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PPL 6 day routine PRO's CON's

JacobSpear
JacobSpear g Jacob Spear
18 Post(s)
18 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: May 5, 2013
Posted

So I'm planning on switching to a new routine after the new year since I've been doing the same setup with only variations in a few exersises for about 6 months now. My main goal is to put on size, strength is secondary, I want to be able focus on that later. I'm currently 172ish and 12.9% BF (I know this is probably inaccurate to my actual but I'm going to use it as a reference to judge improvements off of). My goals are 180 and 10%. 

The routine I've been doing is a 4 day bro split (chest/triceps, back/biceps, shoulders/abs, legs). Most weeks I'll just repeat a previous workout from the week to make the 5th day. I am looking to switch to a 6 day PPL split so that I can up my frequency while maintaining a similar volume per workout. I'm looking at a couple of routines inparticular (https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/6-day-powerbuilding-split-meal-plan) and (http://gymday.com/pplppl-routine/). 

Does anyone have any personal experience using this sort of routine? Are the plans I'm looking at good for my goals or should I try and look more or does anyone have anything they can provide?

TLDR: I'm looking to switch things up and start a PPL 6 days a week. What routines do you recomend? 

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jmboiardi
jmboiardi p John M Boiardi
2.6K Post(s)
2.6K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: October 10, 2013
Posted
Posted By: JacobSpear

So I'm planning on switching to a new routine after the new year since I've been doing the same setup with only variations in a few exersises for about 6 months now. My main goal is to put on size, strength is secondary, I want to be able focus on that later. I'm currently 172ish and 12.9% BF (I know this is probably inaccurate to my actual but I'm going to use it as a reference to judge improvements off of). My goals are 180 and 10%. 

The routine I've been doing is a 4 day bro split (chest/triceps, back/biceps, shoulders/abs, legs). Most weeks I'll just repeat a previous workout from the week to make the 5th day. I am looking to switch to a 6 day PPL split so that I can up my frequency while maintaining a similar volume per workout. I'm looking at a couple of routines inparticular (https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/6-day-powerbuilding-split-meal-plan) and (http://gymday.com/pplppl-routine/). 

Does anyone have any personal experience using this sort of routine? Are the plans I'm looking at good for my goals or should I try and look more or does anyone have anything they can provide?

TLDR: I'm looking to switch things up and start a PPL 6 days a week. What routines do you recomend? 

Jacob,

 

Full body PPL or just full body PP routines are the best to add mass and burn fat as you are working more muscles at once. The key is intensity. I have been training this way - 4/day week PP workouts exclusively - for 5 out of my 32+ years of training. I have made more progress and am more lean training this way than the decades of "bro splits" I did when I was younger. PPL is also effective. The choice is yours the key is intensity and plenty of rest to recover from the workouts.

 

The way to up intensity is to do drop sets, super sets, giant sets, and decrease rest time per set to 30-45 seconds. You don't need as much absolute weight to stress all 3 muscle fiber types for maximum hypertrophy. I train quads, chest, tri's, calves, abs on Push days and back, bi's, hams, shoulders, abs on Pull days. I do all of them as super sets or drop sets and average 100 - 200 total reps per muscle. I can do all this in 60 minutes as I keep my rest times low - 30 to 60 seconds max. I only need to train 4 days a week and I hit all body parts hard twice a week with this routine. The remaining 3 days are 100% rest - which I need. Sometimes I have to take an extra day or two off as my workouts are that intense.

 

I also have been doing intermittent fasting for 2+ years to keep my bodfat in the 9% range. It is not for everyone but is a very powerful eating protocol to help grow lean muscle while losing fat without using drugs. I do the daily 16:8 protocol. This is NOT a diet but an eating protocol designed to naturally manipulate your insulin and growth hormone levels to your advantage for lean muscle gain and fat loss. More info is at www.leangains.com

 

John

34 years of lifting and nutritional experience and resident "old man" :-) MS Athlete and past Super Hermanite since 2013.
Benjii_9999
Benjii_9999 g Ben Quinn
2 Post(s)
2 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: January 1, 2017
Posted

Hi ive been working out for about 3 months now and I've seen some good results. I just want to know if there is anything I can change/alter my routine to make it better. I'm currently doing a upper/lower body split. I do upper body on Monday and Thursday and lower body on Tuesday and Friday. And help or suggestions to help my routine would be greatly appreciated.

Upper body workout
Chest
Dumbbell bench press (3 sets 10 reps)
Incline bench press (3 sets 10 reps)
Low to high cable fly (3 sets 10 reps)
Triceps
Skullcrusher (3 sets 10 reps)
Tricep push down (3 sets 10 reps)
Back
Lat pulldown ( 3 sets 10 reps)
Reverse lat pulldown (3 sets 10 reps)
Bent over dumbell row (3 sets 10 reps)
Biceps
Barbell bicep curl (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell hammer curl 3 sets 10 reps)
Barbell reverse curl (3 sets 10 reps)
Traps
Barbell upright row (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell shrug (3 sets 10 reps)
Barbell shrug (3 sets 10 reps)
Shoulders
Arnold press (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell bent-over raise (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell lateral raise (3 sets 10 reps)

Lower body workout
Goblit squat (3 sets 10 reps)
Romanian dumbbell deadlift (3 sets 10 reps)
Leg press (3 sets 10 reps)
Leg extension (3 sets 10 reps)
Hamstring curl (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell calf raise (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbbell deadlift (3 sets 10 reps)

Cheers, Ben.

