hitting every muscle twice a week

[RewardingLabor]

Hi everyone, I've spent most of the day kind of lost in the stickies trying to come up with a way to get past a long plateau. (i've been benching 225 for 6 reps for more than a month now). I'm still making small gains in my weaker areas but where I'm strong (relatively) i've been stuck.

I've decided to try bumping up from once to twice a week for each muscle group, and i've looked at a lot of templates to make that happen but most of them seem to ignore a lot of possible angles, and the push pull legs idea seems like a recipe for long workouts that test my focus beyond what I can honestly do.

So i've come up with this: Go to the gym twice a day 5 times a week and keep the lifts as short as I can while hitting every angle at least once throughout the week.

So here's the big picture (number of exercises)

MondayAm : Chest(4) Biceps(1)
MondayPM : Quads(3) Forearms(1) Triceps(1)
TuesdayAm : Calves(2) Abs(3)
TuesdayPM: Shoulders(3) Traps(1) Rotator Cuff(1)
W Am: Triceps Quads(3) Forearms(1)
W Pm: Back(4) Hamstrings(1)
Thursday: OFF
Friday Am : rotator(1) shoulders(3) traps(1)
Friday PM : Calves(2) abs(3)
Saturday AM: back(4) Hamstrings(1)
Saturday Pm: Chest(4) Biceps (1)
Sunday: Off

So there's at least 1 day of rest for every muscle group.
Every exercise has only 2 working sets and 1 warmup to try and make this fast.

Any thoughts? Is there a better way to lay this all out so that ideally each muscle group gets as much rest as possible?

I'm wondering if maybe I just need to change all the exercises up because i've been doing the same ones for 3 or 4 months.

I'll be adjusting this depending on how fast I actually get through it all, it works out to about 20 working sets a day but only 10 at a time. I'm hoping the 2 a day keeps my metabolism up and the long break helps me stay intense.

[Jesusbrah]

Hi everyone, I've spent most of the day kind of lost in the stickies trying to come up with a way to get past a long plateau. (i've been benching 225 for 6 reps for more than a month now). I'm still making small gains in my weaker areas but where I'm strong (relatively) i've been stuck.

I've decided to try bumping up from once to twice a week for each muscle group, and i've looked at a lot of templates to make that happen but most of them seem to ignore a lot of possible angles, and the push pull legs idea seems like a recipe for long workouts that test my focus beyond what I can honestly do.

So i've come up with this: Go to the gym twice a day 5 times a week and keep the lifts as short as I can while hitting every angle at least once throughout the week.

So here's the big picture (number of exercises)

MondayAm : Chest(4) Biceps(1)
MondayPM : Quads(3) Forearms(1) Triceps(1)
TuesdayAm : Calves(2) Abs(3)
TuesdayPM: Shoulders(3) Traps(1) Rotator Cuff(1)
W Am: Triceps Quads(3) Forearms(1)
W Pm: Back(4) Hamstrings(1)
Thursday: OFF
Friday Am : rotator(1) shoulders(3) traps(1)
Friday PM : Calves(2) abs(3)
Saturday AM: back(4) Hamstrings(1)
Saturday Pm: Chest(4) Biceps (1)
Sunday: Off

So there's at least 1 day of rest for every muscle group.
Every exercise has only 2 working sets and 1 warmup to try and make this fast.

Any thoughts? Is there a better way to lay this all out so that ideally each muscle group gets as much rest as possible?

I'm wondering if maybe I just need to change all the exercises up because i've been doing the same ones for 3 or 4 months.

I'll be adjusting this depending on how fast I actually get through it all, it works out to about 20 working sets a day but only 10 at a time. I'm hoping the 2 a day keeps my metabolism up and the long break helps me stay intense.

Skip to 04:35

[Khazima]

Age old broscience right there lol but yes if you've hit a plateu something's not working, change it up, try some new exercises and a new split.

As for your split, it looks like shit, weak amounts of volume, ridiculous muscle groups paired together. Looks horrible, nothing short of a catastrophe.

With push/pull/legs it doesn't have to be a boatload of volume, you could do for example bench/incline/shoulder press/tricep pushdown then pull could be row/pull-ups/row/bicep curl/rear delt fly then legs squat/straight leg deadlift, you just need enough intensity in each set to force your muscles to adapt.

