PPL vs whole body

[dawn16]

@principatus I’ve done most of the major types of splits throughout the last decade or so and I’m currently in a phase in life where I’m doing full body 2-4 days a week. The massive upside and reason for doing full body is that my life is a lot less predictable now than it was in my early and mid 20s. With splits, whether it’s bodybuilding splits or PPL type, I found myself in situations where I’d neglect body parts because life events and work would get in the way of the same days each week (coincidentally the universe was prone to me skipping leg day. Go figure). With a full body routine, even if I miss several days in a week, I’ve at least gotten one workout in the week where I hit every body part so my whole body is proportionally trained even with an unpredictable life.

I’ve still made plenty of gains with full body workouts, but you only have so much energy in your body and that means with full body workouts, I’ve found myself not being able to push myself as hard on any single area of my body. And you should be conscious to changing the order of your exercises in a full body workout routine since you will typically push yourself harder the first half of the workout when you’re fresh. That being said, the disproportionate exercise intensity from, say, always training legs at the end of your workout instead of the beginning, is negligible compared to missing an entire body part workout for the week due to a hectic schedule.

 

[tigggertat]

@dawn16 Full body is the way to go if you only have a few days a week for workouts. If we need ten sets per muscle group per week for growth, doing full body each workout is the only way to approach that goal.
So weird you always somehow missed leg day… those squirrelly leg days are the ones that always seem to slip off my schedule too lol

 

[ransomovitch]

@principatus I’m switching from a PPL to an upper lower myself. Could be a nice middle ground for you.

 

[dawn16]

@principatus I do 2-3 full body days since my son was Born

1 day is heavier upper body with lower accessories and day 2 is heavy lower with upper accessory isolation pump work

So

Day 1 - 5x5-8 bench, OHP, deadlift then accessory isolation pump work for both upper and lower

Day 2 - speed work on bench and OHP, squats , accessory isolation pump work

I’ve still saw some PRs in my training in the last 10 months since switching to this and that’s after 20ish years of training and I think it’s from the added rest and recovery

I’ve always been a high volume kind of guy I just enjoy lots of volume lol

I’m hoping to OHP 365lbs soon. I recently Pr’ed at 335lbs before switching to full body my OhP was always the last thing I did because I always felt more
Beat up from 4-5 days a week

 

[principatus]

@dawn16 Interesting - thanks for the info. I’ve always been a high volume guy as well, but not at the weights you’re talking about.

How much accessory work do you do? One thing I’m u sure about for a full body workout is volume. I imagine it would have to be slightly higher than a single days volume I was doing in a 6 day PPL split.

 

[dawn16]

@principatus I normally do a normal 4x6 or 6x4 or something along those lines depending on the days 1rm% then once I get to accessory work I go through different lifts that target a single muscle that I already hit and I’m always super setting them

Like triceps press downs and I go until
I feel a sufficient pump then superset maybe back extensions for lower back and hamstrings. Kinda just working through different accessory movements till I’m pretty much exhausted and ready to eat lol

 

[mrbentley]

@principatus I prefer full body now that I’m well beyond the scope of newbie gains, and I don’t feel like being in the gym 6 days a week to hit each muscle group twice a week.

 

[relationshipwithgod]

@principatus Personally I’d stick to PPL.

Compound lifts on each day
Bench/ shoulder press with your additional chest/shoulders/tri exercises

Deadlift with your additional back/Bi exercises

Squats and your leg exercises id add abs in as well

Cardio after each day as a cool down

Whereas full body will exhaust you quick and you’ll have trouble maintaining strength and over exhaust your whole body opposed to isolated muscle groups

 

[gtorre]

@principatus Choose your training split based on what you can realistically do, not what you can optimally do. If you only have 3 days a week to train, choose a 3 day plan. PPL only really works as a 6 day plan.

 

[yeshua7777777kp]

@principatus I really enjoy my PPL split. It's an 8 day lift week with three A days followed by one rest day then three B days followed by another rest day then repeats.