
3. When I was training the RR (m/w/f) I'd run 5k, do my skills and a bit of extra oblique work (I enjoy it) on my off days (t/t/s). Any thoughts on when's best to incorporate the running with PPL? In the evening? Or just do 1x 10k and one 5k instead of 3 5k?
4. Any other comments?

Cheers

THE ROUTINE

Push (Monday/Thursday)

• 5 x 5–8 HSPU (progression)
• 5 x 5–12 PPPU
• 5 x 5–8 Tricep Extension (or would PB dips be better?)
• 3 x Max Reps Pull Up (unweighted)
• 5 x 6-8s L Sit (Sets and time to adapt as per the Prilepin Chart)

Pull (Tuesday/Friday)

• 5 x 5–8 Weighted Pull-up
• 5 x 5–12 Weighted Inverted Row
• 5 x 5–8 Bicep curl (or would chin ups be better?)
• 1 x Max Reps Pull Up (unweighted)
• 3 x 5-8 Ab Roll Out
• Skill: Hand Stand 3 x 60s of attempts

Legs (Wednesday/Saturday)

• 5 x 5-8 Shrimp or Pistol Squad
• 5 x 5-8 Banded leg raise
• 5 x 8-15 RDL (unweighted, more for mobility than anything)
• 3 x Max Reps Pull Ups (unweighted)
• 5 x 6-8s L Sit (Sets and time to adapt as per the Prilepin Chart)

 

[kristianzhe]

@reallylongnickname I would suggest doing Skill work like Handstands before your strength work. As its not very taxing you can do it before every workout.

Currently you are doing Pullups in every workout 6x a week which is way too much, doing it only in the PULL session will give much more progress. Otherwise there is no possibilities for your muscles to recover

 

[reallylongnickname]

@kristianzhe Thanks for your reply. In terms of pull up volume, this is what was prescribed in SM's PPL from the side bar, but maybe that's assuming that pull ups aren't my primary pulling goal?

 

[chychy]

@reallylongnickname Give it a try and see how it goes. If you go a week or two and feel like your shoulders are all beat up without making any progress, then dial back the volume.

There are a lot of general guidelines in fitness, but very few of them are hard and fast rules. In general, smaller muscles recover faster than big ones, so it might be possible to press 5-6 days a week while most people will regret trying to squat or deadlift more than 2-3 days...

... unless you're the guy over in weightroom who decided to deadlift 600+ every day for a few straight weeks and pushed his deadlift max up by something like 50lbs. Or the dude who fixed a back injury by squatting every day.

The 'rules' aren't universal. The classic russian fighter program for pull ups is 5 days a week. 6 days a week is certainly possible, although all those 'max reps' sets might be an issue, assuming that means going all the way to failure. That can be a lot tougher to recover from compared to leaving one or two reps in the tank.

 

[reallylongnickname]

@chychy This is good. I’ve been doing RR with sets of 5 rather than 3 anyway so I’m quite used to the volume. I’ll run it and see how it goes. Doubtless will need tweaking here and there.