[Schwarzenegger]

Split looks weird

Try this

Mon - Chest, triceps
Tues - Back, biceps
Wed - Legs/calves
Thur - Off
Fri - Chest, triceps
Sat - Back, biceps
Sun- Legs/calves

Throw in shoulders and abs wherever u see fit

All ull need is once a day for that split.

Chest, back, legs being the main emphasis and finishing off the ancillary muscles (triceps/biceps) at the end of the workout.

At least 4 exercises for the main emphasis of chest/back/legs and at least two for the final blast of the supporting muscles.

And at least 3 working sets per exercise. First exercise I usually do 4 sets and the rest 3 sets.

[RewardingLabor]

The split looks weird because it follows a weird logic. Instead of the standard idea of pairing the main working muscle with its synergist and possibly being too exhausted to work the synergist (think triceps after a long chest workout) I wanted to pair each muscle with something completely unrelated thinking I could go harder on each…. ill admit it makes for one seriously ugly split.

@jesusbro that's exactly what i was wondering (if 2 a day is really necessary or if i could just do some good ole muscle confusion tactics to break through)

@khazima I'm just worried that if i do something like push pull legs and only do a few exercises I won't have time to hit every angle. For example for chest I like to do incline decline flat and dips (aka the greatest decline possible) every time… though i've recently been wondering if that is really necessary.

@schwarzenegger shoulders is one of my personal weak points and what I would like to make my strength so I wouldn't want to just kind of toss it in. Maybe a second workout on tues/saturday would make sense? Have you been reading the "you'll want to read this" sticky? looks like something from ronnie
Edit: want to really emphasize that i think shoulders are the most important in my own opinion and would rather emphasize them than toss them in randomly… but they don't exactly fit easily anywhere…

then again maybe i'm over complicating things, thanks for the feedback.

[Khazima]

It's not necessary, doing just flat/incline/dips is plenty, or even flat/incline/flyes or something. That twice a week for chest is plenty. Think about the total volume, you'll still be doing about 25 sets a week for chest which is plenty.

[marcus300]

You need to keep your routine basic and simple, I would stick with once per week but put more into your workouts and learn how to put some serious overload on your muscles your working, I would also have more rest days and let the body repair the damage you have done to it. If you don't see progress in 3 months change things around but I would imagine your going through the motions and not putting yourself under constant overload.

[RewardingLabor]

so i just started this routine anyway, ill probably only do it for a week… and since i have tons of free time I'm gonna be even more specific about what i'm doing… you can all laugh at me or whatever Next week I'll probably go back to something more standard, I think I just really needed to do something different.

so far all i really did was focus more and (its not really easy to explain) forced myself to do extra reps, held up at the top for a few seconds rest after i thought i was done and just banged out 1 or 2 more (I imagined that german sounding dude from blood and guts shouting german numbers… whatever works right?) Plus 3 sets of hammer curls and i swear my forearms doubled in size for a good minute or two. It was awesome. And the whole thing only took me 35 minutes. Plus i got 230 for 8 reps benching before i did anything even though it wasn't part of my workout just to do it.

[RewardingLabor]

Here it is, what no one asked for… I've got too much energy and time.

i've pulled a hip flexor at the attachment in my lower back so deadlifting and squatting are much less than normal.

Monday
DB Incline Press (I went bananas and just kept doing sets)
45/19 (as fast as possible)
Long drop set 70/5 60/4 50/9
30/4 (excruciatingly slow)
20/6 (excruciatingly slow)

DB Decline Press
50/14 (as fast as possible)
60/8
30/8 (excruciatingly slow)

DB Fly
35/15 (as fast as possible)
50/ 7
25/11 (excruciatingly slow and with an arm extension at the bottom plus hold to stretch the hell out of it)

Hammer curl

25/20 (fast)
40/7 (plus a few with a lot of hip rocking)
25/7 (slow)


Standing knee raise + extension
Front squat
Farmer Carry
Close grip dips
(captains of crush grip)

TUESDAY

Standing Calf
Seated Calf
Decline sit up (Holding plate with push)
Leg raise
Cable twist



Overhead Press
Front raise to above head
Lateral raise to above head
rear delt fly
rotator cuff

Wednesday

Knee raise + extension
lunge step up
Farmer carry
Tricep cable
captains of crush grip



1 arm lat pull w/ turn
1 arm mid row w/ turn
standing row
ham curl
VERY LIGHT deadlift


FRIDAY

Arnold Press
Shrug
Lat raise to above head
front raise to above head
rotator cuff



Standing calf
seated calf
Machine abs
Leg raise
Plank


Saturday

high row
low row
single arm pull up
ham curl
very light deadlift



DB chest press
incline db fly
cable fly aiming low
incline bicep curl



After this week I think I'll go back to a once a week for longer sessions sort of split.

