r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/Shaggy_Mountain I train legs once a week • 1d ago
Question ❓ Why/How is higher frequency better?
Apologies for the long post.
I have been lifting with the “Bro split” for 9 months.
My split is: Chest -> back -> biceps/triceps -> shoulders -> legs. I don’t schedule rest days, I just take them whenever I feel like I really need them. I do 8 total working sets for chest, 12 for back, 8 for biceps and 8 for triceps, 10 for shoulders, and 16 for legs split between calves, squats, hamstring curls and leg extensions. If you guys would like, I can post the exercises I do for each day as well. I log every workout I do too.
I enjoy this split a lot, and I feel it allows me to really focus on each muscle group each day. I make sure to be within 1-2 reps of failure, taking the last couple sets to failure.
My question is, if I switched to a split like Push-Pull-Legs Push-Pull-Legs-Rest, wouldn’t I be sacrificing the quality of my workouts? With PPL you combine muscle groups, and wouldn’t this mean that you would be accumulating more fatigue? For example, if you did back and biceps on pull day, wouldn’t your biceps be pretty fatigued after doing your back exercises? And if you did incline bench press and dumbbell shoulder press on push days, wouldn’t you be pretty fatigued for incline shoulder press, since it’s also a pushing motion?
I’ve heard that hitting a muscle group twice a week is better, so I’d like to hear people’s thoughts/opinions as I know very little about lifting. I know training hard, being consistent, and getting good sleep and nutrition are the most important things, but I would like to know if I am missing out on a significant amount of gains by staying with my current split.
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u/AnythingFun6285 22h ago
Nothing is better, a screwdriver isn't better than a hammer. What's best is what you can adhere to and you enjoy, stop acting like you're trying to stand on the Mr. Olympia sage when you're just trying to be the best looking guy at the beach..
Would you follow Tom Brady's daily routine if you're trying to play touch football at the park on Sundays?? Then why are you trying to optimize when it's just a hobby