PPL 3 days or 6?

[whwvekwk]

Title. I’m 19, 128Ibs, and 5’7. Really skinny and trying to bulk to 140-144 so I can get a really nice physique. Not trying to look like a jacked or juice-head monster, but the aesthetic body. Thankfully, I’ve been blessed with great genes which is very nice.

Only problem is I plan on boxing soon and I’m not going to be able to juggle gym and boxing on a 6 day rotation. Is PPL really bad if you only do it 3 days instead of it’s intended 6? I hear people build really nice physiques on 3, but if it’s meant for 6 days, it’s meant for 6 days. Although, I’m really not trying to look like anything crazy, only aesthetics.

 

[miamivice]

@whwvekwk Bro putting on muscle is hard. You could train your whole life and struggle to gain a “juicy” physique.

Just do a 4x Upper/Lower split. It’s by far the best gains:time investment. Look at Alberto Nunez, this is what he preaches. For 90% of lifters it’s perfect. He’s even got a shoulders/arms focused program on Boostcamp. Would recommend.

Focus on your sport. Don’t like yourself in the gym for a tiny bit more gains.

 

[whwvekwk]

@miamivice It’d probably have to be 3 days though not 4 but I could probably do 4.

Would that also be better than a full body workout?

 

[miamivice]

@whwvekwk 4 day UL split is gonna be better than 3x full body, yeah. I would really push for that 4th day if you can.

Lift in the morning, box at night. I'm sure you'll be able to juggle it.

It's not going to be the end of the world, a 3x full body split is probably going to be fine, but you've gotta choose a focus. Do you want to be a bodybuilder who boxes? Or the other way around?

 

[whwvekwk]

@miamivice I think you’re making it a bit too complicated…

I’m just boxing for fun and it’s something I want to do. I don’t really know where I want to go with it. I really like martial arts and want to pursue it further, that’s it.

Because I’m a student that has duties and other hobbies, I’m not always free. In theory, I could do 4 day if I didn’t do boxing. But I want to box so I’m gonna have to juggle the two. Full body would work better. Besides, I’m a complete novice lifter who just started going to the gym two days ago lol.

Unfortunately, because of the way my boxing gym is set up, I can’t really go at night, but I could go to the fitness gym at night.

That’s why 3 days boxing and 3 days gym would be better. Of course, I could do 4 days but I don’t want to overwhelm myself. The best routine is the one you’ll be consistent with.

 

[miamivice]

@whwvekwk You do you, bro. You're a beginner, anything will work.

You're a student though. You've got fuck all to do all day. You should easily be able to find time to workout 4x a week. I used to lift in the mornings, gaps between classes, or at lunch. Still plenty of time for a piss up or other activities.

 

[jennywilliam]

@whwvekwk You can do a upper/lower split 3 times a week.

Week 1 - upper, lower, upper
Week 2 - lower, upper, lower

Or you could do a full body split with priorities on each day

E.g. day 1- push (3 exercises) pull (1 exercise), lower (1 exercise)

Day 2- pull (3 exercises) push (1 exercise), lower (1 exercise)

Day 3 lower - (3 exercises) pull (1 exercise), push (1 exercise)

A push priority day might look like
Flat bench 4x6
Inc. dB bench 3x12
Dips 3xfailure
Chest supported row 3x8
Squats 3x8

Pull
Wide grip chins 4 sets
DB row 3x12
Barbell curls 3xfailure
DB cable fly 3x15
RDl 3x8

Lower
Squat 4x6
Reverse lunge 3x12
Hamstring curl 2xfaikure
Calf raise 4x12
Overhead press 2x6
Lat pull down 3x8

 

[jontue]

@whwvekwk You can also try a 5 day upper/lower/push/pull/legs if 6 days is too much.

 

[vsw874]

@whwvekwk Training doesnt have to perfectly align with an arbitrary 7 day schedule. It doesnt have to be 3 or 6. You have a plenty of options between those two numbers. For example you could train either 4 or 5 days per week and just cycle through the sessions. You could do it 2 on/1 off repeating and rotate through them (this averages out to 4.75 days/wk). You could do it 3 on/1 off repeating (this averages out to 5.25 days/wk). Etc. I personally like to do it 2 on/1 off style which I think gives a good balance of training variables.

 

[soban]

@whwvekwk How about upper/lower/full body? You can train muscles 2 times a week and five them enough time to recover.
And if you wanna get good a boxing. Why nog stick to that?

 

[fireblaze]

@whwvekwk 3, 6, or anything in between.

If you're boxing, the gym is supplemental so make sure you're managing how much volume or intensity you're doing so that you're able to recover fully for each boxing session. Extra sleep and eating in a calorie surplus are musts.

But how often is completely up to you. You don't have to do just 3 or 6. For example, you can do PPL 4x a week, each session will rotate and won't have a special day of the week

 

[mella]

@whwvekwk 3 day full body or 3 day upper lower. I like Lyle Mcdonalds Generic Bulking Routine layout. Recommend to check it out.

 

[janhope]

@whwvekwk three is ok, six will get you to your goals faster

 

[miamivice]

@janhope 3 is not okay. If you can’t do 6x do another program.

3x full body is way better than 3x PPL.

 

[kokaku]

@whwvekwk 3 days is perfect imo if you put extra 30 mins which would be 1,5 h of workout and do boxing the other days with a bit of cardio.

But your PPL should be a mix between strength training and hypertrophy training on each session. Like on a leg day you’d start with heavy squats and heavy RLDs like 3 to 5 sets of 5 alternating each week with 3s. Then you could throw a moderate leg press for 3 set of 10 reps then a super set of leg extensions and leg curls for 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise and lastly I’d do standing calf raises for 4 sets of 12 normal reps and 3 extra reps with hold for 5s the contraction part of the movement and release it slower for at least 5s as well. Then you good to go.

On push days you’d start the same set and rep count with alternation on bench press and push press either with db or barbell or you could even alternate them weekly. Db is good if you have shoulder tendonitis as I have lol. Then you could add in inclined db bench press, any fly like movement, lateral and front raises, skull crushers, close grip bench and cable extensions.

Finally on pull days the strength would be DLs with machine rows. Then lat pull-downs, pull downs, reverse fly, db rows and max out the rep count for pull ups.

I’m actually inclined to do this routine and put on saturdays a full arm hypertrophy workout on saturdays lol. I’ve been suffering a lot with recovery and less gym days would help a lot I suppose. I could try for 4 weeks and see the results lol.