Which Split Is Best?

K

Key Of David

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With the next routine in the works I was doing the planning and came up with two different types of splits. Which one do you think would be best?

The 1st split would split up the push/pull type exercises.

1st Split

Workout A (Mon, Wed, Fri)

Squats
Stiff-Legged Deadlift
Calve Raises
Bendover Rows
Barbell Curls
Reverse Barbell Curls (forearms)
Behind Back Wrist Curls (forearms)

Workout B (Tues, Thurs, Sat)

Incline Bench Press
Military Press
Close-Grip Bench Press
Crunches
Leg Raises

The 2nd split would just split up the workout generally.

2nd Split

Workout A (Mon, Wed, Fri)

Squats
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
Calve Raises
Bench Press
Bendover Rows


Workout B (Tues, Thurs, Sat)

Military Press
Close-Grip Bench Press
Barbell Curls
Reverse Barbell Curls
Behind Back Wrist Curls
Crunches
Leg Raises

Its probably not a big deal but then again I'm wondering since on the 2nd split I'll be working on some of the same body parts for 6 days per week is that gonna complicate things?

Note this is a rough draft.....nothing is set in stone here so any suggestions welcome.
 
Since this is my first cycle in a little over a year and my third cycle total, I'm taking it easy on this one.....I'm doing the base routine with 1 working set each of 15s, 10s, 5s and then 2 more weeks of 5s.
 
I like the first Split better, you don't want to work any muscles 6 days a week if you're out of condition, by Leg Raises I take it you mean the abdominal core strengthening exercise and not leg extensions...

As to volume I think you'd be better off keeping the working reps constant throughout the cycle, so 1x15, 1.5or2x10, 3x5, in other words 15 reps constant for the working weight, plus as warm up sets/drop sets you're going to do. Only 1 set of heavy 5s will be very little volume, and you may not get any growth out of that.
 
To me either split is fine...and is all dependant on volume...be careful as you will be working out 6x/week.

Split your volume out equally too so that you don't start burning out, rest is absolutelly esential here.

Even though I say either split I'd tend to choose No. 2, but that is just my prefrence, I am a big believer in the summation effect.

Eat big, rest plenty and keep volume lowish and spread out!
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Thanks for the info!

I kinda like the second one too.
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I'm curious as to why so many here advocate doing multiple sets with 10s and 5s. Why do people add to that when its been said (here) that there is no evidence that multiple sets do anymore good than one good set? I was meaning to ask this question at some point but I guess now is as good a time as any.
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In my first two cycles I gained a tremendous amount of muscle and I only did one working set, even for the 5s, which is where I got the most gains.
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It is because of total work output and how it relates to hypertrophy.
Work=LoadXReps.  For example 15 reps of 100 lb.s is 1500 units of work.
Now if you do 5 reps with 150 lb.s and do only one set, you have 750 units of work....so your work output has been cut in half, even though your Load progressed 50%.
However if you do 3 sets of 150 lb.s for 5 reps, then your load had progressed 50%(150 vs. 100), AND your total work output has progressed to 2250 units, also 50% progress from when you did the 15 reps with 100 lb.s.

In order to hypertrophy, we have to make the workout progressively harder,
Why make it harder in terms of intensity, but easier in terms of work?
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Absolutely agreed, Time under Tension (or time under load as Bryan calls it) is what creates hypertrophy. Otherwise you could just do 1 rep every day with a really heavy weight and you would grow well! You may still get some growth out of doing that, but the longer the time under load (how many reps you do) is still important. So its best to keep this constant throughout the cycle so increased load = increased work as Scientific Muscle explained.
 
So basically I could have gotten even better gains from my cycles had I added a set or two to the 10s and 5s.

What you are saying makes a lot of sense. I did some more reading (will do a lot more when I get the time) and went back to the basic explaination of "HST". I noticed Bryan says there is "some" evidence that suggests that after the first "effective" set, all more sets do is burn more calories.

That's not as "set in stone" as I remember reading for the first time a long time ago. Additionally, more volume without totally taxing the CNS sure makes a bunch of sense to me.
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So I guess I'll add a set to the 10s and a couple to the 5s. What do I have to loose? If its too much I'll just reduce the sets again.

Thanks a bunch for your responses and info....it sure helped a lot!
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Peak

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Otherwise you could just do 1 rep every day with a really heavy weight and you would grow well!</div>

Sounds almost like Pete Cisco's theories
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, only he advocates do one static contraction rep max once every....I think it gets to once p/month
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someone's gotta sell his crap I guess!

Sci muscle has put it right TUT or TUL is the reason for wanting to do additional sets, I tried one set and got nowhere, as I had been doing it for a while my body was already conditioned to some volume therefore one set did nothing to add hypertrophy...a newbie however may get very good gains...but will stall after a while having to add some more volume!
 
That's the thing.....though my body has been conditioned to weight training its never been so used to such an effective routine. If all goes well (meaning I have the endurance) I'm gonna try multiple sets this time though. Can't hurt.
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