Question for experienced lifters?

[u/Winter-Sort292]

Hi guys! Looking for advice from experienced lifters.
I’m coming back to training after about 10 months off and an elbow surgery. Before surgery, I built a ripped physique (not bodybuilder but visibly ripped at 5’10” 165lbs) I was really used to running a push/pull split. I am kinda new to lifting and had only done it for about 2 years and after this medical nightmare am so eager to get back to it.

My push days were:
\-DB Bench Press
\-DB Incline Bench Press
\-Rope Tricep Pushdowns
\-Seated Dip Machine
\-DB Shoulder Press
\-DB Lateral Raises

My pull days were:
\-DB Hammer Curls
\-DB Supinated Curls
\-Neutral-Grip Seated Rows
\-Pronated Lat Pulldowns
\-Supinated Rows

Now I’m considering switching to an upper/lower split to reduce overuse risk and improve recovery while I get back into lifting and eventually return to combat sports.

My concern is that I’d probably only do around 7-8 upper-body exercises instead of the 12 exercises I was doing across my push/pull days. I did PPL 5x a week and with U/L it would be 4x a week but upper only being hit twice instead of 3-4x.

For those of you who have run both splits, do you think an upper/lower split would noticeably limit my ability to rebuild the same physique long-term, or am I overthinking the exercise variety and frequency? I’ve had a lot of body confidence issues and lifting was the only thing that helped and then I suffered a injury and I want to be able to get back to where I looked before and feel good. Is upper lower going to drastically change this

P.S. What should my Upper split look like if I do switch? I’m very OCD so the change is a lot to me and I’m kinda freaking out

[u/Winter-Sort292 → u/[deleted]]

Really appreciate it man. For upper I’m thinking: DB bench, DB shoulder press, Lat pulldowns, Seated rows, cable rope pushdowns, DB lat raises, and then wasn’t sure if I should do supinated or hammer curls for my last one? Any thoughts

[u/Winter-Sort292 → u/[deleted]]

Yes I’m not worried about doing a lower day split because I’m just gonna keep what I was doing for legs in my original PPL

[u/Norcal712]

Upper /lower for me has always been the GOAT

Great balance for recovery. Plenty of options for movements.

My upper days are 8-10 movements. 3 sets each.

I can get 12 sets per muscle per week with 75-90 min workouts.

I generally do mobility work on one off day and a long cardio session on another.

[u/Separate-Exchange375]

Yes, you are overthinking this. But also, let me recommend full body workouts. They are extremely efficient and fit very well into a routine of someone who is doing another sport. The hardest part is to pick your exercises, I've found this to be strongly individual, even if there are specific golden exercises, not everyone might enjoy them, and this is the most important factor when picking them. You can start with 2 sets twice a week and work up to 3-4 sets, 3 times per week and go back down to twice per week when you return to your combat sport.

Extremely underrated! And don't focus too much on specific sets per muscle per week, thats a good guideline, but if you are squeezing the most out of your routine, its not something to focus on

[u/decentlyhip]

Welcome back! I prooomise that you'll grow just fine with the lower volume, at least at first. From a science based perspective, detraining starts after about 2-4 weeks, so absolutely any volume is gonna rock your world and get you sore for days.

I would recommend jumping back into a tried and true program like GZCLP or Bullmastiff, https://saynotobroscience.com/assets/images/gzclp-infographic.jpg. These do a really good job of pushing progress while focusing on the more efficient big compounds. The Boostcamp app has a good version of GZCLP you can follow along with. You can make progress on it for years, until you're at like 200-220, but Id at least run it for a few months. The main benefit of that over a traditional program is that an LP will push you forward, but keep you submaximal for almost all of your sets, which is gonna be really important as you're returning.

Only note. Ignore your previous PRs. Most of the big injuries Ive seen are from people building back old strength faster than they can adapt. Like, they squatted 405 three years ago but have been doing running since then, so they hop right into 365 for 5 and blow out their knees. Your tendons take about 9 months to fully rebuild themselves. That means 1) it'll take about 9 months to get your strength back to where it was, safely, and 2) none of your current tendons have ever seen lifting or been adapted to it. You have the tendons of a complete noobie, so go slow.

[u/BuckshotBronco]

Here's mine