Heres my current question: How long do you spend in the gym for each session when you are on?

[AllKindsOGains]

4-5 exercises per muscle group, as many sets as you want, going until you can't go any more. Don't pause for more than a second, keep the tension on the muscle, so if you do pause make it at the contracted point of the movement. Come as close to COMPLETE POSITIVE FAILURE on every set as you can, not forced reps. Aka you can't move the weight up any more (or on bench you know you can't do another full rep). Back, bis, abs; Legs, calves; Chest, tris, shoulders; repeat. 1 day off a week.

[RewardingLabor]

I feel like i should check back in after finishing the second workout…
I was sweating bullets and I could feel mentally i just wasn't there like I was this morning. Never really got myself to positive failure on anything. And when i say seating bullets i mean i probably lost a pound or two of water just doing some knee raises with like 15 pounds of resistance. By the time I hit front squats i was completely gassed.

I may try some pre workout tomorrow for the second one.

[RewardingLabor]

At the risk of talking to myself I now know why I was wrong and you were right. Doing the weird split sounded like a good plan but i ended up doing an exercise i wasn't warmed up for and slightly tweaked my elbow. Doing synergists with agonists from now on.

Luckily i caught it today so no real damage.

[Buster Brown]

I believe that you are going to end up destroying your shoulders with the approach of chest and shoulders twice a week. Your bench could improve by using different techniques such as chains, bands, cambered bar etc. these things will help you explode when the weight touches your chest. Try doing triceps twice a week. You must include some sort of close grip bench press or Paul Dick's press at least once a week in your routine. Weak triceps ate usually the reason why the weight stops moving once it's about 6 to 8 inches off your chest.

[AllKindsOGains]

I have little to no shoulder pain and I have been doing chest and tris twice a week for years. Literally. I have had them in the past but that was because I was giving shoulders their own day on top of chest and tris twice a week. I feel that you can get enough stimulation with the pushing movements of chest and tri day while preventing shoulder imbalances. Just make sure you give back day just as much effort, and do rear delt flies every chest day.

[marcus300]

I have little to no shoulder pain and I have been doing chest and tris twice a week for years. Literally. I have had them in the past but that was because I was giving shoulders their own day on top of chest and tris twice a week. I feel that you can get enough stimulation with the pushing movements of chest and tri day while preventing shoulder imbalances. Just make sure you give back day just as much effort, and do rear delt flies every chest day.

And do you think your shoulder and chest have been growing over the last year?

[RewardingLabor]

I feel like i should update this for the good of humanity…
After two days of lifting twice a day I feel like shit.
The worst part is that the second workout of the day i started to quit before true positive failure, just gave up when it got kind of hard to push.

I think working out twice a day is a good way to get shredded, but not very useful for building mass.
Maybe someone who is on a lot more supplements and caffeinated up could handle it, but I personally am not at that level yet.

I've giving up after two days because I've come to realize that more than two workouts a day and hitting each muscle twice a week what I really needed to improve is to get better at stabilizing motions and mentally pushing myself even further. Looking back over this thread it seems like I should have seen this coming but i guess i needed the experience to really smash the concept home.

[Buster Brown]

I feel like i should update this for the good of humanity... After two days of lifting twice a day I feel like shit. The worst part is that the second workout of the day i started to quit before true positive failure, just gave up when it got kind of hard to push. I think working out twice a day is a good way to get shredded, but not very useful for building mass. Maybe someone who is on a lot more supplements and caffeinated up could handle it, but I personally am not at that level yet. I've giving up after two days because I've come to realize that more than two workouts a day and hitting each muscle twice a week what I really needed to improve is to get better at stabilizing motions and mentally pushing myself even further. Looking back over this thread it seems like I should have seen this coming but i guess i needed the experience to really smash the concept home.

That is a sure fire way to fail and your cns will definitely not recover. I am glad you learned this the hard way because you won't do it again. Training hard to failure is the way to grow but overtraining will just leave frustrated and your lifts will just slide backwards.

[AllKindsOGains]

And do you think your shoulder and chest have been growing over the last year?

Hells yes