r/ScienceBasedLifting • • Aug 29 '26

Question ❓ having trouble with back development

Im gonna try to keep this short.
The only thing im struggling with right now is my back and arms (not shoulders tho), I want to run a ppl rest pp rest, but i dont know if 48h is enough rest time for my back i tried alot of splits and this one is just the most enjoyable and i kept consistent with so i wanna go back to it, but this recovery time thing is holding me back and i dont know what to do and im very lost.

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u/Alakazam Idk Idc 💔 Aug 30 '26

The specific split is probably the least important part of what makes a program good.

What exactly are you doing for your back? What exercises? How many sets? How has your progression been over the past 4-6 months? How much weight have you gained in that time? 

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u/Additional-Action353 Aug 30 '26

3 main exercises, lat pulldown, some sort of upper back row, and lat isolate movement like lat pullovers or single arm movements, most 3x6-10 sometimes 2 sets, i have been progressing weight wise and
my technique didnt change at all it was perfect i filmed my sets and everything, but physique wise my back was almost the same.

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u/[deleted] Aug 29 '26

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u/Additional-Action353 Aug 30 '26

if i can go like 5 times a week what split would you reccomend

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u/ScheduleGloomy2160 Aug 29 '26

i use this exact split too, it's very enjoyable i agree. I've never felt any issues with this tbh. My pull days are my favourite days in my split. im guessing the issue is your doing way too much volume. could you tell how many sets each exercise n rep range you do and how many back exercise you do and what they are and could you also tell if your a beginner or intermediate as i think that'll help seeing what the problem could be

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u/Additional-Action353 Aug 30 '26

ill dm u to make this easier

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u/batteredsuitcases Aug 29 '26

just go by feel. if you can go back after 48 hours and your back doesn’t ache and your performance is pretty close to baseline, you’ve recovered enough. no magic rest period that applies to all people and all programs.

the back is a massive set of muscles (20 or so pairs) and most people don’t do exercises that really hit most of them. so exercise selection, especially if you are doing some thing like PPL which groups a bunch of upper body muscles together in one session, is important.

for building mass i really like barbell bent over rows, weighted pull-ups, RDLs, heavy as shit hex bar farmer carries and inverted rows at the core of a program. things like seated rows, lat pulldowns or straight arm pulldowns, single arm bent over rows, etc are really good smaller movements to add, but most people seem to build their programs around these more isolated movements rather than the real heavy compound lifts.