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: Benjii_9999

Hi ive been working out for about 3 months now and I've seen some good results. I just want to know if there is anything I can change/alter my routine to make it better. I'm currently doing a upper/lower body split. I do upper body on Monday and Thursday and lower body on Tuesday and Friday. And help or suggestions to help my routine would be greatly appreciated.

Upper body workout
Chest
Dumbbell bench press (3 sets 10 reps)
Incline bench press (3 sets 10 reps)
Low to high cable fly (3 sets 10 reps)
Triceps
Skullcrusher (3 sets 10 reps)
Tricep push down (3 sets 10 reps)
Back
Lat pulldown ( 3 sets 10 reps)
Reverse lat pulldown (3 sets 10 reps)
Bent over dumbell row (3 sets 10 reps)
Biceps
Barbell bicep curl (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell hammer curl 3 sets 10 reps)
Barbell reverse curl (3 sets 10 reps)
Traps
Barbell upright row (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell shrug (3 sets 10 reps)
Barbell shrug (3 sets 10 reps)
Shoulders
Arnold press (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell bent-over raise (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell lateral raise (3 sets 10 reps)

Lower body workout
Goblit squat (3 sets 10 reps)
Romanian dumbbell deadlift (3 sets 10 reps)
Leg press (3 sets 10 reps)
Leg extension (3 sets 10 reps)
Hamstring curl (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbell calf raise (3 sets 10 reps)
Dumbbell deadlift (3 sets 10 reps)

Cheers, Ben.

I don't think you need that many exercises for biceps and traps. At the moment you are doing just as much work for those two muscle groups as you are for your chest and back. Biceps and traps don't need as much attention when you're doing a full body PP style of training like this. I'd take out one exercise for each of those, so that you have 6 sets in total for them like you do with triceps.

 

Is there a reason you have goblet squats instead of barbell squats (front or back)? It would be OK to have both movements..but if you can, you should be doing a barbell squat of some kind for your lower body workout. Maybe one more exercise for calves as well.

 

Aside from that it doesn't look too bad!

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Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: JacobSpear

So I'm planning on switching to a new routine after the new year since I've been doing the same setup with only variations in a few exersises for about 6 months now. My main goal is to put on size, strength is secondary, I want to be able focus on that later. I'm currently 172ish and 12.9% BF (I know this is probably inaccurate to my actual but I'm going to use it as a reference to judge improvements off of). My goals are 180 and 10%. 

The routine I've been doing is a 4 day bro split (chest/triceps, back/biceps, shoulders/abs, legs). Most weeks I'll just repeat a previous workout from the week to make the 5th day. I am looking to switch to a 6 day PPL split so that I can up my frequency while maintaining a similar volume per workout. I'm looking at a couple of routines inparticular (https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/6-day-powerbuilding-split-meal-plan) and (http://gymday.com/pplppl-routine/). 

Does anyone have any personal experience using this sort of routine? Are the plans I'm looking at good for my goals or should I try and look more or does anyone have anything they can provide?

TLDR: I'm looking to switch things up and start a PPL 6 days a week. What routines do you recomend? 

I did my own PPL split at the end of 2015 and the start of 2016...and I loved it! At the end of the day I'm not sure a PPL split works best for me because of my recovery though..but if you have good recovery and can hit everything twice a week with that sort of routine, then it's golden.

 

The only thing is that you would want to lower your volume from what you were doing with your previous split. Given you are hitting each muscle group within about 48 hours of your previous session for that area, you will be able to get the breakdown needed by making sure the volume across BOTH workouts is similar/a little higher than it was with your 4-day split.

Have you looked at the PPL split on the site? http://muscularstrength.com/12-week-challenge-workouts

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Benjii_9999
Benjii_9999 g Ben Quinn
2 Post(s)
2 Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Gain Muscle Date Joined: January 1, 2017
Posted
Posted By: Scott_Herman

I don't think you need that many exercises for biceps and traps. At the moment you are doing just as much work for those two muscle groups as you are for your chest and back. Biceps and traps don't need as much attention when you're doing a full body PP style of training like this. I'd take out one exercise for each of those, so that you have 6 sets in total for them like you do with triceps.

 

Is there a reason you have goblet squats instead of barbell squats (front or back)? It would be OK to have both movements..but if you can, you should be doing a barbell squat of some kind for your lower body workout. Maybe one more exercise for calves as well.

 

Aside from that it doesn't look too bad!

Hey Scott thanks for the reply. I don't normally do squats/deadlifts with barbells because I go to a small gym which only has 1 squat rack and it's usually always being used when I'm in the gym. Would it still be acceptable to do squats and deadlifts with dumbells and will I still see as good results with dumbells instead of a barbell? Also I don't have a calf raise machine so what else could I do for calves. I used to do calf raises with the leg press and that worked out. Cheers, Ben.

Scott_Herman
Scott_Herman a Scott Herman
7.1K Post(s)
7.1K Post(s) Gender: Male Goal: Bodybuilding Date Joined: August 8, 2008
Posted
Posted By: Benjii_9999

Hey Scott thanks for the reply. I don't normally do squats/deadlifts with barbells because I go to a small gym which only has 1 squat rack and it's usually always being used when I'm in the gym. Would it still be acceptable to do squats and deadlifts with dumbells and will I still see as good results with dumbells instead of a barbell? Also I don't have a calf raise machine so what else could I do for calves. I used to do calf raises with the leg press and that worked out. Cheers, Ben.

Just ask the people who are squatting or deadlifting if you can work in with them :-) Otherwise you could use dumbbells for a goblet squat, maybe deadlifts..deadlifts aren't the best with dumbbells.

 

And yes, the leg press is great for calves! Or you can do seated calf raises with a dumbbell on your knees.

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muscular strength
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